Need advice

[son_of_izzy]

I'm about to buy a dvd-writer and I have the opportunity to buy the Sony DRU-500 for the same price as the Pioneer A06. Which one should I go for and why??

I also need advice on to where to place the writer 'cause my computer is stuffed I have the dvd-rom, a Lite on Cdr 48x writer, and the front-panel for my Audigy2 soundcard (which I use a lot). I also use the Cd-writer a lot and of course the dvd-rom reader too What to do?

/Izzy

[bugster]

Which drive?, Hmm, let cost decide.

Where to put it? An external enclosure, Firewire or Usb2. Don't have either of these interfaces on your system, go for firewire and get a cheap controller card. I would not advise using USb1.1 (or whatever the old slow version is called these days).

[son_of_izzy]

Well I would let cost decide if it wasn't for the fact that both writers cost the same at the store I'm shopping at...

[bugster]

Well I would let cost decide if it wasn't for the fact that both writers cost the same at the store I'm shopping at...

In that case....

The pioneer range has been burning -r disks longer than any other and so should have the greatest media compatibility. No Idea how it will perform with +r tho.

The Sony drives have been around a while now and gotten pretty reliable after a few media compatibility issues early on, and have been doing +r and +r since the beginning.

I don't suppose that helps does it

[tgm4883]

I have heard that the pioneers start having problems after a couple months. I was a huge pioneer fan until I heard that, now I am going to go with the nec 1300a

[garryheather]

All manufacturers ship the odd lemon from time to time, but the biggest problem with the Pioneer's were some of the earlier ones could be damaged by being too aggressive with some media and burning out the optical block.

This has been rectified now and has been for some time. I for one use an A04 on my machine at home and use an A05 where I work, and both have a good many hours racked up on them and continue to perform as expected. If you look on the forums, the Sony's had a tendancy to stop working after a while too, and I put this to you... we rarely hear complaints about the many thousands that work perfectly.

If it bothers you, buy the one with the better warranty !