Sony has quietly announced its third-generation multiformat DVD drive, the DRU-510A. Unlike its competitors, this new drive is the first of its kind to write DVD+RW media at 4X.Back in September 2002, Sony announced the first multiformat DVD drive, the DRU-500A. Less than a year later, TDK, Verbatim, and Pioneer are bringing to market new multiformat drives with support for DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, as well as CD-R/-RW. Even Microsoft has announced that future versions of Windows will support all major formats.
But once again, Sony seems to be one step ahead of the competition. In April, the company announced its third-generation multiformat drive, the DRU-510A. Like the current multiformat drives coming onto the market, the DRU-510A writes DVD+R and DVD-R at 4X. However, the DRU-510A will be the first drive to burn DVD+RW at 4X. (Unfortunately, finalised 4X DVD+RW media won't be available until later this month at the earliest.) The speed for DVD-RW media remains at 2X, however. You can also burn CD-Rs at 24X and CD-RWs at 16X. The DRU-510A will available from Sony in June for AU$699.
Like its predecessors, the DRU-510A comes with a full complement of software. The bundle includes Veritas RecordNow DX for mastering discs, Veritas Simple Backup for backup and data recovery, Veritas DLA for packet-writing chores, Sonic MyDVD for DVD authoring, ArcSoft ShowBiz for video editing, CyberLink PowerDVD for DVD playback, and Musicmatch Jukebox for organising music.
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