Pioneer A06/106 or Sony DRU510A

Discussion in 'DVD / Blu-ray drives' started by yokozo, Jul 31, 2003.

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  1. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    My question is going to be fair and simple. I am interested in purchasing a dvd burner. And after constant research etc. I have jotted down to these two dvdrw drives.

    Although, majority of people perfering pioneer without really giving any specific reasons why. These two drives are on sale at 309 dollars each at bestbuys with rebate etc.

    After comparing these two. Sony has better performance then the pioneer.

    Sony writes DVD+RW at 4x while Pioneer is 2.4X. Sony writes CDRW at 16X while Pioneer is 10X. and cache buffer for the sony is 8mb while pioneer is at lacking 2mb. Average Seek Time for the Sony is 200ms for dvds and 160ms for cds while the pioneer is 130ms.

    Comparing performance Sony has the advantage. if anyone knows alot of dvd burners let me know which to get and please specifiy a reason why.

    I want a burner that will last a long time. I will be dealing with ps2 backups, data dvd backups, dvd movie backups etc. let me know which to get and why.

    now its July 31st, will there be faster dvd burners out soon?
     
    yokozo, Jul 31, 2003
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  2. Oriphus

    Oriphus Senior member

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    The reason why is that the Pioneer is a lot better and the grandad of the DVD recordable home market. Their products work and work well and the Sony is not as good a -R writer as it is a +R writer. Another way to think about it is look at the longest thread in the place. Its called problems with the Sony DRU510. What does that tell you.

    Also, the price you are getting it at seems quite high over £190 UK and we can get them here for £129 which is $209
     
    Oriphus, Jul 31, 2003
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  3. digedge7

    digedge7 Member

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    I have a Sony DRU510A and it works great. I have burned -R and +R at 4x also -R/RW at 2X (looking for 4X/RW media) . No problems what so ever. Never used a pioneer so i can't comment on that but im sure there great drives too.
     
    digedge7, Jul 31, 2003
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  4. Gaetano

    Gaetano Member

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    I have a Sony DRU500ax and up to now (although I used the drive not that much, so I have limited experience) it was almost impossible to burn 4x DVD-Rs at 4x, at least with cheap Princo media. I am looking for better media to try.
    I would also consider the slow read speed of this drive.
    On the other hand, no coasters yet.

    Sony DRU510 has the claimed advantage to support 4x DVD+RW writing speed. I would consider it because it could be very convenient depending on your needs (when appropriate media will be available).
     
    Gaetano, Aug 1, 2003
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  5. botella

    botella Guest

    sony .sony
     
    botella, Aug 2, 2003
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  6. Oriphus

    Oriphus Senior member

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    Pioneers are used by more people on this forum than Sony's. They are better. But buy what you must and you should still get good results.

    Chris
     
    Oriphus, Aug 2, 2003
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  7. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    hmmm. I went to a local computer show and Pioneer is VERY cheap due to the fact that those people are not paying rent. I saw the Pioneer ao6 for 189 dollars and the sony dru510a for 219 dollars but i still couldnt decide what to get. due to the fact that pioneer ao6 is 2mb cache. I mean how important is cache buffer?
     
    yokozo, Aug 2, 2003
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  8. Oriphus

    Oriphus Senior member

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    With a good system, 2MB is enough.
     
    Oriphus, Aug 2, 2003
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  9. eMurphy

    eMurphy Member

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    I bought a Sony DRU-510a and backed up 14 DVD's so far with ZERO problems.

    Burns a single dvd in about 15 minutes and every one has played in all 3 of my DVD players.

    Haven't tried the Pioneer so I cant comment on them. I know two others personally who have Sony burners and they swear by them.

    Good luck with whichever you choose.
     
    eMurphy, Aug 3, 2003
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  10. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    oh man this is really getting more confusing then last. So by this week i am going to buy one of them. Lets see Sony gets 1 point for having 8mb buffer. Sony gets another point for the drive design structure. Pioneer looks weak. I guess pioneer gets 1 point for being so popular burner and quality. But sony seems to be doing well with certain people. Pioneer gets another 1 point for being cheaper then Sony. Lets see thats 2 points on each drive.. Ahh average seek per min sony gets another point.. I guess I am buying sony dru510a and see how it is.. if anything goes wrong i will change return it and get the ao6.
     
    yokozo, Aug 3, 2003
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  11. zachshaus

    zachshaus Guest

    I own and use the 510 at home, but use an A06 at work. The A06 is way faster as a reader, if you're looking for a single drive, go with the A06.

