Sony DRU-830A 18x DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Sony DRU-830A 18x DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony America

When it comes to consumer electronics, there are few names as well known as Sony. For more than 50 years, this Japanese company has lead the way, producing innovative products for the audio, video and computer markets. Sony is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. 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.

While one of the biggest promoters of the Blu-ray Disc format, Sony hasn't abandoned the DVD quite yet. This fall they announced their 12th generation DVD writer, the DRU-830A. Based loosely on the Samsung SH-S182D, the drive is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD±R DL writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The DRU-830A can also read and write to DVD-RAM media at 12x, the fastest speed currently available. Of course, Sony's new drive can do more than read and write DVD's. The DRU-830A 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.

With features and specs like this, the DRU-830A sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from Sony's new writer, we'll take a look at some of the drive's features and then see how it compares to some of the 16x and 18x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the DRU-830A have what it takes? Is it the fastest DVD writer around? We'll answer these questions and more as we take a look at the Sony DRU-830A.

What's in the box?:

• Sony DRU-830A 18x DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Sony Software Disc v7.10W
• Product Information Guide
• Quick Start Guide (for ATAPI (EIDE) Interface Drive)
• Software Quick Start Guide
• Front Panel Replacement Guide
• Black Replacement Bezel
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in August of 2006 and had firmware version SS20. At the time of this review, this is the only official firmware available for the DRU-830A.

From the front, the DRU-830A looks very similar to Sony's 16x DVD±RW drives. While there are a few slight cosmetic differences, the drive shares the same basic design, including the silver colored tray. The DRU-830A also has many of the same logos. Along with the Sony logo, you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications, as well as Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

Below the tray you can see the DRU-830A's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.

If white and silver aren't exactly your colors, you're in luck. Sony also includes a black replacement bezel with the DRU-830A. Oddly enough, there is no hole for the LED to shine through.

The rear of the DRU-830A is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

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

It's hard to see, but the label on the back of the drive shows that the DRU-830A is based on the Samsung TS-H652D, otherwise known as the SH-S182D.

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-830A."

Nero also shows that the DRU-830A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DRU-830A can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DRU-830A is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

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-830A's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the DRU-830A is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DRU-830A'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 Sony's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media. Take note that unlike its Samsung counterpart, the DRU-830A does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

Sony's new DVD writer also supports bitsetting for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media. Unfortunately, the only way I found to set the book type was to use the bundled version of Nero. I was not able to do this with older versions of Nero nor with utilities like CD Speed.

Sony has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the DRU-830A contains the Nero 7 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero Recode, Nero BackItUp, Nero ShowTime and InCD.

Nero Express 7 - 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. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that Sony included with their new DVD±RW drive is 7.2.3.3. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Vision 4 - Nero Vision 4 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision 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.

Nero Vision 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 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 2 - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This program from Nero lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard drive, 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, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

InCD 5 - 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 or DVD±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.

Sony's new DVD writer definitely isn't short on features. Like the Samsung drive its based on, the DRU-830A supports all major DVD formats and sports some pretty impressive specs. The drive is capable of 18x DVD±R, 8x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM 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-830A gets a 9 out of 10 for its features.

Installing the DRU-830A in our test computer took only a couple of minutes. I took the drive out of the box, left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain 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 DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the DRU-830A 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. Make sure you uncheck the box next to "Yahoo Toolbar" if you don't want to install it along side with Nero.

By default the setup program will install the entire Nero 7 Essentials suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want. 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:

As with Sony's previous DVD writers, the DRU-830A'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 also includes a set of "Operating Instructions." The first section of this guide contains information on the DRU-830A'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-830A. 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.

Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the DRU-830A was very easy to install. If for some reason you do run into trouble, the documentation that comes with the drive is quite good. While brief, the various guides contain a lot of useful information about the drive and software. But, the way it is spread out can make it hard to find what you're looking for. Even then, the DRU-830A 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 v4.60 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 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 v4.60 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 writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. While the DRU-830A's overall score wasn't as high as the Plextor's, it had a low access time and some very good transfer rates. It started reading at almost 22x (3300 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 43.5x (6530 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.60 - 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-830A	Samsung SH-S182D	LG GSA-H10N	Plextor PX-760A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.39x 20.73x 48.11x	36.54x 20.89x 48.30x	35.57x 20.42x 46.78x	36.76x 21.27x 48.63x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	95ms 106ms 177ms	105ms 114ms 178ms	114ms 130ms 175ms	96ms 113ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 2% 3%	0% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 21%	0% 1% 2% 4%

The DRU-830A performed very well when reading pressed CD's. With its Turbo Boost enabled, the drive had no problems reading our test disc at 48x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that its seek times were also quite good.

CD Speed v4.60 - 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-830A 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.

Sony's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The DRU-830A read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 53.03x! This is pretty good for a drive rated at only 48x.

CD Speed v4.60 - 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.

Like the other drives, the DRU-830A had to slow down to read CD-RW media. While not as fast as the drive from Plextor, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 40x in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.60 - 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-830A supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	Sony DRU-830A	Samsung SH-S182D	LG GSA-H10N	Plextor PX-760A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.97x 17.71x 40.92x 10 Yes	31.09x 17.78x 41.08x 10 Yes	30.73x 17.95x 40.68x 10 Yes	31.35x 17.97x 41.48x 10 Yes

The DRU-830A did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as some of the other DVD writers we've tested, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 40x.

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 the DRU-830A 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 v4.60 - 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.

While the DRU-830A was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 40x in our tests. 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 29.18x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the DRU-830A was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read 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

The DRU-830A handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 60.6% of the CD to be "damaged". More importantly, 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.

Here too, the DRU-830A did pretty well. The scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 4.95:

For this test I randomly generated 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-830A has a maximum writing speed of 40x. To reach this speed, it uses P-CAV, or Partial Constant Angular Velocity. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive starts writing at 21.72x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at about the 42 minute mark

Turbo Boost On

 

With the Turbo Boost enabled, the DRU-830A has the ability to write at 48x. Instead of increasing the rotation speed, the drive's writing method switches to CAV. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.91x and reached a maximum speed of 48.94x at the end of the session. This gave the DRU-830A an average writing speed of about 37.06x.

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.

The DRU-830A did fairly well in our CD writing tests. While not as fast as the drive from Plextor, it was able to write an entire 700MB CD in 2:48.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Sony 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)

Fuji 48x (Prodisc)

Verbatim 52x

The DRU-830A'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 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The DRU-830A uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 7 minute mark.The DRU-830A writes at this speed until about the 27 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

Sony's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the DRU-830A took 2:21 to write 400MB with Nero and a whopping 3:29 to do the same with DLA.

The DRU-830A also erases at 32x. 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 a respectable 3:18.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - 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-830A performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.69x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.25x.Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times and CPU usage were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

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. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The DRU-830A had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive was able to read DVD-R discs at 12x, but slowed to about 8x when reading DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media.

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

Sony's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.94x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.7GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - 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-830A'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 12x and DVD+RW media at 8x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the DRU-830A either. While not as fast as the drive from LG, it reached a respectable 8.31x in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.60 - 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-830A didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.64x and reached a maximum read speed of 16.09x. 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 8.56x.

To see how well the DRU-830A 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 6.6.1.4 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 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 18x, the DRU-830A uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Sony's new drive starts writing at about 7.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DRU-830A also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

Sony's new drive performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the drives from LG and Plextor when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media, the DRU-830A turned in some of the fastest DVD+R and DVD-R writing times we've seen.

To check the media compatibility of the DRU-830A, 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.

The DRU-830A's media compatibility was a mixed bag. While the drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed, only three types worked at 18x.

