Sony DRU-800A 16x DVD±RW

Model: Sony DRU-800A 16x DVD±RW
Manufacturer: Sony Electronics
Provided By: Sony America

Sony has been a leader in the consumer electronics industry for as long as I can remember. For more than 50 years they've lead the way, becoming one of the world's leading electronics manufacturers. While best known for their innovative audio and video products, Sony is also a major player in the optical storage market. From the development of the first compact disc standards to the introduction of the first dual format DVD writer, Sony has had a large impact on much of the technology used today.

Since the introduction of their first dual format DVD writer, Sony has continued to develop drives with new features and faster reading and writing speeds. The latest addition to Sony's already impressive line of DVD writers is the DRU-800A. Announced this spring, the DRU-800A offers some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available. The drive is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. More importantly, it's the first drive from Sony with the ability to write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 4x. The DRU-800A 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.

With features and specs like this, it's hard not to be impressed by Sony's new DVD writer. But as you all know by now, we're not ones to take things like this at face value. In this review, we'll take an in-depth look at the DRU-800A's features and then see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does Sony's new DVD writer have what it takes? Read on as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Sony DRU-800A 16x DVD±RW Drive
• Sony Software Disc v6.00W
• Product Information Guide
• Quick Start Guide (for ATAPI (EIDE) Interface Drive)
• Software Quick Start Guide
• Front Panel Replacement Guide
• Black Replacement Bezel
• IDE Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information
• Connect Cash Card (10 Song Downloads)

Physical Features:

The drive Sony sent us for this review was manufactured in January of 2005 and had firmware KY01.At the time of this review, this is the only firmware officially available for the DRU-800A.

At first glace, the DRU-800A looks a lot like Sony's previous 16x DVD±RW drives, the DRU-710A and DRU-720A. While there are a few slight cosmetic differences, all three drives share the same basic design, including the silver colored tray. The DRU-800A also has many of the same logos. Along with the Sony logo, you can see a few showing support for the DVD-R/RW and DVD+ReWritable formats. The obvious difference between the DRU-800A and its predecessors is the large Double Layer/Dual Layer indicating that it supports both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media.

Below the tray you can see the DRU-800A's single LED. It lights up green when the drive is both reading and writing.

Sony's new DVD writer also comes with a black replacement bezel. Less flashy than the white and silver bezel, it is similar to the ones found on some of Lite-On's drives.

The rear of the DRU-800A looks very similar to some of the other Lite-On based drives we've reviewed. Looking at the picture below, you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Sony's website and the documentation that came along with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Sony's new DVD writer is identified as a "SONY DVD RW DRU-800A."

Nero also shows that the DRU-800A has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Sony's Power-Burn buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DRU-800A can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.

Like most Lite-On based drives, the DRU-800A can do EFM encoding correctly. Using CloneCD version 4.2.0.2 with AWS disabled, Iwas able to reproduce older SafeDisc 2 protected titles like Max Payne along with some of the newer ones protected by SafeDisc 2.51 like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the DRU-800A's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the DRU-800A is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DRU-800A's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of its reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that Sony's new drive can read and write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media.

The DRU-800A also supports a feature called "bitsetting." While the drive automatically sets the book type of DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM", you can manually do the same with single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media using Nero, CD Speed or Lite-On's BookType Utility. This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

The DRU-800A's software bundle is very similar to what Sony has included with their previous DVD writers. The CD that comes with the drive contains a number of applications from Nero including Nero Burning Rom SE, NeroVision Express 3, Nero Recode 2, Nero ShowTime 2,InCD 4 and BackItUp.

Nero Burning Rom SE - Nero is the main CD/DVD mastering program included with the DRU-800A. This robust software lets users do a number of things including create various types of CD's and DVD's or make copies of existing discs. Even though Nero can do some very advanced disc mastering, it also includes a wizard that will get novices going in no time.

As you can see, the version of Nero Burning Rom included with Sony's new DVD±RW drive is 6.6.0.8. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Express 6 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. While the interface has been simplified, Nero Express still supports more advanced features like VCD and DVD creation, CD/DVD duplication, overburning, CD-Text and realtime audio filters

NeroVision Express 3 - NeroVision Express 3 is the latest version of Nero's video authoring application. Using a user friendly interface very similar to that of Nero Express, NeroVision Express makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

NeroVision Express also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows.

Nero Recode 2 - This new program from Nero can copy unprotected DVD videos onto recordable DVD media. If the source disc is larger than 4.7GB, Nero Recode 2 has the ability to remove unwanted material and compress the contents so that it will fit onto a single blank DVD disc.

Nero Recode 2 will also let you convert your DVD movies to Nero Digital. Using Nero's own MPEG-4 audio and video encoder, an entire DVD movie can be compressed so that it will fit onto a CD. Better yet, Nero Recode 2 does this without any loss of quality.