    I use an XPC at home, so I wanted the 510, which looks better, and works great, does everything I need, faster enough.

    But know that the A06 will always be a little faster, albeit looking less stylish doing so.

    If you go for that sort of thing...

    Not 100%, but I think a lower 'ms' rating is better, i.e. faster.
     
    zachshaus, Aug 4, 2003
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  12. johniemi

    johniemi Guest

    "Average Seek Time for the Sony is 200ms for dvds and 160ms for cds while the pioneer is 130ms. "

    = PIONEER is faster.
     
    johniemi, Aug 6, 2003
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  13. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    Ok I talked to one of the techs at bestbuys which whom conducted an experiment on the Sony CDRW drives and a GENERIC CDRW drives... and the results were a shock. Every chip set in the Sony was identicle with the Generic. The person also recommended me to get the Pioneer. Despite the lack of cosmetics, to me reliablity is number one. So i am going to buy the pioneer and give it a shot
     
    yokozo, Aug 7, 2003
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  14. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    Does anyone know what chip sets does Pioneer use?
     
    yokozo, Aug 7, 2003
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  15. Oriphus

    Oriphus Senior member

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    Thanks for that info, much appreciated. I didnt know that myself.
     
    Oriphus, Aug 7, 2003
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  16. vurbal

    vurbal Administrator Staff Member

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    My first burner was a Pioneer 104 which would burn any media I put in it (including 10 Khypermedia discs without a single coaster). When I lost my PC from a lightning strike the insurance company replaced it with a Sony PC that has the OEM version of the 500AX. The only DVD media I've used in it are Ritek G04s I bought before losing the first burner. No problems there either. Since I've found TDK media locally for about $2 a disc (in 5 packs or either +R or -R) I expect to be trying those in the Sony (they worked great in the Pioneer).

    I didn't do a lot of CD burning during the short time I had the Pioneer, bit I didn't have any problems with the 30 or so discs I did burn. On the other hand, I've burned probably twice as many discs with the Sony and while I'm happy with the results I'm not impressed with the speed. It's a 24x burner but it still takes about 7 minutes for a full CD vs. about 12 minutes for the 8x Pioneer. I pretty much exclusively use Verbatim DataLife Plus discs so I can't speak for any other media.

    You should take all of this with a grain of salt since both were older drives than you are looking at, and in the case of the Sony it's in a Sony PC and I have personally found that problems with a lot of hardware can be traced to Windows dealing with different hardware and software combinations. I would also mention that the few people I've known who had Sony CD burners had problems with them within 2-6 months so if I had picked out my current burner myself I would most likely have gone with another Pioneer.
     
    Last edited: Aug 7, 2003
    vurbal, Aug 7, 2003
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  17. R1Power

    R1Power Member

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    I purchased a Pioneer A05 in April and less then 3 months of used it stop working. It stop reading CDs and CD-Rs altogether and won't read some DVDs and DVD-Rs, but it still would write DVD-R flalessly. In addition the unit can't write CD-R because it caused Nero to crash every time I tried it.

    The store where I purchassed it from let me upgraded it to the Sony DRU510A.

    Hope I have made the right choice :)

    Will report if the new Sony drive have any issues.

    Cheers
     
    R1Power, Aug 9, 2003
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  18. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    Hey all... I just purchased the PIONEER 106 OEM for 189.99 dollars at a local computer show.. and the results are extremely satisfying. I have FINALLY made me a copy of FFX2 :) overall good burner. So far no problems yet, and seems to be working well.
     
    yokozo, Aug 10, 2003
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  19. jd-

    jd- Member

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    personally if you dont need the + why not just get an a05... u can get them quite a bit cheaper...

    i will NEVER use the + just b/c well... i wont, discs are more expensive and all my devices play -

     
    jd-, Aug 10, 2003
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  20. yokozo

    yokozo Member

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    You will never know what will happen in the future. Every channel is changing to digital little by little. So the tv's we got now will be of no use in the future. Same goes for DVD+ and - R's. DVD+R's are being used little by little, atleast it was first created to replace the - R's. So just for the sake of future references, I got dual just to be on the safe side. :)
     
    yokozo, Aug 11, 2003
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