Sony DVD±RW for $200 Shipped (No Rebate/Coupon/Pricematch)

[RDMustang1]

I am a strong advocate of not posting pricewatch.com deals here but this one I had a hard time believeing so I decided to go against my personal views and post this for others..

The Sony DW-U10a (which is the EXACT same as the Sony DRU-500a, just OEM which means without the software) can be had here for $200 shipped (6 month reseller rating of 8.83). This drive can be flashed to become a DRU-500a. Details on how to flash it can be found here.

The Sony DW-U12a (which is also the EXACT same as the Sony DRU-500ax, just OEM which again means without the software) can be had here for $206 shipped (6 month reseller rating of 6.67). I am guessing (total guess here) that this drive can be flashed too but I don't know how and haven't looked to find out how.. If anyone can give any info on this I'd be VERY thankful.

[EDIT]: I emailed sony about which oem burner corresponded to which retail burner and this was their response:

The DW-U10A is the OEM version of the DRU-500A. The DW-U12A is the OEM version
of the DRU-500AX. We do not have specific information if the DW-U14A is the OEM
version of the DRU-510A as the DW-U14A has not yet been released in the USA. As
such, we do not have information if and when it will be released in the USA.

So, since the DW-U10a can be flashed to the DRU-500ax then I would suggest getting the DW-U10a since you can actually flash it to the retail bios where as I haven't been able to find any information about flashing the DW-U12a to the retail bios...

 

[kindest]

hot deal, its 25 bucks more at newegg.

 

[gump47371]

Hmm, very nice. Looking for a little advice from all you AT experts. IYO, which is a better drive and buy, one of these, or the Optorite dual drive found and discussed here?

Thanks for all the help. I am in the market for one, but don't know much about them, looking for some opinions/advice.

 

[aGeNt73]

what's the difference between the 2? besides the 6 bux in price.?

they look like they have similiar specs...ive been looking at this model for some time now because it has dual support for -R and +R. good deal imo!

 

[jinduy]

Originally posted by: gump47371
Hmm, very nice. Looking for a little advice from all you AT experts. IYO, which is a better drive and buy, one of these, or the Optorite dual drive found and discussed here?

Thanks for all the help. I am in the market for one, but don't know much about them, looking for some opinions/advice.

i own neither but from what i read on the optorite...i heard it was poorly built and the eject button really sucks.

 

[RDMustang1]

Originally posted by: jinduy

Originally posted by: gump47371
Hmm, very nice. Looking for a little advice from all you AT experts. IYO, which is a better drive and buy, one of these, or the Optorite dual drive found and discussed here?

Thanks for all the help. I am in the market for one, but don't know much about them, looking for some opinions/advice.

i own neither but from what i read on the optorite...i heard it was poorly built and the eject button really sucks.

I have heard the same and that the Sony is by FAR the best dual media dvdr out there.

 

[oddjob303]

I know i may be waiting for a long time but i think ill wait until +/- drives hit the -$100 area, but i am tempted

 

[jinduy]

yeah think i'll wait till burners start falling sub 100 after tax ...

dvd burning technology still seems new and i would consider these drives early generation types since improvements and features keep getting added...



my day will come when +r dvd media cost 50 cents a piece !

 

[dealseaker]

i just got the sony dru-510a and i love it, i got a few, selling new in box, over in fs/t section, not thread crapping, these are nice prices on sony drives, and no rebates = nice here is a bump, get them before they all run out

 

[crypticlogin]

Is anybody else bothered by this resellerratings comment? Posted 3/22/03:

3/22/03 1:50 AM
Bought a Yamaha CD burner based mostly on the low advertised price. It arrived on time, no apparent damage, and worked well for 9.5 months, 2 weeks past warranty, the suddenly failed completely. It was way past the return period for AVLOGIC, so I returned it directly to Yamaha for service, but service was refused because unit had previously come in for service directly from an employee of AVLOGIC as part of a bulk shipment of drives returned for various reasons. Turned out that I paid "new" price for a "returned/used" unit and AVLOGIC fought long and hard to admit it and accept the return. They finally allowed me to return the drive for a refund, less original shipping and return shipping. I was out about $20-25 total, after 2x shipping, handling, insurance, etc. The Yamaha tech said he has gotten numerous drives from customers that have previously come in directly from AVLOGIC. I will never buy from them again since there are many places with better prices and (hopefully) better service.

