Sony DRU-810A 16x DVD±RW

Model: Sony DRU-810A 16x DVD±RW
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony America

Sony has been at the forefront of the consumer electronics industry for more than five decades. While best known for their innovative audio and video products, Sony isn't a stranger to the world of optical storage. In fact, the optical storage industry probably wouldn't be where it is today without them. From the development of the first compact disc standards to the introduction of the first dual format DVD writer, Sony has played a major role in much of the technology used today.

The DRU-810A is the latest addition to Sony's already impressive line of DVD writers. Announced in August, the DRU-810A takes DVD writing speeds to the next level. Based on the BenQ DW1640, the drive is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it can write to DVD+R DL media at 8x, the fastest speed currently available. Of course, Sony's new drive can do more than read and write DVD's. The DRU-810A also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and an impressive software bundle from Nero.

We've had Sony's new DVD writer in the 'Labs for a few weeks now and have had the time to put it through its paces. To give you an idea of what to expect from the DRU-810A, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does Sony's new DVD writer have what it takes? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Sony DRU-810A 16x DVD±RW Drive
• Sony Software Disc v6.30W
• Product Information Guide
• Quick Start Guide (for ATAPI (EIDE) Interface Drive)
• Software Quick Start Guide
• Front Panel Replacement Guide
• Black Replacement Bezel
• IDE Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information
• Connect Cash Card (10 Song Downloads)

Physical Features:

The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in July of 2005 and had firmware version 1.0a. At the time of this review, this is the only official firmware available for the DRU-810A.

From the front, the DRU-810A looks a lot like Sony's previous 16x DVD±RW drive, the DRU-800A. While there are a few slight cosmetic differences, the two drives share the same basic design, including the silver colored tray. The DRU-810A also has many of the same logos. Along with the Sony logo, you can see a few showing support for DVD+ReWritable, DVD-R/RW and Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

Below the tray you can see the DRU-810A's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.

Sony's new DVD writer also comes with a black replacement bezel. Less flashy than the white and silver bezel, it is similar to the one found on the OEM version of the BenQ DW1640.

The rear of the DRU-810A looks very similar to some of the other BenQ based DVD writers we've reviewed. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and analog audio output connector.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default it comes set as master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Sony's website and the documentation that came along with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new DVD writer is identified as a "SONY DVD RW DRU-810A."

The Nero screenshot also shows that the DRU-810A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DRU-810A can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.

Like most BenQ based drives, the DRU-810A can do EFM encoding correctly. Using CloneCD version 4.2.0.2 with AWS disabled, Iwas able to reproduce older SafeDisc 2 protected titles like Max Payne along with some of the newer ones protected by SafeDisc 2.51 like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the DRU-810A's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the DRU-810A is a RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there is a RPC-1 patched firmware available for the BenQ DW1640, there isn't one available for the DRU-810A yet.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DRU-810A's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Sony's new drive can read and write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The DRU-810A also supports a feature called "bitsetting." While the drive automatically sets the book type of DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM", you can manually do the same with single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media using CD Speed. This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

The DRU-810A's software bundle is very similar to what Sony has included with their previous DVD writers. The CD that comes with the drive contains a number of applications from Nero including Nero Burning Rom SE, NeroVision Express 3, Nero Recode 2, Nero ShowTime 2,InCD 4 and BackItUp.

Nero Burning Rom SE - Nero is the main CD/DVD mastering program included with the DRU-800A. This robust software lets users do a number of things including create various types of CD's and DVD's or make copies of existing discs. Even though Nero can do some very advanced disc mastering, it also includes a wizard that will get novices going in no time.

As you can see, the version of Nero Burning Rom included with Sony's new DVD±RW drive is 6.6.0.12. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Express 6 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. While the interface has been simplified, Nero Express still supports more advanced features like VCD and DVD creation, CD/DVD duplication, overburning, CD-Text and realtime audio filters

NeroVision Express 3 - NeroVision Express 3 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Using a user friendly interface very similar to that of Nero Express, NeroVision Express makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

NeroVision Express also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows.

Nero Recode 2 - This new program from Nero can copy unprotected DVD videos onto recordable DVD media. If the source disc is larger than 4.7GB, Nero Recode 2 has the ability to remove unwanted material and compress the contents so that it will fit onto a single blank DVD disc.

