*Dead* New Sony DVD burner (DRU500A) $253.06 shipped at DELL

[jasonja]

Well I installed this firmware a couple days ago but only tonight I tried to burn a gi image using Stomp's RecordNow Max. Error burning about 2 mins into it, coaster created. So then I stick in the +RW it came with and same thing. Then I try another gi image, same error. Then I grab a known good GI file that I burned just last week and same error.

Reverted back to the old firmware and all gi images are burning fine again. Moral of the story is that this firmware is broken (at least with Stomp's record now max). You owe me $2 for a coaster Sony!!

 

[LotusNotesGuy]

I also burned 3 Optodisc with this last Sony firmware, DVD-R's. None of them work anywhere but in the Sony drive, no other computers, dvd players. Its a movie.

The originals are all good and not anything copy protected. All valid source material. Soooo, either its this latest firmware or the Optodisc???

Any have any opinions on Optodisc? I just ordered a pile of Verbatim dvd-r's (2x) from Dell, hope they are worth it.
Someone said Maxell and Verbatim are top quality??

 

[Pothead]

I've heard some people burn the optudisc or whatever you call it fine, but that was from one person only.

It seems that media has not made it on the list yet:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7325&highlight=dru500a

I just bought a 100 pack of the Ritek Gen 3 DVD-rs. Pretty high quality from what I have been told, purple dye.
86.99 with free shipping.

 

[luuvong99]

i wasted 2 days with dell CSR to resolve the DRU500a order i placed on OCT-01. anyway the end result is worthy. my thank you go to mrBass for very creative idea of how to birng down the cost of your order

i ordered new DRX500UL for $397 and ask Dell to give my coupon (credit) from original order on Oct-01 and apply that discount on new drive or whatever i plan to buy at Dell (AXIM, laptop, camera...). the coupon or credit amount is $100. i should ask for more. but i don't want to push my luck

so my new extrenal drive will be $397 - $100 = $297. beside al of this madness i also have $25 credit for the 2 months delay. it will bring down the cost of extrenal drive even more (to $272). estimate ship date for DRX500UL drive is Jan-01. i may have a very happy birthday on that week.

 

[LotusNotesGuy]

It looks like the latest 1.0f Firmware in the Sony DRU500a does NOT work at all on quite alot of media.


I tried maxell, tdk, and verbatim dvd-r 2x media and it failed on 2 disks of each brand.

I get an I/O error on each one.

Just out of curiosity, coming from the dvd+R side of things, these dvd-r's are supposed to work in MOST any dvd player or just some?

Dvd-r's have all these issues with lengthy format times
(dvd+r's format on the fly so never a need to sit and wait, and they also automatically bookmark and have much better video editing functions as well)

and such that dvd-r's do not, so I thought the big benefit to a -r dvd was that it was more compatible in desktop video players, but I hearing otherwise from many people, with several studies showing +R as being compatible more often than dvd-r??

That WOULD be funny as I bought the dvd-r to gain better desktop dvd player compatible as my dvd+r's can't be loaned to friends.

Feedback ?

 

[mrbass]

Originally posted by: luuvong99


so my new extrenal drive will be $397 - $100 = $297. beside al of this madness i also have $25 credit for the 2 months delay. it will bring down the cost of extrenal drive even more (to $272). estimate ship date for DRX500UL drive is Jan-01. i may have a very happy birthday on that week.

that's pretty damn good luuvong99...hehe I still beat you by a dollar $271 for DRX500UL.....at this price I wouldn't complain. It'll be a steal when/if we get it.

 

[chanfo]

The Ritek G03 that you got burns at 2x now after the firmware upgrade. Used to only be 1x.

Originally posted by: Pothead
I've heard some people burn the optudisc or whatever you call it fine, but that was from one person only.

It seems that media has not made it on the list yet:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=7325&highlight=dru500a

I just bought a 100 pack of the Ritek Gen 3 DVD-rs. Pretty high quality from what I have been told, purple dye.
86.99 with free shipping.

 

[WebDude]

"Firmware v1.0f has been released" Dang, I can't get this new firmware to even install on my drive. I get a "Write Header Mode6 failed" error message, and then the updater terminates. Wonder if I have a defective drive, although it seems to work fine with the 1.0d firmware.

WebDude

 

[LiQiCE]

I haven't been doing a lot of burning, but I upgraded my firmware to v1.0f before I did anything else, and I burned 3 different things, 2 were on a Memorex DVD-RW, 1 was on a Fujifilm DVD+RW and all 3 burned perfectly with Stomp RecordNow MAX (v4.50, Build 450B20B.358 STE, with the latest Px Engine v1.1.358) ... I haven't tried DVD-R or DVD+R yet though.

 

[jeepers94]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dvd-r's have all these issues with lengthy format times
(dvd+r's format on the fly so never a need to sit and wait, and they also automatically bookmark and have much better video editing functions as well)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


LotusNotes,You do NOT format R discs.You format RW+ discs once! Then you can rewrite over the files.The RW- has to be erased to reused.That is why either DVD-RAM or DVD+RW is used on the set top recorders.As for the posts about the Memorex R+,were they the new stock?The ones out before Oct.are known to have problems!

 

[WebDude]

Well after trials and tribulations, I got the firmware updated, and solved some other problems in the process. I'll pass along what I learned in case it helps someone else. Turned out all my problems traced backed to the VIA IDE drivers. They wouldn't let me update the firmware, even after I disabled DMA, per Sony instructions. Also I couldn't burn in Nero without locking up the program. Mighty frustrating. But I had a Promise IDE controler laying around, poped it in the computer, connected the DRU500a, booted up, and everything was solved. Updated the firmware, and even burned to a DVD-R at 2x. Which is a good thing, because I bought 50 of them, and thought I was stuck with a pile of lemons. Anyways, I got the DVD-R's for $1 a piece, the "quality" gold/purple generic (Taiwan) ones I found on the web, which were advertised as burnable at 2X on the Pioneer drive. Good to know they work on the DRU500a also. More testing to follow.

