New Sony DRU-510A +/- RW Any Good?

[Simmy]

I have had the Sony DRU500AX on order from Dabs.com for about 2 months. They recently contacted me and said that sony are ceasing production of this drive and are replacing it with the DRU510A, which I could have at the same price.

Does anyone know what the difference is between the two drives, and if they comes with the same software?

Also does this new drive fix some of the problems that the older model had? - as I haven't seen any reviews for it yet. I want a burner to make home movies on dvd that will play in as many standalone players as poss, thats why I went for the dual format.

[spiderman2k1]

Do not get it Sony Driver's have alot of problem's get Pioneer or wait for the Pioneer AO6 that will be DVD-+R and be 8X for burning DVD's

[VinnySem]

Do not get it Sony Driver's have alot of problem's get Pioneer or wait for the Pioneer AO6 that will be DVD-+R and be 8X for burning DVD's

The A06 dual format drive from Pioneer is only a 4X burner for -R and +R. There are no 8X burners yet. Get your facts straight.

At any rate, I agree, get the Pioneer drive, I had the Sony for a while and had many problems with it. I switched back to my old trusty A04 and have not had a problem since.

[dun4cheap]

The new sony 510 burns DVD+r-r+RW at 4x and DVD-RW at 2. So basically the drive is a little faster than the 500 series. As for waiting for the pioneer, pioneer has had plenty of time to come up with a duel burner. Most burning problems and errors are caused by the device sitting in front of the monitor. I personally like the larger buffer the sony comes with.

dun4cheap

[VinnySem]

Most burning problems and errors are caused by the device sitting in front of the monitor.

LOL good one.

[Kennyshin]

It will be Pioneer DVR-A07 to offer 8x DVD+R/-R write speed.

[VinnySem]

I'd like to know where people get their information.

[Kennyshin]

I'd like to know where people get their information.

1. Those who decide.

2. Those who develop and design key components.

3. Those who need to know before order.

4. Those who are very intelligent to know more out of limited sources of information.

[w00tski]

why not 6x? dont ya think pioneer would milk the speed factor some more ?

[dun4cheap]

I am thinking if sony didn't release the dru500a pioneer would have never released the a05. Don't get me wrong, I love my pioneer homeentertainment amp, but pioneer really disappointed me by sleeping on the ao4 for a long period of time.

dun4cheap

[youngkes]

Official dvd-forum at the moment only support 4x write speed.

[VinnySem]

Is this "Pioneer A07" a true 8X drive, or an 8X MAX drive? The reason I ask is 8X DVD is over 10Kbps, and I've yet to see an optical drive sustain that kind of transfer rate across the entire surface of a disk READING. IN fact, I have barely ever seen several of the DVD-ROM drives I've owned come close to half of their rated transfer speed, even on the outer most edge of the disks. And as stated earlier, 4X is the highest speed supported by the DVD Forum.

[Kennyshin]

Official dvd-forum at the moment only support 4x write speed.

A07 is likely to appear in 2003 Q4.

Philips does support 8x and 16x but I'm not sure what your "official... support" actually means.

[TomLo]

Is this Sony DRU-510A drive MADE IN JAPAN?

[VinnySem]

Official dvd-forum at the moment only support 4x write speed.

A07 is likely to appear in 2003 Q4.

Philips does support 8x and 16x but I'm not sure what your "official... support" actually means.

Phillips is not a member of the DVD Forum. The DVD Forum is the organization that develops the -R format. They ARE a member of the DVD+RW Alliance, which develops and supports the +R format. The fact that Phillips supports 8X and 16X is useless to those of us that use -R.

Personally, I highly doubt we will ever see DVD writable media any higher than 4X or 6X, unless they are MAX drives where they only write those speeds along the outer edges of the media. Remember, 1X DVD write is near 1,350kbps, so 8X is over 10,000, and 16X is over 21,000! I have yet to see a DVD drive that can READ that fast, never mind write. And with the tighter precision required to write a DVD disk due to the narrower track, the high RPM needed to achieve those write speeds would cause too much wobble and vibration.

[farleybaz]

I Have The latest sony -+ burner and are using ritecx4 DVD blanks.
have copied loads of dvd's using shrink 103 and have has no bad copys.
burner auto's on what speed disk you use.

[jdizzy40]

Why is Sony getting a bad rap? I have 2 and haven't had a bit of problem. I also bought the new TDK Indio +/-drive. It seems to be as good as the Sony. All black too. Looks good in my Thermaltake tower. Burning using Memorex 4x media. Burns times for DVD X Copy Express are between 11 and 14 minutes depending on how big the movie is. Running P4 2.5 and 2.8 CPUs. Also an AMD XP2200. I haven't owned a Pioneer but wouldn't mind getting one if the dual format model comes out.

[-jsl-]

Phillips is not a member of the DVD Forum. The DVD Forum is the organization that develops the -R format. They ARE a member of the DVD+RW Alliance, which develops and supports the +R format. The fact that Phillips supports 8X and 16X is useless to those of us that use -R.

Personally, I highly doubt we will ever see DVD writable media any higher than 4X or 6X, unless they are MAX drives where they only write those speeds along the outer edges of the media. Remember, 1X DVD write is near 1,350kbps, so 8X is over 10,000, and 16X is over 21,000! I have yet to see a DVD drive that can READ that fast, never mind write. And with the tighter precision required to write a DVD disk due to the narrower track, the high RPM needed to achieve those write speeds would cause too much wobble and vibration.

