Re: DVD burning advice sought

I have a Sony DVD burner for a PC hardly used as the thing was very fussy
about the brand and type of disk.
It is now used as a paperweight and much more useful
I purchased a Pioneer DVD burner and hey presto burns all with 100%
reliability.

Google for "martin van der poel dru-510a" and you will find my original
writing.
Just to see, I checked the Sony website fot a firmware update for this piece
of *** and guess what, STILL NO FIRMWARE UPDATE.

Poor bastards that still have a SONY DRU_510A, they still have to hunt
arround for 4x DVD disks as that is all it can handle.



Regards,

Martin van der Poel
"Mark Crispin" <mrc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:Pine.OSX.4.64.0603152146570.482@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[Please respond via email, as I don't normally read this group. Thanks!]

I recently bought a Sony RDR-VX515 VHS/DVD-recorder, and I tried burning
some DVDs. I choose DVD-R since I wanted the greatest compatibility and
reliability. DVD+R and DVD+RW have some compatibility issues, and I
figured that DVD-RW and DVD+RW would be less reliable than burn-once
media.

According to the manual, I need to use "8x-speed or slower" for DVD-R. So,
I got a box of imation 8x DVD-R. After coastering several DVDs ("the disk
can be neither read nor written", says the RDR-VX515), I gave up and tried
some Memorex 16x DVD-R. These worked much better, although I still
managed to coaster a couple of them.

It seems to be that if I set the disk title before recording the program,
I wind up either with a coaster or a disk that will play in the RDR-VX515
but nowhere else. If I use a Memorex 16x and record the program first,
then set the title name, then set the disk name, I get a disk which will
play elsewhere.

I have yet to get a non-coaster with the imation 8x. Ironically, the
Memorex 16x were cheaper than the imation 8x.

None of the material is copyguarded in any way.

My question is, is this to be expected? Or is my RDR-VX515 a lemon?

My experience with CD burning has taught me "always record at the slowest
speed, and use the best quality CDs you can find". Reliability is
paramount for me. I don't particular care how long a good burn takes;
burning a coaster wastes far more time. Anyway, a video DVD is only going
to burn at 1x anyway.

So if my experience is the way things are in the DVD burning world, OK.
But if my RDR-VX515 is a lemon, I need to know ASAP. I have 10 days in
which I can return it, and I haven't sent in the rebate paperwork yet.

There was, by the way, another reason why I bought the RDR-VX515. My
S-VHS VCR smoked, and I had to replace it. Apparently S-VHS is not to be
had at all any more, and the only VCRs with anything better than composite
video are these combination VHS/DVD units. I gritted my teeth at paying
the "Sony tax"...

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.


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