Sony USA was kind enough to send us their latest 18x DVD Multi Drive: the Sony DRU-830A. Sony’s twelfth generation multi-format DVD burner now has the capability of burning DVD±R discs at up to amazing 18X speed, delivering a full 4.7GB DVD in about 5 minutes. Double/Dual layer discs are now both capable of 8X max recording, and DVD-RAM burning, with an eye towards data backup, is supported at 12X. You get blazing CD-R/RW recording too, eliminating the need for a separate CD burner. But speed is only part of the package; you also get flexibility - like a black replacement bezel for matching the drive to black colored PCs. A comprehensive Nero® 7 software suite rounds out the product, giving you a DVD burner like no other™!

In this article we will show the performance of the DRU-830A by running the drive through many tests on a considerable amount of various CD/DVD media.

Corporate Information:

We took a quick look at the company information found at Sony web pages:

Sony Corporation of America

Sony Corporation of America, based in New York City, is the U.S. subsidiary of Sony Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo. Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its music, motion picture, television, computer entertainment, and online businesses make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony's principal U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and a 50% interest in Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the largest recorded music companies in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $64 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, and it employs 158,500 people worldwide. Sony's consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006 were $16.7 billion.

Corporate Fact Sheet (August 2006):

• U.S. Businesses
• Sony Electronics Inc.
• Sony Entertainment Inc.
  • Sony Pictures Entertainment
  • SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (50% ownership)
  • Sony/ATV Music Publishing (50% ownership)
• Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
• Sony DADC and Sony Entertainment Distribution
• Sony Connect Inc.
• Sony Plaza Public Arcade and Sony Wonder Technology Lab (New York)
• Annual Sales / Sony Corporation Consolidated
• $64 billion (Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2006)
• Sales in the United States: $16.7 billion

Workforce

• 158,500 employees worldwide (Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2006)

U.S. R&D and Engineering Facilities

• San Jose, CA
• San Diego, CA
• Boulder, CO
• Park Ridge, NJ

Major Manufacturing Sites in North America

• Dothan, AL
• Pittsburgh, PA
• Pitman, NJ
• San Diego, CA 
• Terre Haute, IN 
• Tijuana, Mexicali and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

More About Sony

• A leading audio-visual electronics and information technology company in the U.S. and worldwide
• A leading motion picture and television production company in the U.S. and worldwide
• The co-developer of the CD, DVD, Super Audio CD and Blu-ray Disc
• The developer, manufacturer, and marketer of PlayStation®, PlayStation®2 and PlayStation® Portable game consoles
• The inventor of a wide range of consumer audio-visual products, such as the BRAVIA TVs, SXRD, FD Trinitron® WEGA® television, Mavica® digital camera, Digital8® Handycam® camcorder, Walkman® personal stereo, Hi-MD/Net MD MiniDisc player/recorder, and the Memory Stick®IC flash media. Also an innovator in IT products, including VAIO® personal computers, FD Trinitron® computer display and the 3.5-inch floppy disk; and professional products, highlighted by the HDCAM® 24-P, Digital Betacam® and DVCAM® VTR and camera formats
• A publicly held company, with shares listed on 16 stock exchanges worldwide, including Tokyo, New York, and London
• A company with 936 consolidated subsidiaries worldwide.
• As you can see Sony is a very large company with a long history. And now let’s take a look at the drive.

Drive Overview:

Sony DRU-830A internal DVD Multi drive now supports all available DVD formats including DVD±R/±RW, DVD±R Double/Dual Layer, and DVD-RAM. With up to 18x max DVD±R burning, the DRU-830A will deliver a fully recorded disc in about 5 minutes. Like previous Sony DVD burners, the DRU-830A is also an ultra high performance CD burner.

The drive comes bundled with a feature-rich software package suite from Nero for burning, authoring and editing home movies, creating digital scrapbooks, and backing up critical data.

Features and Benefits

• Burns DVD±R discs at 18X max using standard 16X media, capable of burning a full disc in about 5 minutes
• Burns 8.5GB DVD±R Double/Dual discs at 8X max. Double/Dual Layer discs capable of storing up to 4 hours of MPEG-2 Video on single sided disc with 2 recording layers. Recorded DVD±R Double/Dual Layer discs compatible with most consumer DVD players and DVD-ROM drives
• Burns standard 4.7GB DVD±R and DVD±RW Discs, DVD-RAM, and CD-R/RW too – One drive does it all!
• Maximum flexibility & compatibility – choose the optimal DVD recordable media for your project without sacrificing compatibility with your playback hardware
• Award winning Nero® software bundle for burning all your video, music, and data to DVD or CD
• Includes black replacement front bezel for matching the drive to a black PC case

Drive specifications:

Now let us take a look at the specifications of the Sony DRU-830A.

What’s inside the box?

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The drive we received was a retail package and comes with everything you need for quick and easy installation. The retail package includes the following items:

• The internal DRU-830A drive itself
• DRU-830A User's Guide (Operating Instructions)
• Quick-Start Guide
• Software Quick-Start Guide
• Software Disc Rev. 7.10W (includes: Nero Express 7, Nero Vision Express 4, Nero InCD 5, Nero BackItUp, Nero ShowTime, and many others.)
• Black replacement bezel and Front Panel Replacement Guide
• 4 Screws and emergency clip
• US Product Warranty and Registration

Retail package

As you can see that the package contains almost everything you need to get started.

Now let’s take a look at the details on the retail box:

Box Front

Box Rear

 
Box Left and Right

Box Top and Bottom

Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself:

Drive with Silver/Beige and Black bezel

On the drive tray from left to right we have a Compact Disc Ultra Speed ReWriteable logo, a sticker with Dual RW Drive – Double Layer – Dual Layer (beige panel only), SONY logo, DVD Multi Recorder logo and finally a DVD Alliance (DVD+R/RW) logo. On the bottom part there are an emergency eject hole, LED indicator, and then at the far right is the eject button.

 
Top

Drive Sticker

On the top of the drive we found a sticker that shows it was made in Indonesia and has a production date of August 2006.

Bottom

Drive Right

Drive Left

 
Rear

From left to right: digital audio connector; analog audio connector; environment setup jumpers to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector. Jumper setting from the sample drive we received was set to Master.

 
Interior

Mediatek MT1898E Chipset

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features, program bundle and writing technology on the next page…

Conclusion

Features & Technology