Club CDFreaks - Knowledge is Power - View Single Post - CDFreaks presents: Sony DRU-830A DVD Burner Review

eterman · 09-04-2007

Inspite of the warning not to buy a Sony burner, I did just that. A DRU-830A. (Everyone has their likes and dislikes.) It installed so easily (including the bezel change) that I thought I did something wrong. It worked from the gitgo. BUT ...

Strangely, it came with SS25 firmware and I blindly had gone to the Sony site and "up graded" to the newest firmware ... SS23. Panic!!!

Lower/Older firmware?

Panic??? No sweat. Works fine.

What the heck is the SS25 for anyway(s)? Anyone have a clue?

The "free" Nero software is a nice add-on. Have not played with it yet, but will. More junk to crowd up my hard drive. We'll see!

Downloaded Imgscan from internet - the option I wanted on Nero was grayed-out. Changed the "book" to DVD-RAM. As suggested on several sites. It does revert when the disc is removed. Have to go through that nonsense each time, but, it is what it is (I digress).

BUT... the burned disc still did not play in my Pioneer DVR/DVD? The disc was just REJECTED. It played fine in my Sony DVD players and my Toshiba TV combo and my Toshiba HDTV combo. WHY not the Pioneer?!? That machine is VERY finicky!

Well, dear reader, to make a long story a wee bit shortrer, the burner was evidently set for region 2 not 1. Changed the region ... it woyks like PB&J! My old brain ain't dead yet. My wife was so proud of me. And, my grand daughter still loves me! What's not to love?

As suggested, used the Singapore-mfg'd Verbatim DVD+R DL 8x's. I sacrificed one disc to the scan-gods to see what quality we bought for $50 (15 discs, incl. tax) @ BestBuy ... crooks. NICE! Only one pixel was red and 3 were gray. The rest of them were a beautiful blue. Not bad. These forums are a great place to look for info and clues.

The scan and burn time for a 100% copy (including all the junk) of my purchased DVD was less than when I had to edit out the add-on junk, because I was using DVD-R's and burning only one layer in my older Sony DRU-18a (R.I.P.). Sweet!

Nice little machine. EASY install. Great, fast quality copies. And, only $63 on the internet.

And yes, Imgscan says it is a Samsung. And, so what? Samsung has gained a very good quality rep recently on all their equipment. That makes it better. You get a Sammy and the Sony label. And, you get Sony looking over Sammy's shoulder to make sure that the quality is good. Sony has phone-in, real-personal one-on-one if you run into a problem. None yet though, thank the gods. I would hate to have to test them.

Enjoy!

09-04-2007	#17 (permalink)
eterman New on Forum Join Date: Dec 2004 Posts: 9	Re: CDFreaks presents: Sony DRU-830A DVD Burner Review Inspite of the warning not to buy a Sony burner, I did just that. A DRU-830A. (Everyone has their likes and dislikes.) It installed so easily (including the bezel change) that I thought I did something wrong. It worked from the gitgo. BUT ... Strangely, it came with SS25 firmware and I blindly had gone to the Sony site and "up graded" to the newest firmware ... SS23. Panic!!! Lower/Older firmware? Panic??? No sweat. Works fine. What the heck is the SS25 for anyway(s)? Anyone have a clue? The "free" Nero software is a nice add-on. Have not played with it yet, but will. More junk to crowd up my hard drive. We'll see! Downloaded Imgscan from internet - the option I wanted on Nero was grayed-out. Changed the "book" to DVD-RAM. As suggested on several sites. It does revert when the disc is removed. Have to go through that nonsense each time, but, it is what it is (I digress). BUT... the burned disc still did not play in my Pioneer DVR/DVD? The disc was just REJECTED. It played fine in my Sony DVD players and my Toshiba TV combo and my Toshiba HDTV combo. WHY not the Pioneer?!? That machine is VERY finicky! Well, dear reader, to make a long story a wee bit shortrer, the burner was evidently set for region 2 not 1. Changed the region ... it woyks like PB&J! My old brain ain't dead yet. My wife was so proud of me. And, my grand daughter still loves me! What's not to love? As suggested, used the Singapore-mfg'd Verbatim DVD+R DL 8x's. I sacrificed one disc to the scan-gods to see what quality we bought for $50 (15 discs, incl. tax) @ BestBuy ... crooks. NICE! Only one pixel was red and 3 were gray. The rest of them were a beautiful blue. Not bad. These forums are a great place to look for info and clues. The scan and burn time for a 100% copy (including all the junk) of my purchased DVD was less than when I had to edit out the add-on junk, because I was using DVD-R's and burning only one layer in my older Sony DRU-18a (R.I.P.). Sweet! Nice little machine. EASY install. Great, fast quality copies. And, only $63 on the internet. And yes, Imgscan says it is a Samsung. And, so what? Samsung has gained a very good quality rep recently on all their equipment. That makes it better. You get a Sammy and the Sony label. And, you get Sony looking over Sammy's shoulder to make sure that the quality is good. Sony has phone-in, real-personal one-on-one if you run into a problem. None yet though, thank the gods. I would hate to have to test them. Enjoy! Last edited by eterman; 09-04-2007 at 17:57.