Sony DRU-810A 16x DVD±RW

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.