Sony DRU-720a DL drive

• Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 10 reviews
• My rating: 0 stars

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• 9 stars

  I'VE TRIED DVD +R DL DISK and............

  by ronman101 on March 12, 2005

  Pros: PERFORMS IN EVERY FORMAT OUTSTANDING

  Cons: NERO 6 & LABEL LIMITATIONS

  Summary: I thought I would come back and update my review since I only ran less then 10 DVD burns with my first review. Now I have done over 75 burns, ...

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  Summary: I thought I would come back and update my review since I only ran less then 10 DVD burns with my first review. Now I have done over 75 burns, may formats and still going strong. NO COASTERS - NO PROBLEMS. I am glad that I saved money buying the internal drive, and I needed to - to buy some DVD +R DL disks. Before I begin, I just want to let you all know that I only use Verbatium DISKS. I've tried others, but like these overall. So lets start off with some of my findings:
  
  CD-R/RW: Great improvement over my first drive. 40X is nice, but I expected that this drive would have reach 52X, like the CRX320 that came out about the same time.
  
  DVD +/-R 16X==> PROS: 5 minute burn time. CONS: 1) DVD's are very pricey at a $1.00/Disk. Note: I found that they really don't burn at 16X until about 75% of the way though the burn. They averaged about 12.1X.
  DVD +/-R 8X==> PROS: 1) less the $0.45 per disk CONS: 8 min burn time.
  
  OVERALL Right now, 8X Disks are worth the price over 16X, eventhough it takes 3 mins longer.
  
  DVD+/-RW==> Now I can really backup all my digital camera pictures without waiting forever. 8X/6X speeds are much faster then my old 2.4X drive and disks. I could only fine 4x on the shelf, but it really makes a difference (28MINS/16MINS). Hope to see 6 & 8X disks soon.
  
  Finally, what you are looking to find out about, the DVD+R DL. WOW! These disks are great, Still too expensive to move to ($8.00/per), but I had to try them. So, I bought (ouch) a 3 pack of Verbatim 2.4X DVD's, and I was surprised that the Sony drive burned the entire disk at 4.1X (28mins). No Compression needed and it played crystal clear in my DVD player. There is one catch, DVD +R DL do not play in every DVD player, DVD-ROM drive, DVD/CD-RW drive. If you want to make sure that they work with your DVD player, check out this website WWW.VIDEOHELP.COM. Click on DVD PLAYERS, and then key in your make/model to see what your DVD player's qualifications are. Qualifications on this site are based on others who have inform them of their findings (Disk Formats: plus, minus, RW; Video types: DivX, MPEG3, and lots of other stuff). I found my DVD player on the list, but DL was not check off, so I updated my make/model on that site. If your player does not play them, you can search for one that does. What a nice website.
  
  My Disappointment: NERO 6 and its label limitation. Not sure why they did not allow long label names. This is the first burn software that I have come across that has done this. No problems with Roxio.
  
  Enjoy your DVD burning.

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  6 out of 6 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Great for the price, and you don't have to bust the bank.

  by retcop96 on March 3, 2005

  Pros: Works great, and easy to install.

  Cons: I wish I could find some with this writer.

  Summary: I used both 8x and 16x disc and they both work just fine. I haven't used the DVD 9 DL disc yet due to the high cost. Nor did ...

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  Summary: I used both 8x and 16x disc and they both work just fine. I haven't used the DVD 9 DL disc yet due to the high cost. Nor did I use the CD program disc. I already have other programs that do the same thing. Just make sure to go to Sony and download the updated drives after you install this writer.

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  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  THE DRIVE TO WAIT FOR - I UPGRADED FROM A SONY 510UL (A+)

  by on February 12, 2005

  Pros: Of all the problems I have read with some of the previous DVD/RW Drives (even Sonys), I was skeptable that I would never be able to upgrade from my Sony 510UL, 4X, external burner (Love it!), but I am now sold on this new 720A. Yes, I would have loved an

  Cons: My Pioneer DVD Rom Drive (M115) did not recognize my finalized DVD-R disk. DVD+/-Rs that I burn from my 510 drive read fine. It might be due to a lack of firmware updates on this very old drive, however, it worked fine in my laptop and my DVD player. M

  1 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 9 stars

  Perfect Burner 16X speed is good

  by Mayooran on February 24, 2007

  Pros: Very Fast Burning with Nero 7 at 16x

  Cons: No DVD-R DL support

  Summary: First of all my apologies for leaving the Feedback after two years or usage. YES i bought this one May 2005 and for the past 3 years NO problems so ...

