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I went with the Sony DRU-500AX. I did alot of research before buying it. I took into consideration that I wanted a new generation DVD burner. Meaning the 4x. I did product reviews on CNET. I checked out the comments left by owners of this burner along with the Pioneer burner. I found that users loved the Sony more than the Pioneer. The factor that put it over the top was the product reviews and customer reviews left on circuit city's website. I didn't know which format I wanted to burn to. That's why I got a burner to burn to both formats. I am extremely pleased with this burner as it does well for both +r, +rw , -r & -rw formats. I have burned on all the formats. The format that I like is +r. I am going with that format because Microsoft is backing it. Love it or Hate it. Microsoft backs something it has the money to out do competition.
:)
HP Pavilion XL866
AMD Athlon 1.1Ghz
Windows XP Service Pack 1
NVidia GeForce4 MX 440-SE
512MB RAM
CDR: LG 40x12x40
DVD ROM: Hitachi 12x
DVDR: Sony DRU-500AX
taz291819
Newbie
14 Apr 2003 12:43 AM
I myself did a little research before purchasing my burner. Since all my stand-alone dvd players are Philips, I went with a DVD+R. Ended up getting the NEC ND-1100A (from Dell) and must say I am very happy with it, though I have read a lot of posts where people have had problems with this drive, guess I got lucky.
audvid
Newbie
15 Apr 2003 3:55 PM
g8torb8t
Which Sony does your brother have?
Is there a specific reason that your brother likes your pioneer better than his sony?
g8torb8t
Newbie
15 Apr 2003 4:47 PM
audvid_, I purchased the Pioneer A04 when it first came out. My brother used it as much as I did. Later, I purchased the Pioneer A05(installed on a different computer (2 Gig AMD Athlon) and he liked it too. Trying to outdo me, he then purchased the Sony DRU-500 ($100 more than my A05) and slowly realized it burns slower than my A04, and the A05 blew it away. He tried to swap me for the A05 straight up, I didn't do it.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 15 Apr 03 4:48 PM
321_Q/A
Inactive
17 Apr 2003 12:10 PM
Personally, I prefer the DRU500a. I use that burner on a few of the Quality Assurance test machines here at work, and am very happy with it.
I like it because it is very stable, hard to kill the buffer, constantly updated firmware, 4x capable, and it has the convenience of burning +/- R/RW.
At home, I use the Tritton (Ricoh) 5125. It is also a very stable burner. It is hard to dump the buffer on that one also, but it is not capable of 4x speeds and it can not burn all of the media types that the DRU500 series can.
puff2345
Member
17 Apr 2003 1:47 PM
321/guy, i just installed 500ax, was burning & buffer dropped completly out. set to dma, region 1, xp home,1 gig memory,dell pent.4-2.8 can you explain what could cause this?
thanks jim
mikejd1
Inactive
17 Apr 2003 1:56 PM
I absoluty LOVE my DRU500A. :)
System Specs:
Athlon XP 2100+
1 gig PC2700 DDR
nVidia 4600 128RAM
80 Gig WD 8MB Buffer w/ 120 Gig IBM
Sony DRU500A-Firmware G.
It's all in the media. That post really didn't prove anything. On the other side, what does Windows report your Cendyne as? (Cendyne is just a marketing company. They're buying OEM drives from someone; Ricoh, Toshiba, Sanyo, Acer...)
I Love My HDTV
whompus
Senior Member
19 Apr 2003 12:36 AM
I think cendyne is still using pioneer. I am with you on the hp 200i I think it is a ricoh.
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ETP
Inactive
19 Apr 2003 7:41 AM
Cendyne DVR-105
nickicap
Inactive
19 Apr 2003 4:44 PM
Then it's a -R. I somehow assumed he had stayed with a +R burner. You really can't amke a performance comparison using different brands and formats of media. I mean you can say one is faster than the other, but without evaluating multiple brands of media on each, you really can't say one drive is faster than the other. It's not that simple
BUT, if you say, hey, I saved ~$200 with this drive over that, and it's about the same perceived performance, etc. that's valid. It's all in the eye of the beholder.