Nero BackItUp - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This new program from Ahead Software lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard disc, image recorderor another computer on your LAN.

Nero ShowTime 2 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG or AVI files you might have on your hard drive.

Nero Media Player - Nero Media Player features on-the-fly encoding of audio CD's to MP3, HE-AAC, TwinVQ, WMA, and WAV format.The MP3 encoder uses the latest audio codec technology from Fraunhofer.While most of the plugins are unrestricted, the MP3 encoder included with this version of the program is limited to only 30 audio tracks.If you need to encode more you will probably want to upgrade to Nero's NeroMIX.

InCD 4 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

Like Sony's previous DVD writers, the DRU-800A definitely isn't short on features. The drive supports most CD and DVD formats and offers some pretty impressive specs. The DRU-800A is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. More importantly, it's the first drive from Sony with the ability to write to both DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. The DRU-800A also includes features like a 2MB buffer, Power-Burn buffer underrun protection and support for bitsetting. Sony tops all this off with a great software bundle from Nero. With all this it's easy to see why the DRU-800A gets a 9 out of 10 for its features.

Installing the DRU-800A in our test computer took only a couple of minutes. After taking Sony's new DVD writer out of the box, I left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 66. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

Sony's new DVD writer comes with a software CD containing a number of different applications from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu shown below will appear when you insert the disc. As you can see, the software and documentation is available in a number of different languages.

After selecting your preferred language, you'll be given a short list of options. From here you can choose to install the software, check out the manual or visit Sony's user support web page.

Clicking on "Application Install" will bring up the menu pictured below. From here you can install Nero,NeroVision Express 3, Nero Media Player, InCD 4, or the InCD Reader. You can install each component individually, or everything but InCD in one shot. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

In case you run into trouble and need some help, Sony has included a small "Software Quick Start Guide." The guide includes some brief instructions on how to install and use the bundled software.Because the guide is fairly small, these sections only go over the basic features of each application. If you need to go beyond the basics, additional documentation can be accessed through Nero's SmartStart launcher.

Documentation:

As with Sony's previous DVD writers, the DRU-800A's documentation is spread out between a number of small, fold out "guides." To help people get their drive up and running as quickly as possible, Sony has included a "Quick Start Guide."This guide takes the user step by step through the entire installation process and covers all the basics including how to set the jumpers, install the drive into an empty drive bay and hook up the cables. If you're not sure whether the drive should be set up as a master or slave, it also has a few example configurations along with their corresponding jumper settings.

Sony's new DVD writer also comes with a set of "Operating Instructions." The first section of this guide contains information on the DRU-800A's package contents, features and system requirements. It also goes over the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive. Everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are explained very well. The guide continues on by going over the physical installation of the drive. The instructions and diagrams are very similar to the ones found in the Quick Start Guide. The guide finishes up by going over the basic operation of the DRU-800A. This section covers a number of topics including the importance of enabling DMA, region codes and compatible discs. If you need additional help, Sony's support website has a number of resources includingFAQ's, guides and software updates.

Like the other Sony drives we've reviewed, the DRU-800Awas very easy to install. If for some reason you do run into trouble, the various guides contain a lot of useful information about the drive and software. As in the past, my only concern is that with the information spread out the way it is, it can be hard to find what you're looking for. Even then, the DRU-800A scores a 9 out of 10 for the installation portion of this review.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v3.80 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v3.80 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Sonys new DVD writer performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. It started out a little slow in the transfer rate tests, but quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of about 43.5x (6520 / 150). While this helped give the DRU-800A an impressive overall score, its access time was not as low as some of the other drives.

CD Speed v3.80 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

Turbo Boost On

Turbo Boost Off

	Sony DRU-800A	Lite-On SOHW-1673S	ASUS DRW-1608P	Plextor PX-716A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.37x 20.74x 48.10x	36.40x 21.17x 48.16x	31.31x 18.15x 41.41x	35.46x 20.50x 46.90x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	125ms 141ms 216ms	120ms 129ms 212ms	101ms 113ms 189ms	102ms 120ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 2% 4% 7%	1% 2% 4% 8%	0% 1% 2% 4%	0% 1% 2% 3%

While Sony's new DVD writer reads pressed discs at 40x by default, its maximum read speed can be "boosted" to 48x by holding down the eject button for about three seconds. As you can see, the DRU-800A had no problems reaching this speed in our tests. Unfortunately, its seek times were also a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v3.80 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The DRU-800A was a little faster when reading CD-R media. While this wasn't enough to top the drive from Lite-On, it was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of more than 49x. Unfortunately, its seek times were again a little high.

Sony's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The drive read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 53.01x!

CD Speed v3.80 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

The DRU-800A wasn't nearly as fast when reading CD-RW media. Even with the Turbo Boost enabled, it reached a maximum transfer rate of only 31x.

