Sony DRU-820A DVD Burner Review


 

 

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Review: Sony DRU-820A
Reviewed by: zevia
Provided by: Sony - USA
Firmware: 1.0a
Manufactured: January 2006


Sony USA was kind enough to send us their latest Multi DVD Burner: the Sony DRU-820A. Sony's newest DVD burner incorporates DVD-RAM recording, creating a true DVD Multi drive. Single layer 4.7GB DVD burning is supported at 16X max. Double Layer and Dual Layer Recording speed is 8X max. DVD+RW speeds are 8X max for DVD+RW and 6X max for DVD-RW respectively. DVD-RAM recording is supported at 5X max. Ultra fast 48X max CD-R burning and 32X max CD-RW means you no longer need a separate CD Burner for high performance CD burning. What hasn't changed is the DRU-820A comes bundled with an unbeatable Nero 6.6 software suite and also includes a black front panel to match dark colored PCs.

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In this article we will show the performance of the DRU-820A by running the drive through many tests on a considerable amount of various CD/DVD media.

 

Corporate Information:

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We took a quick look at the company information found at Sony web pages:

Sony Corporation of America

Sony Corporation of America, based in New York City, is the U.S. subsidiary of Sony Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo. Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its music, motion picture, television, computer entertainment, and online businesses make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and a 50% interest in Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the largest recorded music companies in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $67 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005, and it employs 151,400 people worldwide. Sony's consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2005 were $18.4 billion.

Corporate Fact Sheet (January 2006):

U.S. Businesses

  • Sony Electronics Inc.
  • Sony Entertainment Inc.
    • Sony Pictures Entertainment
    • SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (50% ownership)
    • Sony/ATV Music Publishing (50% ownership)
  • Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
  • Sony DADC and Sony Entertainment Distribution
  • Sony Connect Inc.
  • Sony Plaza Public Arcade and Sony Wonder Technology Lab (New York)
  • Metreon -- A Sony Entertainment Center (San Francisco)

Annual Sales / Sony Corporation Consolidated

  • $67 billion (Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2005)
  • Sales in the United States: $18.4 billion

Workforce

  • 151,400 employees worldwide (Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2005)
  • Approximately 27,000 SCA employees

U.S. R&D and Engineering Facilities

  • San Jose, CA
  • San Diego, CA
  • Boulder, CO
  • Park Ridge, NJ

Major Manufacturing Sites in North America

  • Dothan, AL
  • Pittsburgh, PA
  • Pitman, NJ
  • San Diego, CA 
  • Terre Haute, IN 
  • Tijuana, Mexicali and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

More About Sony

  • A leading audio-visual electronics and information technology company in the U.S. and worldwide
  • A leading motion picture and television production company in the U.S. and worldwide
  • The co-developer of the CD, DVD, Super Audio CD and Blu-ray
  • The developer, manufacturer, and marketer of PlayStation®, PlayStation®2 and PlayStation® Portable game consoles
  • The inventor of a wide range of consumer audio-visual products, such as the BRAVIA TVs, SXRD, FD Trinitron® WEGA® television, Mavica® digital camera, Digital8® Handycam® camcorder, Walkman® personal stereo, Hi-MD/Net MD MiniDisc player/recorder, and the Memory Stick®IC flash media. Also an innovator in IT products, including VAIO® personal computers, FD Trinitron® computer display and the 3.5-inch floppy disk; and professional products, highlighted by the HDCAM® 24-P, Digital Betacam® and DVCAM® VTR and camera formats
  • A publicly held company, with shares listed on 16 stock exchanges worldwide, including Tokyo, New York, and London
  • A company with 928 consolidated subsidiaries worldwide.

As you can see Sony is a very large company with a long history. And now let's take a look at the drive.

 

Drive Overview:


Sony DRU-820A internal DVD Multi drive now supports all available DVD formats including DVD±R/±RW, DVD±R Double/Dual Layer, and DVD-RAM. WIthup to 16x max DVD±R burning, the DRU-820A will deliver a fully recorded disc in about 6 minutes. Like previous Sony DVD burners, the DRU-820A is also an ultra high performance CD burner.

