Dual Layer DVD Burners
Dual layer DVD burners are some of the most modern recordable drives featuring the ability to burn to dual layer DVD media. As the name itself indicates, a dual layer burner has twice the burning capacity of a single layer burner.
Most of the DVD burners that are available in the market are single layer ones and the new comers, dual layer DVD burners can solve almost all the problems related to recording on DVD discs. A single layer DVD burner is restricted to burn only 4.37GB DVD discs, but a dual layer burner can burn a DVD disc of almost the double capacity 8.5GB and the time extended up to 4 hours of video storage. The recording speed changes from 2.4X, 4X to 16X and one can select dual DVD burners from some of the popular brands such as ASUS, Sony, Pioneer, Memorex, and Samsung.
Dual layer DVD burners, also called DL burners, support DVD±RW (or, -R/-RW and +R/+RW operation - allowing rewriting on the both layers of a disc). In other words, these burners can write to the DVD discs on both the +R/+RW and -R/-RW formats. These burners do allow you maximum portability and compatibility, and provide the option to choose any desired rewritable format. Internal and external type dual layer DVD burners are available everywhere now.
A wide and low energy laser beams are used to burn the upper and lower layer of DVDs. Usually, the lower layer of the DVD disc is subjected to burning. Only half the percentage of total laser power is used for burning the lower layer and after this task, the burner automatically directs the laser beam to the upper layer for the next round of burning.
Although they are among the most useful hardware in the burning industry, the dual layer DVD burners are still very difficult to manufacture. This accounts for the instability in pricing of the DVD burners. Currently, this type of burner usually costs double the price of single layer burners.
Some of the top brands that are available in the market are that of Sony, Plextor, Samsung, LG, Lite-On, Memorex and HP
Some specific models are listed:
| Sony AW-AW-Q170A DVD+ RW Drive, E-IDE/ATAPI - Internal | CD Read: 48x, Write: 48x, ReWrite: 32x ,DVD Read: 16x and Write: 18x |
| Plextor PX-755SA DVD+RW Drive | CD Read 48x, Write 48x, ReWrite 24x , DVD Write 16x Read 16x |