

The Ulltimate DVD Burner? 194
prostoalex writes "The DRU500A by Sony burns DVD-R/-RW, DVD+RW/+R, and even CD-R/CD-RW discs. The price sticker is relatively high, but for those worried about the compatibility issues of DVD burners this one looks like a solution." FYI: I recently ran a poll on this very topic.
So now.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So now.... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So now.... (Score:2)
Nah... -- was Re:So now.... (Score:2)
No way! Most lawyers are perfectly capable of holding multiple contradictory thoughts in there heads at the same time. It is part of the job.
Jack William Bell
Re:Nah... -- was Re:So now.... (Score:1)
Re:So now.... (Score:1)
NO! YOU CAN'T BECAUSE... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:So now.... (Score:2)
In related news... (Score:1)
ok so what? (Score:2)
So I not only have to pay steep prices for the burner, I also have to pay for a new DVD player? Bah humbug!
Am I the only one?
Re:ok so what? (Score:2)
Re:ok so what? (Score:2)
Re:ok so what? (Score:2)
Re:ok so what? (Score:2)
However, this doesn't help when you already have a copy of stuff on an R, and don't want to re-burn an RW....
All fine and good... (Score:5, Funny)
If not, I'll stick to my Pioneer drive, thank-you-very-much.
Yes...it's all that and a bag of chips...but... (Score:3, Funny)
It Burns, It Reads, It Writes, It ReWrites (Score:1, Funny)
But it's Sony (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:But it's Sony (Score:2)
So, wait it out for 2-3 months when other offerings at cheaper prices will abound.
Re:But it's Sony (Score:2, Interesting)
> So, wait it out for 2-3 months when other offerings at cheaper prices will abound.
Hehehe... A guy I work with has been waiting for 2 years for a resonable priced digital camera, but the problem is he keeps waiting for the better models to get to his proce range, but then when it does he notices the newer cameras and waits for them to get to his price range...
in the mean time i've purchase 2 cameras and had had good results from them both....and he's still waiting....
ditto (Score:2)
How fast? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:How fast? (Score:3, Informative)
Although there is software that lets you rip DVD movies to your PC and shrink them to fit on one DVD+/-Recordable disc, you can't make direct disc-to-disc copies of your favorite movies.
Re:How fast? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How fast? (Score:2)
I dont own one of these, but i do own a HP100i (i got screwed, and should have waited for the 200i)
but i can burn a full dvd (2 hours) in approximately 20 minutes. im sure this burner is comparable.
Re:How fast? (Score:5, Informative)
Assuming max burn speed, burn times for a full 4.7 GB DVD disc would translate as follows:
11.08 Mb/s = 1.385 MB/s
4,700 MB / 1.385 = 3393 seconds = 56.5 minutes @ 1x
This gives us ~28 minutes to burn a full DVD-RW @ 2x, ~23 minutes for a DVD+R/+RW @ 2.4x, or ~15 minutes for a DVD-R @ 4x
Translating the DVD speed ratings above into CD terms, we get the following CD-equivalent write speeds for the drive:
22x DVD+R/+RW, 36x DVD-R, 18x DVD-RW, 73x DVD-ROM Read.
Take these numbers with a grain of salt though. After calculating the above, I found this page [burnworld.com] which says 1x DVD = 1250 KB/s (= 10Mb/s using drive manufacturers' definition of 1MB = 1000KB). Whatever. Close enough.
Re:How fast? (Score:2)
Sounds good... (Score:4, Interesting)
I hope that they are working on a similar product. This type of thing sounds like it would be right up their alley.
Re:Sounds good... (Score:1)
- Two dead 4x SCSI burners
- One dead 16x burner
- One dead 12x burner
Not the pinnacle of reliability, and a one year warranty to boot.
JOhn
Re:Sounds good... (Score:2)
How many disks did you burn with each drive before they died? The lasers used for burning do have limits on their lifespan. My old HP, for example, churned out around 500-800 CDRs before it died (2 years), but my Plextor 24/10/40A has burnt over 800 already and is still going strong.
With the number of drives you've used, I have to wonder if the same burnout isn't happening in your case.
Aside from that, you are the first person I've heard mention having multiple Plextor drives fail. Out of a few dozen owners at different sites with different Plextor models, I've only heard of one failure -- and that was after 2500 CDRs had been burnt with the unit.