The drive comes bundled with a feature-rich software package suite from Nero for burning, authoring and editing home movies, creating digital scrapbooks, and backing up critical data.

Double Layer vs. Dual Layer

There are currently two formats on the market that support recording to two layers of a DVD disc. The first was presented by the DVD+RW Alliance for the plus ('+') format and given the formal name Double Layer. The DVD Forum followed with its own standard for the dash format ('-'), which is named Dual Layer. For now, drives are only available in write-once formats called DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL.

Key Product Highlights

  • Among the first in industry to support double layer (DVD+R DL) and dual layer (DVD-R DL) recording. Offering an 8.5GB capacity on discs that will play in most existing consumer DVD players and DVD-ROM drives, the DRU-820A can record up to four hours of MPEG2 video, 17,000 digital images or 2,000 songs onto a single-sided disc that contains two recordable layers.

  • Supports all seven popular DVD-recording formats - As Sony's eleventh-generation multi format DVD burner, the DRU-820A provides users with the option to choose among all popular DVD formats: DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM. Users are free to select the media they prefer and that best suits their needs, whether they're after playback compatibility with a specific DVD player, less-expensive discs to distribute videos to friends, or higher capacity media for data backup.

  • DVD-RAM media is supported for the first time on a Sony DVD burner, with an eye towards data backup.

  • Capable of 16X DVD±R, 8X DVD+RW and 6X DVD-RW recording - Adheres to the most recent standards for high-speed recording onto write-once and rewritable media. At 16X, users can create a write-once disc in about six minutes.

  • High performance CD-R/RW recording - 48X CD-R and 32X CD-RW burning speeds are so fast that a separate high-speed CD-RW drive is not necessary.

  • Award-winning Nero® software - Includes Nero's DVD video authoring software, backup software, and packet-writing software. No matter what the application, the full-featured software suite can oblige.

  • Designed with the user in mind - Comes with an ATAPI interface for easy installation inside a PC and a black replacement bezel for those with black-colored PC cases.

DVD and CD Software Suite

The burners come bundled with award-winning Nero DVD video authoring software, as well as with DVD/CD burning software for creation of data, music, and video DVDs and CDs. The comprehensive software suite also includes packet-writing software for users to easily record files and folders by dragging to the icon of a DVD+RW/CD-RW disc. All tasks and applications are accessible via the Nero® StartSmart launcher, which serves as a command centre and gives the user one-click access to all programs in the package.

 

Drive specifications:


Now let us take a look at the specifications of the Sony DRU-820A.

Model

Sony DRU-820A

Interface

ATAPI (EIDE) internal interface

Performance

- Write

DVD-RAM(1): 5x CLV (max.) rewriting
DVD+R DL: 8X Z-CLV (max.) writing
DVD-R DL: 6X CLV (max.) writing
DVD+R: 16X CAV (max.) writing
DVD+RW: 8X Z-CLV (max.) rewriting
DVD-R: 16X CAV (max.) writing
DVD-RW: 6X CLV (max.) rewriting
CD-R(2): 48X CAV (max.) writing
CD-RW: 32X CAV (max.) rewriting

Performance
- Read

DVD-RAM(1): 5x CLV (max.)
DVD+R DL: 12X CAV (max.)
DVD-R DL: 12X CAV (max.)
DVD-ROM (dual layer): 12X CAV (max.)
DVD+R: 16X CAV (max.)
DVD-R: 16X CAV (max.)
DVD-ROM (single layer): 16X CAV (max.)
DVD-Video: 4x CAV
CD-ROM(2): 48X CAV (max.)
CD-R(2): 48X CAV (max.)
CD-RW: 40X CAV (max.)
CD-DA: 4x
CD-DA (DAE): 40X CAV

(1) Use a non-cartridge-type disc or a cartridge from which the disc can be ejected

(2) The default setting is 40x. You must use the turbo boost function to achieve 48x speed

Burst data transfer rate

33.3 MB/s max. Ultra DMA33

Data transfer rate

DVD: 22.1 MB/s (16x speed max.)

CD: 7.2 MB/s (48x speed max.)

