Like the Ricoh entry, the Pioneer DVRA03 is a versatile unit, and is capable of burning all CD formats with the added advantage of burning DVD-R and -RW discs...

The first Blu-ray drive to actually BE available in Australia. The massive price should fall quickly.

Blu-ray writers are more affordable than ever. We look at four internal models to find the best way to go high-def. The last time we did a round-up of optical drives, the former war was in full swing. But now Blu-ray has at last seen off HD DVD and taken its place as the industry standard for high-capacity optical media.

The appearance of affordable DVD burners has given cause to celebration among the world's digital video makers – from hobbyists to professionals. The potential of DVD Video for corporate and wedding video makers is clear, but even the ability to present holiday videos in bite-sized, episodic and easily accessible chunks can't be sniffed at.

Supporting a maximum 12-speed burning, though without BURN-Proof, the AOpen CRW-1232 still manages to put on an outstanding show...

One of only two external DVD writers submitted for testing this month, this multi-format drive has you covered for all your archive and burning needs.

HP is attempting to reverse the stigma associated with external drives being slower than EIDE counterparts by not only supplying both USB 2.0 and FireWire, but by burning at the same 4x speeds as fixed devices.

Even with falling hardware prices, the expense and yet to be finalised format war rages on with DVD writing technology deterring many a consumer. DVD+R/RW appear to be making headway gradually with both format flexibility and hardware integration into next generation platforms.

Although lacking the additional functions of some of the more expensive burners such as the ability to write at the faster 16-speed, burn DVD-RAM or pack 8.5GB onto a single dual layer disc - what the Optorite does is provide all the basic DVD plus and minus burning you’re likely to need without having to fork over a sizable fistful of cash to do it.

A little slower than its 12x and 16x counterparts, this is another DVD-RAM supportive drive and it ships with three RAM discs and a copy of Nero Express to have you up and burning right out of the box.

The second highest performer over all, the Plextor was the only submitted drive to support DVD writing higher than 4x, boasting an incredible 8x DVD+R burning capability

The Mitsubishi Electric Diamond Digital DVDXRW1248-069 was the clear winner out of all of the DVD burners we tested in this roundup. It had the performance, the features, and the value for money to easily stand out.

The AOpen DRW4410 performed on average in both performance and features, dropping a few positions given its rather expensive price tag for a single format writer.

Sold as an OEM drive, the NEC ND-1300A lacks packaging, writable media or anything in the way of included software, yet rated quite well in our performance testing and comes in at a reasonable price of $400.

The Ricoh MP5125A-DP drive is actually used by the other DVD+RW supporters, although they rebrand them as their own. AOpen and HP have both taken this route, and use the Ricoh as their base.

This month we’ve taken 12 of the fastest optical drives, run them through their paces and sorted the award winners from the less than impressive performers.

CD-RW drives have been a mainstream PC peripheral for a considerable time now, and in most cases, can be found as a standard component in a typical entry level PC rig. We are also well past those frus

In the United States, the American Library Association has passed a resolution condemning the use of filter software in libraries, claiming it is unconstitutional, anti-freedom of speech and tantamoun

Much more efficient at reading CDs than writing them, Optorite took second place in our read tests, pipped by the Imation by a mere three seconds.

An above average overall finisher, the Targa's claim to fame is undoubtedly its long battery run times, achieving the best part of 5 hours on a single charge whilst juggling a full productivity workload of Photoshop and Microsoft Office.