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

[logopro]

I personally like the larger buffer the sony comes with.

dun4cheap

what buffer size comes with the Sony vs the Pioneer A06 ?

thanks in advance,

[SHS]

Sony has 8MB
where the
Pioneer has 2MB

[logopro]

Hi there SHS,

Is there any advantage to having the 8meg vs 2 meg buffer on the DVD burner ? or is this a feature that really doesn't come into play anymore with the faster computers that are available ?

If it is really important then I guess I would steer clear of the new Pioneer A06 and go for the Sony, but that would depend on what your answer is and or others opions.

thanks in advance.

[whoster69]

Hi there SHS,

Is there any advantage to having the 8meg vs 2 meg buffer on the DVD burner ? or is this a feature that really doesn't come into play anymore with the faster computers that are available ?

If it is really important then I guess I would steer clear of the new Pioneer A06 and go for the Sony, but that would depend on what your answer is and or others opions.

thanks in advance.

It depends entirely on who you talk to about this. I was concerned about this as well when I bought, because it seemed to me that Pioneer had a better track record when it came to compatibility with -R discs than Sony but I liked the 8MB cache too.

Back in the early days of CD burners, 8MB cache did help. This isn't the case any longer for CD burners. As to whether or not it makes a significant difference for DVD burners, most of the people I asked about this here and at other forums seemed to think it didn't with the exception of some of the Sony owners.

I decided to go with the Pioneer and have had ZERO problems with it burning at 1X, 2X, 2.4X and 4X. I've only tried two kinds of media, so it would be a good idea to get other, more knowledgeable people's opinions on this as well...

[Gil T Pleasure]

Is there any advantage to having the 8meg vs 2 meg buffer on the DVD burner?

Probably not. That's what the Buffer Underrun Proof (for CDs), Lossless Linking (for DVD+R/RW) and Zero Link technology (for DVD-R/RW) technologies are for.

[bludog]

I also have recently purchased a Sony DRU-510a. It was only in the computer for a week and has been used to burn about 4 discs.
Halfway through a burn it stopped working and began rapid flashing of the drive indicator LED. The drive would not respond and the tray would not open.
It seems to be a common problem with this model as I see several others with exactly the same thing just on this forum.
My drive had 1.0b firmware.

The drive has been sent back to the supplier for replacement, but I also contacted Sony service and they said that they would send me an email link to a patch that would fix the problem. I havent recieved that email as yet.

[logopro]

Hi Bludog,

I have a friend that has this drive, and what you say about the problem you are having with your drive is "common" as you put it is well... kind of unsettling.

When you said that the problem is common, are you saying you've seen many posts from others on this forum that have had this problem.... boy I tell ya, it is just depressing if this is happening to a brand new drive.

[logopro]

Bludog,

By the way, I note you are using firmware 1.0b, yet all drives were coming with 1.0a and Sony just released a version 1.0c firmware within the last week or something, have you tried version 1.0c yet ?

It's been out for quite a few days now on the Sony site.

anyone else know about this problem ?

[midimidi]

I got in o nthe CompUSA deal with the 510a two weeks ago - its been fine. Haven't had a problem with it at all - just upgraded to 1.0c (which supposedly increases performance, but I havent seen any).

Question for those who have one of these - what speed are you ripping at? I cant get past 2x. I even uninstalled the Intel accelerator to make sure DMA was on - still is, and I'm still getting MAX 2x. Computer's all up-to-date stuff, so I'm just curious if this drive is capable of being faster at ripping...thx

[jdizzy40]

It only happens to people who keep fumbling, fiddling with the firmware updates. Come on if it ain't broke to begin with why keep flashing the firmware. It's just like your systems bios, get it wrong and it kills the hardware. Maybe you figured that out now. Sony gets a bad rap because you and all others can't leave something alone for 10 minutes. I bet you even tried to overclock it with a tool right. Won't happen. I hope my new Pioneer A06 develops a problem so I can post how it sucks and Sony doesn't. I have 3 Sony's and 2 Pioneers. They all work and no failures. I no I don't flash the firmware each week either.

[Gil T Pleasure]

I'm just curious if this drive is capable of being faster at ripping...thx

Nope. most, if not all, DVD burners including your drive are locked at 2x rip speed.

[TBoneit]

a. Why are you using the expensive Sony drive to rip ??

b. It's locked to two (2) X for ripping.

c. Get something like a Liteon 16X for ripping, My Liteon LTD 166s rips much faster than the Sony and was dang cheap to buy and if it goes 10 toes up, oh well.

My Thoughts
Good Luck
Roger T

[bludog]

Hi there logopro

What I mean by a "common problem" is that just in this single thread alone there are three of us with the same failure of the drive locking up and doing the rapid blinking drive indicator thing.

As I said, Sony service told me the problem was rectified with a patch, so it is a known fault and maybe the new firmware was brought out quickly to solve the problem.

I still havent recieved an email from sony.

[w00tski]

i think the only REAL difference between a06 and 510a is simply the 4x +RW. To be honest, 4x +RW sounds pretty good. Imagine being able to write a rewritable disc in the same time you can write a regular write-once disc... takes the pain out of waiting for test runs. The only other diff is price. The rest, buffer, CD burning speeds etc seems to be irrelevant.

[bludog]

Well I recieved an email from the Sony support guys (see below)
The link goes to the 1.0c firmware upgrade, so if anyone else gets the problem it would probably be worth doing the upgrade and seeing if it gets rid of the fault before sending the drive back.

Post it up here if it works and I'll pass it on to Sony.




Hi Glen, please refer to the link below in regards to their DRU 510 drive.

We also need their feedback to wether the firmware has fixed the problem. Please let me know the feedback from the customer's.

Also make sure they don't have anything running in the background and make sure screen saver is off and no programs running. Please update the case and let me know the outcome. Thanks.





http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/dru510adwn.htm#dwns

[midimidi]

a. Why are you using the expensive Sony drive to rip ??

cause i dont have a dvd-rom

b. It's locked to two (2) X for ripping.

good to know now - never heard that one before...a little confusing and annoying since the drive says 8x read speed...

c. Get something like a Liteon 16X for ripping, My Liteon LTD 166s rips much faster than the Sony and was dang cheap to buy and if it goes 10 toes up, oh well.

yup - bought one from newegg the day before i posted, assuming it was just something i needed...now off to get a new motherboard / ATA card since i dont have any more ports!

thx for the info..

[schamp]

Bought the Sony DRU-510U about 2 weeks ago. Can't say much about different media yet, but I sure wasn't please with the reading speed. On the box it said 12x and it actually never went over 2x. At least when ripping DVD's, haven't tried data yet.

Here's a way to speed up your DRU-510 :

Goto: http://sony.storagesupport.com/legalagreement.zulu?dlid=dvdrw/downloads/dss10/DSS101.zip

and download the free software DSS 1.0. This truely speeds things up. Of course Sony could have done this right from the beginning, instead of waiting for so many complaints. I'm sure its just a flag inside the firmware, to make ripping slower and thus less attractive.

Anyway, with this little Utility, you can triple the average ripspeed to at least 6x.

[alexcue]

FYI, they just updated the firware to 1.0D (as in David). Not much in specifics as to what they updated tho.