Sony DVD burners hit sweet 16x

Sony Electronics has unveiled its latest generation of DVD+R Double Layer (DL) burners that support 16x DVD+R recording.

Burning a full write-once single layer disc in approximately six minutes, the internal DRU-710A and external DRX-710UL drives will be targeted at consumers.

The 710 series marks Sony's seventh generation of Dual RW drives, and can support 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD+/-RW, 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW recording speeds.

According to the electronics giant, with 2.4x DVD+R DL recording, users can burn up to four hours of high-quality Mpeg-2 video or up to 8.5GB of data, music and/or images on compatible DVD+R DL media. This is equivalent to about seven days of music, said Sony.

In addition, the latest duo of high-speed burners feature software from Nero, providing users with a suite of tools for burning and authoring home movies, creating digital scrapbooks and backing up crucial data.

"As we reach the physical limitations of DVD recording speeds and the price of drives continues to drop, now is a great time for consumers who have been waiting on the sidelines to take the DVD burner plunge," said Robert DeMoulin, marketing manager for branded storage products in Sony's IT products division, in a statement.

The internal DRU-710A drive comes with an ATAPI interface, while the external DRX-710UL drive offers connectivity with both i.LINK (IEEE 1394) and USB 2.0 digital interfaces.

The internal DRU-710A is currently shipping to retailers for an estimated selling price of under $180, while the external DRX-710UL is expected to ship in October for an estimated selling price of under $280.