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MillimeterIntegrate Review — Sony DRX-500UL
Mar 1, 2003 12:00 PM, By S. D. Katz
Sidebars
DVD: The New Demo Reel Standard?
New DVD burner finally makes the ‘plus-minus’ standards war irrelevant.
 A 4X recording speed for DVD-R media makes the DRX-500UL the fastest burner on the market—but to support that rate, a firmware update and 4X media are required. |
Sony's DRX-500UL makes the current thumb-wrestling over competing DVD standards seem trivial by showing just how easy it is to put them together in one device. Blank DVD media comes in R (recordable) and RW (rewritable) flavors, and the DVD format is, of course, capable of several applications including video, data storage, and archiving.
DVD+R and DVD+RW are backed by Hewlett Packard and Microsoft, among others. The alternative standard, DVD-R and DVD-RW, draws support from the Apple/Pioneer/Panasonic camp. Sony can't solve the compatibility issues with legacy DVD devices, but the DRX-500UL really can serve two masters. (Make that three masters, actually. The DRX can also play and record CDs.)
Besides the DRX-500UL, Sony also offers an otherwise identical internal version, the DRU-500A. The external DRX-500UL is a space-saving device (6"×1.6"×7.5"), with one USB 2.0 and dual FireWire ports (Sony calls this i.Link) in the rear panel. A cable with an inline transformer carries the main power. While these thin-wire cables are a little less onerous in terms of cable clutter, the connector has no snapping mechanism to keep the connector in the socket. This is not specifically a Sony problem, as low-voltage power cables are now an industry standard for many peripherals. Still, I've had the cables pop out while just moving a drive a few inches across my workspace. The interface protocol is ATAPI or, as many people incorrectly call it, IDE or EIDE.
The DRX supports Windows 98E, 2000, XP, and the latest 4X DVD-R and 2X DVD-RW media, making it the fastest DVD burner currently available (the 4X recording speed requires a firmware update).
I connected the Sony DRX-500UL to a new dual-processor IBM IntelliStation using the USB connector. Sony bundles a comprehensive authoring and backup software suite. Veritas Record Now is a mastering app for creating custom CDs and DVDs as well as backup copies. Veritas DLA, a drive-formatting app, lets CDs and DVDs perform like a hard drive by letting files be moved back and forth on the DVD media. Veritas Simple Backup serves as a backup and data-protection app. But I was really interested in the software applications for recording and playing DVD video and audio. Sony's software suite includes Sonic Solutions MyDVD for authoring video DVDs and Arcsoft ShowBiz, an application for editing video segments with simple transitions.
My first attempt at making a DVD with the DRX-500UL ran into problems when the bundled MyDVD software had problems reading QuickTime files, which are supposed to be supported. Sony might be better off with some other software than MyDVD 4.0. This is consumer-level software with some good features, including the ability to record from a DV camera directly to a DVD, the ability to make menus in various styles, and a slide-show capability for still images. But the documentation is scant at best. A trip to Sonic's site was disappointing and the company's knowledge base should never be used as a replacement for detailed, step-by-step tutorials. But maybe there's a reason for the poor documentation — Sonic's tech support is $30. Outrageous. Compared with an Apple system, making a DVD with Windows is less intuitive.
Not being able to import Mac-made After Effects movies in QuickTime, I captured DV from a Canon Optura through FireWire. This worked, and I was able to make a DVD-R after a little experimentation — although MyDVD quit in the middle of processing the footage during the first attempt at a burn. The second burn worked fine, however, and the resulting disc played on a G4 and a Panasonic set-top DVD player. Next, I tried the same experiment with DVD+R and burned a disc without incident. The DVD+R played in my set-top without a hitch.
In a frenzy of disc burning, I made CDs and DVD+RW backups, then went back and made changes to files on the discs — all of which worked as advertised. I was unable to test the speed advantage of the 4X upgrade because the firmware was not available. According to Sony, the faster recording speed allows a 4.7GB DVD+R disc to burn in less than 15 minutes. 4X media arrived in stores around the end of last year.
DVD is a great format, and Sony has executed a very good idea with an end run around the standards war. The good news is that by proving the viability of multi-format drives, Sony gives every computer owner a solution to the barriers put up by the feuding coalitions. Sony could go further if the DRX-500UL supported the Mac better and the company leaned on Sonic to provide better documentation for the bundled software. But all in all, this is an excellent and strategically shrewd product.
S.D. Katz is a New York-based writer/director. He is the author of the best-selling books Shot by Shot and Cinematic Motion.
BOTTOM LINE
Company: Sony; Park Ridge, N.J. (800) 686-SONY
www.sony.com/professional
Product: DRX-500U
Assets: Records and plays CD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, and DVD-R/RW media; supports the latest 2X DVD-RW and 4X DVD-R media (after required firmware update); includes software with backup, editing, and authoring applications.
Caveats: Could support Mac better; needs better software documentation.
Demographic: Editors, compositors, and shooters who are looking to burn DVD demo reels in small volumes but are wary of competing standards.
Price: $349
Sidebar
DVD: The New Demo Reel Standard?
U-matic 3/4in. composite video has been hanging on as the standard format for commercial demo reels in the advertising industry, despite the arrival of a vastly superior format: DVD. In New York, virtually every ad agency has a DVD player, although, like a PlayStation or Game Cube, it might be in an art director's cubicle. Still, at less than $140 for a reasonably well-featured set-top player (and with a DVD in every G4 in the broadcast department), DVD reels have yet to eliminate 3/4in. tape despite that format's chroma bleed, deterioration, lower resolution, and the need to shuttle through the tape to find a particular spot. The reason 3/4in. is still with us is that it is 100% reliable and dubbing costs are lower than DVD for orders of 100 and over.
While an intern at a production house can burn DVDs throughout the day, making 100 DVD demo discs is a major project. Duping houses are a dime a dozen when it comes to 3/4in., but making copies of a DVD requires it to be authored at a dedicated DVD production company. Cost of authoring a DVD professionally: about $1,000. DVDs are a bargain if you need 25, but 100 and up means stamping, not burning, the discs. But there's one more issue: compatibility.
At the moment, DVDs of either the + or — variety may encounter
problems with set-top DVD players. Even though the percentage of
initialization failure is low (10% to 15%), you always run the risk of
sending your reel to an ad agency that's not able to play it. The
situation will improve as more new players replace older players, but
having your disc go unseen is still a risk. The newer DVD players at
The Wiz and Circuit City have stickers promising DVD-R compatibility,
but there are a lot of older players out there. So check on playback
capabilities before you send DVD demo reels to prospective
clients.
— SK
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