Sony DRU-530A review

Editors' note: Sony released a February 2004 firmware upgrade for the DRU-530A that increases DVD-R recording speed to 8X (from 4X) and DVD-RW recording to 4X (from 2X). CNET tested the DRU-530A before the firmware became available, and our performance data and conclusions are based on the drive's original speeds. (3/24/04)

Sony's DRU-530A follows up on the company's hugely successful DRU-510A, which was the fastest and finest multiformat DVD drive around when it was released in June 2003, as well as the first one that wrote DVD+RW at 4X. The DRU-530A gives other formats a speed boost, pushing DVD+R writing to 8X, CD-R to 40X, and CD-RW to 24X, but it does so in the wake of Plextor's remarkable PX-708A which writes DVD+R at 8X--to 4X-rated media, no less--and CD-R/RW at 40X/24X. Although the DRU-530A is faster than its predecessor and is a decent burner overall, it writes slower than both TDK's Indi DVD 840G and Plextor's PX-708A, nor can it write DVD+R at 8X on less expensive 4X media. In short, the DRU-530A will serve you well, but not quite as well as the excellent competition. Physically installing the Sony DRU-530A is an uneventful procedure. Sony ships the drive with both an IDE cable and mounting screws; as with most other DVD rewriters we've tested, you simply insert the drive into an empty bay and attach the ribbon and the power cables.

Sony's multilingual quick-start guides lead you through the hardware and software installation process, but because each page details a step in 12 languages, the guide is difficult to scan quickly. The included software CD contains HTML manuals with instructions that are easier to understand.

Installing the DRU-530A's software bundle is just as straightforward, although a bit more tedious. The setup utility requires you to install each major application one at a time, an annoying process that forces you to stay in sight of the computer for 20 minutes or so. The utility automatically enters registration serial numbers, however, which slightly mitigates our displeasure.

The DRU-530A's setup utility gives you control over exactly which applications you want to install, but there's no option that allows you to load them all at once.

The DRU-530A features the same blue-accented, silver-and-white countenance as that of its predecessor. Unfortunately, just like the DRU-510A, the DRU-530A's front panel lacks both a headphone jack and a volume control, which is frustrating penny-pinching for a $250 product. On the upside, the drive's black-plastic media tray is quiet and sturdy, and the front panel sports the required power light, eject button, and emergency eject port. The back panel has the standard IDE and power connectors, digital and analog audio ports, and master/slave configuration jumpers, all of which are clearly marked so that you won't have to refer back to the setup guide.

Sony ships the DRU-530A with Sonic's software bundle, which includes the easy-to-use MyDVD 5.0 LE movie-authoring program, the simple-but-effective RecordNow CD/DVD mastering program, and DLA (Drive Letter Access) packet-writing software. Also bundled are CyberLink's top-rated PowerDVD 5.0 for DVD-movie playback and the ever-popular Musicmatch Jukebox for ripping, cataloging, and burning audio tracks.

Sonic's suite contains a solid set of entry-level tools for basic movie authoring and editing, burning audio CDs, and backing up data.

The big news here is that the DRU-530A is rated to write DVD+R at a scintillating 8X, but it also writes DVD-R and DVD+RW at 4X, DVD-RW at 2X, CD-R at 40X, and CD-RW at 24X; it reads DVD-ROM at 12X and CD-ROM at 40X. These speeds and feeds are all state-of-the-art but not unique.

The DRU-530A was competitive in most of our tests, drawing results largely in line with Plextor's PX-708A and TDK's Indi DVD 840G. However, it lagged in 8X DVD+R writing--the drive's raison d' être. Unlike most 8X drives that write the inner 20 percent of the disc at 6X, the DRU-530A writes the inner portion at only 4X, and that behavior hurt it significantly when writing our official 3.24GB test movie, which the bundled Sonic MyDVD LE software transcoded down to 813MB. When we increased the source file sizes so that the resulting transcoded movie was 3.17GB, performance improved to nearly 6MB per second--slower than the Plextor, but just as speedy as the TDK.

In our unofficial testing, the drive wrote an entire DVD movie in less than 10 minutes and ripped one in slightly more than 8 minutes, putting it back in the same ballpark as the Indi DVD 840G and the PX-708A. It also ripped and wrote audio CDs about as fast as the competition.

Movie-write test (megabytes per second)  (Longer bars indicate better performance) Write a movie to write-once media

Plextor PX-708A (8X DVD+R) * 6.22  TDK Indi DVD 840G (8X DVD+R) 5.90  Plextor PX-708A (4X DVD-R) 4.08  TDK Indi DVD 840G (4X DVD-R) 4.02  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD+R) 3.96  Sony DRU-530A (4X DVD-R) 3.48  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD-R) 3.15  Sony DRU-530A (8X DVD+R) N/A

Note: Compression rates vary depending on the drives' bundled software. * Plextor drive tested with 4X DVD+R media.

Data-write tests (megabytes per second)  (Longer bars indicate better performance) Write a 383MB file to rewritable media    Write a 500MB directory to rewritable media

TDK Indi DVD 840G (4X DVD+RW) 5.39  5.02  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD+RW) 5.21  5.25  Plextor PX-708A (4X DVD+RW) 5.20  4.17  Sony DRU-530A (4X DVD+RW) 5.08  4.19  TDK Indi DVD 840G (2X DVD-RW) 2.72  2.55  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD-RW) 2.64  2.61  Sony DRU-530A (2X DVD-RW) 2.62  2.64  Plextor PX-708A (2X DVD-RW) 2.53  2.52

Data-read tests (megabytes per second)  (Longer 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

TDK Indi DVD 840G (2X DVD-RW) 5.47  3.16  Sony DRU-530A (4X DVD+RW) 5.32  3.78  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD+RW) 5.28  3.80  Sony DRU-510A (4X DVD-RW) 5.26  3.16  Plextor PX-708A (4X DVD+RW) 4.93  5.03  TDK Indi DVD 840G (4X DVD+RW) 4.87  3.68  Plextor PX-708A (2X DVD-RW) 3.99  2.83  Sony DRU-530A (2X DVD-RW) 2.68  2.12

Unless otherwise mentioned, all write tests are run with Verbatim media, rated at the drive's maximum speed. Find out more about how we test optical drives. Sony offers the industry-standard one-year warranty on the DRU-530A, with toll-free telephone support available weekdays 6:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m PT.

Sony also recently launched a dedicated site for its CD and DVD burners. It's now easier to find basic specs and pricing information, but you'll still have to peruse a separate support site for tech help. Nevertheless, the online-support content includes a variety of well-written FAQs, plus technology white papers, software updates, PDF manuals, and firmware downloads.

We wish that the product pages on Sony's new CD- and DVD-burning site had model-specific support links.