Sony DRU710A Double Layer DVD burner

Sixteen speed and a Double Layer boost keep Sony’s drive burning.
Sony’s DRU700A was the first Double Layer j / burner to land in the APC Labs (APC August 2004, page 45), and it impressed with its ability to churn out an 8.5GB disc at 2.4x.
Working up from there, Sony has released the DRU710A, though it’s not breaking any new ground this time. The drive supports single layer writing of DVD+R discs at 16x, completing a burn in five minutes and 47 seconds, a full minute faster than Pioneer’s DVR-A08 16x Constant Linear Velocity (CLV) drive (APCOctober 2004, page 52).
The Sony drive operates in Constant Angular Velocity (CAV) mode, beginning its burn at around 6x, and working up to its maximum rated 16x at the end of the recording. Although it’s marketed with DVD-R capabilities at 8x, Sony has made firmware available via its Web site to increase to 12x burning with DVD-R media. Re-writing for both DVD+RW and -RW takes place at 4x.
Double Layer burning gets a boost through Sony’s updated firmware, which enables the drive to churn out data at 4x, meaning the drive takes 26 minutes and 47 seconds to create a DL disc.
This is the new record breaker in the APC Labs, beating the Pioneer A08’s previous best by 15 seconds and the previous generation of Sony Double Layer drives by a full 15 minutes.
The drive supports CD-R writing at 48x and rewriting at 24x with appropriate media. Tests showed the drive can write a 700MB CD in two minutes and 53 seconds, averaging 32.34x over the length of the disc. DVD reading is supported at 16x for single and Double Layer media.
The drive is bundled with the solid Ahead Nero 6 OEM kit: NeroVision for encoding media files, Nero Media Player for playback, and InCD — a packet writing software for CD and DVD-RWs. A plain black faceplate, IDE cable, quick start guide and operating instructions complete the package.
The biggest problem facing buyers of 16x drives is the limited media available, with no guarantee they’ll work with a particular drive. Our 16x testing used Verbatim DVD+R 16x discs, and unlike some other 16x drives we’ve tested, no 8x media available to us could burn at 16x. Therefore it’s important that the buyer keep the drive up-to-date with the latest firmware.