Sony ships 20X desktop, 8X mobile DVD burners

Sony today quietly introduced a trio of new add-on DVD burners, including its first 20X drives. The external DRX-840U (shown) and internal DRU-840A both write single-layer DVD-Rs at the benchmark speed and can fill a disc in five minutes even while using 16X discs. Both drives are also fast enough to write either dual-layer, write-once DVDs or single-layer rewritable versions at 12X. For Windows users, each comes with Nero 7 Express for authoring special discs. The drives attach to any computer with a free USB 2.0 port (840U) or parallel ATA connector (840A) and begin shipping first with the 840A, which is available now for $70. The external drive will be ready next month for $110.

Also rolling out from Sony today is a single mobile drive, the DRX-S70U. Though capped at the 8X DVD-R limit of most notebook-class burners, the drive records single-layer rewritables at the same speed and supports dual-layer discs at 4X. In exchange for the slower speed, Windows users receive a full copy of Nero 7, Sony adds. Like the DRX-840U, the S70U attaches to any computer running USB 2.0 and should be available next month, when it sells for $130.