16x dead here after a year. (Score:2)
about a month over a year of minimal use, my 16x plextor died. (right before summer). Whenever you insert a disk the red light just blinks. I cannot return it either.
-metric
Re:16x dead here after a year. (Score:2)
Another unhappy Plextor user (Score:2)
Re:Sounds good... (Score:2)
Re:Sounds good... (Score:2)
They were also late to the CD-R party, waiting until media was less than $5/ea, and drives fell down to the few-hundred-bucks range.
If history is any indication, this is about the right time for them to move in on the market.
[an FYI: I paid >$400 for an 8x SCSI Plextor CD-R within the same week that it actually started shipping. It has made thousands of discs in the few years that I've had it, and doesn't mind being kept busy at near 100% duty for days at a time. I doubt I'll ever need to buy another CD-R drive.]
Fnck that (Score:5, Funny)
THAT's what I really want. If they manage to innovate the rest of the alphabet in there too, hot damn.
aside: the acronym situation is totally out of control. It's an RIAA ploy. When we can't tell what we're buying anymore, suddenly the piracy will stop...
Re:Fnck that (Score:2)
@piratedmediums=qw(DVD, RW, CD-RW, DVD-D);
Re:Fnck that (Score:2)
Hey if I didn't say it someone else would have.
Re:Fnck that (Score:2)
Dude, it's Sony. What they'll come out with is a DVD + Triangle, Circle, X, Square, Circle, Circle, X.
"The price sticker is relatively high" (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:"The price sticker is relatively high" (Score:2)
Re:"The price sticker is relatively high" (Score:4, Funny)
You had a CD-ROM drive? Why, back in the day, we had to run a pin over the CD and count the pits and gaps! And we were glad to have 'em too!
</RANT>
Re:"The price sticker is relatively high" (Score:2)
2x CDROM? When I was a kid, all we had was a 1x CDROM with a caddy.
Pricey? (Score:3, Informative)
Plus, this drive may be so new that they have tested it with high-speed media, and it will not burst into flames [slashdot.org] 8^)
Being from Sony, though, I would be cautions about any DRM features that the drive may have hidden deep inside that firmware...
Compatibility (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, maybe I can write a DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, etc. etc. etc. but if I don't know what my contacts can read, it won't help me any unless I want to send them redundant copies in every format I can think of.
It'd be nice if they could just come up with one standard and make it universal, or at least compatible with other standards.
Re:Compatibility (Score:2)
Re:Compatibility (Score:2)
Call me the wet blanket... (Score:5, Informative)
(One thing the Macintosh people have down pat is interface. My GOD! it's easy!)
Linux comaptibility is most likely trivial, though, on the upside. Just treat it as a CDRW that has a 4.7 GiB capacity and write to it in UDF packets instead of a Rock Ridge or Joliet stream, it should work.
Don't expect any firmware cracks for this beast either. Sony hardware is pretty hard to crack (Techtronics, probably the best site for getting modded DVD players, has to go and do chip replacement and other nasty-level cracks on standalones.) Besides that, I would presume (since Sony is one of the core members of DVD Forum) that this will automagically region code any video-format DVDs' you create, unless such coding is already required in the writable DVD specifications.
It sucks that for DVD's there won't be a company that can readily capitalize on the market and the product like MP3.com did with music.. then again, music is easier to forge than movies are...
Region coding? (Score:3, Insightful)
Besides that, I would presume (since Sony is one of the core members of DVD Forum) that this will automagically region code any video-format DVDs' you create, unless such coding is already required in the writable DVD specifications.
Each DVD Video title contains a set of flag bits that determine whether to block playing the title on a particular region. If your encoder software requires you to specify a region set, tell it to encode for the following set of regions: {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8}.
unless such coding is already required in the writable DVD specifications.
DVD Video is an application of DVD. I don't think the writable DVD specifications say anything about the applications, except that the Key Area (used to hold digital restrictions management keys) shall be burned with 0 bytes during manufacture.
It sucks that for DVD's there won't be a company that can readily capitalize on the market and the product like MP3.com did with music
That's because the price of producing a feature film still hasn't fallen to consumer level. (Music arrived when 16-channel trackers [modplug.com] and wave editors [sourceforge.net] came out.) Very few Flash movies you can find on the Internet are feature-length.
