Sony USA was kind enough to send us their latest 18x DVD Multi Drive: the Sony DRU-830A. Sony’s twelfth generation multi-format DVD burner now has the capability of burning DVD±R discs at up to amazing 18X speed, delivering a full 4.7GB DVD in about 5 minutes. Double/Dual layer discs are now both capable of 8X max recording, and DVD-RAM burning, with an eye towards data backup, is supported at 12X. You get blazing CD-R/RW recording too, eliminating the need for a separate CD burner. But speed is only part of the package; you also get flexibility – like a black replacement bezel for matching the drive to black colored PCs. A comprehensive Nero® 7 software suite rounds out the product, giving you a DVD burner like no other™!

In this article we will show the performance of the DRU-830A by running the drive through many tests on a considerable amount of various CD/DVD media.

Corporate Information:

We took a quick look at the company information found at Sony web pages:

Sony Corporation of America

Sony Corporation of America, based in New York City, is the U.S. subsidiary of Sony Corporation, headquartered in Tokyo. Sony is a leading manufacturer of audio, video, communications, and information technology products for the consumer and professional markets. Its music, motion picture, television, computer entertainment, and online businesses make Sony one of the most comprehensive entertainment companies in the world. Sony\’s principal U.S. businesses include Sony Electronics Inc., Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc., and a 50% interest in Sony BMG Music Entertainment, one of the largest recorded music companies in the world. Sony recorded consolidated annual sales of approximately $64 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006, and it employs 158,500 people worldwide. Sony\’s consolidated sales in the U.S. for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2006 were $16.7 billion.

Corporate Fact Sheet (August 2006):

U.S. Businesses
Sony Electronics Inc.
Sony Entertainment Inc.
- Sony Pictures Entertainment
- SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (50% ownership)
- Sony/ATV Music Publishing (50% ownership)
Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc.
Sony DADC and Sony Entertainment Distribution
Sony Connect Inc.
Sony Plaza Public Arcade and Sony Wonder Technology Lab (New York)
Annual Sales / Sony Corporation Consolidated
$64 billion (Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2006)
Sales in the United States: $16.7 billion

Workforce

158,500 employees worldwide (Fiscal Year ended March 31, 2006)

U.S. R&D and Engineering Facilities

San Jose, CA
San Diego, CA
Boulder, CO
Park Ridge, NJ

Major Manufacturing Sites in North America

Dothan, AL
Pittsburgh, PA
Pitman, NJ
San Diego, CA
Terre Haute, IN
Tijuana, Mexicali and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

More About Sony

A leading audio-visual electronics and information technology company in the U.S. and worldwide
A leading motion picture and television production company in the U.S. and worldwide
The co-developer of the CD, DVD, Super Audio CD and Blu-ray Disc
The developer, manufacturer, and marketer of PlayStation®, PlayStation®2 and PlayStation® Portable game consoles
The inventor of a wide range of consumer audio-visual products, such as the BRAVIA TVs, SXRD, FD Trinitron® WEGA® television, Mavica® digital camera, Digital8® Handycam® camcorder, Walkman® personal stereo, Hi-MD/Net MD MiniDisc player/recorder, and the Memory Stick®IC flash media. Also an innovator in IT products, including VAIO® personal computers, FD Trinitron® computer display and the 3.5-inch floppy disk; and professional products, highlighted by the HDCAM® 24-P, Digital Betacam® and DVCAM® VTR and camera formats
A publicly held company, with shares listed on 16 stock exchanges worldwide, including Tokyo, New York, and London
A company with 936 consolidated subsidiaries worldwide.
As you can see Sony is a very large company with a long history. And now let’s take a look at the drive.

Drive Overview:

Sony DRU-830A internal DVD Multi drive now supports all available DVD formats including DVD±R/±RW, DVD±R Double/Dual Layer, and DVD-RAM. With up to 18x max DVD±R burning, the DRU-830A will deliver a fully recorded disc in about 5 minutes. Like previous Sony DVD burners, the DRU-830A is also an ultra high performance CD burner.

