Sony DRU-800A 16x DVD±RW

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.90:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.\

Turbo Boost Off

By default, the DRU-800A has a maximum writing speed of 40x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive starts writing at 18.86x and smoothly accelerates, reaching a maximum speed of 42.56x at the end of the session.

Turbo Boost On

With the Turbo Boost enabled, the DRU-800A's rotation speed is increased, allowing it to start writing at about 21.68x. From there, the drive accelerates, reaching a maximum writing speed of 48.83x at the end of the session. This gave the Sony's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 36.98x.

To test the DRU-800A's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

Sony's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the DRU-800A was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:38, beating the DRW-1608P by about 32 seconds.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (Ritek)

Verbatim 52x

The DRU-800A's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the DRU-800A uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 13 minute mark.

Sony's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. The DRU-800A took 2:54 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:39 to do the same with DLA.

The DRU-800A also erases at 24x. While it didn't have the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in 4:17.