Sony DRU-500AX review

The alphabet soup of competing DVD-recording formats is enough to make anyone's head spin. How do you know if the DVD disc you just burned will work with your home DVD player? And will it also run on your computer's DVD-ROM drive? With the Sony DRU-500AX internal DVD burner, you no longer have to worry. This remarkable drive is the first to support all four popular formats (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW). And while other newly arrived 4X DVD-RW and DVD+RW drives deliver better all-around performance, the DRU-500AX offers enough speed for most home users looking to burn home movies. It also packs a comprehensive software bundle and costs the same as less versatile drives. If you need a DVD burner with support for multiple formats, look no further than the DRU-500AX. Out of the box, the $350 Sony DRU-500AX looks sleek. Like most burners, it comes with an IDE cable, mounting screws, illustrated hardware and software quick-start guides, one 2.4X DVD+RW, and a software CD. You can get the burner up and running within minutes, provided you possess a basic understanding of your computer's innards and know how to use a Phillips screwdriver. If not, the CD contains an in-depth and helpful electronic user guide with step-by-step instructions. On the back of the drive, you'll find IDE, analog audio, and power connectors as well as jumper settings.

Because the DRU-500AX supports all four recordable formats, you won't have to choose one DVD-recording format over another. Instead, simply select the media most compatible with your existing DVD player and DVD-ROM drive, then start recording. Alas, while the drive works with PCs running Windows 98 SE, 2000, Me, and XP, it's not Mac compatible.

Not only does the DRU-500AX support all four recordable formats, it also does its job with amazing speed. It writes DVD-R and DVD+R media at 4X, DVD-RW media at 2X, CD-Rs at 24X, and CD-RWs at 10X. The DRU-500AX's DVD+RW media speed, however, remains at the industry-standard 2.4X. To prevent buffer-underrun errors, it features an 8MB buffer memory and Power-Burn technology, which matches the burning speed with the amount of data in the buffer.

RecordNow.

The DRU-500AX also comes with a generous list of software titles for all your recording-related needs. It includes Veritas RecordNow DX for mastering both writable and rewritable DVDs and CDs; Veritas DLA (Drive Letter Access) for packet writing; Veritas Simple Backup for backing up data; Sonic MyDVD, which turns your home movies into video DVDs; ArcSoft ShowBiz for video editing; MusicMatch Jukebox, which lets you play, record, and organize your music; and CyberLink PowerDVD 4.0 for DVD-movie playback.

MyDVD.

Because of this Sony's multiformat support, we had to run more tests on the DRU-500AX than on other DVD burners. In CNET Labs' tests, it burned our 3.24GB test movie (960MB after compression) to DVD-R in only 4 minutes, 49 seconds, or about 3.32MB per second. By comparison, the 4X Pioneer DVR-A05 took only 3 minutes, 28 seconds, or about 4.63MB per second. When we switched to 4X DVD+R media to burn the same movie, the Sony took 4 minutes, 17 seconds (about 4.09MB per second), a tad faster than the 4X CenDyne DVR-105.

In packet-writing tests, the DRU-500AX delivered mixed results. On the one hand, its DVD+RW performance rocked the chart. It recorded 500MB to DVD+RW in only 2 minutes, 34 seconds--outperforming all other 2.4X DVD+RW drives. On the other hand, its DVD-RW performance landed in the middle of the pack, between the 2X CenDyne and Pioneer drives.

Movie-write tests Rate, in megabytes per second, at which a movie is written to write-once media (longer bars indicate better performance)

Philips DVDRW228 (DVD+RW) 2.48  Sony DRU-500AX (DVD-RW) 3.32  CenDyne DVR-105 4X DVD recordable 3.96  Sony DRU-500AX (DVD+RW) 4.09  Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-RW 4.63  TDK 420N Indi DVD (DVD+RW) 4.95

 

Write tests Time in minutes (shorter bars indicate better performance) Write a 383MB file to rewritable media    Write a 500MB directory to rewritable media

Sony DRU-500AX (DVD+RW) 1.91  2.57  TDK 420N Indi DVD (DVD+RW) 1.98  2.76  Philips DVDRW228 (DVD+RW) 1.98  2.85  Sony DRU-500AX (DVD-RW) 2.41  3.26  Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-RW 2.36  3.67  CenDyne DVR-105 4X DVD recordable 3.23  4.27

 
The DRU-500AX also did very well with CDs. It burned a 43-minute audio CD in only 3 minutes, 2 seconds and recorded 400MB to a CD-RW in only 5 minutes, 29 seconds--comparable to most 40X CD burners.

Write tests Time, in minutes, to complete tasks (shorter bars indicate better performance) Audio burn to CD-R from image on hard drive (from 43 min., 11 sec. audio CD)    Packet writing from hard drive to CD-RW (400MB directory)

Sony DRU-500A (DVD+RW/-RW) 3.03  5.49  TDK 420N Indi DVD (DVD+RW) 3.26  5.87  Philips DVDRW228 (DVD+RW) 4.32  6.12  Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-RW 3.29  7.25  CenDyne DVR-105 4X DVD recordable 3.24  13.31

 
In read tests, however, the DRU-500AX performed more slowly than other high-speed burners. It took 1 minute, 53 seconds and 3 minutes, 8 seconds to copy a 383MB file and 500MB folder back onto the hard drive, respectively.

Read tests Time in minutes (shorter bars indicate better performance) Copy a 383MB file from rewritable media to the hard drive    Copy a 500MB directory from rewritable media to the hard drive

Philips DVDRW228 (DVD+RW) 0.76  2.59  CenDyne DVR-105 4X DVD recordable 0.90  2.80  TDK 420N Indi DVD (DVD+RW) 1.23  3.56  Sony DRU-500AX (DVD+RW) 1.89  3.13  Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD-RW 2.42  3.20

 
All write tests are run with both the drive's recommended media (submitted by the manufacturer) and with Verbatim media, rated at the drive's maximum speed.

Sony backs the DRU-500AX with a standard, one-year limited warranty. Toll-free tech support is available Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. PT, and Sony's Web site features a useful support library for PC storage, including manuals, drivers, software patches, FAQs, and e-mail support.

DRU-500AX support page.