Memorex 16X16X DL IDE DVD drive

Memorex's latest internal DVD rewriter raises the ante by adding 16X single-layer DVD-R and 4X double-layer (DL) DVD+R recording speeds to the 16X DVD+R support offered by its predecessor. It's also one of the first drives on the market able to rewrite DVD-RW media at 6X and DVD+RW at 8X. It doesn't support the new dual-layer DVD-R format, but we consider this a small shortcoming in a drive that records DVD+R DL media. Outstanding specs and excellent software bundle aside, the Memorex 16X16X double-layer IDE burner turns in an uneven performance: it's about average for most write tasks but shows surprisingly slow read and rip times.

Installing the drive was a snap, thanks to an outstanding illustrated installation poster that even describes different drive and bus configurations and explains how you'd want to set the rewriter's jumpers in each case. We had our test unit up and running less than 20 minutes after cracking the shrink-wrap.

As with previous Memorex rewriters, one of the best things about this latest model is its Nero software bundle. In addition to the core Nero Express 6.3 module, Memorex provides the Nero Vision Express 2.0 video-editing and disc-authoring application, Nero BackItUp, Nero InCD 4.0 and InCD Reader, and Nero Cover Designer, as well as Nero PhotoShow Elite for editing photos, Nero Media Player for playing audio, Nero ShowTime for playing video and DVDs, and the flexible Nero Recode 2.0 module, which lets you extract video content from multiple sources, recompress it in MPEG-2 or H.263 MPEG-4 format, and burn compilations to a disc or a hard drive. The Memorex 16X16X DL IDE DVD burner includes a stereo Dolby Digital encoder and support for the Nero Digital MPEG-4 format. All of these modules can be updated free of charge to the latest Nero 6.6/Nero Vision Express 3.0 versions at Nero's Web site.