Posted today, June 25, 2007, and found here: Sony BWU-100A Blu-ray Burner Review



As a first-generation design, the drive is impressive, and twelve different types of Blu-ray media have all performed flawlessly, so the review is very favorable.

But nothing is perfect... if you read the review closely, you will notice a few gripes.

As always, you are welcome to comment on the review and the drive in this thread.

Thanks for the review there agent

Nice review!

The burned BD-R's are recognized as "BD-ROM".
Is this a feature or a bug??

I believe this is equivalent to DVD bitsetting. It certainly is not a bug in CD-DVD Speed because it reports BD-R and BD-R DL as media types for discs burned by other drives.

In addition to CD-DVD Speed, two other utilities, Nero InfoTool and ImgBurn also report discs as BD-R before burns in this drive and as BD-ROM afterwards.

Nice to see some cooler media like Unifino 4x DVD-R in your review.
Aww, if I only could get it here...

(A jitter scan or high speed scan may possibly have helped detect the reason for the TRT slowdown at the end of the Unifino media, replacing vague observations by "harder" evidence. But I'm not further opening this can of worms.)

Thanks agent009.

I see by reading the review that this drive worked in Windows Vista. The documentation on the box and on the website doesn't seem to say anything about this other than it only supports XP and 2000.

Once the drive was installed did the firmware update program recognize that new drivers for Vista were needed? I just bought this drive and I want to be able to use it in Vista when I get the new computer next month (late July). I don't suppose that it would work in a dual boot system running both XP and Vista.

If someone could explain this to me I'd appreciate it as I only have 30 days to evaluate the drive in order to get a refund if necessary.

Thanks for any help.

Wayne

The short answer is, it will work with Windows Vista without any problems.

Firmware updates only update the software inside the drive and mostly add support for newer media or improve burn quality.

Basic reading and writing of BD data discs is supported by Vista itself, and more elaborate tasks - by the CyberLink BD Solution included with the drive.

BD video playback relies on CyberLink PowerDVD BD software provided with the drive. For Vista, there is a PowerDVD BD 7.3 update: http://sony.storagesupport.com/BDupgrade/index.htm

Thanks very much agent009!

I can go forward with confidence now.

Wayne

Leaf-
thinking about getting one-

now that you have had it for a while, what are your impressions? thx

The BWU-100A is out of production and in the US some stores are selling it for $800. You might as well get the new Sony BWU-200S with higher specs and retail for $600. http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/...52921665251949

Thanks for the INFO, I didn't realize the new model is out!

I see some places selling used/refurbed BWU-100A for around $350... does anyone know if other stores are selling the new BWU-200S drive yet (other than direct from Sony)?

Just went to the Sony website to get the latest firmware upgrade for the BWU-100a.

If you go there, you can't help but notice a new model coming soon: the BWU-300s. A quick google showed that JR.com will have this in stock soon for $399.99. ETA from another website shows October.

8x BD-R write speed, 8x BD-ROM. Not sure if other brands have already reached these benchmarks, but it's a first for Sony.

"First for Sony"?

Buffalo already has a drive out wirh 8x BD-R.