To be honest, this brace of drives barely merits the name 'group test' (we're not even sure if two can really be a group), but we've reviewed these two drives at once because they represent a significant step forward in the development of CD-R technology. We'd use the phrase 'quantum leap', but that means something really small, so we won't. It's not a paradigm shift, either, because that's marketing drivel. No, it's definitely a significant step forward.

Both the drives tested here represent the latest developments in CD-R/RW and include a new technology developed by Sanyo; 'BURN-Proof technology'. In this context, BURN stands for Buffer Under-RuN, a reference to the error message so hated and feared by would-be CD duplicators and creators. Previously, writing a CD-R or RW has been vulnerable to any system interrupts. For example, your screen saver cuts in and the buffer on the CD-R drive is compromised, a buffer under-run occurs and the disk you're writing is junk. Or a coffee coaster at best.

Manufacturers have tried to help by fitting bigger and bigger buffers, with some of the fastest drives having up to 8MB of onboard memory. Sanyo has developed its new technology to overcome this completely. Instead of attempting to keep the buffer full at all times during the write, this system ensures that if the buffer empties, the CD-R stops writing to the blank disk. It then retraces the last moments of the write and, when the buffer is full, restarts the burn at exactly the correct spot. Makes sense, really.

Now let's see if it works. Click the 'NEXT' link below to find out more.