Sony DRU-800A 16x DVD±RW

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v3.80 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v3.80 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Sonys new DVD writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. It started out a little slow in the transfer rate tests, but quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of about 43.5x (6520 / 150). While this helped give the DRU-800A an impressive overall score, its access time was not as low as some of the other drives.

CD Speed v3.80 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

Turbo Boost On

Turbo Boost Off

	Sony DRU-800A	Lite-On SOHW-1673S	ASUS DRW-1608P	Plextor PX-716A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.37x 20.74x 48.10x	36.40x 21.17x 48.16x	31.31x 18.15x 41.41x	35.46x 20.50x 46.90x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	125ms 141ms 216ms	120ms 129ms 212ms	101ms 113ms 189ms	102ms 120ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 2% 4% 7%	1% 2% 4% 8%	0% 1% 2% 4%	0% 1% 2% 3%

While Sony's new DVD writer reads pressed discs at 40x by default, its maximum read speed can be "boosted" to 48x by holding down the eject button for about three seconds. As you can see, the DRU-800A had no problems reaching this speed in our tests. Unfortunately, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v3.80 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The DRU-800A was a little faster when reading CD-R media. While this wasn't enough to top the drive from Lite-On, it was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of more than 49x. Unfortunately, its seek times were again a little high.

Sony's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The drive read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 53.01x!

CD Speed v3.80 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

The DRU-800A wasn't nearly as fast when reading CD-RW media. Even with the Turbo Boost enabled, it reached a maximum transfer rate of only 31x.

CD DAE and CD Speed v3.80 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that the Sony DRU-800A supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

Turbo Boost On


Turbo Boost Off

CD Speed	Sony DRU-800A	Lite-On SOHW-1673S	ASUS DRW-1608P	Plextor PX-716A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.75x 21.32x 48.58x 10 Yes	36.75x 21.44x 48.57x 10 Yes	30.68x 17.94x 32.64x 10 Yes	31.45x 18.20x 41.55x 10 Yes

The DRU-800A performed very well in our DAE tests. With its Turbo Boost enabled, the drive had no problems reaching a maximum DAE speed of 48.58x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While Sony's new DVD writer started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v3.80 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The DRU-800A was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. While the drive still performed well, it wasn't able to reach 48x this time around. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Sony's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.60x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. In the advanced tests, the DRU-800A was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well Sony's new drive can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The DRU-800A did pretty well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 60.63% of the CD to be "damaged." On top of that, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

Sony's new DVD writer gave some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was very low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.