There may be a reason why the drive is that cheap. Well, I guess if it works and you never have to invoke the warranty, it shouldn't be a big deal but if they really are selling 'not exactly new' goods as new, I'd be wary.

 

[nightman]

Newegg.com also have NEC ND1300A dual format drive for $189.99 shipped (black $5 more)

 

[RDMustang1]

Originally posted by: tenchim
Is anybody else bothered by this resellerratings comment? Posted 3/22/03:

3/22/03 1:50 AM
Bought a Yamaha CD burner based mostly on the low advertised price. It arrived on time, no apparent damage, and worked well for 9.5 months, 2 weeks past warranty, the suddenly failed completely. It was way past the return period for AVLOGIC, so I returned it directly to Yamaha for service, but service was refused because unit had previously come in for service directly from an employee of AVLOGIC as part of a bulk shipment of drives returned for various reasons. Turned out that I paid "new" price for a "returned/used" unit and AVLOGIC fought long and hard to admit it and accept the return. They finally allowed me to return the drive for a refund, less original shipping and return shipping. I was out about $20-25 total, after 2x shipping, handling, insurance, etc. The Yamaha tech said he has gotten numerous drives from customers that have previously come in directly from AVLOGIC. I will never buy from them again since there are many places with better prices and (hopefully) better service.

There may be a reason why the drive is that cheap. Well, I guess if it works and you never have to invoke the warranty, it shouldn't be a big deal but if they really are selling 'not exactly new' goods as new, I'd be wary.

There are numerous other retailers with the same drive for about the same price (maybe $5-10 more).. If you don't like avlogic then pick another.. the main point is that the price on these drives is REALLY low compared to the retail price.

Originally posted by: dealseaker
i just got the sony dru-510a and i love it, i got a few, selling new in box, over in fs/t section, not thread crapping, these are nice prices on sony drives, and no rebates = nice here is a bump, get them before they all run out

While your price of $275 is good for your drive, you can still get the OEM version MUCH cheaper and the only difference is the software.

 

[Kwad Guy]

i just got the sony dru-510a and i love it, i got a few, selling new in box, over in fs/t section, not thread crapping, these are nice prices on sony drives, and no rebates = nice here is a bump, get them before they all run out

Oh yeah, awfully nice of you to offer all those dru510as you bought at CompUSA on Thursday for $140 (thereby denying someone else who actually wanted to buy one for their own use) for $275 to us...Yeah, thanks for that tip. And I don't think, for a moment, that the purpose of your post was mostly to advertise your own resell drives in the hot deals forum. Nope, I certainly don't think that.

Kwad

 

[conehead433]

"i own neither but from what i read on the optorite...i heard it was poorly built and the eject button really sucks."

I own the Optorite drive and think it is a very good burner. I also like the HD BURN feature of being able to put 1.4GB onto a CD-R data disc. It is amazing how one or two negative comments can lead to the perception that something is poorly built or a piece of crap, etc. Out of the box it looks and fells like every other optical drive I have owned. The DVD logo on the front bezel is exactly the same as on my Lite-On 166 DVD ROM. The eject button does not stick out as much as it does on most drives, but it does work, it just takes a little getting used to. The drive is a little picky about media for HD BURN in that it won't burn some of the cheap Taiwanese discs. In regard to burning DVD's and CD's the drive performs flawlessly. I'm sure that I would have been satisfied with a Sony drive also, but at the time of my purchase the Optorite was easily $100 less, and after using it I am glad I have HD BURN. With the flood of DVD +/- drives on the market now Sony will have to cut their prices, but they have already made their money. Anyway if you were considering the Optorite and reading the user reviews always consider the source and whether they are crticizing cosmetics or performance, etc.