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  Summary: First of all my apologies for leaving the Feedback after two years or usage. YES i bought this one May 2005 and for the past 3 years NO problems so far. Firmware update also available with step up step guide in sony support site. Highly Recommended Burner with Nero 7.

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• 9 stars

  Great Deal

  by nosoupferyoo on April 25, 2006

  Pros: Absolutely everything about it

  Cons: Very few times it stalls (possibly through overuse)

  Summary: I really have no reason to write this, but after seeing so many bad reports about this, I have to spread the facts about it. First of all, I should ...

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  Summary: I really have no reason to write this, but after seeing so many bad reports about this, I have to spread the facts about it. First of all, I should explain what type of tools used with it.
  
  I have a Compaq Presario computer, 2.6 GHz of Celeron CPU, 1 Gig of RAM (although it has worked perfectly when only half that amount was available), XP, and use the Nero toolkit. I don't care about not having all of Nero because it hasn't failed me yet and all I really need are burning, image-to-disc, and backup capabilities. My computer is average overall, less than the normal recent computers because of its processor, motherboard, and outdated onboard video.
  
  Prior to working with this, I have used a USB DVD-RW burner. I strongly recommend not getting these, even Sony's, although I didn't use their's but someone else's. The reason is that data doesn't flow as fast even with firewire, and the ribbon cable/motherboard is more than enough to power it all up. Every single DVD was wasted due to this, and only about two in the twenty DVDs used were correct until I've reached a certain file.
  
  This DVD burner was next in line because the honesty of salesmen at CompUSA told me to get it (not to advertise about this store, though; I know each franchise is different, but Vacaville's is amazing). I sometimes burn twenty-thirty dvds a day, and I haven't had any problems whatsoever except that listed above, which I will talk about soon. There was not a byte or bit wasted as far as I could tell, and the software works great with it. Even at multi-sessions I haven't had a problem except the obvious one of which the DVD cannot be played with a stand-alone DVD player, or at least the second session and beyond.
  
  The only con I had about this is that sometimes while backing up files it goes into an infinite command loop. I am not sure if this is a hardware or software problem, but think it is software because right after when I try again, it works perfectly. I hadn't turned off and cold-booted my computer for days, so probably it would be the problem in the RAM since it keeps the residence after prolonged use. This only happened about twice out of months of use and hundreds of DVDs burned, and only before I added more RAM into the computer.
  
  I haven't tried a DVD-9 yet because it's less reasonable to me than buying Sony DVDs wholesale. Hopefully the prices will go down so I'll get one, but at the moment I'm not in the position to even try one out. I'll update this if this happens. As for the DVD+R, it goes a bit over eight minutes to be copied, and for the smallest copy it could be up to two minutes. The difference I believe is too small to even recognize since there's great benefits toward this, and I even can run small programs while doing this, although it comes slowly (suggestion: do not run heavy processor-leeching programs. Although they will run, any burner in the world will slow down the process, and most will waste the copy. I haven't seen this in mine, but it probably will due to its burner nature).
  
  Hopefully this helps a couple people. Most of the time when people say it doesn't run right is because their own computer isn't capable of it and goes too slow or the processor is being too used up. I'm not a tech, but I think you should at least log off a few programs and look at task manager to see how much is being used.
  
  This is it. Sony has done a great job at managing their product effectively, and I believe nothing can top this product's reliability. I know nothing can in my book at least. Thanks for reading, and enjoy yourself.

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• 2 stars

  Read and Burn Errors after two months from purchase date.

  by technofixation on February 8, 2006

  Pros: When it worked, burned cd's and dvds quickly.

