What's in the box?:
- Sony DRX-S90U Portable 8x DVD Writer
- Operating Instructions
- Sony Nero 10 Software Disc Rev. 1.0
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in June of 2011 and had firmware 1.D0. For this review I used firmware versions 1.D0 and 1.D1.
The Sony DRX-S90U is one of the smallest DVD writers to come through the 'Labs. Measuring 136.5 x 19 x 152 mm and weighing in at a mere 320g, the drive is not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. The DRX-S90U is also constructed out of a lightweight, black plastic. The plastic has a matte finish which does a pretty good job of resisting fingerprints and scratches.
On the top of the DRX-S90U you can see a large "Sony" logo as well as a few showing support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.
The LED and eject button are located along the front of the DRX-S90U. This LED lights up orange when both reading and writing.
The DRX-S90U is is the first dual bus powered optical drive to be USB logo certified. The drive's two USB cables comply with the USB standard, using 500mA per port, and can be stored in an integrated cable duct when not in use. The DRX-S90U is also very energy efficient, using a mere 8.2 mW when a computer is in sleep mode. My only complaint here is that one cable is dedicated to data and the other to power and both must be used. With other portable drives, the second USB connector is optional and is only needed if a computer cannot provide enough power through a single USB port.
Technical Specs:
Most of the specs below have been taken from Sony's website and the manual that came with the drive.
| Sony DRX-S90U Portable 8x DVD Writer | |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 8x, 6x, 4x (Z-CLV) 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 3.3x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 8x, 6x, 4x (Z-CLV) 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x (Z-CLV) 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 6x, 4x (Z-CLV) 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 6x, 4x (Z-CLV) 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RAM Write Speeds | 5x (Z-CLV) 3x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Write Speeds | 24x (CAV) 16x (Z-CLV) 8x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 24x, 20x, 16x (Z-CLV) 8x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 8x Max (DVD-ROM) 8x Max (DVD±R) 8x Max (DVD±RW) 8x Max (DVD±R DL) 5x Max (DVD-RAM) 4x (DVD-Vid) |
| CD Read Speed | 24x Max |
| DAE Speed | 24x Max |
| Buffer Size | 1MB |
| Access Times |
180 ms (DVD) 150 ms (CD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-I Ready CD-Bridge CD-Extra Video CD Photo CD CD Text CD-R CD-RW |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-R/RW DVD+R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL DVD-RAM DVD-Video |
| Writing Methods | Disc At Once Session At Once Track At Once with Zero Gap Variable of Fixed Packet Writing Multisession |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new DVD writer is identified as an "SONY DVD RW DRX-S90U."
Nero also shows that the DRX-S90U has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DRX-S90U can also write CD-Text and overburn. Unfortunately, like some of Sony's desktop DVD writers, it wasn't able to recognize our 99 minute CompUSA discs at all.
Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the DRX-S90U 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 Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the DRX-S90U's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.
Opti Drive Control also shows that the DRX-S90U 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 Opti Drive Control gives us a quick glance at the DRX-S90U'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 DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support technologies like LightScribe or Labelflash.
The DRX-S90U doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, using software like Nero, you can set the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM." This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.
