DVR-A06U - Buy or not to Buy - Read inside

Yo guys,
I'm looking forward to buy a DVD burner to back-up my movies and play them using my home theater.
I've been reading about different stories about dvd-burners and i'm stock in between DVR-A06U and Sony DRU510A.
At first i was leaning towards Sony, but now i think Pioneer.
Please let me know if Pioneer will surve better for my needs
Thanks alot

 

tomq
Hi. I bought a pioneer dvr-ao6u and could not be happier. This is my second burner. My first was a memorex that had so-so results in my burns using various programs. With the pioneer, I have not had a coaster yet! Its almost as if this burner can burn data on a coffee can lid. But seriously, I believe the ao6u will serve your need nicely

 

I just bought the Pioneer A06 ,I already have an A05 in one of my machines and was out this weekend at the Computer Fair to find another for my other PC but I couldn't find any more A05 OEM drives,there were a few Retail boxed units but were too much money. To my suprise the A06 OEM drive has come down to $155 ,so I took a chance and picked one up. I don't really need the + media options,cause I favor the minus media, but all I can say is that my A05 is great and as far i can tell my new A06 is just flawless. Go with the Pioneer ,you won't regret it!

 

Right on guys!!!
Gonna order one today!

 

The question should be answered by asking a question, who invented DVD Pioneer or Sony? Pioneer of course, that is why I have a Pioneer DVD burner and a Sony minidisc player, and not the other way around.

 

Well if u dont get a faulty drive u will find it great, but where i am the customer service was excellent got it swapped immediatly

 

what should i test right away to check everything if i have faulty one or not?

 

my first drive was a Cendyne 105 which is really a Pioneer A05 it was defective it wouldn't read DVD format,only music or audio cd's,I thought it was my system come to find it was the drive, so I took it back to my supply and got a retail packed Pioneer A05,and it worked off the bat.To test your drive just make sure it reads Cd audio, data cd's and try playing a movie with something like Power dvd software,if it can do this load Nero and try burning a dvd disc. Good luck!

 

Yea you'll have to risk a dvd-r, but put the drive as a secondary master not slave as this could lead u to believe its faulty whens its not :/

 

I do like my 106 but it does rip disks very slowly. If you have a good DVD-ROM or combo drive thats faster I would keep that in the system as well. BTW any recommendations on a DVD-ROM for ripping?

 

I use a LiteOn 16XDVD
It works very good for ripping

 

There was a posting here telling that most plusandminus burners do not really work fine with both plus and minus media, you can expect poor results with plus media from burners of the brands who were mostly making minus drives, and vice versa.

Question:
Is there any drive that works really fine with both DVD-R and DVD+R (exactly +R, not +RW while good work with RW is of interest too)?

I am about to buy a new burner now to replace my TDK 420, and I would like a new burner to be a decent universal +/-/R/RW drive with no or minimal problems.

Thanks.

 

I think the Plextor 708A works well with both formats.

 

KlanXX: Thank you, can you please tell any details? Was it your own experience?
Could you please rank the +/- models of other brands comparing them to Plextor 708A (just reliability and +/- compatibility, not the price, nor DVD reading speed, I'll use a separate DVD-reading drive anyway).
For the other brands, I feel the champions in DVD+/-R/RW are: Plextor, TDK, Pioneer, Sony. Is any really strong brand missing in this list?

 

try this link these people have tested the new Plextor with other burners I've made mistake I bought a Pioneer A06 3days ago and now the Plexter is on sale for the same price.
Try Newegg.com $234.99

http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.html?i=1864

 

hi

ERH! pioneer and and plextor are the same price to buy ??????????????????

I think not!

 

If you buy the retail version then yes

Pioneer $229.99(Price I paid at BestBuy)
Plextor $234.99(Price at NewEgg.com)

 

Hi

you mean buy both retail?

www.scan.co.uk

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/Products.ASP?CatID=12

LN5416 Pioneer DVR106 ± DVD +RW (x4) +R (x4) -R (x4) -RW (x2) CDR(x16) CDRW (x10) CDRead x32 DVD x8 *oem*
£129.19


LN4957 Plextor PX-504A Retail DVD +RW (x2.4) +R CDR(x16) CDRW (x10) CDRead (x40) DVD (x12)
£151.58


LN5738 *NEW* Plextor PX-708A Retail DVD +RW (x4) +R (x8) -R (x4) CD-R(x40) CD-RW (x24) CDRead (x40) DVD (x12)
£200.93

 

Thank you KlanXX.

The article about Plextor 708A referenced by you is really a decent one, as the drive itself is. 2MB buffer seems to be not a plenty though. Decisions, decisions... It is interesting that they did not mention TDK drives at all (they name Plextor, Pioneer and NEC to be the champions), and there is even no one article about TDK drives on all their web site, despite they actively use TDK DVD+R/RW media whenever they need highly reliable one.

By the way, is it only a matter of attempting to burn at excessive speeds that makes people to complain about bad compatibility of universal DVD+-R drives with + or - media, whatever differs from their native species? I have a feeling that in most or even all cases when people complain about it, they can just reduce the burn speed and have their discs recorded fine. What do you think about it? If the excessive speed is the only cause of this issue (that is quite possible), then it is understandable why the Plextor 708A drive demonstrates a perfect +- compatibility: it automatically reduces the burning speed immediately whenever it detects that there is a chance to burn with errors.