Sony DRU-820A DVD Burner Review

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 16x, DVD+RW at 8x, and DVD-RW at 6x. In this part, we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

First, let us see how long of a time it needs to create a disc with Nero. We used Nero Burning Rom to set up a new UDF/ISO compilation containing 4482Mb (4.38GB) of data, and started the write process. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

The DVD+R disc was finished in 6 minutes and 20 second, while the DVD-R disc was finished in 6 minutes and 9 seconds, which are about the same time when testing with Nero CD-DVD Speed Create Data Disc.

The Sony DRU-820A is above average at DVD-R and DVD+R in respect to 16x writing speed.

Write quality:

You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers. So we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On, in this test we use a Lite-On SOHW-1693S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can’t be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures) set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan above shows the results from a pressed, Single Layer DVD-Video disc (Widow on the Hill).

This next scan shows the result from a pressed Double Layer DVD-Video disc (Monster in Law). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the error levels jump from the end of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs above are well within the standards.

If you want to look at the standards for yourself, download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org. Here is some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random errors:

A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.

Here we see that a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors and that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI errors.

But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything, but if you’re interested, look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher, giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:

‘If a row of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be ‘PI-uncorrectable“.”

In theory, an ECC block may in the worst case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:

‘In any ECC Block the number of PI-uncorrectable rows should not exceed 4.”  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1, the maximum error value should not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF’s.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc ‘“ but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a SONY DRU-820A DVD-Writer. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Easier explanation on how to read the test results.

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in KProbe reports?

Use this as a guideline for good discs:

• PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
• PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.

And as always: the lower is better.

Also look at the reading curve; if it looks clean with no dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibilty and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On SOHW-1693S drive with firmware KS0A along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-3540A with firmware 1.3 for our read-back tests.

Excellent quality with this media. Highly recommended!

The quality scan is very nice with smooth read-back curve.

The quality scan shows that the drive writes very well with this media. However, the read-back curve shows a minor problem at the end of the disk.

Unfortunately with this 16x media the drive only support writing at 8x speed! Nonetheless, the write quality is very good with a smooth read-back curve.

Again, this 16x rated media is only supported at 8x. The write quality is very good with smooth Transfer Rate test means that there is no read-back problem.

Once more, a 16x rated media supported only at 8x. The write quality is excellent though.

Although the write quality is excellent with no read-back problem, note that it was burned at 8x because of firmware limitation.

An excellent result, but this 16x certified media was burned at 8x only.

Now let us continue with testing 8x certified DVD+R media.

The Sony DRU-820A writes Taiyo Yuden excellent as expected. Highly recommended!

Excellent result with no read-back problem!

Excellent result and a smooth Transfer Rate test.

Very nicely written. Transfer graph is excellent.

Although we can see single spikes of 5 PIF, in general there is no problem with this media.

Another fine burn with smooth transfer graph!

DVD+ReWritable media:

The Sony DRU-820A supports writing to DVD+RW discs at maximum 8x speed.

Some PIF spikes at the end of the disc although read-back problem is smooth.

A little high in PIEs but PIFs very low.  Very good result and a perfect read-back curve.

Single PIF spikes of 5 but overall good result.

Single PIF spikes of 5 but overall good result with a nice read-back curve.

The result shows quite high PIF error although PI errors are within limits. The transfer rate test also shows a single drop at the end of the disc.

DVD+R/RW Summary:

Here’s the summary of DVD+R and DVD+RW media we have tested along with the resulting write quality:

We were quite surprised that many 16x DVD+R media can only be burned at 8x due to lack of firmware support. We are certain that this issue can be fixed in next firmware updates, however this is not as expected since these 16x media have been in the market for quite a while.

The write quality on DVD+RW media is good in general, but we would like to see some improvements for Verbatim 8x DVD+RW (MKM A03) as this media did very well on other drives.

On the next page you will find the DVD-R/RW writing results…