  Cons: FAILED after a TWO MONTHS!!! DVD moive backups can have errors at the max speed (16x) I do not recommend burning DVDs at 16x

  Summary: I bought this burner in December 2005 to replace my DRU-710A that failed to burn dvd's after a year. About two months later, now this DVD burner has failed ...

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  Summary: I bought this burner in December 2005 to replace my DRU-710A that failed to burn dvd's after a year. About two months later, now this DVD burner has failed 5 DVD burns consecutively and fails intermittently as a CD and DVD reader. It is very disappointing to upgrade to a better SONY product, update it properly and have it fails two months later. It also often fails at READING CD's and DVD's. I dont know if DVD burning technology is bad altogether or if SONY just doesn't have what it takes in DVD burning technology. Disappointed.

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• 9 stars

  So good so far

  by iamtommy on July 13, 2005

  Pros: good design, reliable, changable face plate

  Cons: nothing yet

  Summary: I've had this drive for about a month now. I've burned music & data cds, as well as dvd movies and data dvds. All discs worked fine in ...

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  Summary: I've had this drive for about a month now. I've burned music & data cds, as well as dvd movies and data dvds. All discs worked fine in multiple environments. I've had problems with an external sony dvd-rw drive in the past not recognizing the dvd movies I burned, but have not experienced that with this drive. So far, no toasters, I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

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• 1 stars

  Don't buy, save yourself money and time.

  by ibravo00 on September 16, 2005

  Pros: nothing and nothing.

  Cons: does not work

  Summary: This is the 3rd DVD burner that I have installed on separate systems. The first two I bought generic because they weren't for me and I figured I would ...

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  Summary: This is the 3rd DVD burner that I have installed on separate systems. The first two I bought generic because they weren't for me and I figured I would save some money. For my own systme I decided to go with Sony because of the name. Big mistake on my part. When I installed and tried it out, I found out that it would not work over 2x (being a 16x dvd burner). I can't even play dvd's because it skips.
  I tried calling support-of course they were no help. After 2 or 3 months of giving me the run-around, they are having me pay shipping for them to "fix it".
  The other 2 burners that I bought work perfectly. To make matters worse, I find out that my brother-in-law bought exactly the same model and is having the same problems.

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  0 out of 1 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 2 stars

  Disappointing

  by Confed on July 2, 2005

  Pros: Good advertised speeds and compatibility

  Cons: Failure to live up to advertised hype

  Summary: This is one of the most disappointing purchases I've ever made and the only new generation recorder that's given me a coaster or two. I've upgraded my ...

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  Summary: This is one of the most disappointing purchases I've ever made and the only new generation recorder that's given me a coaster or two. I've upgraded my firmware to JY03 and have seen little improvement.
  
  I use Easy DVD Creator and I was stunned by how long it took for this drive to ready itself. On my $50 NEC 3500, it was almost instantaneous. What is this drive doing? Defragging my hard drive? And of course the speeds recorded are nowhere near the advertised speeds.
  
  If you think in terms of radio alarm clocks, think of this drive as an entry level General Electric, not as a Panasonic or...well, a Sony.
  
  I'm going to give Sony two more firmware updates. If things don't dramatically improve, I'm going to pull it out of my system and use it for target practice.
  
  What a piece of junk. The Nero software doesn't make it run any better. I'd hate to start thinking of Sony as a third party electronic manufacturer.

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  1 out of 4 users found this user opinion helpful.

• 10 stars

  Amazing value !!

  by dvdguru on June 13, 2005

  Pros: speed, sleek design, free 10 music downloads from connect.com

  Cons: i havent found anthign wrong with it yet

  Summary: I have owned dvd burners since they came out a few years ago i have owned plextor drives along with pionner a03 a04 and a05 drives.. dollar for dollar this ...

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  Summary: I have owned dvd burners since they came out a few years ago i have owned plextor drives along with pionner a03 a04 and a05 drives.. dollar for dollar this is the best drive i have ever owned i would recomend this to any one !

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  0 out of 2 users found this user opinion helpful.

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