Exclusive: Sony DRU-700A Dual Layer Recorder
by Kristopher Kubicki on May 5, 2004 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Thoughts
Does DVD DL make sense right now? We can already burn 12X DVD+R5 discs at less than 7 minutes a piece. Thanks to the lack of session closing, we can burn 2 DVD+R5 discs in less than 15 minutes, or one DVD+R9 disc in 45 minutes. Speed is not an issue to die hard DVD9 advocates, but casual enthusiasts may find the 3x in speed and increase in write errors an issue.One misconception that we want to address is the notion that DVD DL software is not here just yet. Quite the contrary, pretty much any software we tried recognized the DVD+R9 disc properly and was quite capable. The bundled Nero software had no issues with software support. Other software like DVDDecryptor, Roxio Easy DVD Creator, and Alcohol 120% had no issues recognizing and burning the DL DVDs. In fact, software support seems almost transparent.
Unfortunately, even though the drives and software support are here, media certainly is not. We have heard from manufacturers that without decent media support, DVD DL will take a long road to adoption. Some drive manufacturers such as NuTech and MSI, claim that they will have DVD+R9 support in before July, but other manufacturers sound like they will not have reliable support or plentiful media until October.
There is no question that DVD+R DL (and DVD-R DL) will become the de facto standards for DVD recording eventually (before it is replaced by BluRay or HD-DVDR). We sit on a second cusp for Recordable Optical Storage technology; remember, only a year ago DVD recorders were still $250 items and 2X write descriptors were great. After media became more available, writing faster on discs was trivial. (We already write higher write descriptors than discs support with the Plextor 708A and NuTech DDW-082.) Once we see media start to hit shelves en masse, 4X and 8X DVD DL capabilities should come with relative ease. Kudos to Sony for solving the DVD+R9 "chicken or the egg" question.
Stay tuned for my Dual Layer madness. BenQ (Philips) has a dual layer drive on the way via the Nexperia chipset, and we will see if it can compete with Sony's latest offering.
Special Thanks to Sony and Verbatim for providing media for this review.
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MysticMan1 - Thursday, May 6, 2004 - link
I have the Sony DRU700A drive deals posted in the Anandtech "hot deal" forum here: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=...FYI: Here's a quote from Philips, who created the DL format. Quote: (According to Philips it will not be possible to upgrade existing 8x DVD recorders to DL layer recorders, contrary to what some rumours are saying. In theory the laser power of an 8x drive is strong enough to handle DL but the problem is, is that the OPU (Optical Pickup Unit) of the drive is often not good enough. This will lead to quality problems. However, some drives with good OPUs could, in theory, be upgraded although they’d have to be handpicked)
Adul - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
mmm looks up his dvd burner model :DKristopherKubicki - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
hahher:fairly likely. As we mentioned in the review we firmware upgraded our GO-W0808A to DL.
Kristopher
Ian@CDRlabs - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
According to Sony, its $199.99 right now.hahher - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
what about price of this burner? price of other burnes (lite-on)?since components are similar to other current burners, how likely is it to see firmware upgrades to DL?
Ian@CDRlabs - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
Hmm.. maybe you should ask the author Karr.KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
Ian@CDRlabs: Not officially.Kristopher
Ian@CDRlabs - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
KProbe2 does support PI/PO error testing (or BLER as you call them) for DVD+R DL.LoneWolf15 - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
First of all, finding Dual Layer DVD media will likely take some time. Even though it isn't hard to find DVD+R/DVD-R media now, finding quality media for a reasonable price is still a gamble, much like CD-R media was in its earlier days.Secondly, if this drive has different pickups then it isn't "essentially the same as the Gigabyte" DVD writer. To write to the second layer of a dual layer DVD, more sensitive mechanisms are needed, and obviously this was done. Just because two DVD writers have the same chipset does not mean they will burn the same; if they have a different pickup mechanism, the drives will likely differ in performance. This has already been proven by the NEC 2500A and Pioneer 107D, which both use the same chipset but do not have exactly the same performance.
Gromis - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
My feeling while reading ths: "poor those who bought DVD-RAM drives..."