Pioneer DVR-A07/107 or Sony DRU-530A?

[ThreeFatTigers]

Buy a Pioneer DVR-A07/107 or a Sony DRU-530A?

After some research on this site and others I've narrowed my choices down to these two. I know the Pioneer is a good machine and with the 1.10 flash I could see some good ripping times. But the Sony flashed to 2.0 will match the Pioneer recording speeds, I just don't know about the ripping. Anyone know what speed this Sony will rip a DVD at?

I plan to upgrade to the dual layer recorders if and when they fall from the sky, but for now I'm leaning toward the Sony. OEM they can be had for about the same price, though the Sony OEM looks as plain as the Pioneer. For around 16$....no wait now it's 26$ more for a retail Sony, I'd get some maybe usable software, and a much nicer looking drive.

I'll mostly be using the drive for file storage, backups, and occasional DVD ripping/copying/VCD creation. I'll likely just buy the Ridata/Ritek 8x +R media anyway, so I'm not sure I'd need the 8x on 4x.

So any opinions on which is the better choice?

Thanks for any input.

[RealaT]

Well the thing that made me decide to buy a Pioneer 107 was that fact that I can buy dirt cheap 2x dvd-r discs and burn them at 6x (i would think that 8x is pushing it). So far it hasn't affected the quality of the burn (i've been using Sony dye discs). I've even been experimenting with some Leaddata 1x dvd-r at 6x and having no problems at all on playback... which is suprising because when i used my 106 to write them at 2x they weren't very reliable but now they're working 100%

[garryheather]

My experience suggests the Pioneer's have a wider compatibility range when it comes to your choice of blank media than the Sony recorders. You can practically write to a beer mat in the Pioneers so long as you round off the edges.

Apart from that there isn't a lot in it, and either should work well enough for you.