I Love My HDTV
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 19 Apr 03 4:45 PM
321143
Member
19 Apr 2003 5:49 PM
Surprisingly, no-one except 321_Q/A uses the (Ricoh) 5125A, seems like a very solid drive for the price ($178.00usd). The fact that Ritek is part of the Ricoh family, makes it a good choice in narrowing down compatibility concerns, since Ritek is such a strong player and a favorite in the DVD media business.
ireland
Inactive
19 Apr 2003 6:43 PM
My option,i have 3-burners hp-200,hp300 and a sony drx500ul,thay are all good burners thay work well for me.also i don't care who makes them,as long as thay work,I ALWAY BUY A GOOD BRAND OF MEDIA,memorex,hp,fuji.The dollar amount to me doesn't matter.Ialso don't care who makes them if you don't agree of Q
of the media i use,thats ok thay work very good for me.
I also don't care for XP,that is why i use windows 2000 pro and windows 98se.Remember this is my option.
nickicap
Inactive
19 Apr 2003 9:11 PM
ireland
Take a chill pill. No one really cares what you use, when it comes right down to it, ESPECIALLY if you're gonna get defensive about it. If you missed the point, then there's no point debating its merits. I was not criticizing or passing judgement on your selections. Trust me, I will sleep tonight if you match up HP media and HP burners...
Happy burning.
I Love My HDTV
321_Q/A
Inactive
21 Apr 2003 5:27 PM
All,
The -R/RW burners will usually be slower than the +R/RW drives..
This is not always the case, but for the most part, it is true.
321_Q/A
Inactive
21 Apr 2003 5:33 PM
puff2345,
There could be a few things happening there..
1) Check to make sure that your ROM drives are on separate IDEs.
2) make sure that you are using 40 pin IDE cables with your ROM drives. (Instead of 80 pin)
3) Make sure that all of your drives are set to DMA (you said that they are, so just double check)
4) Make your burner the Master and make the DVD-ROM Slave.
Let me know if any of these help you.
<puff2345 wrote>
"321/guy, i just installed 500ax, was burning & buffer dropped completly out. set to dma, region 1, xp home,1 gig memory,dell pent.4-2.8 can you explain what could cause this?"
Whisperer
Senior Member
21 Apr 2003 7:34 PM
321_Q/A
-----------------------------------------------
""2) make sure that you are using 40 pin IDE cables with your ROM drives. (Instead of 80 pin)""
-----------------------------------------------
Forgive the question: But why 40 pin ribbon cables? I thought DMA & UDMA required 80 pin cables to allow said throughput. Also thought 80 pin ribbons were downwards compatible with 40 pin devices. I'm wrong?
Best & thanks
Jaybo
Inactive
21 Apr 2003 8:07 PM
Whisperer,
I hope this helps, the 40 pin, 80-conductor cable permits higher data transfer rate, reduces crosstalk,with improved signal integrity. It is compatible with DMA and the new UDMA hard drives. It also improves signal integrity by providing 40 additional ground lines between the 40-pin IDE signal and the ground lines.
Be Safe,
Good Luck,
Jaybo
Glass
Inactive
21 Apr 2003 8:14 PM
Umm, yeah, what Jaybo said.
Whisperer
Senior Member
21 Apr 2003 9:18 PM
Ya, I meant 40-PIN / 80-WIRE ... but I was just wonderin why 321_Q/A was tellin puff2345 to use 40's instead of 80's on a DMA enabled channel.
Jaybo
Inactive
21 Apr 2003 9:47 PM
I believe it may have to do with the cross talk, could be the cost though, but mainly with what I described. Cross channel chatter, can lead to problems when burning, it has been to many threads, and to many posts ago,or I talked with Q/A about the problems. It is getting late and I am too tired to really want to think.
Take Care my California friend,
J.
puff2345
Member
21 Apr 2003 10:24 PM
321 q/a
the cable are 40 pin ide... how do you put them on seperate ide's ? they are on cable select now and i think the rom is primary. not sure how to tell from looking in device manager. Why put the rom as master? and can i do that on cable select?
thanks everybody
jim
ETP
Inactive
22 Apr 2003 7:24 AM
My next system may be a raid IDE. A friend at work has built one that has more than two channels for IDE devices. I think this may answer many problems we are having on ripping!!!!
321_Q/A
Inactive
22 Apr 2003 1:26 PM
Whisperer,
In testing DXC we have found that when 80 pin cables are used on some systems, the speed of the rip and the burn can drop by as much as half.
Usually, it seems to happen on a few of the older systems, but I have seen it in a newer system a few times also.
Granted, it doesn't happen on all systems, but changing to 40 a pin IDE cable is usually one of the first things I would try if the ripping/burning speeds were not up to par.
In all of my systems, I use a 40 pin IDE cable for my ROM drives, and an 80 pin for my hard drives.
It is already over 90 days since last post to this thread, you're not allowed to post here anymore.
