zevia

You can find the Sony DRU-830A DVD Burner Review here:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Sony...-Burner-Review



Feel free to comment on the review in this thread.

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DrageMester

Very nice review as usual, zevia!

You list one feature of the drive as being negative:

* Turbo Boost (48x CD-R/ROM read/write) is disabled by default

This depends on your point of view, and in my opinion it's a positive that the drive per default is limited to 40x writing speed for CD-R media. By writing at 40x the chance of burning a coaster is much reduced and the sacrifice in burn time is very small.

I wish it were possible to limit the burn speed of both CD-R and DVD±R media in more drives - as an option that could be turned on/off.

There's entirely too much focus on burn speed and not enough focus on burn quality/reliablity in marketing of optical drives, and it has been that way ever since the first 2x CD-R drive was created.

I also find it annoying that companies are so desperate to get 18x and 20x write speeds, while many of them still can't or won't produce drives that read recorded DVD media faster than 8x or 12x.

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The Kipper

Nice job zevi, very informative.

markelliott

This is definitely a Samsung OEM.

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chok0

doesn't matter how good (or bad) this thing is, sonys are too expensive. i still prefer liteons, great support here, tools, firmware tweaking and not to forget the low prices.

sure? NEC facepalte-> sony/nec optiarc, i think.

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Darth Boy

Here, the black and white bezel versions are sold separately.

both have the pretty look, unlike in the review where the black bezel is plain.

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zevia

Yes we believed it's Samsung OEM. You can also find more scans including with newer firmware SS22 in Samsung Forum here:

Sony DRU-830A (SH-S182D OEM): post your scans and questions here

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kg_evilboy

There are no NECs with Mediatek chipset, at least I haven't seen any.
It seems to hate CD-R/CD-RW, but it burns the Maxell surprisingly well... Maybe I should get that drive...

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C0deKing

Excellent review. Thanks Zevia.

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alan1476

I agree, that was a heck of a review, great job Zevi.

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Hitech

In our DAE quality test it shows that the extracting quality is excellent. The Advanced Tests specify that the Sony drive can be categorized as a “Two Sheep” writer, which implies that it should be sufficient for backing up copy protected discs.


What is so special about being a "Two Sheep" writer? Don't all DVD burners backup copy protected discs...depending on the software used? I've used Plextor and Pioneer, but is the Sony that much better?

markelliott

Nope, this drive is not an NEC, it's definitely a Samsung. The top of the drive casing is the biggest giveaway with OEM re-badges, and the top of this new Sony is identical to the Samsung drives. It matches the lid on my 162 perfectly. It also has a Mediatek chipset like the Samsung's.

See pics here -

Samsung SH-S182 (top) - http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/sams...d/image013.jpg

Sony DRU-830UA (top) - http://gfx.cdfreaks.com/reviews/sony...a/image012.jpg

This is most strange, as we all thought Sony was now fully with NEC and the Optiaric drives. Maybe Sony didn't like the nasty spikes? NEC should be ashamed of themselves. Those burners must have the worst write quality out there at the moment. They have trouble burning even the best media without causing huge errors.

Sony have probably turned to Samsung, as the latest Samsung burners are amongst the very best in terms of write quality, though there is still no getting away from the fact that a huge company like Sony should really be making there own drives.

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hildred

yes why do my sony dru-830a do not writing 8xrw my sony 820a do so why

minaelromany

I've just borrowed a Sony 830A drive from a frend for testing , it was manufactured on 6 February 2007 with firmware SS25 and it doesn't support scanning ( or to be more accurate it is a horrible scanner )
I think it is plagued with the same "bug" in newer Samsung 182D drives , I was thinking about trading it for my Pioneer 111L drive but now I don't think so.

Is there anyway toimprove its scanning ability or is it hardware related ?

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molnart

What do you mean by "horrible scanner" ? Inconsistent results ? You can try to crossflash it to S182D, but i think it will be hardware related, because the scanning abilities of my Samsung haven't degraded with FW updates.

minaelromany

I mean this :

Attached Images

	BENQ____DVD_DD_DW1640_BSLB_17-March-2007_15_52.png (69.6 KB, 320 views)
	SONY____DVD_RW_DRU-830A_SS23_18-March-2007_20_43.png (68.3 KB, 317 views)

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eterman

Inspite of the warning not to buy a Sony burner, I did just that. A DRU-830A. (Everyone has their likes and dislikes.) It installed so easily (including the bezel change) that I thought I did something wrong. It worked from the gitgo. BUT ...

Strangely, it came with SS25 firmware and I blindly had gone to the Sony site and "up graded" to the newest firmware ... SS23. Panic!!! Lower/Older firmware? Panic??? No sweat. Works fine.

What the heck is the SS25 for anyway(s)? Anyone have a clue?

The "free" Nero software is a nice add-on. Have not played with it yet, but will. More junk to crowd up my hard drive. We'll see!

Downloaded Imgscan from internet - the option I wanted on Nero was grayed-out. Changed the "book" to DVD-RAM. As suggested on several sites. It does revert when the disc is removed. Have to go through that nonsense each time, but, it is what it is (I digress).

BUT... the burned disc still did not play in my Pioneer DVR/DVD? The disc was just REJECTED. It played fine in my Sony DVD players and my Toshiba TV combo and my Toshiba HDTV combo. WHY not the Pioneer?!? That machine is VERY finicky!

Well, dear reader, to make a long story a wee bit shortrer, the burner was evidently set for region 2 not 1. Changed the region ... it woyks like PB&J! My old brain ain't dead yet. My wife was so proud of me. And, my grand daughter still loves me! What's not to love?

As suggested, used the Singapore-mfg'd Verbatim DVD+R DL 8x's. I sacrificed one disc to the scan-gods to see what quality we bought for $50 (15 discs, incl. tax) @ BestBuy ... crooks. NICE! Only one pixel was red and 3 were gray. The rest of them were a beautiful blue. Not bad. These forums are a great place to look for info and clues.

The scan and burn time for a 100% copy (including all the junk) of my purchased DVD was less than when I had to edit out the add-on junk, because I was using DVD-R's and burning only one layer in my older Sony DRU-18a (R.I.P.). Sweet!

Nice little machine. EASY install. Great, fast quality copies. And, only $63 on the internet.

And yes, Imgscan says it is a Samsung. And, so what? Samsung has gained a very good quality rep recently on all their equipment. That makes it better. You get a Sammy and the Sony label. And, you get Sony looking over Sammy's shoulder to make sure that the quality is good. Sony has phone-in, real-personal one-on-one if you run into a problem. None yet though, thank the gods. I would hate to have to test them.

Enjoy!

McstylisT

Great review.

After reading up on the drive i decided to go for this unit to replaced the lead-in troubbled clone Samsung Sata 183a version. This drive is miles better allround. I am glad i bought this unit. quality is good on good media and read and burning speed is good. Great buy !!.

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