From a review over at Pricegrabber, "Due to my job responsibility, I had the chance to test the Sony 510 and NEC 1300 as well. In the end, I like the DD0203 drive much better.

I was reading through some of the reviews here and wanted to add some of my own thoughts. I can?t really find anything wrong with the DVD logos on the door. They look huge, that?s all I can say. I guess if you are used to looking at the incredibly small logos on other drives, it will look weird at first.


And there is a tiny rattling sound when you shake the drive, but why in the world would you want to be shaking this drive? Just out of curiosity I shake the Sony drive as well. It was even louder, then I guess the louder the noise, the better the quality?"

 

[isekii]

Originally posted by: Kwad Guy

i just got the sony dru-510a and i love it, i got a few, selling new in box, over in fs/t section, not thread crapping, these are nice prices on sony drives, and no rebates = nice here is a bump, get them before they all run out

Oh yeah, awfully nice of you to offer all those dru510as you bought at CompUSA on Thursday for $140 (thereby denying someone else who actually wanted to buy one for their own use) for $275 to us...Yeah, thanks for that tip. And I don't think, for a moment, that the purpose of your post was mostly to advertise your own resell drives in the hot deals forum. Nope, I certainly don't think that.

Kwad

I'm one of several that hoped to have gotten in on this deal , but I was in class taking my finals

 

[PremiumG]

does sony make any black bezel DVDRWs?

 

[CybDude]

Originally posted by: PremiumG
does sony make any black bezel DVDRWs?

Yes, see here: Link

 

[Lager]

Anybody jump on this?

 

[PatoLoco]

i own neither but from what i read on the optorite...i heard it was poorly built and the eject button really sucks.

I actually own both the Sony 500A and the Optorite DD0203. I paid $299 (plus tax) on the Sony about 3 months ago. I purchased the Optorite for $196 two weeks ago. The Sony has one advantgae: a better eject button. In EVERY OTHER respect, I find the Optowrite to be, not just a better bargain, but a better drive. I've yet to spoil a single disc with the Optorite and, though I've just started using it, the HD-Burn capability is going to become indispensable for me.

Sony, of course, has the name. But you can now buy the Optorite for $186 shipped (check pricewatch). And for my money, even if the Sony were to match tht price, I would still take the Optorite. Yes, the eject button is flaky...but you don't have to use it...just get used to clicking "eject" with your mouse.

 

[Jen]

trying as i do to get some money together to get a nice dvdrw





Jen

 

[MWoody]

Thanks! Bought one earlier today. We'll see how she works.

 

[RDMustang1]

bump because I found out info about the 2 models.

 

[Tot]

Originally posted by: conehead433
"i own neither but from what i read on the optorite...i heard it was poorly built and the eject button really sucks."

And there is a tiny rattling sound when you shake the drive, but why in the world would you want to be shaking this drive? Just out of curiosity I shake the Sony drive as well. It was even louder, then I guess the louder the noise, the better the quality?"

Hehe, I also have the rattling sound when I shake by dvd-rom drive. Its a liteon. As far as I know, my dvd-rom drive is awefully noisy, when its reading(spinning)

 

[hcarlson]

Originally posted by: dealseaker
i just got the sony dru-510a and i love it, i got a few, selling new in box, over in fs/t section, not thread crapping, these are nice prices on sony drives, and no rebates = nice here is a bump, get them before they all run out

That's pretty cool how your thread got locked. You deserve it selling them so close to when the deal to place and marking it up so much. I know you want to make money but that seems like a bit too much. Might want to try the poor suckers on ebay.

 

[The Sauce]

I really, really don;t mean to threadcrap, but I think we may just be seeing the leading edge of a price plunge on these drives. I made that mistake when I bought my laptop after the first round of price cuts only to see it drop another $400 within the next few weeks. I did the same thing with memory and my student loan (AAARGH - major screw-up there - $10's of thousands worth).

Often when prices on something are starting to plummet they get posted as a hot deal early in the process. That may be the case here. I would definitely wait a while on this one. That's just my feeling on the matter.