The HP DVD1035i drive turned out to be unreliable with quite a few different types and MID's of recordable media and produced plenty of correctable and uncorrectable errors while burning, reading or during the scanning tests were performed with it. The DaTARIUS system was unable to perform its scanning tests with numerous discs, while digital errors exceeded the limits on ALL but one +R and one +RW disc.

The HP drive obviously needs a new firmware release which would add and possibly change the writing strategies for the different media (MIDs). There were cases where the drive used a default writing strategy on many discs, resulting in recording speeds that were too high and producing many digital errors and reading problems.

One of its most serious cons is -of course- the fact that the drive was incapable of reading and burning both 4X and 8X DVD-R DL recordable media that we tried. There were compatibility issues with 6x DVD-RW media as well.

On the positive side, we should mention the drive's good DVD error correction capabilities and reading speeds with CD, DVD and 12x DVD-RAM media.

Pros

• Comes with Nero Essentials 7 software package
• Low price (€45, E-shop price)
• Good DVD error correction
• Good CD/DVD reading speeds

Cons

• Compatibility problems with 4X and 8X DVD-R DL (the drive was unable of recognising, reading and writing specific disc formats.
• Does not support either the booktype feature or overburning with DVD recordable media.
• Writing quality needs to be improved
• Produced unreadable discs

We feel very disappointed with the performance of this drive. Although the test results are very discouraging, we expect that the essential update in the drive's firmware could solve some basic issues.