Exclusive: Sony DRU-700A Dual Layer Recorder

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.