Nero Recode 2 will also let you convert your DVD movies to Nero Digital. Using Nero's own MPEG-4 audio and video encoder, an entire DVD movie can be compressed so that it will fit onto a CD. Better yet, Nero Recode 2 does this without any loss of quality.

Nero BackItUp - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This new program from Ahead Software lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard disc, image recorderor another computer on your LAN.

Nero ShowTime 2 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG or AVI files you might have on your hard drive.

Nero Media Player - Nero Media Player features on-the-fly encoding of audio CD's to MP3, HE-AAC, TwinVQ, WMA, and WAV format.The MP3 encoder uses the latest audio codec technology from Fraunhofer.While most of the plugins are unrestricted, the MP3 encoder included with this version of the program is limited to only 30 audio tracks.If you need to encode more you will probably want to upgrade to Nero's NeroMIX.

InCD 4 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

With the DRU-810A, Sony has delivered yet another feature packed DVD writer. Like the BenQ drive it's based on, it sports some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. The DRU-810A is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL and 4x DVD-R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Sony's new drive also includes features like Power-Burn buffer underrun protection, support for bitsetting and a great software bundle from Nero. With all this it's easy to see why the Sony DRU-810A gets a 9 out of 10 for its features.

Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the DRU-810A was very easy to install. From start to finish, the entire process took only a few minutes. After taking the drive out of the box, I left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain of our test computer by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 33. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DRU-810A comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. As you can see, the software and documentation is available in a number of different languages.

After selecting your preferred language, you'll be given a short list of options. From here you can choose to install the software, check out the manual or visit Sony's user support web page.

Clicking on "Application Install" will bring up the menu pictured below. From here you can install Nero,NeroVision Express 3, Nero Media Player, InCD 4, or the InCD Reader. You can install each component individually, or everything but InCD in one shot. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

In case you run into trouble and need some help, Sony has included a small "Software Quick Start Guide." The guide includes some brief instructions on how to install and use the bundled software.Because the guide is fairly small, these sections only go over the basic features of each application. If you need to go beyond the basics, additional documentation can be accessed through Nero's SmartStart launcher.

Documentation:

Instead of including one big manual, the DRU-810A's documentation is spread out between a number of small, fold out "guides." To help people get their drive up and running as quickly as possible, Sony has included a "Quick Start Guide."This guide takes the user step by step through the entire installation process and covers all the basics including how to set the jumpers, install the drive into an empty drive bay and hook up the cables. If you're not sure whether the drive should be set up as a master or slave, it also has a few example configurations along with their corresponding jumper settings.

Sony's new DVD writer also comes with a set of "Operating Instructions." The first section of this guide contains information on the DRU-810A's package contents, features and system requirements. It also goes over the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are explained very well. The guide continues on by going over the physical installation of the drive. The instructions and diagrams are very similar to the ones found in the Quick Start Guide. The guide finishes up by going over the basic operation of the DRU-810A. This section covers a number of topics including compatible discs, region codes and how to enable the Turbo Boost function. If you need additional help, Sony's support website has a number of resources includingFAQ's, guides and software updates.

Overall, the installation of the DRU-810A and the bundled software was pretty easy. If for some reason you do run into trouble, the documentation that comes with the drive is quite good. While small in size, the various guides contain a lot of useful information about the drive and software. However, the way it is spread out can make it hard to find what you're looking for. Even then, the DRU-810A scores a 9 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.

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 v4.01 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 v4.01 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.

Sony's new DVD writerdid pretty well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. While the DRU-810A's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, it had some very good transfer rates. The drive started reading at 19x (2853 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 43.5x (6530 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.01 - 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-810A	NEC ND-3540A	Sony DRU-800A	Plextor PX-716A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.39x 20.64x 48.13x	35.60x 20.56x 47.07x	36.37x 20.74x 48.10x	35.46x 20.50x 46.90x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	106ms 123ms 176ms	125ms 137ms 213ms	125ms 141ms 216ms	102ms 120ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 3% 6%	0% 1% 3% 6%	1% 2% 4% 7%	0% 1% 2% 3%

Sony's new DVD writer performed better in our CD Speed tests. With its Turbo Boost enabled, the DRU-810A flew past the drives from the competition, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48.13x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the DRU-810A's seek times were also quite good.

CD Speed v4.01 - 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.

