Sony Electronics is extending its leadership in the DVD drive market with two new Dual RW drives that support 4X DVD+RW recording. Sony's award-winning Dual RW drives are the first combination drives for the PC to support the DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD-R formats.

Sony's next-generation Dual RW drives, the internal DRU-510A and the external DRX-510UL, are the first DVD+R/DVD+RW drives in the industry capable of recording to compatible 4X DVD+RW discs at up to 4X speeds, which enables users to burn a full 4X DVD+RW certified disc in about 15 minutes.

The drives also support up to 4X DVD+R and DVD-R recording, as well as 2X DVD-R, 24X CD-R and 16X CD-RW recording, making them among the fastest and most proficient on the market.

Like their predecessors, the DRU-510A and DRX-510UL combine the DVD-rewritable (DVD+RW/-RW) formats with the DVD write-once (DVD+R/-R) formats for the utmost in recording functionality and playback compatibility. By allowing consumers to write to all of the popular DVD and CD standards, Sony's Dual RW drives eliminate the confusion and risk traditionally associated with DVD recording.

The internal DRU-510A drive comes with an ATAPI interface for easy installation inside a PC, while the external DRX-510UL drive features both an i.LINK® (IEEE 1394) and a hi-speed USB (USB 2.0) interface for simple set-up and maximum flexibility.

DVD & CD Software Suite

Both Dual RW drives come with DVD/CD burning and video editing, authoring and mastering software. The full-featured software suite also includes backup and packet-writing software for users to easily create custom backup discs of up to 4.7 gigabytes of audio, video and data, along with software to organize music files on a PC and record them onto a CD or DVD. The software suite includes:

VERITAS RecordNow™ DX mastering software that allows users to create custom CDs and DVDs, in addition to creating backup copies of CDs or DVD-ROMs;

VERITAS Simple Backup™ which is full-featured backup and data recovery software that provides users instant backup and disaster recovery capabilities;

VERITAS DLA™ packet-writing software that enables users to format, drag-and-drop or delete files similar to a hard drive or floppy disk;

Sonic Solutions MyDVD® authoring software that allows users to quickly and easily transfer home videos to customized DVD-video and Video CD discs;

Arcsoft ShowBiz® video editing software for customizing video footage with easy import/export to and from the Sonic Solutions MyDVD software;

CyberLink PowerDVD® DVD-Video playing software that enables interactive viewing of both DVD-Video and Video CD discs on a PC; and

MUSICMATCH® Jukebox personal music system to play, record, organize and discover new music with a guide to thousands of streams of personalized music programming.

Availability, Pricing and Warranty

The internal DRU-510A Dual RW drive will be available in early May for an estimated retail price of under $350, and the external DRX-510UL model will be available in June for less than $430. Sony DVD/CD rewritable drives are sold through resellers and retailers nationwide, mail order catalogs, and select online shopping sites, including SonyStyle.com.