SONY DRU-530A DVD±RW recorder - Page 15

Conclusion

We were expecting a lot from this drive, much better performance and we were certainly expecting to see it rank among the best. Unfortunately this was not the case. While it can be regarded as a good drive, it certainly isn't much more than that. The reading speeds for CD/DVD were good and the seek times were acceptable for CD media although they could be better with DVD media.

The behavior with our Audio CD's during the error correction tests was a little strange. Although the "Check Audio Test Disc" CD was played flawlessly reading up to the 5th level (1,500mm scratch - something we have seen only from the best drives), the TCD-721R test disc produced some of the worst levels we have seen. The other TCD-726, which is a much easier test disc to read, while giving a good score, was not indicative of a top drive. All of our test DVD's played successfully on the drive without any errors to be reported. The drive simply ignored the defective areas on those discs.

With protected disc backups, the drive could not make SafeDisc v2.9 working backups (most recorders have problems with this version), although versions v2.8 and earlier are supported.The drive was in most instances fast with ripping the game titles we tried, apart from Safedisc protected titles.

DAE was also a bit of a disappointment, where we had expected the drive to be faster. Unfortunately the drive didn't manage to play/rip the CDS200 protected Audio CD.

From the writing tests we did, we generally saw good performance, with low recording times and the tests confirmed the manufacturers specifications. And while only achieving 94min overburning, this is quite acceptable.

As far as CD writing quality is concerned, from the measurements that we did with the various manufacturers media, it can be generally said that it is good, with low jitter values, although it did go over the limits especially at the higher speeds. The C1 levels were good, while there were no C2 errors reported.

With DVD recording, we would like the drive to be faster, since the 9:30 minutes at 8x is not the best we have experienced. In addition, the Sony's DVD writing quality is not very good with almost every media type we trailed. The PI/PO measurements revealed high levels.

The drive's price on the market is around $170~220. Maybe with a bit of searching you may be able to find lower prices. At this price however, we would say that it is one of the more expensive drives, especially when you consider that you can find something like the Optorite DD0401 which is pretty much the same drive, for a good deal less.

One final note, for anyone that does end up buying this drive, definitely upgrade the firmware.

* After upgrading the drive with the latest firmware, the recording speed for DVD-R media was increased from 4x to 8x. However there are compatibility issues that should be solved.