Despite some petty penny-pinching on Sony's part, the DRU-510A establishes a new industry standard for burning performance and versatility.Sony won't give the competition a break. While other vendors are just beginning to serve up four-format DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/ RW drives, Sony has already released its second-generation DRU-501A, which is even speedier than its predecessor, the DRU-500A. This latest model not only writes DVD+R and DVD-R at 4X, it also rewrites DVD+RW at 4X--a market first and a major boon for the backup-minded. The DRU-510A's outstanding performance makes it the fastest, most versatile drive available, and a ZDNet Editors' Choice winner to boot. However, its convoluted, multilingual documentation and lack of a front-panel headphone jack, volume control and an audio-to-sound-card cable are irksome. We'd rather not see these niggling, cost-cutting measures on such a pricey product.
In light of the DRU-510A's outstanding performance and premium price tag, we were disappointed in the drive's out-of-box experience. The documentation's muddled multiple-languages-on-the-same-page format makes it difficult to locate information, and wading through a separate installation routine for each of the six bundled software packages is a real time-waster. On the plus side, Sony prints jumper and connector information on a label on top of the drive, so more experienced users can probably avoid the setup documentation altogether. Overall, it's not much harder to install the DRU-510A than any other internal drive; but Sony might do well to learn from TDK, which thoughtfully includes movies and more comprehensive instructions with its drives, making the process less daunting for newcomers.
Sony pinches pennies by omitting such niceties as an audio-to-sound-card cable and emergency-eject tool. Admittedly, software jukeboxes such as Winamp will play music across the IDE bus, and you can use a bent paper clip in place of an emergency-eject tool, but the DRU-510A isn't exactly bargain-bin material and should offer such amenities for its price. Sony includes an IDE cable and mounting screws, and the DRU-510A supports Windows 98 SE or later.
The DRU-510A performs so beautifully with both DVDs and CDs, it's bound to end up as the sole optical drive in many systems. That makes the absence of a headphone jack and volume control on the front panel of the drive all the more regrettable. Most PCs lack front-mounted headphone jacks, so many users still prefer plugging their headphones directly into the drive for listening to audio CDs. Minimalists may appreciate the drive's uncluttered front panel, which is home to a simple power/busy light, emergency-eject port and tray-eject button. But at the DRU-510A's price, Sony should have decked it out with an LCD panel and a track-advance button. Thankfully, the back panel has the full complement of IDE and power connectors, digital and analogue audio ports and drive jumpers.
Sony does not cut corners on the software bundle, however, which is as comprehensive as they come. You get three Veritas products: RecordNow DX, for mastering all types of optical media; Drive Letter Access, to handle packet-writing chores; and Simple Backup, for backing up and disaster recovery. You'll also appreciate the included copies of Sonic Solutions MyDVD for authoring DVD movies and video CDs, ArcSoft ShowBiz for video editing, CyberLink PowerDVD for DVD movie and video CD playback, and MusicMatch Jukebox for playing audio CDs.
The Sony DRU-510A is quite simply the fastest all-around DVD rewritable drive on the planet. It wrote our 500MB test directory to DVD+RW in only 95 seconds--42 seconds faster than the runner-up, Plextor's PX-504A. It also wrote data to erasable DVD+RWs faster than any DVD drive we've ever tested. It fell only seconds short of the TDK 440N Indi's fastest DVD+R movie-mastering time and is the third fastest drive we've tested when mastering an audio image to CD. The DRU-510A also proved a facile reader, posting times at, or near, the top of the chart in all of our tests.
All write tests are run with both the drive's recommended media (submitted by the manufacturer) and with Verbatim media, rated at the drive's maximum speed.
Sony typically offers solid online support, although the company's Web site loads slowly. Additionally, the support site forces you to navigate through a series of superfluous pages before you actually get to the DRU-510A's product FAQ. Once you do find the support area, however, there are helpful FAQs, manuals, drivers, software patches and email support.
The company backs the DRU-510A with a standard, one-year limited warranty. Technical support by phone is free for 90 days from the date of a customer's first call. After that, charges may apply for technical support, except for warranty-related service calls.
Sony DRU-510A
Company: Sony Australia
Price: AU$699
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 137 669
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