Sony claims to be the industry's first company to offer an official dual layer DVD+R drive. As you would expect, it can also write DVD±R discs at 8x.

Sony will release two DVD±RW drives supporting dual layer writing to DVD+R media. The official price for both of the drives is Open Price.

This is the first commercialization of a drive that supports writing dual layered media. Supported operating systems are Windows 2000 and XP.

The dual layer standard consists of writing two layers of data o­n a single side of a DVD+R media. With both layers, the writable capacity is 8.5GB. With this advancement, up to 3.6 hours of MPEG-2 can be recorded to a disc, when it has a 5Mbps bitrate. This is called "DVD+R DL" (where DL means Double Layer). Furthermore, writing dual layered requires dual layered media.

The two drives to go o­n sale are the "DRU-700A" and the "DRX-700UL."

The DRU-700A is an internal ATAPI drive, and will be release o­n May 15th. Indicators suggest its price should be around 25,000 yen [1]. It includes a black front bezel that can be used in place of the standard white bezel. The main body size is 145.8 x 165 x 41.3mm (W x D x H), and the weight is 900g.

The DRX-700UL is an external drive featuring a USB 2.0 port, a 6-pin IEEE 1394 port, and a 4-pin IEEE 1394 port. It will be released in the middle of June. Indicators suggest this drive should cost around 30,000 yen [2]. It can be placed both vertically and horizontally. The main body size is 52 x 234 x 164mm (W x D x H), and the weight is 1,500g.

For both of the drives, the write speed for DVD+R DL is 2.4x, DVD±R 8x, DVD±RW 4x, CD-R 40x, and CD-RW 24x. The read speed for DVD+R DL is 6x, for DVD±R/RW 8x, for DVD-Video 4x, for DVD-ROM 12x, and for CD-ROM 40x.

The drives also feature the "tilt servo" which will tilt the pickup lens so that the laser will strike curved surfaces of the disc at a perpendicular angle. This is so that the data reading capability is enhanced.

Writing software and video authoring software is included.

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Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2004/0426/sony.htm [7]

Product Information (DRU-700A):
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/computer/drive/products/index.cfm?PD=17189&KM=DRU-700A [8]

Product Information (DRU-700UL):
http://www.ecat.sony.co.jp/computer/drive/products/index.cfm?PD=17188&KM=DRX-700UL [9]