Exclusive: Sony DRU-700A Dual Layer Recorder
by Kristopher Kubicki on May 5, 2004 11:30 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Burn Tests DVD+R DL Media
Sony bundled some Mitsubishi DVD+R9 media with which to test the drive. We pulled the information below from DVDInfo Pro.
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The ugly 2.4X write descriptor shows up. So far as we can tell, here is one of the first published screen grabs of a DVD+R9 burn. Enjoy.
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Sure, it isn't the most interesting burn that we have ever seen, but it is surprisingly stable. Notice, however, that this 7.96GB burn took 45.23 minutes! Burning two 4.38GB discs takes less than 15 minutes.
Here is the read test on the same disc with the same drive. We did not have many problems.
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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..."