Sony DRU500A DVD?RW Writer

I BUILD AND REPAIR COMPUTERS...

Strengths: BURNS AT 4X NOW. NO COASTERS YET.

Weakness: ONLY THE SOFTWARE BUNDLE.

I BUILD AND REPAIR COMPUTERS DAILY. PROGRAM ALSO. THIS DRIVE IS THE BEST ON THE MARKET. I HAVE TESTED IT SEVERAL TIMES. IT HAS NOT FAILED YET! FIRMWARE UPGRADES ARE EASY TO INSTALL. THIS DRIVE DOES WHAT IT IS ADVERTISED TO DO. I JUST BROUGHT ANOTHER ONE, I RECOMMENDED IT TO MY CUSTOMERS. SONY ONLY NEED TO IMPROVE THE WEB SUPPORT PAGE.

By TOPTECH - May 23, 2003

This drive is truly amazing. I...

Strengths: Ability to burn virtually all DVD and CD formats (save DVD-RAM), flawless burns -- not one coaster yet.

Weakness: I agree that the Veritas software package isn't the greatest, but I really like what looks to be the full version of Sonic's MyDVD software that came with my drive.

This drive is truly amazing. I upgraded from a Philips D-01 DVD+RW burner, and this thing is so far above that one in more ways than I can explain. I have yet to burn a coaster, and I have used the drive extensively using ALL supported DVD and CD formats. In fact, I did some testing attempting to get it to fail (opening huge newsgroups while it was burning or doing Photoshop manipulations while...
Read Full Review

This drive is truly amazing. I upgraded from a Philips D-01 DVD+RW burner, and this thing is so far above that one in more ways than I can explain.

I have yet to burn a coaster, and I have used the drive extensively using ALL supported DVD and CD formats. In fact, I did some testing attempting to get it to fail (opening huge newsgroups while it was burning or doing Photoshop manipulations while it was burning) and I was unable to do so. The cache did come very close to emptying a few times, but it appeared that the drive waited for the system resources to become available again before continuing the burn. Really amazing stuff.

I personally use Nero to do most of my data and audio burning, and I think that may also have something to do with the rock-solid stability of the drive's burn process. I find Nero to be way more stable than Roxio in every respect. I have also used DVDXCopy, MyDVD, and a few others that I can't remember at the moment. All worked flawlessly.

I really can't recommend this drive highly enough.

By feckman - Jan 7, 2003

[I MUST STATE that I borrowed this...

Strengths: DATA-PACKING: Compression, Buffering and the OVERALL general usage as a data storage device, it is one (of the few) flawless piece of digital art..

Weakness: NONE (Thus far)

[I MUST STATE that I borrowed this device from a friend to try in my self-built Hot Rod PC, in order to see how it performed in an incredible, speed-extreme environment(1)]. -REGARDLESS of DISK-TYPE- be it a typical economy-CD-R disc, or the most expensive DVD-RW disk; I can store any given data with great confidence, knowing that when I choose to return to that same data, it will, without a...
Read Full Review

[I MUST STATE that I borrowed this device from a friend to try in my self-built Hot Rod PC, in order to see how it performed in an incredible, speed-extreme environment(1)].

-REGARDLESS of DISK-TYPE- be it a typical economy-CD-R disc, or the most expensive DVD-RW disk; I can store any given data with great confidence, knowing that when I choose to return to that same data, it will, without a doubt be 100% intact.
REGARDLESS of DATA-TYPE- ANYthing., from my own custom encryption programs (.AAa), to the most typical types of data, from .AVI to .ZIP files, one could place a high wager on the identity-match of what one chose to record VS. what the given disk of which it has been recorded upon. It has been (thus far) a wonderous component.

(1): a 100% SCSI machine w/ 2GB of ECC RDRAM, a 2.8GHz/533khz L2 P4, 5(five) 36.7GB 15,000 r.p.m. SCSI Hard Drives in Hot-Swap slots, 1000 Megabit Ethernet, Thumbprint ID, Audigy eX, Ti4600 128MB 3D video + too much more to mention.> IT RAN FLAWLESSLY!> If I was'nt broke at the present [ha ha (but true)], it's MY #1 choice.! Sincerely, R.S.G. a.k.a. "EnCryptonite"

By EnCryptonite - Jan 1, 2003

Only issue is finding cheap DVD-R...

Strengths: Handles just about any media type, good cd write speeds. Easy install

Weakness: Some cheaper media can cause coasters. Slow DVD read speeds locked at 2x. So users will need a separate DVD reader.Users UPGRADE to latest 1.0d firmware ASAP to avoid DVD media burn issue.

Only issue is finding cheap DVD-R 2x and later 4x media...and doing the firmware upgrade to avoid coasters. Works in internal or external firewire encloseure. Nero users make sure to upgrade to latest version as well.

By willardk - Nov 16, 2002

11-27-02 installed one unit in...

Strengths: worth the wait

Weakness: still working with software that came with it ???

11-27-02
installed one unit in external ads usb 2.0 case...
installed software that came with unit and found some quarks with recordnow and found Nero worked on unit perfectly so far......
firmware upgrade was easy from 1.0c to 1.0d....
sony to come out with 1.0e x4 write speed....soon....
so far it seems to be the real thing as advertised....

BIGAJ

By BigAJ - Nov 4, 2002