CD DAE and CD Speed v3.80 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that the Sony DRU-800A supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

Turbo Boost On


Turbo Boost Off

CD Speed	Sony DRU-800A	Lite-On SOHW-1673S	ASUS DRW-1608P	Plextor PX-716A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.75x 21.32x 48.58x 10 Yes	36.75x 21.44x 48.57x 10 Yes	30.68x 17.94x 32.64x 10 Yes	31.45x 18.20x 41.55x 10 Yes

The DRU-800A performed very well in our DAE tests. With its Turbo Boost enabled, the drive had no problems reaching a maximum DAE speed of 48.58x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While Sony's new DVD writer started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v3.80 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The DRU-800A was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. While the drive still performed well, it wasn't able to reach 48x this time around. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Sony's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.60x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. In the advanced tests, the DRU-800A was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well Sony's new drive can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The DRU-800A did pretty well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 60.63% of the CD to be "damaged." On top of that, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

Sony's new DVD writer gave some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was very low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.90:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.\

Turbo Boost Off

By default, the DRU-800A has a maximum writing speed of 40x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive starts writing at 18.86x and smoothly accelerates, reaching a maximum speed of 42.56x at the end of the session.

Turbo Boost On

With the Turbo Boost enabled, the DRU-800A's rotation speed is increased, allowing it to start writing at about 21.68x. From there, the drive accelerates, reaching a maximum writing speed of 48.83x at the end of the session. This gave the Sony's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 36.98x.

To test the DRU-800A's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

Sony's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the DRU-800A was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:38, beating the DRW-1608P by about 32 seconds.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (Ritek)

Verbatim 52x

The DRU-800A's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the DRU-800A uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 13 minute mark.

Sony's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. The DRU-800A took 2:54 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:39 to do the same with DLA.

The DRU-800A also erases at 24x. While it didn't have the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in 4:17.

Nero CD Speed v3.80 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The DVD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The DRU-800A performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.54x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.23x. While this wasn't enough to take the top spot in our transfer rate tests, its seek times were pretty good.

Nero CD Speed v3.80 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disk using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Sony's new drive wasn't nearly as fast when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In both cases, the DRU-800A reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.1x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

According to Sony's specs, the DRU-800A can read dual layer DVD-R media at 6x. While it came close, the drive wasn't able to reach this speed in our tests.

Nero CD Speed v3.80 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disk using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The DRU-800A was slightly faster when reading DVD+R and DVD+RW media. This time around, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.3x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The DRU-800A had no problems reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media. Unfortunately, it was not as fast as some of the other drives we've looked at. In our tests, it started reading at 2.39x and reached a maximum transfer speed of only 5.73x.

Nero CD Speed v3.80 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The DRU-800a reached a maximum speed of 16.07x when reading single layer DVD videos. While not as fast as the drives from Lite-On and Plextor, this is still very good. Sony's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 8.24x.

To see how well the DRU-800A worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12 andDLA 4.90:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, Memorex 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Verbatim 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the DRU-800A uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 6.67x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The DRU-800A also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

Sony's new drive performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R discs at 16x, it turned in some very good times with DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

Sony doesn't really say whether or not the DRU-800A can write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x. To see if the drive had this capability, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1633S (firmware BS0S) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1620. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1620 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back with a Lite-On XJ-HD166S. By default, this DVD-ROM drive reads recordable media at only 8x. However, thanks to a firmware patched by The Dangerous Brothers, I was able to boost the drive's read speed to 12x. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

When tested with KProbe, the DRU-800A's writing quality appears to be pretty good. With the exception of Optodisc's 16x DVD+R media, the error rates remained fairly low. Unfortunately, the results weren't nearly as good when scanned with the BenQ DW1620. Looking at the CD Speed screenshots, you can see that the PI/PIF rates were considerably higher, especially with the discs recorded at 16x.

The DRU-800A's writing quality wasn't much better with DVD-R discs. The 8x DVD-R media from Maxell and Taiyo Yuden yielded some fairly good results. However, when tested with the BenQ DW1620, the PI/PIF rates were considerably higher on the other discs.

To test the DRU-800A's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.90. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

The DRU-800A performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. The drive turned in some very good writing times with both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. However, it was not nearly as fast as the PX-716A when reading back our test data.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.12:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DRU-800A, I used Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, RiDATA 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

According to Sony, the DRU-800A writes to DVD+R DL media at 4x. Using CD Speed we can see that aside from the slight dip at the layer change, the drive writes at this speed from start to finish.

