Sony DRU-500A

Choosing a DVD rewriter is confusing. Do you go for a DVD-RW drive, backed by the DVD Forum and supporting the highly compatible write-once DVD-R format? Or do you opt for the superior rewriting performance of DVD+RW, and hope that its write-once DVD+R format will match DVD-R for broad compatibility?

It's a tough call, and the only thing that is certain is that neither format looks like going away; even the blanks cost roughly the same.

The solution then is to have a drive which can support both formats, and we've tested Sony's DRU-500A, which is the very first model to offer this facility.

The DRU-500A can rewrite DVD-RW at two-speed and DVD+RW at 2.4-speed. DVD-Ram media is not supported for reading or writing.

Delving into these figures reveals some exceptional performances: typical DVD-RW and DVD-R writing speeds are doubled, while 24-speed CD-R performance is much higher than existing DVD writers - you must use specifically rated two-speed DVD-RW and four-speed DVD-R media to enjoy these speeds.

Sony supplies a single DVD+RW disc and a decent software bundle, although Nero would have been preferable to Veritas Record Now. Existing Nero owners will need to download the latest 5.5.9.14 version to support the drive.

In terms of packet writing, Veritas DLA will be supplied as a free download, but this wasn't available to test at the time of writing and, sadly, Mount Rainier for CD-RWs is not supported.

Sony has perked up the tray-loading mechanism with a silver fascia, but there's no headphone jack. An external model is also available for £323 ex VAT, with USB2 and Firewire interfaces, and powered by a separate AC adaptor.

We tested the internal drive by copying a 3,410MB DVD home movie onto all four DVD formats, each of which is recognised upon insertion.

Existing DVD-RW and DVD-R media are only rated at one- and two-speed respectively, resulting in times of 47 minutes, 37 seconds and 33 minutes, 13 seconds in our tests.

All DVD+RW media is rated at the full 2.4-speed and took 32 minutes, 12 seconds for +RW, and 31 minutes, 15 seconds for +R.

DVD-RW media takes around two minutes to quick-format, while DVD+RW media takes around 10 seconds.

In line with earlier tests, we found the rewritable DVD-RW and DVD+RW media could only be read on recent DVD-Rom drives and domestic players. The write-once DVD-R and DVD+R media behaved impeccably though, and could be read on every drive and player we tried.

On the downside, a trawl of the web reveals many early users of the DRU-500A have experienced problems with some branded media. Verbatim has stated that some of its two-speed DVD-R media can cause write errors on the Sony drive.

We had no problems with Pioneer DVD-RW or Sony DVD+RW media, but it's certainly worth checking before going for an expensive 10-pack.

Price-wise, the internal DRU-500A is competitive at £212 ex VAT, roughly the same as single-format drives from the likes of Pioneer and Philips, but we would expect the prices of these to fall.

In terms of performance the Sony is no slouch, and is one of the first to support new two-speed DVD-RW and four-speed DVD-R media.

Performance will always increase and prices fall, but the aspect that's held up the adoption of DVD rewriters has been the incompatibility fear, and the prospect of a format war.

As this market matures though, neither DVD-RW or DVD+RW has overtaken the other, and most users believe that both will co-exist long into the future.

With thisin mind, a drive which can read, write and rewrite both formats is the most sensible choice, and that leaves us with one conclusion: Sony's DRU-500A has to be the safest bet in DVD rewriting yet.

SPECS

• Recording, rewriting and reading speeds: 2x DVD-RW, 2.4x DVD+RW, 4x DVD-R, 8x DVD-Rom, 10x CD-RW, 24x CD-R, 32x CD-Rom
• Cav reading
• Sony's Power Burn Buffer under-run technology
• 8MB buffer
• Veritas Record Now DX, Veritas Drive Letter Access (DLA), Veritas Simple Backup, Sonic Solutions My DVD, Arcsoft Showbiz 1.2, Cyberlink Power DVD, Musicmatch Jukebox

DETAILS

Price: £249 (£212 ex VAT)

Contact: Sony 08705 424 424
www.sony-europe.com

See also:

Panasonic LF-D521

A recorder with support for DVD-RW.  30 May 2003

Archos DExDVD-RW

An external recordable DVD drive at a competitive price.  04 Apr 2003

AOpen RW5120A

The RW5120A is an attractive product with a good collection of utilities.  24 May 2002

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