Rating: 
Summary: Could be happier
Review: First, it would have been nice to have known what it looked like before I ordered it. I expected a generic looking drive. Instead, the drawer front is clear plastic over silver, and the lower part of the face is white with a lip that protrudes at the bottom. Some people might like it, but I think it's ugly. It doesn't really matter because my computer is functional rather than decorative, and is pretty well out of sight under the desk. Nonetheless, something to consider. More importantly (to me), is the backup software. My primary motivation in getting a DVD writer was to do system backups, so I considered the inclusion of Veritas Simple Backup a plus. Unfortunately, when I try to run it it gives me a "backup device not found" error. This doesn't appear to be a problem with the drive--I used the drive to load the software, and Direct CD has no problem with the drive. But the software came with no documentation except a readme file, and neither Sony nor Veritas appears to provide any support for the software. (And Sony support never responded to my inquiry at all.) So now I have to buy a backup program that actually works with the drive.
Rating:
Summary: Update on Veritas Simple Backup
Review: For anyone who finds themselves in the situation I did:Some additional research revealed that Veritas has licensed Simple Backup to Stomp (know as stompinc on the web). The list of supported drives at Stomp's website does not include this one; in fact, it doesn't include any Sony DVD writer. They do offer a discount on an upgrade to Backup MyPC. The list of supported drives for Backup MyPC includes the predecessor to this drive (DRU-500a), and the software does work on my system. Of course you are still paying for a capability Sony claims comes bundled with the drive ...
Rating: 
Summary: Works fine, until it dies on you
Review: Got on Sept. 13, 2003. Died on Nov. 26, 2003. Couldn't believe it only lasted less than 2.5 months. Aside from this not so slight problem everything worked fine out of the box. Install was easy and simple. The bundled software made it a breeze to create CDs/DVDs. It was very quiet. Burn speeds were very good. Didn't/doesn't come with audio cable which kinda sucks. Luckily I had an extra one.
Rating: 
Summary: shame on Sony, shame on STOMP
Review: Granted, I had a bad experience most others will not have. But if you run Windows XP and happen to use STOMP for music editing, then this review is FOR YOU. Ursiforms review had it right below (but amazon cut him off) that STOMP does not support any Sony drives. So you cannot use Click N'Burn Pro to burn on your Sony DVD/CD burner. So I deleted it from my computer to use the bundled "Record Now" program that came with this product. THAT program WILL NOT BURN FROM .WAV FILES. Huh? Sony tech support actually told me to convert ALL my existing music files into MP3 format, then create track lists to burn. Well, that didn't work either so they suggested only importing song tracks through the Veritas Record Now application, which means I cannot burn any edited music. Useless. AND YOU CANNOT RETURN THIS PRODUCT!! Upon opening the box, you will see a sticker that says "FOR US CUSTOMER- If your product is not working properly DO NOT RETURN TO THE STORE" Instead call an 800 # which does have good tech support (as is the norm with Sony) and they will assist. In my case, the burner would make a disk-to-disk copy so it wasn't malfunctioning, unfortunately. And when asked if I could return because I no like; A BIG FAT NO. And we don't care if you bought it yesterday. MY FAVORITE ELECTRONICS COMPANY BURNED ME.
Rating: 
Summary: Perfect burner
Review: I am pretty happy with this burner, it supports all kinds of media, and it is super fast (with Nero software), thanks to its 8MB cache. Only one issue is, do not forget to turn on Ultra DMA mode for this drive. Initially it was installed as a secondary IDE device, somehow it defaults to PIO mode, which makes every thing 1x speed. Finally manually switch to Ultra DMA, everything flies.
Rating:
Summary: Bad drive must now return
Review: I bought this drive in October of 2003 and it worked fine up until today May 2003. It just died all of a sudden and was flashing an orange light on the front of it. It never really did recognize my DVD-RW dics properly. Thank God I still had a few months of warranty left on it. I called Sony Tech and they told me to return the drive but I would have to pay for shipping. That is crazy! Why the **** would I have to pay for the shipping? THIS MODEL IS A LEMON. DO NOT PURCHASE. I definately will not purchase any other Sony drives and I would be cautious of other Sony products as they make you pay for shipping their broken products back to you.
Rating:
Summary: Kicking burner
Review: I had bought this product for my components pc. I just love the burner. I've tried imation 2x dvd-r and they are screwy; 1 burnt (defraged before burning) and 4 are coasters (didn't defrag). But i had no single problem with Memorex 4x dvd-r's. With amazon's free shipping the memorex dvd media are the same price as retail store prices for 25 spindels on sale and that's amazon's full time price. i gotta say this I LOVE AMAZONS PRICES!
Rating:
Summary: Great burner
Review: I have this burner for few weeks already, so far I haven't had any problem with it. It burns my every blank DVD-R and CD successfully and fast, I haven't wasted any blank media yet. Except the software come with the burner, I also install CloneDVD, Roxio EasyCD Creater 5 and CloneCD, all of them work good with it. The only problem I ran into is that I have to download the latest firmware from Sony to make the burning speed to 4 times, before I updated the firmware, I only got 2 times speed (for DVD-R). I 100% recommand this burner.
Rating:
Summary: Faulty product
Review: I managed to get the drive to work for one week. After burning a couple of DVD-Rs, it died. I ended up burning a bunch of bad DVDs in an attempt to troubleshoot, spending hours bouncing around tech. support and customer service, paying to have the drive shipped for repair, and waiting weeks for it to come back, only to have it die a couple of weeks later. This drive was worse than a total loss for me. Avoid it.
Rating:
Summary: Faulty product
Review: I managed to get the drive to work for one week. After burning a couple of DVD-Rs, it died. I ended up burning a bunch of bad DVDs in an attempt to troubleshoot, spending hours bouncing around tech. support and customer service, paying to have the drive shipped for repair, and waiting weeks for it to come back, only to have it die a couple of weeks later. This drive was worse than a total loss for me. Avoid it.
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