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CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Sony's new double layer DVD burner, the DRU-720A. Featuring some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available, the DRU-720A is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 4x DVD+R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Sony's new drive also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 24x rewriting speeds, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and an impressive software bundle from Nero.

In this review we'll take a look at the features found on the DRU-720A and then see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Is the DRU-720A the fastest DVD writer around? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=256]
Sony DRU-720A Double Layer 16x DVD±RW[/url]

If you have any questions or comments about the review or the Sony DRU-720A, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

For those that requested it.. I'm now using a 4.38GB image when doing DVD writing tests. Enjoy!

Hello!

Good review, Ian.

The Sony 720 is a rebadged Liteon Sohw 1673s, right?

I´m (again) disappointed with the reading speeds for DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW. No challenge for a Plextor.

And I have noticed that the writing time for DVD-R was higher than for DVD+R, although the average writing speed for DVD-R was a little higher.

And again no overspeeding, not even with TY-media.

Maybe better than the earlier Liteon´s but not good at all.

Scour wrote:The Sony 720 is a rebadged Liteon Sohw 1673s, right?

Yup. This drive seemed to be a little better than the 710A.. but its still got a ways to go before its "good".

I noticed that too about the DVD-R writing times. I'm not really sure why it did that. Extra long OPC tests?

Hi!

My 1653S take looong times for the leadin with some media, with a Sony DVD-R 8x @12x it needs sometimes ca. 1. Min 15 sec. The lead-in with other media isn´t so high, but higher than with my Pioneer. The Pioneer needs ca. 30 sec, a little more or less, dependent on the media

I wrote in an other thread that the writing time for DVD-R @12 take longer than a 8x-burn with my Pioneer MCC

I finally got around to reading the review. Nice work (as always ).
I found a "search and replace" remnant, though:

To test the DVD writing performance of the ND-3520A ...

Thank you for adding the burn speed to the captions of the scans - this avoids a lot of scrolling to see if the media was burned at rated or higher speeds.

The 16x DVD+R burns show a jitter/PIF peak at ca. 2 GiB on the BenQ scans, but not elsewhere. The Optodisc 16x -R burn also show this, but it's apparent in KProbe as well. This is a different location than the peaks in the ND-3520A were (ca. 2.3GiB) and only for 16x burns, so it looks like this is not obviously a BenQ-artifact.

Also, it's interesting that this drive seems to do better with "dash" media than "plus" media- not what we've come to expect from LiteOn based drives.

I'm a little confused about the DL tests- you show the transfer rate for a CD-Speed data disc and part of a Nero log (images 8221, 8222), both with ca. 26 min. elapsed time, but ca. an hour apart. Did you burn 2 discs or is there an option to simulate writing the data disc for DL-media in CD-Speed?

Also you say (regarding RiDATA's DVD+R DL discs)

The error rates were much higher on this media, especially when tested with the BenQ DW1620. Surprisingly enough, this didn't seem to have any effect on readability.

Could it be the reading speed that cause the incredible jitter and PIF values there (and to a lesser extent on the Verbatim)? Both LiteOn and Sony read at only 6x, but the BenQ charges in at 8x. Have you tried scanning that disc @6x on the BenQ?

G