Call me petty, but I’ve had it up to here with power bricks. Nearly every peripheral and mobile computer needs to have one but, frankly, they’re plain awkward, heavy, proprietary, difficult to keep track of, messy, ugly, and an all-around nuisance.
Thankfully, Sunland International (SLI) has come to the rescue with its new Digistor Self-Powered Blu-ray Writer (SPW). Not your average portable Blu-ray Disc (BD) recorder, the Digistor SPW is an attractively sleek and compact USB 2.0 device that not only reads and writes every type of CD, DVD and BD but, best of all, does so without the aid of an external power supply!
Sunland International (SLI) is a well-established distributor and seller of Panasonic’s industrial OEM optical drives and blank media, as well as commercial and embedded solutions that solve tricky power, connection, mounting and other integration issues. Available through its website, partners and its direct sales efforts to medical, archiving, security and other vertical markets, SLI develops and promotes its Self-Powered Writers (SPW) and other drives through its Digistor division and brand name.
Continuing the refreshing turn, SLI offers several software choices for the Digistor Blu-ray SPW. The recorder is available by itself for $599 or can be paired with Adobe’s Creative Suite 4 Production Premium Mac or PC for an additional $1,699 (a special $1,899 bundle is available until the end of May 2009). Purchasers can also select the consumer-oriented ArcSoft Total Media Extreme for $20 extra.
At 5.43″ (W) x 6.73″ (D) x 0.87″ (H) and weighing less than a pound, the Digistor SPW may be small but still packs a respectable punch thanks to its Panasonic mechanism. A mainstay of the Blu-ray laptop market, the Panasonic UJ-225A recorder nestled inside is a versatile slot-loader capable of reading, writing and rewriting all prerecorded (pressed), recordable and rewritable CD, DVD, and BD disc formats.
As is the case with all slimlines, the UJ-225A executes a little slower than its 5.25″ half-height cousins but gets the job done burning single-layer BD-Rs at 2x and DVD±Rs and CD-Rs at 8x speeds. The more modest performance translates as well into quieter operation. To my ears, the Digistor SPW sounded perfectly sedate and thus should be at home for everything from general laptop use and video authoring to server data backup and even Home Theater PC (HTPC) playback and recording.
But it’s really the Digistor SPW’s intelligent power management system that defines the unit and sets it the apart from the crowd. Rather than relying on an external power brick, the recorder draws energy from the host computer itself (within USB specifications according to SLI) and an internal lithium polymer battery, which trickle charges when the device is idol. For ordinary operation it need be attached to only a single USB port while longer continual use (>3 hours) requires a second USB connection (a twined cable is included). On the downslide, the battery isn’t replaceable but, SLI assures me, it should last a good long time under normal conditions.
Reading and writing prowess falls in line with what can be expected from a slimline device. During comprehensive assessment using Nero’s DiscSpeed benchmarking application, I was able to record full single-layer BD-Rs and BD-REs discs in roughly 45 minutes (2x CLV), DVD±Rs in twelve minutes (8x ZCLV) and CD-Rs and CD-RWs in eleven minutes (8x CLV). Lamentably, dual-layer BD-R and BD-RE recording isn’t as brisk and, limited to 1x speed, takes as long as three hours to burn full discs (see chart 1, below).
Beyond Blu-ray, SLI offers the Digistor SPW in several alternative configurations, which replace the UJ-225A (BD/DVD/CD) innards, with either the latest Panasonic UJ-875A slot ($159) or UJ-880A tray-loading ($135) 24x CD/8x DVD multi recorders. These too were sent to me for testing, but as bare drives, so for the sake of thoroughness, I ran them through the mill and was impressed by their solid journeymen-like demeanor (see chart 2, below). For example, full DVD±R SLs recorded in roughly eleven minutes and CD-Rs in an efficient five minutes. Be aware, however, that as with the UJ-225A (BD/DVD/CD), neither the UJ-875A nor UJ-880A (DVD/CD) includes a direct disc labeling feature such as LightScribe, LabelFlash or LabelTag.
With its uncluttered and liberating power system, diminutive size, competent performance, and quiet operation, the Digistor Blu-ray Self-Powered Writer is an all around pleaser. It’s further evidence that good things often do come in small packages and it should prove an attractive solution for those needing a portable, desktop or specialized BD recorder.
For more information:
Sunland International (SLI): www.slidirect.com
Review originally appeared on EMediaLive, May 4, 2009.