Re:Region coding? (Score:2)
Infact, I don't think any consumer (DVD General) drives can make discs that are region protected. It's possible to do it through some command scripting in most high-level authoring packages, but not terribly useful.
You also can't enable the Macrovision bit or the CSS encryption on consumer drives (although it may be possible to at least macrovision your stuff with a bit of hacking).
Re:Region coding? (Score:2)
Re:Call me the wet blanket... (Score:2)
Still, RPC 2 drives suck.. In order to play EU DVD's on mu laptop, for example, I have to get a second DVD drive. (Granted, I got it off eBay for less than fifteen bucks, but it's still a pain because the firmware's a bitch to crack.)
Re:Apple knows interface and layout? (Score:2)
I'm talking about the postmodern, Aqua-rigged OS X Macintosh. You're talking about the equivalent of a broken leg in the midst of the game. Of course there have been some bad interfaces, but, honestly.. Mac's design values are extremely high, and it is the first Unixish OS that can be classified as a cradle-to-grave OS (e.g. anyone, no matter their skill level or age, can comprende how to use their apps and do useful things with it.)
And so you know my bias: I am a full-time Linux user with occasional forced forays into the WIndows world (because: a) my school has MAC-level lockouts and my NIC can't spoof its address, so I must use its crippled NT boxen until I get root (later today [jk]) b) I can't watch DVD's well under Linux yet with software libre... )
Hrmmm... Does it have DRM built in? (Score:1)
If it has no such restrictions (or they are easily circumvented by using non-sony provided software), this is something I would definitely think about purchasing, but if it has some sort of restrictions on what I can do with my 0's and 1's, I ain't gonna buy it...
Just my $0.02 worth... (and you get your money's worth...)
-RickTheWizKid
More Burning Options (Score:5, Funny)
At $349, you'd be wasting your money. I paid only $249 for a Sunbeam Gas Grill. At 40,000 BTU/hour, it will easily burn DVD-R/-RW/+RW/+R/ROMs, CD-R/CD-RW/CD-ROMs, floppies, Zip disks, Jaz disks, books, magazines, motherboards, DVD/CD drives, keyboards, hotdogs, steaks, dead rodents, old shoes ... just about anything.
And if you get tired of all the burning, you can choose to turn it down a bit and go with golden brown.
Re:More Burning Options (Score:2)
Not my main worry.... (Score:1, Redundant)
It's from Sony. I'm more concerned with their possibly crippling the device in one way or another, possibly with DRM crap.
Not news... (Score:2, Funny)
even ordinary CDs!
Re:Not news... (Score:2)
Not that expensive...at first... (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Not that expensive...at first... (Score:2, Insightful)
But do most people care? Considering that they can barely edit at all with a tape-based medium and that most home movies I've seen have a good 4-5 minutes of an extreme close-up of some guy's crotch and "IS THIS FUCKING THING ON?!?!?!?!?!" coming over the speakers, I'd bet that just being able to snip shit out and stick it straight on DVD without the animated, made-in-hollywood DVD menuing is good enough for most people.
Re:Not that expensive...at first... (Score:1)
Re:Not that expensive...at first... (Score:2)
Crap is as crap does (Score:2)
DVDs would be more of the same. Most DVD burner users just want to save their family movies or transfer their VHS collection to a more stable medium.
Re:Not that expensive...at first... (Score:2)
Easy (Score:1, Troll)
Bah! (Score:3, Interesting)
DVD Info (Score:1)
AND
This page [dvd-copy.com]
explain there are only double sided DVD-Rs which would add up to your 9.4GB, there are no dual layer Recordables just yet. But I'm sure somebody will come up with a way to make them, right?
Oh man... (Score:1)
as low as $10.40/42 pmts
Financing Details
I have bad credit! Crap.
Add to Cart and Get Availability... (Score:3, Informative)
Can't wait... it'll save me a drive bay!
platform? (Score:1)
Wrong compatability issue (Score:3, Insightful)
I care about being able to burn one disc, and have it usable in every dvd reader I come across.
This is not a good thing. This is simply a less-bad thing while we wait for these bozos to decide on a single recordable dvd format. Unfortunately, I don't really believe that will happen, so this may be the least-bad option available.
Adding to the bad side, as has already been commented, it's a Sony. What kind of restrictions does it come with, anyway? Simply by putting the Sony nameplate on there, you know it isn't your hardware. It belongs to Sony, they are just letting you use it in a few restrictive ways for a little while.