Like the other drives, the DRU-810A was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this small speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of more than 49x. On top of that, its seek times were again quite good.

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 52.85x! This is pretty good for a drive rated at only 48x.

CD Speed v4.01 - 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.

While the DRU-810A can read pressed and CD-R media at 48x, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.01 - 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 while the Sony DRU-810A supports accurate stream and has the ability to cache audio data, it does not have the ability to retrieve C2 error information.

Turbo Boost On


Turbo Boost Off

CD Speed	Sony DRU-810A	NEC ND-3540A	Sony DRU-800A	Plextor PX-716A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.76x 20.90x 48.59x 10 Yes	30.92x 17.99x 40.11x 10 Yes	36.75x 21.32x 48.58x 10 Yes	31.45x 18.20x 41.55x 10 Yes

Like the DRU-800A, the DRU-810A performed very well in our DAE tests. With its Turbo Boost enabled, the drive had no problems reaching a maximum DAE speed of 48.59x.

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 v4.01 - 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-810A was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. While the drive came very close, 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 34.70x. 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-810A 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 DVD writer 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

Like the BenQ drive its based on, the DRU-810A cannot retrieve error information. Without this ability, the drive is unable to determine whether a sector is damaged or unreadable. This causes all of the sectors to show up as being "bad" in ScanDisc. Switching to C1/C2 didn't seem to work either. The drive read the disc back at only 0.5x and, while all sectors were reported as being "good", the entire graph was black.

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 pretty low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.95:

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-810A 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 17.71x and accelerates, reaching a maximum speed of 39.77x at the end of the session.

Turbo Boost On

With the Turbo Boost enabled, the DRU-810A's rotation speed is increased, allowing it to start writing at about 21.25x. From there, the drive accelerates, reaching a maximum writing speed of 47.89x at the end of the session. This gave the Sony's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 36.25x.

To test the drive'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-810A was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:40, beating the ND-3540A by about 11 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 (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

By looking at the KProbe screenshots, it should be pretty clear that the DRU-810A's writing quality is pretty good. The discs the drive burned 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 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

TheDRU-810A is the first DVD writer from Sony to feature 32x rewriting speeds. To reach this speed, the drive uses P-CAV, or Partial CAV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive starts rewriting at 21.30x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at about the 22 minute mark.

Sony's new DVD writer did very well in our rewriting tests.Thanks to its P-CAV writing method, the DRU-810A took only 1:58 to write 400MB with Nero and 1:52 to do the same with DLA.

The DRU-810A also erases at 32x. It not only had the best quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in an impressive 3:46.

Nero CD Speed v4.01 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The DRU-810A performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In the transfer rate tests, it started reading at 6.56x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.17x. While this wasn't enough to top the DRU-800A, the drive's seek times were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.01 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The DRU-810A performed very well when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-RW discs at 12x and DVD-R media at an impressive 16x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

Sony's new DVD writer had no problems reading Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The DRU-810A started reading at 5.01x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 12.07x.

Nero CD Speed v4.01 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The DRU-810A's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media. The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 12x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't an issue for the DRU-810A either. With a maximum transfer speed of 12.09x, it had no problems taking the top spot in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.01 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The DRU-810A didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.51x and reached a maximum read speed of 15.95x. Sony's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 8x.

To see how well the DRU-810A worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, Memorex 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 8x 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the DRU-810A uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Sony's new drive starts writing at about 5.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The DRU-810A also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

Sony's new DVD writer performed pretty well here. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD-R discs at 16x, the DRU-810A turned in some very good times with DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the DRU-810A, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

Surprisingly, the DRU-810A would not write to Verbatim's 16x DVD-R media at its rated speed. While Nero gave the option to write at 16x, the drive topped out at only 12x.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The DRU-810A's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. The only real exception being Optodisc's 16x DVD+R media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PI/PIF rates jumped up considerably near the end.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part.

To test the DRU-810A's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

Sony's new DVD±RW performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. While not as fast as the drives from NEC and Plextor when writing our test data to disc, the DRU-810A took a little more than 6 minutes to read it back.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRU-810A, I used Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

According to Sony, the DRU-810A writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x. Using CD Speed, we can see that the drive uses P-CAV to reach this speed. It starts rewriting at about 6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at about the 0.5GB mark. It writes at this speed until it reaches the 7.5GB mark. At this point, the DRU-810A slows back down to about 6x.