The drive comes bundled with a feature-rich software package suite from Nero for burning, authoring and editing home movies, creating digital scrapbooks, and backing up critical data.

Features and Benefits

Burns DVD±R discs at 18X max using standard 16X media, capable of burning a full disc in about 5 minutes
Burns 8.5GB DVD±R Double/Dual discs at 8X max. Double/Dual Layer discs capable of storing up to 4 hours of MPEG-2 Video on single sided disc with 2 recording layers. Recorded DVD±R Double/Dual Layer discs compatible with most consumer DVD players and DVD-ROM drives
Burns standard 4.7GB DVD±R and DVD±RW Discs, DVD-RAM, and CD-R/RW too – One drive does it all!
Maximum flexibility & compatibility – choose the optimal DVD recordable media for your project without sacrificing compatibility with your playback hardware
Award winning Nero® software bundle for burning all your video, music, and data to DVD or CD
Includes black replacement front bezel for matching the drive to a black PC case

Drive specifications:

Now let us take a look at the specifications of the Sony DRU-830A.

What’s inside the box?

The drive we received was a retail package and comes with everything you need for quick and easy installation. The retail package includes the following items:

The internal DRU-830A drive itself
DRU-830A User\’s Guide (Operating Instructions)
Quick-Start Guide
Software Quick-Start Guide
Software Disc Rev. 7.10W (includes: Nero Express 7, Nero Vision Express 4, Nero InCD 5, Nero BackItUp, Nero ShowTime, and many others.)
Black replacement bezel and Front Panel Replacement Guide
4 Screws and emergency clip
US Product Warranty and Registration

Retail package

As you can see that the package contains almost everything you need to get started.

Now let’s take a look at the details on the retail box:

Box Front

Box Rear

Box Left and Right

Box Top and Bottom

Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself:

Drive with Silver/Beige and Black bezel

On the drive tray from left to right we have a Compact Disc Ultra Speed ReWriteable logo, a sticker with Dual RW Drive – Double Layer – Dual Layer (beige panel only), SONY logo, DVD Multi Recorder logo and finally a DVD Alliance (DVD+R/RW) logo. On the bottom part there are an emergency eject hole, LED indicator, and then at the far right is the eject button.

Top

Drive Sticker

On the top of the drive we found a sticker that shows it was made in Indonesia and has a production date of August 2006.

Bottom

Drive Right

Drive Left

Rear

From left to right: digital audio connector; analog audio connector; environment setup jumpers to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector. Jumper setting from the sample drive we received was set to Master.

Interior

Mediatek MT1898E Chipset

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features, program bundle and writing technology on the next page…

Features & Technology

37 Comments

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 08 Feb 07 20:07

I've literally just bought and installed one of these for my Dell desktop. The original Dell OEM NEC deck (ND-3450A) is starting to show its limitations and was beginning to drive me nuts. The DRU-830A has performed brilliantly, burning a whole load of DVDs that the ND-3450A refused to do. I'm not too bothered if it's actually a Samsung, or a Ford as long as it does the job well! I chose Sony because their products are generally very good and on the rare occasions when they have underperformed, Sony have been reassuringly good at putting things right. Yes I did pay a bit more than for some of the other decks, but I was really desperate. Normally I bite the pennies in half, but when you think of what you are doing when writing precious video to disc, or backups etc., you really need to be confident that the drive works reliably. which this one has done so far. Nero 7 Essentials (bundled with the DRU-830A) seems a useful package, BUT: - It doesn't seem to have been written by MS Windows fanatics, as everything works in a peculiar way, taking a bit of getting used to. Certainly not untuitive. - It's also very crammed with features, which is fine as long as you can remember where to find them!

