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Sony DRU-510A

Dual R/W DVD/CD Internal Drive  - Retail box

Overview | Specifications | Installation | Software

Overview

• Supports all popular DVD formats for maximum compatibility.
• 4X[3] Recording DVD+RW, 4X Recording DVD+R, 2X Recording DVD-RW, 4X Recording DVD-R, 8X Reading (DVD-ROM Max.)
• 24X CD-R Recording (Max.) 16 X CD-RW Recording (Max.) 32X Reading (Max.)
• Industry standard ATAPI interface for easy installation.
• Compatible with most home DVD players.
• Software suite for Windows® based PCs.
• Up to 4.7 GB Capacity: Sony's latest Dual R/W DVD/CD drive records up to 4.7 GB of data or more than 2 hours of high quality MPEG2 video on a DVD+RW/+R or DVD-RW/-R disc.
• Supports all DVD formats for maximum compatibility: Sony’s new dual R/W DVD drive now supports multiple DVD formats including DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW, and DVD-R for optimal compatibility with your playback hardware.
• High Performance CD-R/RW burning: The DRU-510A also functions as a high performance CD burner, up to 24X CD-R and 16X CD-RW burning.

Specifications

Encyclopedia entry about DVD technology

Supported Operating Systems:
Windows® 98SE/2000, Windows Millennium Edition, and Windows XP™ Home/Professional operating systems

Media and Modes Supported:
DVD+RW, DVD-ROM, DVD+R DVD-Video, DVD-RW, DVD-R
CD: CD-DA, CD-ROM (XA), CD Extra, Video CD, Photo CD*, CD Text
*Not supported with the bundled software, additional software required

Installation

6/10/05 – Downloaded drive firmware and updated drive firmware to version 1.1. This required uninstalling the Intel Application Accelerator. The IAA was not installed after the firmware update.

Software

Contents of the Sony Software DVD:

(after purchasing RecordNow Max, no software was installed from product DVD)

• Veritas DLA – allows access to recordable CD or DVD discs like a large capacity floppy or removable drive. Only supports CD-RW and DVD±RW media. Uninstalled Veritas DLA and upgraded CD/DVD writing software to RecordNow Max 4.5 which also includes DLA software.

Conflicts with Nero Burning Rom.

When using DLA with MS Backup, there were several incidents when the DVD drive became unresponsive after backup was finished writing to the DVD. Even the Eject button would no longer work. PC had to be rebooted before the DVD was accessible. Afterwards the backup file on the DVD was empty/corrupt.

DLA is dangerously incompatible with Video DVDs. On 9/27/2003 an attempt to reformat a DVD-RW 2X with Video DVD data on it caused XP to STOP and write a memory dump. The problem occurred by just loading the Video DVD with DLA enabled for the drive. Afterwards CHKDSK reported many corrupted files. Apparently XP system files were also affected. Unsuccessfully tried to repair the OS. Had to reformat the HDD and do a clean install of Windows XP.

• Cyberlink PowerDVD® 4.0 DVD player software. Installed the version supplied on software disc:. It only provides 2-speaker and S/PDIF audio support. For multi-speaker support you could buy the audio pack from Cyberlink. The DVD player that comes with the ATI Catalyst software suite is as good or better, so I'm using that one.
• Veritas RecordNow™ CD/DVD mastering software. This is the Sony OEM version “RecordNow DX 4.60”. On 9/13/2003 upgraded to RecordNow Max version 4.5.

(Only for Windows XP prior to SP2) Microsoft Hotfix Q329112 for Windows XP is available that fixes a data read problem for multi-border DVDs with more than 4 GB of data. To obtain the fix, contact MS support and mention the article number.

Stomp RecordNow Max does not allow specifying the correct options for a bootable Windows XP installation disc (disc type “no emulation”, load segment 0x7c0, sector count 4), and therefore the created CD is not bootable (error code 4.) Nero Burning ROM is superior in that respect.

• Veritas Simple Backup™ software version 4.85 (build SNY 100B90i). Simple Backup has a very simple user interface. No options can be set. It can either create full backup of the system or a custom backup for selected files. Cannot specify differential or incremental backup. Simple Backup copies itself to the backup DVD. When the DVD is inserted into the drive the program auto-plays with options to restore files from backup sets. The backup sets are stored in QIC format on the disc.
• Sonic MyDVD™ video authoring software version 4.5.0 (Sony OEM version). Very simplistic tool to organize media files and create a video disc. Can create a Video CD or DVD from video files and still pictures by organizing them into menus that can be controlled with the player. Created sample Video CD using a 4X CD-RW disc. Was playable on the Sony DVD player connected to home theater system and on the PC using WinDVD. Pinnacle Studio 8 has more professional features.
• ArcSoft ShowBiz® video editing software (Sony OEM version 1.1). Can create a video disc from video, audio, images. Can add effects, transitions, and text. Can clip frames. Interacts with MyDVD. Pinnacle Studio 8 has more professional features.
• MusicMatch® Jukebox software

Other DVD-Related Applications

• Played a DVD-Audio sample disc that came with the Audigy 2 sound card. Inserting the disc in the DVD drive starts the Creative MediaSource DVD-Audio Player.
• Tried WinDVD from the InterVideo WinCinema CD bundled with the main board (OEM version M295B.) WinDVD software implements 5.1 channel audio, but the version on the bundled CD only supports 2-speaker mode. Downloaded and installed the latest trial version of WinDVD. The DVD player that comes with the ATI Catalyst software suite is as good or better.
• Tried Pinnacle Studio 8 SE (ATI version 8.4.5 on CD bundled with video card) – provides video capture and professional video editing features. Includes Hollywood FX 4.6 for additional special effects. Downloaded and installed update to version 8.5.21. Tried to create a photo show with 10 or so still pictures including music and transitions.

Program hangs a lot. Rendering to AVI only worked partially and not at all to any other format and/or medium. Uninstalled the ATI bundled version and installed trial version 8.6. Also hangs a lot.

• Tested Ahead Software InCD “drive letter access” software. InCD could not connect to server during system boot. Needed to log off and log in again. Tried to use it for DVD+RW 2.4X together with XP backup utility, but after a few seconds the InCD server crashed.

Because of the instability of DLA software I do not recommend to use DLA.

• Microsoft Backup does not support writing to the DVD directly. Installation of “drive letter access” software for packet writing[1] and UDF[2] compatibility allows writing to the DVD directly. After installation of DLA, performed a full backup using MS Backup writing to a DVD+RW 2.4X disk.
  • Wrote 2,706,328,725 Bytes in 13 minutes and 59 seconds = 3,225,660 B/sec = 2.4X [3]
  • Verified in 8 minutes and 18 seconds = 5,434,395 B/sec = 4X

Notes

[1] Packet writing is a method of writing data on a CD in small increments (contrast with Track-at-Once and Disc-at-Once). Packets can be of fixed length or variable length.

[2] Universal Disk Format, a file system defined by OSTA, the Optical Storage Technology Association, for use with packet writing and other recordable optical disc technologies, such as DVD.

[3] The data transfer rate of a DVD drive is given in multiples of 1350 KB/s.