Holiday Shopping Roundup: Eight Dual Format Recordable DVD Drives
by Kristopher Kubicki on December 11, 2003 10:54 PM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Sony DRU-530A
Enter the sleeping giant, Sony. We would not be giving Sony enough credit if we didn't say they created effectively the dual format product category with the DRU-510A. Of course, it's easy to say that it was inevitable, as Sony happens to participate officially and unofficially in both the DVD+R and DVD-R forums.In any case, on the heels of the success of the DRU-510A, we present the DRU-530A. Sony's experience in the DVDR market shines in both its software bundle and documentation. Sonic RecordNow, Sonic DLA, Sonic MyDVD, PowerDVD 5 and MusicMatch were all bundled with the drive. Documentation seems to cover everything, but troubleshooting. However, it should be mentioned that Sony has a technical support contact number plastered all over the box art and literature. Hopefully, Sony will also do well in our Technical Support portion of this roundup.
| Sony DRU-530A DVD-/+R Drive | |
| Interface | IDE |
| CD Write Speed | 40X (CAV), 32X, 24X (PCAV) 16X, 12X, 8X, 4X (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speed | 24X (PCAV) 16X, 10X, 4X (CLV) |
| CD Read Speed | 40X Max (CAV) |
| DVD-R Write Speed | 4X, 2X, 1X (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Rewrite Speed | 2X, 1X (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speed | 8X (Z-CLV) 4X, 2.4X (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Rewrite Speed | 4X, 2.4X (CLV) |
| DVD Read Speed | 12X Max (CAV) |
| Supported Modes | DAO / DAO-RAW 16 & 96 TAO SAO / SAO 16 & 96 Packet Write Multi-Session |
| Supported Formats | DVD+R (incremental) DVD+RW (random) DVD-R (DAO, incremental, multi-border) DVD-RW (restricted overwrite) CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, Mixed Mode, CD Extra Photo CD, CD Text, Bootable CD, Mount Rainer |
| Access Time | CD: 160ms DVD: 200ms |
| Buffer | 2MB |
The specifications on the DRU-530A look excellent, certainly comparable to the Plextor 708A. We noticed that the DVD read speed is not as quick as the MSI DR4-A, but everything else is a significant improvement over the DRU-510A.
The external design on the DRU-530A is identical to the DRU-510A, but the internal components are similar to that of the Plextor 708A. In true Sony fashion, there is no external headphone jack or volume adjustment. Regrettably, we noticed immediately in preliminary burns that the DRU-530A was not burning some of our 4X media at 8X, including the bundled media. This was very discouraging, particularly since the near-identical 708A burns the same media twice as fast.
Originally, the Sony DRU-530A debuted with a $300 price tag, but has since fallen to under $250 (and also has a $30 mail-in rebate). Still pricey, but competitive in price to the Plextor 708A. With identical chipsets and similar pickups, it's going to be a constant battle of price and support between these two drives.
Special thanks to Sony and Verbatim for providing us with lots of media for our benchmarks.
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Icewind - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Wait, so in the Avg Write Column in your XLS sheet, thats TIME not The actually speed of the burner itself?Ok, looking at it, the way you have it labeled it looks alot more like the average speed the burner BURNED at, not the actual time.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
I apologize if there was a bias away from the LiteOn drive. It was unintentional.PXC, alexruiz: The DD0203 was originally supposed to be in this roundup, but I severed the cable taking it apart to look at the chipset :) It will be in the next roundup.
Kristopher
pxc - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
What's up with the anti-LiteOn bias in the article? It didn't fail any tests like the NEC 1300A did, but it's trashed from first mention and in the conclusion.#15, I can tell you why the DD020x wasn't included: it's junk. I've had one for over a month now and it has the worst media compatibility of any dual format drive. Even the media that generally works will also fail 20% of the time. It would do Optorite no good to have it's buggy drive compared to working drives.
KristopherKubicki - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
My contacts at Plextor told me dual layer media is going to cost upwards of $10. Ill pass. I am more interested in BluRay anyway.Kristopher
artifex - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
I'd be willing to pay more than double the then DVD+R price for DVD+R dual layer media, assuming that hard drive prices haven't gone down much before then.KristopherKubicki - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Belzer: Thank you for the feedback. I do appreciate your thoroughness and I have corrected a number of errors.I do digress concerning the MCC 003 Media, however. Not only does DVD Info Pro identify the media as 4X write, but the Verbatim box art also identifies the media as "1-4X".
I have all of the images from CDSpeed, so it looks like i will be spending the rest of my friday uploading them and inserting them into the article. :)
Good to be done with finals ;)
Kristopher
alexruiz - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
A little surprised to find that some other available burners were not included:1) One of the most popular dual burners WAS NOT included (Optorite DD0203/DD0201) Furthermore, there is already available the 8x "+" version (DD0401)
2) Another one is the BTC 1004IM, or the big brother, the 8x 1008IM that is supposed to write DVD-R at 8x also...
Chistpher, can we include the Optorite DD0401 AND the BTC 1008IM for the next review?
Alex
michec - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
When was this review done? The 8X dual-format Lite-On drive is not a drive that is being anticipated - it's already available. I got mine on Nov 30th at a local computer show. Why bother with reviewing 4x drives when there is a 8x version that is available? What a waste of time and energy reviewing the 4x Lite-On.LoneWolf1 - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
In regards to #8. You may download our entire burn time spreadsheet.http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/storage/roundu...
Icewind - Friday, December 12, 2003 - link
Heres a linkhttp://www.cdfreaks.com/news2.php?ID=8051