Buffalo BRHC-6316U2 review

Verdict:

Review Date: 15 Aug 2008

Price when reviewed: inc VAT

Our Rating 4 stars out of 5

Review
Specs

The BRHC-6316U2 is the first USB optical drive we've seen from Buffalo.

It can play both Blu-ray and HD DVD movies, as well as burn Blu-ray discs. Unlike some software with other optical drives we've seen, the bundled Nero ShowTime Essentials supports surround sound through your PC's analogue outputs. There's also a copy of Nero Recode, which can squeeze 8.5GB DVD movies on to cheaper, single-layer 4.7GB discs.

The BRHC-6316U2's performance in our disc-burning tests was similar to those of other Blu-ray/HD DVD combo drives. It came close to matching its stated 4X when writing dual-layer DVDs, but couldn't match its claimed 16X when writing 4.7GB DVDs, only just exceeding 9X. It was quick when writing Blu-ray discs, burning a BD-R disc in 23 minutes and 20 seconds and a rewritable Blu-ray disc in just over 39 minutes. Buffalo's TurboUSB software is supposed to increase write speeds, but there was little improvement in our tests.

There's little to separate the BRHC-6316U2 and LG's similarly priced BE06LU10. The BRHC-6316U2 has the edge if you want Nero Recode, but both are expensive compared to LG's GGW-H20L, which is better value unless your computer can't accommodate internal upgrades.

Author: Alan Lu

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