Sony's first dual layer burner has an attractive price point and performs well, but consumers might want to wait for media to become more generally available. Read our Australian review.
Just as it was first to market with a combo plus and minus DVD burning drive, Sony's leading the charge into dual layer burning territory with the DRU-700A dual layer DVD burner. So what's all the fuss about dual layer, then? Up until now, DVD burners have, to date, utilised single layer discs that could store a maximum of 4.7GB of data -- a little over half the space of a commercially burnt DVD movie. Dual layer discs of the type that the DRU-700A (and its external case-wearing brother, the AU$549 DRU-700UL) can record to store up to 8.5GB of data. That's a solid chunk of movie time -- and inevitably a temptation to copyright infringement for some -- or a lot of data in just about any other format you'd care to name.
The DRU-700A's front panel is just about as simple as they come. The front of the DVD tray is moulded from a single piece of translucent plastic that visually you'll either love or hate. A rather small eject button sits on the bottom right hand side, and aside from a small activity light and an emergency release hole, that's all you get -- the unit lacks a volume control or headset socket, although the market for this drive is more likely to connect that type of equipment up to a dedicated sound card in any case. Installation of the DRU-700A is identical to every other burner out there; if you're nervous about such things you can check out our guide to installing DVD burners.
The DRU-700A burns CD-R media at 40x, CD-RW at 24x and DVD-/+R media at 8x, while rewriteable DVD+/-RW media both burn at 4x. That alone puts it in the top tier of burners along with drives like the Pioneer DVR-A07XL. Add in dual layer support, however, especially at the DRU-700A's appealing AU$349 price point, and the DRU-700A sits in a class of its own. At the moment, the only dual layer media it will burn is dual layer DVD+R media, which the DRU-700A writes to at 2.4x. It's also compatible with files burnt under the DVD+VR format, found on many consumer DVD recording decks, making it technically capable of reading and re-editing files recorded in that format.
On the software side, Sony provides a single application CD that focuses around Nero Burning Rom, albeit an OEM version of the software. Installation is your usual run through a visual wizard, and the package includes Nero Burning ROM 6 SE, NeroVision Express 2 for movie editing, Nero Media Player for audio ripping and media management, InCD4 for packet writing and EasyWrite Reader to install MRW/UDF support. If you don't need the packet writing support, a single button can install the three Nero packages with a minimum of fuss.
We hit one significant snag trying to perform large levels of testing with the DRU-700A. The snag in question was the near total lack of dual layer DVD+R media in the marketplace for us to test on. Burning a test collection of files totalling 6.7GB onto the single supplied piece of media took 38:19 to complete, indicating that the DRU-700A should in most circumstances be able to keep near its stated 2.4x writing speed on this type of media; that's a rough rate of 2.9MB a second in real testing compared to 3.3MB/sec stated speed. The DRU-700A handled our single layer DVD and CD writing without a fuss, but if you only wanted those features, cheaper burners are available in the market to cover that need.
There's one big problem with picking up the DRU-700A at the time of writing, and that's the severe lack of available 8.5GB media. The unit we tested came with a single piece of 8.5GB DVD+R DL media, and other than that you'll have to wait for dual layer media to hit market -- Sony's naturally got its own discs, which it expects will retail for AU$12.95, although at the time of writing they were largely unavailable for actual retail sale. Verbatim's announced that they'll have media available sometime in July, price unknown. In the meantime, though, anyone buying a DRU-700A will have to make do with single sided 4.7GB media. It's almost inevitable, however, that dual layer drives will replace single layer ones, and given Sony's incredibly aggressive pricing strategy for the DRU-700A, combined with the white-hot popularity of DVD burners at the time of writing, we suspect that'll be a remarkably quick process. While it's possible to get what appear to be grey market imports of other drives at the time of writing, in official terms it's a field that Sony alone owns right now. That won't be the case for very long at all, with manufacturers such as LG, Benq and NEC already shipping models overseas, and presumably looking towards these shores. At the moment, though, there's simply nothing to touch the DRU-700A.
