Sony DRU-720a DL drive
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"I'VE TRIED DVD +R DL DISK and............" on by ronman101
Pros: PERFORMS IN EVERY FORMAT OUTSTANDING
Cons: NERO 6 & LABEL LIMITATIONS
Summary: I thought I would come back and update my review since I only ran less then 10 DVD burns with my first review. Now I have done over 75 burns, may formats and still going strong. NO COASTERS - NO PROBLEMS. I am glad that I saved money buying the internal drive, and I needed to - to buy some DVD +R DL disks. Before I begin, I just want to let you all know that I only use Verbatium DISKS. I've tried others, but like these overall. So lets start off with some of my findings:
CD-R/RW: Great improvement over my first drive. 40X is nice, but I expected that this drive would have reach 52X, like the CRX320 that came out about the same time.
DVD +/-R 16X==> PROS: 5 minute burn time. CONS: 1) DVD's are very pricey at a $1.00/Disk. Note: I found that they really don't burn at 16X until about 75% of the way though the burn. They averaged about 12.1X.
DVD +/-R 8X==> PROS: 1) less the $0.45 per disk CONS: 8 min burn time.
OVERALL Right now, 8X Disks are worth the price over 16X, eventhough it takes 3 mins longer.
DVD+/-RW==> Now I can really backup all my digital camera pictures without waiting forever. 8X/6X speeds are much faster then my old 2.4X drive and disks. I could only fine 4x on the shelf, but it really makes a difference (28MINS/16MINS). Hope to see 6 & 8X disks soon.
Finally, what you are looking to find out about, the DVD+R DL. WOW! These disks are great, Still too expensive to move to ($8.00/per), but I had to try them. So, I bought (ouch) a 3 pack of Verbatim 2.4X DVD's, and I was surprised that the Sony drive burned the entire disk at 4.1X (28mins). No Compression needed and it played crystal clear in my DVD player. There is one catch, DVD +R DL do not play in every DVD player, DVD-ROM drive, DVD/CD-RW drive. If you want to make sure that they work with your DVD player, check out this website WWW.VIDEOHELP.COM. Click on DVD PLAYERS, and then key in your make/model to see what your DVD player's qualifications are. Qualifications on this site are based on others who have inform them of their findings (Disk Formats: plus, minus, RW; Video types: DivX, MPEG3, and lots of other stuff). I found my DVD player on the list, but DL was not check off, so I updated my make/model on that site. If your player does not play them, you can search for one that does. What a nice website.
My Disappointment: NERO 6 and its label limitation. Not sure why they did not allow long label names. This is the first burn software that I have come across that has done this. No problems with Roxio.
Enjoy your DVD burning. -
"Great for the price, and you don't have to bust the bank." on by retcop96
Pros: Works great, and easy to install.
Cons: I wish I could find some with this writer.
Summary: I used both 8x and 16x disc and they both work just fine. I haven't used the DVD 9 DL disc yet due to the high cost. Nor did I use the CD program disc. I already have other programs that do the same thing. Just make sure to go to Sony and download the updated drives after you install this writer.
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"THE DRIVE TO WAIT FOR - I UPGRADED FROM A SONY 510UL (A+)" on
Pros: Of all the problems I have read with some of the previous DVD/RW Drives (even Sonys), I was skeptable that I would never be able to upgrade from my Sony 510UL, 4X, external burner (Love it!), but I am now sold on this new 720A. Yes, I would have loved an
Cons: My Pioneer DVD Rom Drive (M115) did not recognize my finalized DVD-R disk. DVD+/-Rs that I burn from my 510 drive read fine. It might be due to a lack of firmware updates on this very old drive, however, it worked fine in my laptop and my DVD player. M
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"Perfect Burner 16X speed is good" on by Mayooran
Pros: Very Fast Burning with Nero 7 at 16x
Cons: No DVD-R DL support
Summary: First of all my apologies for leaving the Feedback after two years or usage. YES i bought this one May 2005 and for the past 3 years NO problems so far. Firmware update also available with step up step guide in sony support site. Highly Recommended Burner with Nero 7.
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"Great Deal" on by nosoupferyoo
Pros: Absolutely everything about it
Cons: Very few times it stalls (possibly through overuse)
Summary: I really have no reason to write this, but after seeing so many bad reports about this, I have to spread the facts about it. First of all, I should explain what type of tools used with it.
I have a Compaq Presario computer, 2.6 GHz of Celeron CPU, 1 Gig of RAM (although it has worked perfectly when only half that amount was available), XP, and use the Nero toolkit. I don't care about not having all of Nero because it hasn't failed me yet and all I really need are burning, image-to-disc, and backup capabilities. My computer is average overall, less than the normal recent computers because of its processor, motherboard, and outdated onboard video.
Prior to working with this, I have used a USB DVD-RW burner. I strongly recommend not getting these, even Sony's, although I didn't use their's but someone else's. The reason is that data doesn't flow as fast even with firewire, and the ribbon cable/motherboard is more than enough to power it all up. Every single DVD was wasted due to this, and only about two in the twenty DVDs used were correct until I've reached a certain file.
This DVD burner was next in line because the honesty of salesmen at CompUSA told me to get it (not to advertise about this store, though; I know each franchise is different, but Vacaville's is amazing). I sometimes burn twenty-thirty dvds a day, and I haven't had any problems whatsoever except that listed above, which I will talk about soon. There was not a byte or bit wasted as far as I could tell, and the software works great with it. Even at multi-sessions I haven't had a problem except the obvious one of which the DVD cannot be played with a stand-alone DVD player, or at least the second session and beyond.
The only con I had about this is that sometimes while backing up files it goes into an infinite command loop. I am not sure if this is a hardware or software problem, but think it is software because right after when I try again, it works perfectly. I hadn't turned off and cold-booted my computer for days, so probably it would be the problem in the RAM since it keeps the residence after prolonged use. This only happened about twice out of months of use and hundreds of DVDs burned, and only before I added more RAM into the computer.
I haven't tried a DVD-9 yet because it's less reasonable to me than buying Sony DVDs wholesale. Hopefully the prices will go down so I'll get one, but at the moment I'm not in the position to even try one out. I'll update this if this happens. As for the DVD+R, it goes a bit over eight minutes to be copied, and for the smallest copy it could be up to two minutes. The difference I believe is too small to even recognize since there's great benefits toward this, and I even can run small programs while doing this, although it comes slowly (suggestion: do not run heavy processor-leeching programs. Although they will run, any burner in the world will slow down the process, and most will waste the copy. I haven't seen this in mine, but it probably will due to its burner nature).
Hopefully this helps a couple people. Most of the time when people say it doesn't run right is because their own computer isn't capable of it and goes too slow or the processor is being too used up. I'm not a tech, but I think you should at least log off a few programs and look at task manager to see how much is being used.
This is it. Sony has done a great job at managing their product effectively, and I believe nothing can top this product's reliability. I know nothing can in my book at least. Thanks for reading, and enjoy yourself.
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