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 24 Mar 07 06:24

Hi: My Sony 810A dies and the replacement was the DRU-830A. The firmware was upgraded to SS23. But the performance when reading DVDs is very slow. For example burning a 1 GB data disk (Nero 7) takes a few minutes, but the verification takes 22 minutes (most of the time at less than 1X). Many Many Many calls to Sony did not change anything. I tried to join the forum here but the code does not appear on the registration page. A note to the webmaster has gone unanswered. What's the best DVD burner in terms of speed and quality data? The 810A was acceptable buy Sony will no longer sell me one.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 02 Apr 07 14:43

i install a new sony dru 830a dvd writer in my pc and put it as master. after i boot up windows xp the drive read as dvd-ram drive without any disc in it. when i place a recorded dvd-r or cd-r, the drive read nothing out of the disc and immediately it changes into cd drive. the writer can burn dvd-r with nero, but just cannot read dvd-r or cd-r disc in it, even with the dvd-r written in it. i even have my windows re-formatted but it did not read but can write. the brand of the disc are verbatim and imation.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 08 Apr 07 03:04

i have bought sony 830a and it's didn't read the dvd it burn only read orignal dvd and pc is p3 550 256ram on winxp sp2 but when i try on onther modern pc pentium 4 it work well and could read all dvds and write !

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 17 May 07 06:39

I also have the Sony dual layer DRU-830A model. I can burn dvd's just fine + or - either way Once i put the succefully burned disk back in the drive it will not read it!!!! The DVD shows up as BLANK which i know its not because it works fine on any other system !!! its driving me crazy there has to be a solution somewhere someone please help ! my pc is p4 2.66 ghz 256 mb ram winxp sp2 nvidia geforce 5600. any ideas please get back to me on msn as realitycheck311@hotmail.com :c

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 18 May 07 17:02

I am having problems with my Sony DRU-830A, and it’s only five days after the purchase. The drive burns correctly CDs, DVD-Rs, DVR-RWs, reads them. But starting from today it refuses to read DVD-Rs, still continue to read all other formats and as well burning DVD-Rs. In first days it read DVD-Rs I have called the Sony’s UK hotline, they suggested upgrading my firmware and that’s what I did. I upgraded it from SS23 to SS25. Still the problem persists.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 29 May 07 23:55

_First, when i installed the drive in PC, the work well, but on day after the record was very, very low, 1 hour to record 1 DVD 4,7GB. I discovered witch the DMA turn to off alone. I did changes in bios setup, windows drive and nothing. It still low. I removed and put my old LG and windows turn to on DMA, i removed LG and put Sony again, so, windows stay DMA on (strange). _Second, when write CD-RW, it not recognizes ELGIN CD-RW 12x (IF12X80 AG41..) with 12x, it recognizes how to 10x. The results of record not open in some CD-drives. Strangely, the DVD RW it appeared with hole, without scratch and kept in DVD case

. The laser of the drive open the hole in CD-RW and my DVD+RW discs?

, i´m investigating. _third, well, after this problems, the DRU-830 is bealtiful and record very well DVD+R till moment. Need improve with more discs registered to recognizes speed (DVDs+-R) and record quality, especially RWs

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 31 May 07 14:16

hey Italo Valerio. to turn on dma uninstall the ide controller from device manager and restart. then the windows will automatically reinstall it and enable dma. mine works lyk a charm xcept dat it recognises discs as 4.29 gb instead of 4.7 gb

wots wrong?

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 31 May 07 18:57

"mine works lyk a charm xcept dat it recognises discs as 4.29 gb instead of 4.7 gb

wots wrong? " oops stupid mistake. 4got computer recognition is diiferent. pls ignore it.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 02 Jun 07 20:57

Posted by PFX (guest) on Thursday 31 May 2007 14:16 "hey Italo Valerio. to turn on dma uninstall the ide controller from device manager and restart. then the windows will automatically reinstall it and enable dma. " - I had make this, but not work. In PC of my friend witch have Samsung happen the same, i did try to make this changes but only swapping drives an turn again worked.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 02 Jun 07 21:02

The more new problem is: This drive recognize ELGIN DVD+R DL 8X (LO 1106-R) how 30GB free space!, i did try to record but happened error when starting recording the second layer. Midia losted. Play only first layer (4,7GB).