Sony's new drive had no problems writing to Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media at 8x. Unfortunately, Memorex's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

The DRU-810A did very well in this test. Thanks to its 8x DVD+R DL writing speed, the drive took a little more than 15 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good three minutes faster than the drives from NEC and Plextor and more than 11 minutes faster than the DRU-800A. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was very good with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. As you can see, the PI/PIF rates remained very low from start to finish. Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media also yielded some pretty decent results. While higher than what we saw with their 8x media, the PI/PIF remained well within acceptable limits.

The results with Memorex's Ritek manufactured media were better than I expected. Aside from the large spike at the layer change, the PI/PIF rates remained relatively low. This spike didn't have any effect on the Lite-On SOHW-1673S. Unfortunately, the DRU-810A had to slow down to read the disc back.

The DRU-810A also features 4x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, Verbatim's new 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

The DRU-810A wasn't as fast when writing to DVD-R DL media. In our tests, it trailed behind the drives from NEC and Plextor by as much as 10 minutes and was even a couple of minutes slower than the DRU-800A. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The DRU-810A's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed.

Performance Revisited:

Sony's new DVD writer performed as expected throughout most of our tests. When writing DVD's, the DRU-810A turned in good times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD+R DL media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD-R DL discs. The DRU-810A was also fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at an impressive 12x.

The DRU-810A also did pretty well in our CD read tests. With the Turbo Boost enabled, the drive had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds and had some very fairly seek times. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for Sony's new drive either. The DRU-810A turned in some impressive times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the Sony DRU-810A gets a 9 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

Over the past year or so, we've taken a look at a number of Sony's DVD writers. While these drives offered a good mix of performance and features, things like writing quality prevented them from getting top marks in our reviews. Needless to say, this wasn't the case with their new 16x DVD±RW. Based on the award winning BenQ DW1640, the DRU-810A is one of Sony's best drives to date.

Like its BenQ counterpart, the DRU-810A can write to both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x. At this speed, it took the drive about 6 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. Sony's new DVD writer also did pretty well in our rewriting tests, turning in some very good times with both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. Even more impressive was the DRU-810A's DVD+R DL writing performance. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took a little more than 15 minutes to burn an entire 8.5GB DVD. Unfortunately, its 4x DVD-R DL writing speed also put it at a slight disadvantage in some of our tests.

When it came to media compatibility, the DRU-810A gave us some mixed results. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speeds, but like Sony's previous 16x DVD writers, it was not able to write to any 8x DVD±R discs at 16x. While this is becoming less of an issue as more 16x media becomes available, it's still a nice feature to have. Nevertheless, the DRU-810A's writing quality was, for the most part, pretty good. However, there's still room for improvement, especially with Optodisc 16x DVD+R and Ritek DVD+R DL media. Hopefully Sony can tweak this in a future firmware update.

The DRU-810A also did very well in our DVD read tests. The drive was able to read both single layer data and video DVD-ROM's at speeds as high as 16x and had some pretty good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the DRU-810A either. In our tests, it read DVD±R discs at 16x and both DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at an impressive 12x.

When it came time to read and write CD's, the DRU-810A didn't disappoint. With its Turbo Boost enabled, it had no problems reading pressed and CD-R media at 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. The drive also did well in our DAE tests, reaching speeds as high as 48x. This level of performance carried over to our writing and rewriting tests. The DRU-810A turned in some impressive times thanks to its 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds and its writing quality was pretty good.

Like Sony's other DVD writers, the DRU-810A also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the drive has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Sony's Power Burn technology. While the buffer might seem a little small to some, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The DRU-810A also has a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from as well as the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. To top it off, Sony has included some pretty good documentation, a software bundle from Nero and a black replacement bezel.

Sony's new DVD writer is shipping now and can be purchased through some of the vendors listed on Pricegrabber.Prices vary depending on the seller, but the retail version of the DRU-810A can be picked up for as little as $100.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD±R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 4x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Very good transfer speeds with all types of CD media
• Excellent DAE speeds
• Good CD writing quality
• Features Sony's Power-Burn technology
• Supports 99 minute media
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Includes software from Nero
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes extra bezel
• Nice looking design

Lows:

• Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
• Lacks the advanced features found on the BenQ DW1640
• Doesn't support the Mt. Rainier format
• Has a 2048KB buffer