Sony's new drive had no problems writing to Verbatim's DVD+R DL media at 4x. Unfortunately, RiDATA's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

While Sony's new DVD writer was no match for the PX-716A and DRW-1608P, it had no problems holding its own against the SOHW-1673S. In our tests, the DRU-800A took a respectable 26:23 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The DRU-800A's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's DVD+R DL media. Aside from a slight spike at the layer change, the PI/PIF rates remained fairly low from start to finish. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with RiDATA's DVD+R DL media. The error rates were much higher this time around, especially when tested with the BenQ DW1620. Surprisingly enough, this didn't seem to have any effect on readability.

The DRU-800A is the first drive from Sony with the ability to write to DVD-R DL media. To test its writing times, Verbatim's new 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

As you can see, Sony's new drive had no problems writing to Verbatim's DVD-R DL media at 4x. Aside from the slight dip at the layer change, the drive wrote to it at 4x from start to finish.

With its 4x writing speed, the DRU-800A wasn't nearly as fast as the drives from ASUS and Plextor. In our tests, it took Sony's new drive 27:27 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

Normally, when testing with KProbe I use a Lite-On SOHW-1633S. Unfortunately, this drive has some problems reading DVD-R DL media. To get around this problem, I tested the writing quality using Lite-On's newer 16x DVD±RW, the SOHW-1673S.

The DRU-800A's writing quality was pretty good here. The PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed and aside from a few small dips in the transfer rate graphs, there were no readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

Overall, the performance of Sony's new DVD+RW drive was pretty mixed. The DRU-800A held its own relatively well when writing to DVD±R and DVD±RW media. However, there were a number of cases where the writing quality could have been better. When it came to reading DVD's, the DRU-800Awas able to read single layer data DVD's at 16x and most recordable media at 8x, but slowed to 5.7x when reading DVD±R DL discs.

The DRU-800A also did pretty well in our CD read tests. With the Turbo Boost enabled, the drive was able to reach some pretty impressive transfer speeds with pressed and CD-R media. However, the seek times were occasionally a little high.. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the DRU-800A either. The drive turned in some very impressive times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the Sony DRU-800A gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

I have to admit that reviewing the DRU-800A gave me a certain sense of déjà vu. Aside from its support for the DVD-R DL format, the drive is very similar to Sony's previous 16x DVD writer, the DRU-720A. This is a mixed blessing though, as while the DRU-800A offers a good number of features and some pretty impressive specs, it also exhibited many of the same shortcomings as the DRU-720A.

Like most of the DVD writers we've looked at lately, the DRU-800A can write to both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x. At this speed it took the drive a little more than 6 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD.Sony's new DVD writer also performed pretty well in our rewriting tests, turning in some impressive times with both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. Writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media wasn't a problem for the DRU-800A either. While not as fast as the drives from ASUS and Plextor, it was able to write an entire 8.5GB DVD in about 27 minutes.

When it came to media compatibility and writing quality, the DRU-800A gave us some mixed results. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speeds. However, like Sony's previous 16x DVD writers, it was not able to write to any 8x DVD±R discs at 16x. Of course, this is becoming less of an issue as more 16x media becomes available. A bigger concern was the DRU-800A's writing quality. While the results were acceptable at slower speeds, the PI/PIF rates increased considerably when writing at 16x. Hopefully, Sony can fix this in a future firmware update.

Sony's new drive did pretty well in our DVD read tests. The DRU-800A was able to read both single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some relatively good seek times. It also read DVD±R and DVD±RW media at a respectable 8x, but slowed to only 5.7x when reading DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs.

Reading and writing CD's wasn't a problem for the DRU-800A either. With its Turbo Boost enabled, the drive had no problems reading pressed and CD-R media at 48x and read CD-RW discs at 31x. Sony's new DVD writer also did extremely well in our DAE tests, reaching speeds as high as 48x. This level of performance carried over to our writing and rewriting tests. The DRU-800A turned in some impressive times thanks to its 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds, and its writing quality was quite good.

The DRU-800A wouldn't be complete without a longlist of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the drive has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Sony's Power Burn technology. While this buffer is a little smaller than what we'd like to see on a 16x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The DRU-800A also has a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from as well as the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. To top it off, Sony has included some pretty good documentation, a software bundle from Nero and a black replacement bezel.

Sony's new DVD writer is shipping now and can be purchased through some of the vendors listed on Pricegrabber.Prices vary depending on the seller, but the retail version of the DRU-800A can be picked up for as little as $110.

Editor's Note: Sony is currently offering a $30 rebate on the DRU-800A. This offer expires 9/01/2005 so take advantage of it now.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL media at 4x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW mediaat 8x
• Good transfer speeds with pressed and CD-R media
• Features 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Excellent DAE speeds
• Good CD writing quality
• Features Sony's Power-Burn technology
• Supports 99 minute media
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Includes software from Nero
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes extra bezel
• Nice looking design

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R media
• Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD-R DL and DVD+R DL media at only 5.7x
• Reads CD-RW media at only 32x
• Has a 2048KB buffer
• Doesn't support the Mt. Rainier format