Sony says, “Burn baby, burn!” with new optical drives

Four new optical drives are coming down the Sony chute, all of which are more than happy to tackle a wide variety of CD and DVD formats. They’re saying that these 12th-generation units are “packed with high performance”, supporting both dual and double layer formats.

The new 830 series — consisting of the internal DRU -830A ($70), external DRX-830 ($100), and external DRX-830UL-T ($120) — are said to support “all of the industry’s leading recording formats.” Take a standard 16X DVD +/-R disc, shove ‘er in there, and enjoy the industry’s fastest 18x recording speed. This translates to a five-minute burning time for 4.7 gigs of data.

Tight on space? Look no further than the space-saving DRX-S50U ($130), an external high-speed drive that comes bundled with Nero 7 software suite for DVD authoring, video editing, photo retouching, and even disc label creation.