WebDude

 

[LotusNotesGuy]

jeepers94
Senior Member

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dvd-r's have all these issues with lengthy format times
(dvd+r's format on the fly so never a need to sit and wait, and they also automatically bookmark and have much better video editing functions as well)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


LotusNotes,You do NOT format R discs.You format RW+ discs once! Then you can rewrite over the files.The RW- has to be erased to reused.That is why either DVD-RAM or DVD+RW is used on the set top recorders.As for the posts about the Memorex R+,were they the new stock?The ones out before Oct.are known to have problems!

jeepers94:

I was referring to the class of -r's as a whole verses the class of +r's as a whole if you read the whole thread, that is what I was trying to get across. For using a +rw in a pc there it takes like 1-2 min if that to use the dvd, all the articles I have read spoke of lengthy format processes that have to be done on -rw's.

I was making points about the different dvd technologies +rw and -rw, which each include +r and -r blah blah.

Is this not the case about the long format times to use a dvd-rw for a data disc in a pc?

 

[AAman]

just got my bill, they knocked off the shipping making the price even greater-

but the one that came is the one ordered 10-8/9, not the one ordered 10-1, which is still
delayed until Dec. 27th at the earliest. I have had great success with new media with this drive,


ALMOST FORGOT- DELL COUPONS INSIDE WITH MY BILL - 15% OFF DELL FLAT PANELS AND MEMORY
WHEN USING PREFERRED ACCOUNT

sorry if this is a repost

 

[Mu]

Just received mine yesterday (10/04 order date..DRU-500A). After reading through this thread a few times and getting fairly confused over what firmwear update works/doesn't and what media works/doesn't, here's my plea. How about a brief synopsis from someone who is having success...and is willing to share, for us poor folks (or less technical) as to how best to get this thing up and running (firmware update?) master/slave with CD-R/HD, and without buying stacks of media that may or may not work. Comments on software. TIA

 

[Pothead]

media as posted earlier in this thread:
Media

 

[Pothead]

The firmware update just bumps up DVD+R writing to 4x and it may fix some bugs here and there, I guess.

 

[mrbass]

dell = cyberwings...ordered 10/3 still waiting...ok cancelled that one and ordered 12/3 ...delayed till 12/27. On dell threads they said 12/15 ...well they just said they to silence us. IMHO Michael J. Dell = Shawn J. White pound for pound.

 

[luuvong99]

mrbass, you should order the axim and transfer discount credit of open order over. it may bring down your axim to $95. and get dru500a from zones.com for $308. you may have more chance of having both of them by mid January

 

[mrbass]

Nah I can wait...zones.com has the Sony DRX 500UL - removable disk drive - DVD±RW - FireWire/USB 2.0 for $415.99. Best buy it's $429.99. When/if I get mine from Dell it'll be $271. I can't resist that price. I really wanted it to play with over the holidays but it really doesn't look like that way. For pdas or whatever I don't want it. I had a japanese sharp zaurus with fax modem, kanji recognition (still have it) but never used it that much etc. for the eng/jap dictionary and map drawing stuff. I prefer a databank watch to lug around instead.

btw zones.com has it for $349.99 is there a coupon floating around the net to bring it to $308 or something? Don't ya dare say MSN reward crap either.

 

[GPz1100]

Office depot still has a few of these

$379. use 15% of coupon that you got in your email (from previous purchases)

614809 is the sku for the drive.


then use BVG to match to some other merchant in a few weeks (after stock has stabilized)

note to click citi holders, get your claim initiated before 1/31/2003

 

[luuvong99]

my company have contract with zones.com, i can dru500a for $299 + shipping ($9). or ext drx00ul for $368. with some creative we can get extra $50 rebate from sony. since we have original UPC + photocopy of receipt. i ordered 2 dru500a for $253.06 each. i can transfer the credit from these drives to get drx500ul + axim 300mhz for total of $370

 

[mrbass]

Just got my delay notice again....THREE MONTHS and waiting...Dell is the scumbags of the web.

We have reviewed your order. Although we had anticipated being able to ship
your order sooner, we are experiencing an unexpected delay. We will not be
able to ship your order until, on or before 1/7/2003. We apologize for this
inconvenience and are doing everything we can to get your order out to you
as quickly as possible.

No action is required to proceed with the new date, however, if you do not
wish to wait, you may cancel your order and receive a prompt refund.
However, if your system order has shipped or if you have already received
your system and this order number pertains to a promotional item, you may
choose to have your system returned at our expense.

If you have any questions, please contact Dell at 800-624-9897 or email us
at us_dhs_notify@dell.com before 9:00 PM Central Standard Time. Please
include your order number or customer number with any correspondence. We
apologize for any inconvenience this delay may cause.

Dell Computer Corporation

 

[htne]

Just got Yet Another Delay Notice. October 1 to Jan 4 (three months and three days, and counting).

Surely this qualifies for the Guiness Book of World Records?

 

[Chess]

Lotus,

I have burned 5 maxell's with 2x burning on the sony with NO PROBLEM ! Awesome job the maxell's have done so far. I got a pack of verbatims, and you can actually get some Ritek's from www.shop4tech.com and get them They are guarenteed to burn at 2x on the dru500, should be 100 blanks for 83.99/84.99, cant remember it exactly, but check it out!

 

[Pothead]

86.99 for the Gen03 riteks, I bought them a month ago

Dunno about you guys, but when dell sent me a delay notice telling me to reply to continue, I just didn't care and then it arrived in a few days.