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-830A's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. In most cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. The only exception being Optodisc's 16x DVD+R media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PI rate was higher than we'd like to see near the end.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. With the exception of RiDATA's 16x DVD-R media,the PI/PIF rates were fairly low when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed.

To test the DRU-830A's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

When it came to packet writing, the DRU-830A's performance was pretty mixed. While it turned in some very good times with DVD-RAM media, it wasn't as fast as the other drives when reading and writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRU-830A, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, RiDATA and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 8x was not an easy task. The only media we found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. With RiDATA's 8x DVD+R DL media, the writing speed was limited to 6x and the other discs would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

While no match for the drives from LG and Plextor, the DRU-830A took a respectable 18:48 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with Verbatim's 8x and 2.4x DVD+R DL media. In both cases, the error rate started out fairly low but jumped up considerably on the second layer. Unfortunately, RiDATA's 8x DVD+R DL media didn't fair any better. While written at only 6x, the error rates were very high on the second layer. The worst results were with Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. The PI/PIF rates were very high at the layer change and there were a small number of PO Failures.

The DRU-830A also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

The DRU-830A performed pretty well when writing to DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive only took 19:04 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, their new 8x rated discs yielded some mixed results. When scanned with the DW1640, the PI rate was very high on some sections of the disc. Unfortunately, RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media faired even worse. The PI rates were not only very high, there was a large PIF spike at the layer change which caused some major readability issues.

Performance Revisited:

The performance of Sony's new DVD±RW was pretty mixed, especially when it came to writing DVD's. While the DRU-830A turned in some very impressive times with DVD±R and DVD-RAM media, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW discs. Writing quality was also an issue as the PI/PIF rates were quite high with some DVD±R DL media. On the other hand, the DRU-830A was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer data and video DVD's at 16x and DVD±R media at a respectable 12x.

The DRU-830A also did pretty well in our CD read tests. The drive had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, Sony's new drive gave us some mixed results. While the DRU-830A turned in some impressive times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the Sony DRU-830A gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

Over the years, we've had a number of Sony's DVD writers in the 'Labs. Traditionally, these drives have gotten top marks for their features, performance and consumer friendliness and the DRU-840A is no exception. Based on the Samsung SH-S202H, Sony's new "Super-Multi" drive offers a healthy dose of features and some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available.

The DRU-840A is the first drive from Sony with the ability to write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x. One of the faster drives we've tested, it took less than 5 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The DRU-840A also turned in some respectabletimes with DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. However, without compatible media, we weren't able to test its full potential when writing to DVD±R DL discs. Nevertheless, the DRU-840A performed very well in our tests, burning 8GB of data in a little more than 13 minutes.

When it came to media compatibility, the DRU-840A gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote toall of our test media at its rated speed or better, only three types worked at 20x. The DRU-840A's writing quality was fairly good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially with Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD±R and select DVD±R DL media. Hopefully, Sony can address this in a future firmware update.

Sony's new drive also performed relatively well in our DVD read tests. The drive was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some very good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the DRU-840A either. In our tests, it read DVD±R discs at 16x, and DVD±RW, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media at an impressive 12x.

The DRU-840A was also fairly quick when reading CD's. With SpeedRead enabled, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 40x. Unfortunately, the DRU-840A lagged behind some of the other drives when writing CD's. It took longer than expected when writing to CD-R media and its Z-CLV writing method also put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. Nevertheless, the DRU-840A's writing quality was quite good.

Like Sony's previous DVD writers, the DRU-840A isn't short on features. Along with support for all major CD and DVD formats, it has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Sony's Power-Burn technology. While this buffer is a little smaller than what we'd like to see on a 20x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The DRU-840A 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-840A can be picked up for less than $60.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 12x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
• 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
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Low seek times
• Features Sony's Power-Burn technology
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes software from Nero
• Supports 99 minute media
• Includes extra bezel
• Nice looking design

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R and DVD±R DL media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed CD's
• Slower than other drives when writing to CD-R and CD-RW media