Pioneer or Sony dual format DVD burner? (1 Viewer)

[John_Bonner]

I would like to purchase a dual format DVD burner and the two I've been looking at are Sony and Pioneer. Can anyone recommend one or the other? Please post your experiences with either drive. Thanks!

Sony DWU10A

Pioneer 106D

The Pioneer doesn't have a link to it but it is the 106D. Both of these drives are OEMs which is fine with me and both are around the same money.

 

[Stephen Orr]

I just bought the Pioneer A06, which is the 106 with all the trimmings, and I love it. The software that came with it (Ulead MovieFactory) is alot better than the Roxio software I had been using with the A05.

A friend of mine purchased the Sony a few weeks ago, but traded it in for the Pioneer because he was having compatibilty problems with the disks he burned.

 

[Christ Reynolds]

i have the sony dru-500 and have burned about 50 discs, no problems yet.

CJ

 

[Ronald Epstein]

All the reviews I have read give the Sony
500 series (the one selling for about $340 internal)
an edge over all others -- mostly due to its faster
4x burning speed.

 

[Steven K]

I just purchased an NEC-1300A dual format 4x, which I purchased for right around $160 shipped. I've burned several discs in the past week, all successfully with no problems. I even used cheap, 1x CompUSA DVD-Rs (which burn at 2x) that are on sale for $1 a piece (with slim jewel case!).

The Pioneer and Sony drives are nice, but if you can get a similar drive for half the price, why not...

 

[Rob Landolfi]

I have the DRU500A (with firmware upgrades), and have burned a couple dozen DVDs and CDs with no failures.

I have a 3.8 gig disc image that I often burn, and it only takes 9-11 minutes with 4X DVD-R media.

I have a separate Norcent cd burner in my sysem that's a touch faster for CD's, but it doesn't recognize some CDRW media nearly as well as the Sony does.

Overall, I've been very pleased with this drive. Good luck.

 

[Steve_Ch]

>>The Pioneer and Sony drives are nice, but if you can get a similar drive for half the price, why not...

 

[John_Bonner]

Thanks for the input fellas.
I should have mentioned the prices in my original post.
The Pioneer is $170
The Sony is $182
The NEC is $155
(Prices from newegg.com)

Pretty close call.

Stephen K:
I forgot about that NEC, thanks for reminding me. I was looking at it last month. Does it come with a cable to connect or can I use the cable I'm currently using with my CD-RW?

Steve_Ch:
The reason I'm interested in a dual format is because I'm not sure which format will work with my DVD player (old model Hitachi). I looked on dvdrhelp.com but didn't find any others who had the same model DVD player. I would hate to pick one (DVD - for example) and find out the DVD's I burn won't play on my player.

 

[Steve_Ch]

>>The reason I'm interested in a dual format is because I'm not sure which format will work with my DVD player (old model Hitachi). I looked on dvdrhelp.com but didn't find any others who had the same model DVD player. I would hate to pick one (DVD - for example) and find out the DVD's I burn won't play on my player.

 

[Steven K]

Stephen K:
I forgot about that NEC, thanks for reminding me. I was looking at it last month. Does it come with a cable to connect or can I use the cable I'm currently using with my CD-RW?

The OEM version that I got did not come with any cables - but it just uses a standard IDE cable, so if you are replacing an ATAPIIDE device, or have an extra slot on your existing IDE device, then you'll be all set.

I have a seperate CD burner (Sony 32x) and a seperate DVD-ROM (SCSI) which I use for ripping (can get 6-7 minute rips with the SCSI drive) whereas with the DVD-RW drive, it takes closer to 20-25 minutes.

 

[John_Bonner]

CompUSA is running a special on the retail version of the Pioneer A06 - $199 after IR & MIR.

For $30 more than OEM (& no shipping) I think I'll get this one. Thanks to all who posted here.

Pioneer A06 @ CompUSA

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I believe one of the Sony dual format (DVD-/+R) drives comes in BLACK. Does anyone know which one?

 

[John_Bonner]

This Sony comes in black: Newegg

 

[Greg>B]

Why dont you wait for the new Plextor 8x dual format burner. It should be out in the next few weeks.

Check Newegg.

 

[John_Bonner]

Thanks Greg but I picked up the Pioneer A06 on Monday at CompUSA. At $199 it was $30 more than the OEM version from Newegg or MWave but the retail version came with a blank DVD-R and a blank DVD-RW plus the Ulead software that is included is really nice (as mentioned by Stephen Orr above).

That Plextor is not bad at $260 for an 8X dual format. The Newegg description says "Retail" but when you click on the See It link it shows the bare drive. I wonder if $260 is for the retail version?

 

[Jim_F]

This one has dropped about $60 in the last couple of months (i.e. since I bought one)

A little internet digging will reveal how to get it to function as a DRU500A, to which it is supposedly identical, hardware-wise.

 

[Steve_Ch]

Check today's deal page (or go directly to www.gotapex.com), there's a ton of dvd RW deals, the Optionlite 4x dual is now $148, the above mentioned Sony (the 10, not the 500) is now $165 (both black and beige), I think there's a deal for the A06 too, all with free priority ship.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

Thanks John for the info and the low low price.

 

[Sam Posten]

I'm very very happy with the A-06. I wasnt expecting much out of the bundled software but the Ulead Movie Studio made it a complete breeze to go from videotaped clips to actual custom DVD in under an hour.

Recommend these sites:

www.dvdrhelp.com
www.doom9.org

Hope I spelled them right =)

Sam