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 23 Jun 07 06:12

My burner is not recognized by the PC. It shows only the DVD RAM drive icon in "My Computer", which i rpesume is for writing but no CD/DVD reader is shown. Pls Help!!!

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 25 Jun 07 15:00

Hi, I am also facing same problem, i have sempon 3000 ASUS motherboard, I tried all the above options, but still did not help. if you have any new ideas to solve this problem mail me at wconnect@gmail.com

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 26 Jun 07 09:51

i also have same problem.

my dvd riter sOny DRU-170C giving me same things. it isnt reading any of DVD s and saying that insereted disc is a blank cd (instead of a DVD ).all of my frnds having same problem . it s IC problem . The IC of sony dvd riter /cd riter is faulty ! and they arent taking pains to rectify the errOr! sony sucks!!!!

Chris_504: Posts: 1; Posted on: 26 Jun 07 12:16

Make sure you guys are using the latest firmware, which at the moment is SS25. BTW i don't have any issues with the drive, possibly due to the fact that i'm using the latest firmware.

P.S http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/firmware.htm

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 05 Jul 07 02:37

I've owned the Sony DRU-830A for over a month now and burned a lot of -R, 4 gig DVD's which will not play on most players. The drive does not support Book Typing therefore making a good Double Layer (ROM) DVD is impossible.

I personally feel with most stores carring blank DVD's there is a large market for making back-up copies of your DVDs and Sony has missed the boot on this issue! The Lie-On DVD Burners is a better choice for those of use who have a need to make back-up copies of their DVDs and no drive that does not support BOOK TYPING should not be considdered! :g

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 12 Jul 07 17:57

After 3 months, i will get other drive. This drive is an DVD-RW disc killer. After to burn the discs in DRU, the discs aren´t recognizes more, in any drives, the discs only stop, really not work. No record, no erase, no appear more how DVDRW, only appear "no disc inserted". Happened with: 2 discs SONY DVD+RW AccuCORE (VER. 1.2), 1 DVD-RW Opto Digital (OTC -W84083N0 W004), 1 DVD+RW OPTO DIGITAL (OTC+W84169N0 0P4), 1 DVD+RW HP (PHILIPS ODTC 1-4X D25051). Loose 2 Elgin DVD+DL discs too, no burn second layer. I wait till now, waiting an firmware version to correct RW problems. I no have time to wait more. I like the quality burns of DVD-R/+R, its beautiful drive but i need good RW drive. Good luck to all users.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 08 Aug 07 23:03

Robert's posting on July 5 is incorrect. This drive does indeed support Book Type settings. (A screen capture of the Book Type setting is shown right in the review.) However, you must use the version of Nero included with the drive to set it. And in general, Book Type settings only apply to +R media. No drive that I am aware of has confirmed support for setting Book Type for -R media. (For -R discs, the Book Type is set in the disc manufacturing process. Disc drives cannot afterwards write to the necessary sector.)

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 10 Aug 07 00:16

Hey guys I have the same problem stated above.. the drive reads a DVD-R16x as an emtpy CD disc... i updated the firmware like Chris_504 suggested, still nothing. The DVD disc works fine on another computer. Any ideas?? Thanks

