This drive from Sony is an all in one device with a DVD+R and —R (4x), DVD+RW (2.4x), DVD-RW (2x), DVD-ROM (8x), CD-R (24x), CD-RW (10x), D-ROM (32x). It can read and write almost all optical disc formats in the market. The drive supports 4.7 GB DVDs. The ‘x’ multiples for DVDs us 1350 KB/sec compared to the 150 KB/sec of CDs.
We tested the drive using 48x CD-R, 10x CD-RW, and 2.4x DVD-RW. Making a 74 min audio and 650 MB data CD took around 4:30 mins and a data CD-to-CD copy also took the same time. So you get your CDs burned in less than 5 minutes, which is great. Only the audio CD-to-CD copy took a little longer at 6:40 mins. Formatting a 700 MB CD-RW took 12 mins and the average throughput was 0.9 MB/sec. These are near about the same as most high-speed CD writers. On the DVD front burning 4.2 GB data on a DVD—R took near about 35 minutes, which seems to be a lot, but considering the amount of data it is okay. The best part was formatting the DVD+RW, which took a mere 42 seconds. This is great from any dimension.
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Also the average throughput for transferring data on the DVD+RW was 3.3 MB/sec, which is immense. The drive comes with a lot of useful software on a DVD-ROM. RecordNow DX for recording DVD +R/-R, CD-R, DLA for DVD +RW/-RW, CD-RW, Simple Backup Software, MusicMatch Jukebox, MyDVD for making video CDs and DVDs, ShowBiz for video editing and PowerDVD for playing DVD videos. However PowerDVD didn’t install as it needed a Sony DVD-ROM drive to work and not the Sony DVD writer.
Overall, it’s a feature rich drive with an attractive front flap. The price may seem too high, but applications are growing in size and so is the data to be archived.
Anoop Mangla