Should I buy a sony writer?

[nickbr4]

I am new to this DVD-writer stuff but have read a lot of the forum posts over the last few weeks, and learnt a lot - THANKS!!

I do however have one question. I have a sony standalone DVD player (DAV-S400) and this is supposed to be compatible with "+" and "-" media according to the player lists on this site.

I just wondered should I buy a sony writer to ensure the best chance of compatibility. Also should I wory about the Book type. I sort of understand the book type thing! but cannot find out anywhere whether sony players need to have book type set to DVD-ROM in which case using + media on a dual drive wouldn't work - right?

I was thinking of gettingthe sony dw-u10 or 14, but somebody recommended the NEC-1300A as a damn good drive.

Any help on this subject would be great.
Apologies also if this has been discussed/answered before but I couldn't find it anywhere!

Cheers

[DVDDave]

i would go with the sony dru 510 a. it is now below $200, and for me, it has yet to burn a coaster!!!! 8)

[nickbr4]

Do you recommend a particular media brand in this drive. It seems that the chice of media is more important than the drive itself in some cases?

[ccbadd]

I'd go with the NEC 1300A. I have it and a Pioneer A05 and both work great. I do not have any direct experience with Sony DVD writers, but wiht other Sony equipment and would never purchase the Sony brand name again.

[SLICK RICK]

I have a Sony DRU500A and a NEC 1300A. They are both really good burners so my suggestion to you would be that if you want to save money then go with NEC but if the price does not matter then go with the Sony.

SLICK RICK

[pharlap]

NO

[DVDDave]

i have tried all types of media--name brand, no name--never a problem. 8)

[ramair23]

I don't really think it will matter if you have all sony stuff. I've got 4 different DVD players and a PS2 and they all play ever kind of disk from every burner. +,-, R, RW...whatever.

I picked up the sony dwu-10a for $127 from livewarehouse and then just flashed it to be a dru-500a. i've burned over 700 dvd's at 4x on it in just over 2 months, only about 5-7 fails...but that was all the 1st week when I was just starting, and those were princo...now I only use Ritek G04 disks, never had 1 of them fail...so yes, I'd say the media is an important thing to consider.

That NEC is real nice too though, know someone who just picked one up for $83 and has had great suceess.

+ and - work fine on both drives (R and RW) these are both multiformat drives and I've tried every format on both with no problems

[phonomas]

Hey ramair23 - this is slightly off-topic... I have a dwu14a (OEM of the dru510 drive) and I was wondering how do you flash an OEM drive to make it into a full-fledged DRU- drive? Where do you get this firmware upgrade from?? Like I said I have the dwu14a and it's burning fine - but I'm thinking maybe sometime in the near future that I should flash this to be a DRU-. Thanks!

[harrymj3]

I have a Sony DRU500a, a Pioneer A03 and a Pioneer A04. I much prefer the Pioneer drives as they can use 57 cent and achive the same results as the Sony does with expensive media. Also, considering Sony's stand on copywrite protection I'd rather give my money to Pioneer. .... harrymj3

[Roll Tide]

All I can say is the Sony DRU-500A is a great burner until you need technical support. Sony Storage Support stinks, and for me it has been weeks of playing musical support technicians and still no RMA number. Mine has mysteriously stopped recognizing rewritables that have files on them. Brand new RWs work perfectly.

This all being said, you might want to consider quality of tech support as part of your decision. I can't speak for NEC, Pioneer, or the others, but there's my $.02 on Sony. They are very stubborn.