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 04 Sep 07 21:38

Same rubbish here. A written DVD-R is actually a blank CD it tells me. Updating the firmware achieved nothing. Updating Nero to version 7 which came with the drive achieved nothing. I've yet to get home and try the advice received today from Sony Tech, which follows: Dear Sony Valued Customer, Please go through these steps: Standard controller/disable DMA/disable CD Recording Please ensure the system is in the correct configuration: 1. Change the main controller you have to a Standard Dual Channel Controller Open the Device Manager(open up the Start menu, right click on My Computer, left click on Properties, click on the button labeled Device Manager under the Hardware tab Click on the + next to IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers A Primary IDE channel, Secondary IDE channel, and a PCI Controller (sometimes an Intel or SIS or VIA) will be listed Double click on the controller, click on the Driver tab, then click on the Update Driver button This will open up the Hardware Update Wizard, if it asks if Windows can search select No, and click Next Choose "Install from a List or Specific Location," and click Next Select "Don't Search, I will Choose a Driver to Install" and click Next Under "Model" select the Standard Dual Channel controller and click Next Click "Finish" At that point a window will appear with Standard Dual Channel printed at the top. Close this, but do not restart your system if it prompts you to. 2. Disable DMA: · Double click on the Secondary IDE Channel. · Click on the Advanced Settings tab. · Change the Transfer Mode for Device 0 from DMA to PIO. · Click OK 3. Disable CD Recording: Open up My Computer. Right click on the Sony drive and left click on Properties. Click on the Recording Tab, uncheck the box next to "Enable CD Recording on this drive". Click apply and okay. Also, you may wish to visit our website at http://sony.storagesupport.com This website has manuals and drivers for our products as well as FAQ's. Thank you, Melissa Sony Technical Support --------------------------------------------------------------- Good luck fellow 830 victims.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 07 Sep 07 14:51

Well, that didn't work. The latest was Sony sending me a link to a drive test program with me e-mailing them the results. I used a DVD-R disk for the test, which the drive failed. I've yet to hear the prognosis from Dr. Sony.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 07 Sep 07 20:03

Apparently, you have to call for a pronosis. Hold time was 45 minutes. They aren't sure if the drive test failed because of my computer (whose Memorex drive works fine, and whose Sony DRU530 worked fine until the motor gave out) or the 830. Given that the most positive direction this conversation was going in was that I would get a RMA number to return the drive and they would send me another 830 which probably wouldn't work either, I am returning the drive and getting something which is not Sony. My Memorex drive showed better cross drive compatibility than Sony ever did, anyway.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 07 Sep 07 20:05

Apparently, you have to call for a prognosis. Hold time was 45 minutes. They aren't sure if the drive test failed because of my computer (whose Memorex drive works fine, and whose Sony DRU530 worked fine until the motor gave out) or the 830. Given that the most positive direction this conversation was going in was that I would get a RMA number to return the drive and they would send me another 830 which probably wouldn't work either, I am returning the drive and getting something which is not Sony. My Memorex drive showed better cross drive compatibility than Sony ever did, anyway.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 01 Oct 07 16:50

OK so what's the latest? I bought two of these drives so that I could have a reliable system and my issues are the same. I bought sony for the same reason I buy Toyota. I thought that I was buying quality. What pieces of doodoo...and of course they are now a few months old so I can't just walk them back into the store. Please if anyone comes up with the answer email me directly. Thanks JT jaxmut@hotmail.com

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 01 Oct 07 16:53

Final Thoughts: To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “Sony DRU-830A is overall a fine and good performance Multi DVD Burner.” THat was a quote from the review above. What a crock. Like Siskel and Ebert are going to say a new movie sux. I've thought of taking my computer into Best Buy, let them get these P.O.S.s working and then sending the BIll to Sony

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 07 Oct 07 11:25

I have had the same problem with two of these drives in a row. They say that my written dvd is a blank cd. I like the burner, its make great movie copies but WTF. The funny thing is, when I take the same drive thats not working in one pc and put it in another it works?

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 13 Oct 07 20:43

i have the dru-830a over a year bad news i try 8x rw did not playr back it will lock or stop when i player it on sony and also memorex 8x same thing my dru-820 burn all 4x/6x/8x 16x not dru-830a just bad new

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 17 Nov 07 04:46

i have a dru-830a. Made a Nero Vision Essential slide show video 12 min. long. It was easy to do and all went fine until I watched my video on dvd player. The audio is fine but the video is faulty.. it pulses every few seconds. Tried several times (using DVD-R) and changed the encoding mode to High Qaulity 2 Pass VBR.... also changed the recording settings. Any help would be appreciated?

nicco14: Posts: 2; Posted on: 16 Mar 08 15:20

I purchased the DRU-830A in the fall of 2007. This is my first dvd burner. It worked great for the first few months. After burning 30ish dvd's, it decided not to work anymore. It will only read store bought dvd's and cd-roms. It will not burn anything at all, regardless of speed chosen. I've tried replacing as much software as possible but no luck. It does work in a friends pc, therefore this has to be a windows issue. I've tried everything I've read online and everything my geeky buddies told me to do. Don't want to reload XP to find out that it didn't work, but looks like I have no choice.

