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SONY DRU-710A Dual DVD Recorder Review
After the release of the DRU-700A, Sony decided to up the speed for DVD+R writing from 8x to 16X. The new model to do just this is the DRU-710A and the main differences from the previous model is the 16X recording speed for the plus format and 48X for CD, up from 40X.
Since Sony is one of the biggest optical storage manufacturers, it will be interesting to see how this drive will perform and how it will face the strong competittion which already supports 16X recording for both formats, as well as 4X for Double Layer.
- Features
The Double Layer DVD+R system uses two thin embeded organic dye films for data storage separated by a spacer layer. Heating with a focused laser beam irreversibly modifies the physical and chemical structure of each layer such that the modified areas have different optical properties to those of their unmodified surroundings. This causes a variation in reflectivity as the disc rotates to provide a read-out signal as with commercially pressed read-only discs. Below is a picture showing the structure of a DVD+R DL media.
For the rest try this.
Or for the Conclusion read on.
The CD reading tests revealed that the drive is a fast reader but with low error correction capabilities. With DVD media, the performance is reversed, where the drive has good error correction but with average reading speed.
According to our DAE test, the drive was again a fast reader and managed to rip/playback all of our AudioCD protected discs. 99min AudioCD's are not a problem for the drive while 90min lowers the speed to the extreme.
CD games protection are a problem for the DRU-710A. It can only create working backups with SafeDisc versions 2.8 or lower.
The CD writing times should be lower for 48X and we would like the 48X to be supported by default in order to avoid pressing the eject button for 5 seconds every time we open the tray. The writing quality with CDs, according to our jitter measurements tests, can be characterized as good, however it depends on the inserted media.
One important feature that the drive supports is that of the booktype change. This solves any possible compatibility problems on players and other drives.
The price for the retail package varies beetween $135~170. We estimate that the price is a little high since the competition offers 16X for both DVD formats in combination with 4X with DL media at prices lower than $100.
- The Good
After the release of the DRU-700A, Sony decided to up the speed for DVD+R writing from 8x to 16X. The new model to do just this is the DRU-710A and the main differences from the previous model is the 16X recording speed for the plus format and 48X for CD, up from 40X.
Since Sony is one of the biggest optical storage manufacturers, it will be interesting to see how this drive will perform and how it will face the strong competittion which already supports 16X recording for both formats, as well as 4X for Double Layer.
- Features
The Double Layer DVD+R system uses two thin embeded organic dye films for data storage separated by a spacer layer. Heating with a focused laser beam irreversibly modifies the physical and chemical structure of each layer such that the modified areas have different optical properties to those of their unmodified surroundings. This causes a variation in reflectivity as the disc rotates to provide a read-out signal as with commercially pressed read-only discs. Below is a picture showing the structure of a DVD+R DL media.
For the rest try this.
Or for the Conclusion read on.
Conclusion
SONY's DRU-710A has to compete with many new 16X writers with faster writing +/-R and DL speeds. The drive's weakness is the writing quality. Specifically, 9 out of 22 media reported errors and the scan/reading process was aborted. Only with RW media did the drive perform well. In the case of Double Layer discs, Traxdata failed while playing back, during the layer change. The CD reading tests revealed that the drive is a fast reader but with low error correction capabilities. With DVD media, the performance is reversed, where the drive has good error correction but with average reading speed.
According to our DAE test, the drive was again a fast reader and managed to rip/playback all of our AudioCD protected discs. 99min AudioCD's are not a problem for the drive while 90min lowers the speed to the extreme.
CD games protection are a problem for the DRU-710A. It can only create working backups with SafeDisc versions 2.8 or lower.
The CD writing times should be lower for 48X and we would like the 48X to be supported by default in order to avoid pressing the eject button for 5 seconds every time we open the tray. The writing quality with CDs, according to our jitter measurements tests, can be characterized as good, however it depends on the inserted media.
One important feature that the drive supports is that of the booktype change. This solves any possible compatibility problems on players and other drives.
The price for the retail package varies beetween $135~170. We estimate that the price is a little high since the competition offers 16X for both DVD formats in combination with 4X with DL media at prices lower than $100.
- The Good
- Front bezel can be changed with the included black colored
- Can backup up to SafeDisc2 v2.8x protected discs
- Good DVD error correction
- Good CD writing quality with specific media
- Can overburn up to 99mins
- High C2% pointers accuracy
- Supports protected Audio discs (CDS200, Key2Audio)
- Supports BookType BitSetting for DVD+R/+RW/+DL formats
- Can be used for CD/DVD media error measurements
- Big unofficial community support (KProbe, Media Speed hacks, RPC1 utilities)
- Retail Price is high
- Poor CD error correction ability
- DVD writing quality with many media needs serious improvement
- Doesn't accurately backup SafeDisc2 v2.9x+ protected discs
- Doesn't support reading of DVD-RAM media
- Retail package doesn't include DVD+R DL media
- Doesn't support DVD±R overburning
- Competition offers 16X DVD-R and 4X DL writing
- Inconvenient changing from 40X to 48X reading/writing
- DVD writing quality with many media needs serious improvement