Random access time

Average random stroke

Approx. 140 ms (DVD)

Approx. 130 ms (CD)

Buffer memory

2 MB

Technology

Buffer under-run error protection:

Sony Power-BurnTM conformed

Recording method (CD)

Disc at Once, Track at Once, Session at Once, Packet Writing

Recording method (DVD)

Random Access Write (DVD+RW/DVD-RW/CD-RW), Sequential Write (DVD+R/+R DL/+RW, DVD-R/-RW/CD-R/RW)

Operating Environment

5 to 40 °C

Power

Consumption: 29.6 W

Source:

DC +5 V: 1.6 A max

DC +12 V: 1.8 A max.

Laser

- CD

 

 

 

- DVD

 

Wavelength: 784 +3/-4 nm

Output power (max.): 120 mW (CW), 240mW (Pulse)

 

Wavelength: 658 ±4 nm

Output power (max.): 100mW (CW), 250mW (Pulse)

Dimensions

146 x 41.2 x 172.5 mm  (WxHxD)

(excluding front panel)

Minimum System Requirement

         PC/AT-compatible computer

         CPU: Pentium III 800Mhz or faster (with Nero Vision Express: Pentium 4, 1.6 GHz recommended)

         256 MB RAM or more

         1 GB (with Nero Vision Express: 10GB) available hard disk space

         One available EIDE (ATAPI) interface connection with DMA capability

         One empty 5-inch half-height drive bay

         One available internal +12 V/+5 V power connecter

         Operating System:
Microsoft Windows® 2000 Professional, Windows® XP Home Edition or Windows® XP Professional

 

What's inside the box?


The drive we received was a retail package and comes with everything you need for quick and easy installation. The retail package includes the following items:

  • The internal DRU-820A drive itself
  • DRU-820A User's Guide (Operating Instructions)
  • Quick-Start Guide
  • Software Quick-Start Guide
  • Software Disc Rev. 6.60W (includes: Nero Burning ROM 6 SE, InCD 4, Nero Vision Express 3, Nero BackItUp, Nero ShowTime 2, and many others.)
  • Black replacement bezel, clip and Front Panel Replacement Guide
  • 4 Screws
  • Product Warranty and Registration


Retail package

As you can see that the package contains almost everything you need to get started.

Now let's take a look at the details on the retail box:


Box Front


Box Rear

 
Box Left and Right


Box Top

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:


Drive with Silver/Beige Bezel


Silver and Black bezels supplied with the drive

With the beige front panel, the drive tray has an appealing appearance with lines and contour in the bezel below the tray. In the middle of the bezel there is an emergency eject hole, to the right there is an LED indicator, and then at the far right is the eject button. On the drive tray from left to right we have a Compact Disc Ultra Speed ReWriteable logo, a sticker with Dual RW Drive '“ Double Layer '“ Dual Layer (beige panel only), SONY logo, DVD Multi Recorder logo and finally a DVD Alliance (DVD+R/RW) logo.

 
Bottom


Drive Sticker

On the bottom of the drive we found a sticker that shows it was made in China and has a production date of January 2006.


Top

The Sony DRU-820A uses BenQ's exclusive Dual Cooling System (DCS) features an Anti-Dust Cooling System (ADCS) and Air Flow Cooling System (AFCS) to effectively reduce the risk of over-heating during high-speed reading and writing. It is the same feature found in BenQ DW1640, DW1650/DW1655 and DW1670 families.


Drive Right


Drive Left

There are twelve square holes on the left side of the drive that supports the Dual Cooling System.

 
Rear


From left to right: digital audio connector;
analog audio connector; environment setup jumpers to set the drive to cable
select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector. Jumper
setting from the sample drive we received was set to Master.


 
Interior


In the middle of the interior (the rounded
shape) we found
an Air Flow Cooling System (AFCS) which
is part of BenQ's Dual Cooling System (DCS) features to effectively reduce the
risk of over-heating during high-speed reading and writing.



Panasonic chips


There are two Panasonic chips on the main
board: Panasonic MN103SA6GSJ '“ 546P5233 and Panasonic AN22115A -
536U1E15.

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features, program bundle and writing technology on the next page…


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