detail information

Positive:

• Comprehensive retail bundle and includes extra black bezel
• Feature-rich software package suite from Nero
• Supports CD-R/RW writing at 48x/32x
• Supports DVD±R/+R DL/-R DL writing at 16x/8x/6x
• Supports DVD-RAM read/write at 5x
• Supports read/write Mini DVD-R/+RW discs
• Drive has no riplock, very good and fast reader
• Reads DVD+/-R media at 16x and DVD+/-RW media at 12x
• Reads both pressed and recorded DL media at 12x
• Very fast CD-R write time
• Very good DVD+R and CD-R writing quality
• Can write DVD±R DL certified media at higher speed
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW/R9 DL
• A 'Two Sheep" writer
• Supports writing and reading 99 minutes CD-R media

Negative:

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points: Following our extensive tests we found that this drive is a good Multi DVD burner. The Sony DRU-820A is called 'Multi DVD Burner" since it supports recording on all available media formats including CD-R/RW, DVD±R/±RW, DVD±R Double/Dual Layer, and DVD-RAM.  It is packed with a comprehensive software suite from Nero which is worth the extra retail price. The documentation is also adequate and you will also get an extra black bezel to match your desktop case color.

When we first open the retail box, we were surprised that the drive looks like the legendary BenQ DW1640 and BenQ 1650/55 families. The Sony DRU-820A is indeed equipped with BenQ's exclusive Dual Cooling System (DCS) which features an Anti-Dust Cooling System and Air Flow Cooling System to reduce the risk of over-heating during high-speed reading and writing. The drive also supports transfer mode "Ultra DMA Mode 4" which provides higher data throughput and allowed to be placed in an external enclosure for high speed burning and reading without any slowdowns.

The Sony DRU-820A writes CD-R media extremely fast with excellent quality. CD-R and CD-RW media compatibility is also excellent, shown on all of our tested media the drive is capable to burn them at their rated speed. The drive also supports reading and writing special 99 minutes CD-R without any problem.

In general, DVD+R write quality is good and DVD-R media support is excellent, meaning that supports our DVD-R media at its rated speed. The drive has no riplock and can read DVD±R at 16x and DVD±RW/±DL at 12x speed. DVD-RAM was also very well planned and it supports writing at 5x. DVD-RAM reading is also very good and able to read our 3x media at speed 5x CLV.

In our DAE quality test it shows that the extracting quality is excellent. The Advanced Tests specify that the Sony drive can be categorized as a 'Two Sheep" writer, which implies that it should be sufficient for backing up copy protected discs.

The main negative points: There are some issues that we would like to mention and see them improved. The Sony DRU-820A reads CD-Audio and CD-RW at only 40x speed which is slower than other competitors that can read them at 48x speed. Also it does not support reading from Lead-in and Lead-out which will make it difficult to create perfect copies of CD-Audio. From the Advanced audio EAC test, the drive performed slowly in burst mode and secure mode.

DVD+R media compatibility is relatively poor, for the reason that some 16x rated DVD+R media are supported only at 8x: RICOHJPNR03, PHILIPSC16, OPTODISCR16, RITEKR04, and CMCMAGM01 to name a few. In the area of DVD-R, media support is very good; however writing quality is questionable as we notice that on some high speed (16x) dark rings appear on the data side of the disc meaning the firmware and writing strategies for the media are not optimized yet. We would like to mention that some DVD-R transfer tests show read-back problems at the end of the disc. Also at this moment there are no 12x writing strategies for 16x rated DVD±R media. These are something we are certain could be improved with a firmware update.

Improvements are also needed in the area of CD-RW write quality. The writing quality is poor showing the presence of C2 errors which are not wanted. Finally, a little drawback of Sony DRU-820A is the lack of overburning support for 4600MB DVD+R which might be useful for power users.

Final Thoughts: To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'The interesting Sony DRU-820A is a well designed Multi DVD Burner with a good overall performance." However, there are some areas which could be improved for greater performance.

By using our CD Freaks price grabber feature we found the retail Sony DRU-820A is listed at $79.99 (March 2006).

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

For providing the Verbatim media used in this review. Verbatim provides high quality media all over the world and strives to be the standard for DVD hardware reviewing.

 For providing the Memorex media used in this review. Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

 For providing the Maxell media used in this review. Maxell is one of the world's leading producers of optical and magnetic memory media.

Advanced Media/Ritek-USA for providing some of the RiDATA media used in this review. RiDATA is an official Ritek brand and thus you are guaranteed to get quality Ritek manufactured discs when buying RiData media.

 For providing the Optodisc media used in this review. Optodisc Technology Corporation excels at the manufacturing and selling of High-Density Optical Storage Media DVDs.