Sony DRU-700A
Company: Sony Australia
Price: AU$349
Distributor: Selected resellers
Phone: 1300 137 669
1%
2%
steve Smith (Sales Rep)
world Link Inc
4 dragon road harrogate
Yorkshire England
postal code hg1 5db
tel:447031920704
link_communication11@yahoo.com
LATEST NEW YEAR OFFER ON GSM/PDA PHONES
WE ARE CERTIFIED WHOLESALERS OF VARIOUS GSM MOBILE PDA/PHONES AT VERY AFFORDABLE PRICES
ATTACH IS OUR VERY CURRENT PRICE LIST OF GSM PHONES FOR YOUR REFERENCE
ALL PHONES/PDA ARE BRAND NEW SIM FREE/OPEN LINES/UNLOCK
Latest Mobile phones Price offer
Brand New NOKIA Phones In Stock
================================
NOKIA N92 =200 USD
NOKIA N91 =1800 USD
NOKIA N90 =170 USD
Nokia 1100-- US$55
Nokia 2100-- US$45
Nokia 2300-- US$60
Nokia 3100-- US$65
Nokia 3108-- US$60
Nokia 3200-- US$75
Nokia 3230-- US$95
Nokia 3300 - US$85
Nokia 3310-- US$25
Nokia 3315-- US$29
Nokia 3330-- US$30
Nokia 3350-- US$35
Nokia 3410-- US$35
Nokia 3510-- US$40
Nokia 3510i-- US$45
Nokia 3530-- US$50
Nokia 3595-- US$45
Nokia 3610-- US$55
Nokia 3650-- US$185
Nokia 3660-- US$195
Nokia 5100-- US$65
Nokia 5140-- US$110
Nokia 5210-- US$40
Nokia 5510-- US$105
Nokia 5550-- US$50
Nokia 5170iR-- US$39
Nokia 6020-- US$130
Nokia 6670-- US$105
Nokia 6630-- US$175
Nokia 6100-- US$80
Nokia 6108-- US$90
Nokia 6220-- US$105
Nokia 6230-- US$110
Nokia 6260-- US$135
Nokia 6310-- US$69
Nokia 6310i-- US$70
Nokia 6500-- US$60
Nokia 6510-- US$60
Nokia 6600-- US$135
Nokia 6610-- US$80
Nokia 6630-- US$175
Nokia 6170-- US$145
Nokia 6650-- US$82
Nokia 6800-- US$105
Nokia 6820-- US$110
Nokia 7200-- US$185
Nokia 7210 Turquoise-- US$100
Nokia 7230-- US$120
Nokia 7250-- US$120
Nokia 7250i-- US$120
Nokia 7260-- US$135
Nokia 7280-- US$155
Nokia 7600-- US$165
Nokia 7610-- US$195
Nokia 7650-- US$160
Nokia 8250-- US$65
Nokia 8310-- US$90
Nokia 8910 Titanium-- US$160
Nokia 8910 Black-- US$165
Nokia 8910i-- US$185
Nokia 8890-- US$115
Nokia 8850 Special Edition-- US$105
Nokia 8850 Gold Edition-- US$110
Nokia 8855-- US$115
Nokia 9210 Communicator-- US$195
Nokia 9210i Communicator-- US$195
Nokia N-Gage-- US$110
Nokia 9500 (communicator)-- US$210
Sony Ericsson P800-- US$155
Sony Ericsson P900-- US$205
Sony Ericsson P910i-- US$210
Sony Ericsson T20e-- US$35
Sony Ericsson T20s-- US$39
Sony Ericsson T28s-- US$39
Sony Ericsson T28 World-- US$45
Sony Ericsson T29s-- US$49
Sony Ericsson T100-- US$30
Sony Ericsson T105-- US$35
Sony Ericsson T200-- US$45
Sony Ericsson T230-- US$55
Sony Ericsson T300-- US$55
Sony Ericsson T310-- US$50
Sony Ericsson T600-- US$69
Sony Ericsson T610-- US$130
Sony Ericsson T630-- US$135
Sony Ericsson T68i-- US$105
Sony Ericsson T68m-- US$110
Sony Ericsson Z200-- US$100
Sony Ericsson Z600-- US$170
Sony CMD-J5-- US$30
Sony CMD-Z7-- US$35
Sony CMD-J7-- US$40
Sony CMD-J6-- US$40
Sony CMD-Z5-- US$90
Sony CMD-MZ5-- US$155
Sony Ericsson R520m-- US$100
Sony Ericsson R380 World-- US$90
Sony Ericsson R380s-- US$105
Sony Ericsson R600-- US$35
Sony Ericsson S700-- US$175
Sony Ericsson K500i-- US$180
Sony Ericsson K700i-- US$189
Samsung SGH A200-- US$50
Samsung SGH A300-- US$40
Samsung SGH A500-- US$70
Samsung SGH A800-- US$70
Samsung SGH C100-- US$85
Samsung SGH E400-- US$125
Samsung SGH E600-- US$129
Samsung SGH E700-- US$130
Samsung SGH E715-- US$155
Samsung SGH-E810-- US$140
Samsung SGH-E820-- US$150
Samsung SGH-E800-- US$155
Samsung SGH-E850-- US$140
Samsung SGH D410-- US$150
Samsung SGH D500-- US$155
Samsung SGH P400-- US$135
Samsung SGH P510-- US$139
Samsung SGH N188-- US$110
Samsung SGH N288-- US$60
Samsung SGH N500-- US$60
Samsung SGH N620-- US$60
Samsung SGH M100-- US$45
Samsung SGH P400-- US$140
Samsung SGH P410-- US$145
Samsung SGH P500-- US$155
Samsung SGH Q105-- US$40
Samsung SGH Q300--- US$70
Samsung SGH R220-- US$30
Samsung SGH R225-- US$25
Samsung SGH S100-- US$90
Samsung SGH S200-- US$100