Re:Wrong compatability issue (Score:1)
Imagine the inner turmoil (Score:1)
oh NO! the ULTIMATE burner! (Score:2)
Damn! I knew I should have bought a burner before the MPAA made 'em illegal...
Re:oh NO! the ULTIMATE burner! (Score:3, Funny)
Because you had to open your mouth all future posts on this thread can only aspire to be penultimate in pedantry.
Re:oh NO! the ULTIMATE burner! (Score:2)
Speaking of pedantry... [goats.com]
Re:oh NO! the ULTIMATE burner! (Score:2)
LOL! I take it back!
Actually, since I was using penultimate as an adjective, it was legal. Try thinking of "...can only aspire to be secondary." That sentence is legal, and it is an adjective the same as "penultimate in pendantry" is an adjective phrase. Now, if you put a "the" in front of "secondary" it takes on a different meaning and "secondary" becomes a noun. It is like the difference between saying "he is slow" vs. "he is the slowest."
Re:oh NO! the ULTIMATE burner! (Score:2)
Huh? (Score:1, Flamebait)
I'm tired of people whining and moaning about how there is no standard for writeable DVDs when it is in fact documented on the DVD Format and Logo Licensing site (http://www.dvdfllc.co.jp) - the standard formats are DVD-R, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM. That's it. Nothing else. There is no other DVD writeable format available. Anything else (DVD+R, DVD+RW) is simply similar to DVDs, though not properly DVDs.
Standards Rule! (Score:1)
http://www.toshiba.com/taissdd/products/docs/dvdr
Yes, but what about DVD-RAM? (Score:5, Interesting)
My, how quickly they forget.
And if it DID burn DVD-RAM, I'd ask whether it can handle both Type 1 and Type 2 DVD-RAM. (Don't ask...)
Re:Yes, but what about DVD-RAM? (Score:3, Flamebait)
RTFM.
Re:Yes, but what about DVD-RAM? (Score:2)
"Type 2" DVD-RAM is in a cartridge.
"Type 1" DVD-RAM has the same form factor as a normal DVD.
Blue DVD and HDTV (Score:1)
Then we'll all have to buy new burners.
great site for DVD+R/+RW info (Score:3, Informative)
In depth article at news.com (Score:2)
Pioneer drive is ultimate burner... (Score:1)
hmmm (Score:3, Funny)
I click yes. It's okay, really.
I'll just tell them when they come to my door that hardly anyone considers what I like to be music.
ULLtimate? (Score:2)
Good link, chrisd (Score:2)
Thanks for posting the link to that poll, chrisd. I was going to buy this drive until I saw that the
Ultimate! Until tommorow. (Score:2)
Depends what you use it for. (Score:2)
You may need to READ all the formats from different sources, but unless you're going to know exactly what your receipients use, you'll prolly just end up burning to CDR.
How to copy a DVD (Score:2, Interesting)
So how exactly does one duplicate commercial DVD's?
Step 1: Move to Canada. (This has its own drawbacks [slashdot.org].)
Step 2: Get a CSS descrambler [cmu.edu].
Step 3: Follow the directions in the documentation to rip VOB and IFO files.
Step 4: Burn all files ripped from the DVD to a new blank DVD.
Step 5: Enjoy your backup. DO NOT distribute it to a third party.
Re:How to copy a DVD (Score:4, Informative)
If you're willing to give up 5.1 audio and settle for stereo, and lose all the close captioning, menus, etc., you can sometimes get a movie onto one recordable DVD, but I haven't had much luck with that yet.
Pr0n DVDs on the other hand...
I understand it works only for single-layer movies (Score:1)
because most movies are bigger than the 4.7 GB of space you get on a blank DVD recordable.
I realized this two minutes after I submitted the comment. However, you'll still find a lot of single-layer (4.7 GB) DVD movies out there.
Or you could get one of those players that plays MPEG-4 movies, such as a PlayStation2 console [yahoo.com] or this set-top DivX player [lik-sang.com].
Re:scsi (Score:2, Informative)
Re:IDE to SCSI anyone? (Score:2)
Would you want to do this? (Score:2)
I have a DVD reader, but it is on an ancillary controller with just one other device (a CD-RW).
Re:Would you want to do this? (Score:2)