X-bit labs

Sony DRX-800UL External DVD Burner Review (page 2)

Category: Storage

by Andrey Kuznetcov

[ 09/15/2005 | 01:20 PM ]

There is a Power On button, a power connector and three interface ports on the back side of the drive case. Two of these interface ports are i.LINK (FireWire) and differ only by the number of pins (4 and 6), and the third port is a more common USB 2.0. The drive is powered via the external power supply unit.

The case doesn’t have any ventilation slits or grids. On the one hand, it is an indisputable advantage, because less dust will get inside through the ventilation holes. But on the other hand, it may result into excessive overheating of the drive during heavy workload and if the environmental temperature is high enough (in summer, for instance).

According to the technical specifications of the drive, it can read DVD discs at 16x speed and CD discs at 48x speed. As for the last parameter, I have to stress that you can only achieve this reading speed if you use Turbo Boost mode. Usually, Sony sets the default CD discs read speed for its drives at 40x. The reasons for that are quite natural, actually: this read speed is more than enough for comfortable work in most cases, and if you want to read CDs at 48x you have to put up with high level of noise and higher drive temperature. If you are ready to sacrifice that for the sake of faster CD read speed, you have to power the drive on, load the disc, and then press and hold the tray control button on the right-hand side of the drive until you see the status LED blink twice. It will take about 5 seconds. Note that you can have your drive read discs at 48x only with CD-ROM, CD-R and CD-DA (DAE) media, while for CD-RW the maximum read speed will be 32x. The same is true for the DVD discs: the maximum DVD read speed of 16x can only be achieved for single-layer DVD+R/-R and DVD+RW/-RW. The DVD-Video and dual-layer DVD+R/-R can be read at the maximum speed of 6x.

The write speed also differs depending on the type of the discs you use. For single-layer DVD-R and DVD+R writing is performed at 16x, and for dual-layer discs of the same type it is limited by 4x. If you use DVD-RW discs the write speed will equal 6x, and in case of DVD+RW discs – 8x. The dual-layer DVD+R discs can be burned at 4x. CD-R discs burning speed is 48x, and for CD-RW this number is 24x. The drive’s buffer is 2MB big.

The drive supports IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0 interfaces. The drive’s burning quality is ensured by Buffer underrun error protection technology. Also, Power Burn innovation contributes to it, too. The DVD discs access time equals 135ms, and for CD discs this number is 140ms. The dimensions of the drive are 52mm x 164mm x 234mm, and it weighs 1.5kg.

The optical burner is bundled with a CD disc with all the necessary software, a PSU with all the corresponding cables (European and USA set), transparent plastic vertical stand, a USB cable, a IEEE 1394 cable, user’s guide and quick installation guide, and a warranty coupon.

The retail price of this solution rests around $145.