Samsung's SH-S182D 18x DVD burner

If there's one thing that's far beyond diminishing returns at this point, it's insanely fast DVD writers -- but we do know how much Samsung loves to label something "World's blank," which is why we assume they spent the R&D dollars to create the (ahem) world's first 18x DVD burner. And being that we here at Engadget burn DVDs once every, dunno, couple of months, we can see this shaving literally minutes off our burns over of the next couple of years. It also does do DVD±RW, DVD-RAM, and features Tilt Actuator Compensation (TAC -- whatever that is), Double Optimum Power Control (DOPC -- whatever that is), and a $70 US price tag.

Update: Zing! Samsung -- and we -- apparently stand corrected. See: Plextor's PX 760A.

[zuluseven Posted Jun 16th 2006 10:32AM]

As a photographer, the need to perform back-ups on an almost daily basis keeps the laser in my DVD burner pumping out photons. Until cheap, higher capacity storage options with fast burn times are available, I'll be looking for the best hardware possible. Go Samsung!

[billy5000 Posted Jun 16th 2006 10:36AM]

Yah, let me just pop in my 18x DVD media... oh wait,there's no such thing!

[wyrdtoo Posted Jun 16th 2006 10:37AM]

Wow, someone missed the Marketing boat on that one. Plextor has had an 18X DVD burner out for more than 2 months and it has a faster DVD+R DL speed than this NEC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827249003

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 16th 2006 10:39AM]

Plextor was first. Poor Samsung.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 16th 2006 1:19PM]

So, anyone know how fast does it burn? Per disk 4.5gb DVD.

Thanks

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 16th 2006 4:05PM]

Come on peeps. This is an 18X rewritable DVD drive... again rewritable, Plextor's PX 760A, is only 8X rewritable. Either way, the media doesn't exist or at least is not readily available.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 17th 2006 6:21AM]

OK, Great, Now we need 18x DVD blanks

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 18th 2006 9:00AM]

Tilt Actuator Compensation - I guess this is a good thing(if its what I think it is) and should be included in every optical reading/burning device. My quess is that the TAC adjusts the lens whenever there are irregularities or optical bumps on the media(mostly on generic/cheap media), preventing lens damage.

[(Unverified) Posted Jun 18th 2006 4:50PM]

yeah--I have this thing already, it has been out for 2 or more months. I paid only 40 bucks for it. I like it, don't have a problem with it--came with free software like Nero and junk as well.