Exclusive: Sony DRU-700A Dual Layer Recorder

Introduction and Construction

A few weeks ago, we dangled a little DVD Dual Layer primer (teaser?) for all of you who are looking forward to the technology.

Even though we received a preproduction sample from Sony, we have a generally good idea which media will be bundled in the final version of the drive. To no surprise, most of the Nero Express suite will ship with the final drive. This includes Nero Express 6, InCD 4, ShowTime, ImageDrive, WaveEditor and the Nero Toolkit.

The faceplace of our preproduction drive looks identical to the DRU-530A. Our press guide claims that the final version of the drive will also ship with a black replaceable faceplate. Unlike the Gigabyte GO-W0808A, there is no forward headphone capability.

Our largest surprise came when we noticed the chipset in our DRU-700A was the same found in the Gigabyte GO-W0808A, the MT1818E. This little chipset has been with DVD burners for a long time; the only real upgrades that have occurred since DVD+R 2X has been upgrades to the analog controllers and pickups. The same innards are found in the Lite-On LDW-812S.

Below is a quick overview of specifications on the drive:

Sony DRU-700A DVD-/+R DL Drive
Interface	IDE
CD Write Speed	40X, 32X, 24X (P-CAV) 16X, 12X, 8X, 4X (CLV)
CD Rewrite Speed	24X (Z-CLV) 16X, 12X, 8X, 4X (CLV)
HD-CD Write Speed	24x, 18x (CAV) 12x, 6x (CLV)
CD Read Speed	40X Max (CAV)
DVD-R Write Speed	8X (Z-CLV) 4X, 2X (CLV)
DVD-RW Rewrite Speed	4X, 2X, 1X (CLV)
DVD+R Write Speed	8X (Z-CLV) 4X, 2X (CLV)
DVD+RW Rewrite Speed	4X, 2.4X (CLV)
DVD+R DL Write Speed	2.4X (CLV)
DVD Read Speed	12X Max (16,620KB/s) (CAV)
Supported Modes	DAO / DAO-RAW 16 & 96 TAO SAO / SAO 16 & 96 Packet Write MultiSession
Supported Formats	DVD+R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD+RW (random) DVD-R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD-RW (restricted overwrite) DVD+R Dual Layer CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-DA, Mixed Mode, CD Extra Photo CD, CD Text, Bootable CD, UDF
Access Time	CD: 160ms DVD: 200ms
Buffer	2MB

Although the labeled access times are slightly higher than normal, most specifications on this drive are identical to the Gigabyte GO-W0808A shown from our roundup last week.

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DVDInfo Pro correctly identifies the DVD+R DL capabilities of the drive.

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