Sony DRU-820A DVD Burner Review

Reading performance:

For these tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• DVD-ROM : 16x
• CD-R/ROM : 48x (with Turbo Boost activated. Without Turbo Boost 40x. See Turbo Boost Function on page 2.)

Pressed discs:

For this test we used an original pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Pinnacle Studio Version 9 that is about 77 minutes in length. First we will test the drive without Turbo Boost:

By default, the Turbo Boost function is deactivated. The Sony DRU-820A reached 39.77x. Now we will activate Turbo Boost and check its reading performance:

The Turbo Boost function saved 26 seconds when activated. The Sony DRU-820A almost reaches 48x, and will reach faster speed on a full disc. Let’s compare the result with other drives performance in the table below:

The Sony DRU-820A is among the faster drives and seek times are low reading pressed CD-ROM.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we used a Data CD-R that was made using Nero CD-DVD Speed ‘create data disc”. The disc we used was a Fujifilm 48x certified CD-R disc manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

The Sony DRU-820A reached 48x when reading a full CD-R disc. Now let us compare the result to some other drives:

The Sony DRU-820A is among the fastest drive and seek times are low on the CD-R discs.

CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made a Data CD with Nero CD-DVD Speed ‘create data disc”. This time we used a Memorex Ultra Speed (24X) CD-RW disc made by Infodisc Technology Co., Ltd.

The drive reads CD-RW discs at 40x speed. Check how this compares to other drives below.

The Sony DRU-820A is among the faster drives in reading CD-RW, although still slower than the other drives that can reach 48x. Seek times are low.

Audio ‘“ Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Sony DRU-820A, again we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is 76 minutes in length (76:04.45).

The Sony DRU-820A reached 40x reading Audio-CD (as per specifications). Now let us compare the result with other drives:

The Sony DRU-820A performed below average on the Audio-CD with high seek times.

Advanced audio ‘“ EAC test:

For this test we used EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to test the drive’s audio extraction performance. As we can see from the screenshot below the drive supports accurate stream and C2 error information.

Below is the results produced by EAC:

Burst mode

Secure mode

The drive did not performed well in burst mode and even slower in secure mode.

Advanced audio ‘“ DAE quality test:

For this test we used the ‘Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The CD-R media we used is a 40x certified Memorex Music CD-R made by Ritek. (Thanks to Memorex USA for sending us this media.)

The extracting quality is excellent and the drive performed well with this test.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

DVD ‘“ DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD-Video Single Layer

 
DVD-Video Double Layer

The Sony DRU-820A is not riplocked and reads a pressed DVD-Video at up to 16x for a Single Layer disc, and at up to 12x for a Double Layer disc. This makes the Sony DRU-820A a fast DVD-Video ripper.

The Sony DRU-820A performed very well with our DVD-Video Single Layer and Double Layer read tests.

DVD ‘“ DVD+R(W):

For this test we used a Verbatim 16x DVD+R and a Verbatim 8x DVD+RW with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this media.) Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The drive is unlocked and reads DVD+R disc at 16x speed and the DVD+RW disc at 12x speed. Now let us see how it will perform on DVD-R/RW.

DVD ‘“ DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this media.) Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs. The drive reads DVD-R disc at 16x speed and the DVD-RW disc at 12x speed.

The drive is a fast DVD-R and DVD-RW readers.

DVD ‘“ DVD±R DL:

For this test we used a Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL disc and a Ridata 6X DVD-R DL disc filled with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Verbatim USA and Advanced Media/Ridata for sending us these media.) Our test results are found below:

DVD+R DL

 
DVD-R DL

Again the drive is unlocked and reads DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL at 12x speed.

DVD ‘“ Mini DVD+RW:

For this test we used a Memorex 4x DVD+RW filled with 1.36GB of data. (Thanks to Memorex USA for sending us this media.) Our test results are found below:

Mini DVD+RW

The Sony DRU-820A reads Mini DVD+RW in 2:43 minutes without any problem.

DVD ‘“ Mini DVD-R:

For this test we used a Memorex 4x DVD-R filled with 1.36GB of data. (Thanks to Memorex USA for sending us this media.) Our test results are found below:

Mini DVD+RW

The Sony DRU-820A reads Mini DVD-R in 2:03 minutes.

DVD ‘“ DVD-RAM:

For this test we used a Maxell 5x DVD-RAM filled with 4.27GB of data. (Thanks to Maxell for sending us this media.) Our test results are found below:

DVD-RAM 

The Sony DRU-820A reads DVD-RAM at 5x in 11 minutes without any problem.

Summary:

The Sony DRU-820A is a fast and reliable reader. Our tests shows that the drive is unlocked and is able to reach its stated specification. Overall the reading performance should not disappoint end users.

But now it’s time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW discs…