detail information

The specifications of Sony DRU-810A state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x with Turbo Boost activated (see page 2). Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Quality with CD-R discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of about 700Mb using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed (48x):

The drive took 3 minutes and 1 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other drives:

Few seconds behind most other 48x writers due to walking OPC feature.

• NU DHW-164 used 3 minutes and 12 seconds at 40x
• Philips DVDR16LS used 3 minutes and 26 seconds at 40x
• Samsung TS-E552U used 2 minutes and 52 seconds at 40x
• LG GSA-4163B used 3 minutes and 15 seconds at 40x
• Philips DVDR1640P used 3 minutes and 17 seconds at 40x
• NU DDW-082 used 3 minutes and 2 seconds at 40x
• Samsung TS-H552B used exactly 3 minutes at 40x         
• Plextor PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 6 different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data disc" function in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On LTR-40125S drive with firmware ZS0R and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive's error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive's error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best quality discs, or at least below 10.0 C1 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

In short, our analysis will be based on these guideline to determine the quality of the burned disc:

CD-R/RW quality scan guideline

And below are the obtained results:

Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R media with its average C1 errors of 1.64 goes in the 'best quality discs" category. Recommended!

Verbatim media '� manufactured by CMC Magnetics Corporation with its average C1 errors of 1.23 goes in the 'best quality discs" category. Also recommended.

Media made by Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of 0.97 it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category. Highly recommended!

This Fujifilm media goes into the category 'best quality discs" for its C1 average of 0.75. Recommended!

Staples media '� manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 4.78 it goes in the 'good discs" category.

Sony media '� This was not a good result: C1 errors are quite high although there are no C2 errors. The media refused to be written above 32x. Needs improvements.

Writing Quality with CD-RW discs:

Due to requests from our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media. Settings and testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for these tests are new and have not been written to before.

This was not a good result: C1 errors are high and C2 errors existed, thus it goes into the 'poor quality discs" category. Not quite as expected from a Verbatim brand.

This is even worse: C1 and C2 errors are quite elevated. However, this media writes badly and produces C2 errors on all drives so we cannot blame the fault on the Sony drive.

Same thing for this High Speed CD-RW, elevated C1 with some C2 appearance at the end of the disc. Poor media quality from Memorex.

Summary:

The Sony DRU-810A is an exceptional CD-R Writer that will write quality CD-R media with excellent results. Surprisingly the drive does not support its own Sony media very well, i.e. would only write at 32x speed with average write quality. The drive's performance is a lot different if we take a look at CD-RW part. On all CD-RW media we have tested, the writing quality is really poor. Sony should take a look at this area and improve support for CD-RW media in its next firmware upgrade.

But nevertheless, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media compatibility…

Introduction

DVD+R/RW Writing performance