Sony 510 issues with burn speed

[blue42]

Hi all,

have a problem with a Sony 510 and the issue of only being able to burn at 2X even with quality 4X media. Has anyone else had a similar issue.
Doesn't matter what burn software you use either.
AMD1700
512MB Ram
7200 RPM HD

Cheers

Grant

[ebenton]

Do you have the latest firmware?

[SaSi]

I have a DRU500A with the latest f/w (that sorta makes it equivalent to a 510).

I have had the same problem over the past two months or so.

I was happily burning TDK +R and -R media at 4x and was only buying TDK.

Recently, I cannot burn them at 4x. The s/w proposes 4x but will either hung while "trying" to do the lead-in or - after a long lead-in phase - start recording and finish in 30 min. or so (2x).

I am guessing that TDK may have switched their manufacturer ID to something the SONY doesn't recognise or perhaps changed the media "prescription" alltogether.
Or, perhaps, my 14 month old SONY is getting too old...

[handyguy]

Its your media &/or firmware, use ONLY sony certified 4x media:
left column:dvd writers

has media selections that work at 4x

[blue42]

Thanks for the tips everyone, and yes it does have the latest bios 1.0F. I will give them a try and let you know the outcome.

Cheers

Grant

[hardcore]

i had the same problem..
yeah just flashed my from 1.0d to 1.0f...
no change..
still only x2 on any media..
sony sux..

[blue42]

The problem seems to be media incompatability, I had some melody 4X -R media with a chrome centre ring area, these are actually made by the same company as the Databank 4X (Ritek) they work ok, when I bought some new ones, Melody 4X -R with a clear centre area they are actually made by another company and will only burn at 2X in the Sony, have not tried other burners yet.

I suggest to anyone else who has the problem to get yourself a Sony 4X dvd-r and see what that records at, that will indicate if you have a mechanical, software or media issue. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Cheers

Grant

AU

[Rich86]

Sony DRU-510A - burn speeds determined by firmware:

I am a long time user of computers - burners - and now into burning DVD's. I am fairly new at burning dvd's - so I may be sharing information some of you know already.

I went for the Sony 510A 1st time out of the gate when purchasing a DVD burner. I chose the Sony mostly because I had read lots of good things about it, the price had just dropped and Sony offered a sizable rebate, I liked the idea of a 8mb buffer, etc. I've been doing great with it - until I opened a new package of media recently.
I immediately went into the coaster business for some reason.
And no - it wasn't "no name" media.
And every bit of Memorex dvd media I have used has performed flawlessly.
It was Sony DVD-R media that seemed to start all my troubles.
I had a burn actually fail on a "bad media" error (CloneDVD) once it got to the outer edge of the burn.
I burned a dvd that left the last .vob file on the disc unreadable - even in the 510A that burned it.
I burned dvd's that had obvious flaws (tiling, etc.) when played back.
I was 4 for 4 with bad results using this Sony media on this Sony drive!

Here's what I learned.
My System - 1200mhz AMD processor, Asus m'board, 1gb ram, tons of hard disc, Windows2KPro/sp4.
DVD Burner - Sony DRU-510A - 1.0F firmware (upgraded from 1.0D - right around when this started happening).
I downloaded and installed Sony's drive control module (DSS). I also read thoroughly the .pdf document which discusses this module and also provides enlightening information about this Sony drive.
This drive has an internal speed control designation (apparently in the firmware) that can run in "silent" (aka "slow") - "automatic" (aka default speeds") or "overdrive" (aka fastest possible speeds). This effects all reading and burning speeds for all types of media. The document suggests that this internal firmware designation will determine burn speeds regardless of external software settings. Another interesting note - the "automatic" default setting burn speed for DVD-R media is 4X!

I also downloaded a little program called "DVD Identifier" which will examine dvd media and tell you what it finds about its manufacturer and speed rating designation.
I ran "DVD Identifier" against the Sony DVD-R media which was acting up and guess what I found - it is Sony branded media (no other manufacturer is indicated) - with a speed rating of "1x (2x)". So, I believe I ran into trouble because my drive was defaulting to 4x burning on media which simply could not handle it. The packaging of the Sony media provides no clue as to any maximum speed of the media.

Being a person who cares about quality a lot more than how fast I can burn media I took the following steps:
I ran DSS - and changed the 510A firmware designation to "silent" - and saved that to the drive firmware. This slows the default speed on DVD-R media down to 2x.
I reset CloneDVD to 1x burning - and burned again the exact same source material as had failed twice already - on a fresh Sony dvd-r from the same box. The burn took twice as long as before (pushing an hour as I recall), but ran to conclusion successfully.
I played and watched critically the 2 hour video on my Pioneer DVL-909 laser disc/dvd deck (this early dvd player plays ALL formats of DVD media just fine). I made note of 3 very small/minor flaws in the video (brief instances of tiling). I searched/reviewed the same dvd-r on my computer in the Sony drive and observed the exact same 3 flaws. I then went back to the .vob files created by CloneDVD on my hard disc and searched for the same spots and found the very same flaws in the same exact places in those files.

So - I am convinced the burner is just fine - and the 1.0F firmware is just fine - and I've learned a lesson about this burner and media. It sure explains why Sony released this DSS module to their customers (although it's too bad they left it to customers to learn the hard way why they needed it).
I will leave my drive set for "silent" via the DSS module until such time as I am confident I am always using 4x media.

[SaSi]

Some more info - for what it's worth.

I've been burning at 2x only on -R and 2.4x for +R media for some time. I am only using TDK media.

I just purchased new TDK -R media, for all intents and purposes identical to the previous ones I - still - have and the burner is burning these new ones at 4x without any problems.

Apparently, something in the drive forces slower speeds. Perhaps the mechanism to do this is a bit too sensitive.

[Pop's]

???????????????????

[stekam]

Hi,

I do have the same problem with my SONY 510AK

I bought RITEK G04 DVDR (Rivision & Ridisc) and both of the can not be burned @ 4 x.

But i do have old ritek g04 and the do burn @ 4x

I did apply last firmware 1.1A

Do any one have a solution to the problem ?

Big up to the solver of my problem