Sony DRU-700A Writes On 8.5 GB DVDs

Sony DRU-700A: The first internal DVD burner with double-layer support for a storage capacity of 8.5 GB

Sony has come out with a double-layer DVD drive, the DRU-700A, as well as an external version, the DRX-700UL. How do they work? Through different wavelengths of the laser, the data can be stored on two levels. Considering that each blank DVD gives you a storage capacity of 8.5 GB, these DVD burners are ideal for storing large amounts of data or videos. The first double-layer DVDs are now available, and they are set to cost a little more than twice as much as the regular single discs.

The external version of Sony's DVD burner, the DRX-700UL

2.4x Write Speed

Packaging of the DVD burner

According to Sony, the two drives can write at a speed of 2.4x in the double-layer format. In addition, they process conventional DVD+Rs at eight times the speed and DVD+RWs at four times the speed. As Dual-RW drives, they can also handle DVD-R media with 8x and DVD-RW with 4x. CD-R/RW can be used with fast rates of 40x or 24x, CD-ROMs are played with 40x speed and DVD-ROMs with 12x speed.

As for burning software with double layer support - Nero Burning ROM is the top choice.