Philips is a member of the DVD forum (actually one of the original members). DVD forum does not develop the DVD-R format, it only approves some of the specifications developed by Pioneer and other companies.
I think the coming 8x DVD writers (in H2 2003) will use CLV technique but faster drives than 8x need to use CAV technique. But using CAV technique 16x DVD writers is not impossible.

[Raminder]

Heres something for all you DRU510A fans. Firstly I have to admit I bought one and still have one but listen to this little story.
(Oh I have just signed up to this website but have used it for years).
I bought the DRU510A and started buring DVDs on it straight away. At the shop were I was buying my DVD-R media I was told by the shop owner that EKA media does not work in the sony drives but I could try it out because if it did in mine I would save a fortune on discs as EKA media 1X-2X are v. cheap.
Okay so I was presently using my Princo 4x media slightly more expensive but they are faster and I had burnt 14 Discs with no coasters. Then out comes the EKA media, I burn a backup of the Matrix on to it and it works. I works in my standalone DVD player aswell. I'm very pleased now. Cheap media for me!!!.
So I go back to my Princo disks as I was only given one EKA disc from the shop just to test it out. Im burning the princo and then it says that it cannot finalise the disk. I accept 1 in every 15 is a coaster. Not bad going. So I press the button to open the drive after closing down CopytoDVD and I notice the light is flashing madly on the drive. The drive tray does not come out.
Okay just a small problem. Restart the machine, still the same light flashing so I turn the machine off get the trusty paper clip and open the tray. Maybe it was the disc causing the problems. I turn the computer on still flashing and the tray is half open and now the computer can still see the drive but I cant do anything with it. I do all the normal things delete it off the device manager move the drive to a different machine etc...
Nothing works I got the bloody thing exchanged and if it happens again guys and gals I'm going for the Pioneer Sorry. Please can someone tell me that this has happened to someone else otherwise i don't think god likes me!?!?!?!?!?!?

[w00tski]

Just curious, but where are these drives manufactuered ?
Is it still japan?

[Netpeace]

I purchased the DRU500AX from Best Buy (because they have a three year Performance Guarantee) two weeks ago. Now the DRU510A is available for the same price. Two questions:

1. SHOULD I RETURN THE 500AX AND GET THE 510A ?

2. WILL THE FIRMWARE UPGRADE FOR THE 500AX MAKE IT EXACTLY LIKE THE 510A ? IF NOT, WHAT WILL STILL BE DIFFERENT ?

I have no problems with the 500AX.

Thank you.

[VinnySem]

Phillips is not a member of the DVD Forum. The DVD Forum is the organization that develops the -R format. They ARE a member of the DVD+RW Alliance, which develops and supports the +R format. The fact that Phillips supports 8X and 16X is useless to those of us that use -R.

Personally, I highly doubt we will ever see DVD writable media any higher than 4X or 6X, unless they are MAX drives where they only write those speeds along the outer edges of the media. Remember, 1X DVD write is near 1,350kbps, so 8X is over 10,000, and 16X is over 21,000! I have yet to see a DVD drive that can READ that fast, never mind write. And with the tighter precision required to write a DVD disk due to the narrower track, the high RPM needed to achieve those write speeds would cause too much wobble and vibration.

Philips is a member of the DVD forum (actually one of the original members). DVD forum does not develop the DVD-R format, it only approves some of the specifications developed by Pioneer and other companies.
I think the coming 8x DVD writers (in H2 2003) will use CLV technique but faster drives than 8x need to use CAV technique. But using CAV technique 16x DVD writers is not impossible.

Show me on this member list where you see Phillips:
http://www.dvdforum.org/about-memberlist.htm

I do, however, see them on THIS member list:
http://www.dvdrw.com/history.html

GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE POSTING IN HERE

Interesting, though, that Sony and Yamaha are members of both.

[-jsl-]

If you had searched for Philips (and not Phillips) on the dvdforum page you linked to you would have found:

"Royal Philips Electronics - http://www.philips.com
http://www.licensing.philips.com "

So I can just repeat what you wrote: GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT BEFORE POSTING IN HERE

[borghe]

vinnysem - Royal Philips Electronics

Edit - doh, beaten to it.

[VinnySem]

You're right, didn't see them under "Royal Phillips." I stand corrected.

[TomLo]

it's made in MALAYSIA

[Yirkin]

Return the 500 you just bought and get a 510. No reason not to if the store will accept it. I have had no problems at all with the 510a. It has never produced a bad DVD and it runs quiet and fast.

The newest firmware for the 500 will not turn it into a 510. The 500 is still limited to 2.4x +RW writing where as the 510 claims to support 4x +RW. I have yet to find any 4x +RW discs so I can't test it but I'm sure it will perform well when the discs do go on sale.

Howard

[Netpeace]

I did end up even exchanging it for the 510A several weeks ago. Thank you.

[PaulDiston]

The problem with the flashing light happened to me as well. I got the drive exchanged. This happened to me after about 16 or 17 disks. I made two coasters but they were cos one I was opening media player and the other because I think the data i wanted copied was corupt. I had burnt 8 or 9 disks each one a different make. See the link http://www.cd-rmedia.co.uk/cgi-bin2/cdrmedia/details.pl?id=trial
Then I went onto Datawrite Reds 4x. I burnt a few of these 3 or 4 then the thing went wrong. I don't really know what caused the drive to go wrong but I hope it doesn't happen again.
I think that it is something mechanical and I don't think changing meda can make the laser or mechanics get stuck or what ever.

[SHS]

Well I have alll ready burn more 60 disk+ disc with my Sony DRU-500AX.