This message was edited at: 16-03-2008 15:21

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 27 Mar 08 09:24

Always have issues with this Drive dru-830a. Stops being seen by windows. Junk

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 28 Mar 08 09:54

i purchased SONY DVD write DRU 830A for my pc. it is showing a very odd problem, that it do write blank DVD or blank cd but when i try to read those burnt DVD it shows "blank CD" in properties of burnt DVD. i can read original Movie DVD on it but it can not read DVD that it has burnt. please help.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 12 Jun 08 04:57

Dru 830 a is pure madness... Are you complaining about "complex" things like recording? Well let me tell you about the most shitty issue on this player/recorder... My dru 830 wouldn't play movie dvd's correctly... And I bought this unit to enjoy the capabilities of my computer to watch movies... At this moment I have no money to afford a new dvd-rw... I've tried everything... from the new firmware to the IDE device set up thingy. none of them worked... The error message when playback? "Css copy protection failed" I'm really pissed off...

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 28 Jul 08 09:32

It seems that once the DRU-830A is installed, the OS loads the MS drivers for the "Secondary Drive Controller" but they don't work correctly the first time around manifesting in all the problems we've been having. Anyway, my 830A is now running fine. I tried following the instructions Sony gave "Kurt (guest) ", but under WinXP Pro there was no "Standard Dual Channel Controller" listed. There is "Secondary IDE Channel" and "Standard IDE/ESDI Hard Disk Controller" So I chose the latter, and selected "PIO only" under "Advanced Settings". Writing a DVD in PIO mode takes ages. In my case the writing and verification process took ~45 minutes, but at least the entire process was successful. Then I went back to using the "Secondary IDE Channel" drivers, with DMA on. It actually worked this time. Under Advanced Settings Device 0 (my DVD player) is configured: Device Type: "Auto Detection" (ghosted out) Transfer Mode: "DMA if available" Current Transfer Mode: "Ultra DMA Mode 4" (ghosted out) Works fine and fast now, after a reboot. It does DVD-Rs & Rewritables. It also plays DVD movies once I installed an old version of WinDVD4 I had lying around. If you don't install a DVD playblack plugin like the one from Nero, WinDVD, or PowerDVD, the DVD will appear to have no name and no contents when you "explore" it.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 29 Jul 08 08:14

I take it back. Not everything works. My 830A can erase CD-RWs but not DVD-RWs. CRAP! I can hear the stepper motor rattling as it is trying to erase the disk. The burning software eventually reports the procedure as successful, but the contents are still there! I wonder if it just doesn't like Imation DVD-RWs? Ugh, in any case, the next DVD drive won't be a Sony, that's for for sure.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 04 Aug 08 10:27

well guys what i have tried is i opened my dvd drive and cleaned its lens with a smooth cloth and after it the drive is working properly............ try it might b your drive also starts working............ best of luck regards....

musicman18840: Posts: 1; Posted on: 19 Sep 08 18:55

My computer isn't recognizing any dvd burner I put in it. It shows a cd drive no burner. When I put a disk in even it it is a full disk it shows 0 used...0 space free.

guest: Posts: 15284; Posted on: 20 Sep 08 19:20

I'm having a slightly different problem with the drive. It worked fine for a couple of years on my HP, but then when inserting a new disk, it would light-up Window's XP's blue screen of "dumping memory" death. It wouldn't do that all the time, just 75% of the time. Now, the drive door won't stay shut. Any ideas?

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Sony DRU-830A DVD Burner Review

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Introduction