Sony DRX-840U 20x External Dual-Layer DVD Burner Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I have had an external burner for quite some time. With recent changes to my environment, I no longer had a Firewire port so I decided to switch to a USB 2.0 external burner. I had gone to Fry's, purchased another well known brand that was an 18x burner, brought it home, set it up, Windows XP Pro did its thing and all seemed right with the world. That was until I actually tried to use it. No matter what I did, Nero V7 and V8 saw it but refused to use either DVD+R or DVD-R media. I did the normal searching for solutions but none presented itself. After months of trying to get it to work, I finally gave up and decided to try another vendor.
In my searching on Amazon, I ran across this Sony drive and noticed it was one of the first to offer 20x burn speeds. The 20x burn speed, while certainly nice, was not what attracted me to this. Rather, it was the fact that, at 20x, this meant it was a relatively new design which meant it should work better. In my searching to resolve my previous external drive's problems, the Sony drives were always lauded by those that had used them. A combination of those two things gave me at least some confidence that this was a good drive.
When it arrived, I did the normal thing and Windows was happy with it. So the acid test: what would Nero think about it? As it turns out, Nero V8 was quite happy with it and worked flawlessly with the drive. I have burned DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD-R DL and CD audio all at the rated speed, all without any problems, all with perfect burns.
Pros:
- It just works without any problems
- Nice case design
- It is happy both vertically and horizontally
Cons:
- Somewhat noisy when the CD/DVD is burning at full speed
- Slower burn speed on inside tracks but speeds up as it moves out
Bottom line: if I had to do it all over again, I would. The drive got me what I was looking for: something that works reliably and dependably. It certainly gets my recommendation.

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External USB 2.0 DVD+R Double Layer, DVD-R Dual Layer/DVD+RW, DVD-RAM 12X DVD+R Double Layer (DL), 20X DVD+R,8X DVD+RW, 12X DVD-R Dual Layer (DL),20X DVD-R, 6X DVD-RW, 12X DVD-RAM 48X/32X/48X CD-RW, 16X DVD-ROM Buffer Underrun Protection Technology

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SONY VRD-VC10 DVDirect External DVD Recorder Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I didn't purchase this product at Amazon, but commonly rely on others' recommendations at this site, so here's my take. THIS PRODUCT IS A GREAT INVESTMENT. The primary reason that I didn't give it a 5 star rating, is because the packaging doesn't clearly state which brands of blank DVD's are compatible. I bought a 100 pack of memorex DVD+R & the disks wouldn't finalize. I contacted sony support & learned that there's a list of approved brands.
DVD+R DL (Double Layer)
Verbatim/Mitsubishi 2.4x speed
DVD+R
Sony 4x & 8x
Ricoh 8x
Verbatim/Mitsubishi 4x & 8x
Taiyo Yuden Co. 4x & 8x
Hitachi Maxell 8x
DVD+RW
Sony 4x
Ricoh 4x
(The support person also said TDK works - but it wasn't on the list)"The list" goes on for other types of Media (ie. DVD-R etc.) Visit sony.storagesupport.com for more info.
I have used only Sony disks without difficulty.
Note: the Double Layer disks are priced about 10 times the single layer disks, so you'd better have a good reason to use that feature.
Also, if you have an older DVD player, be aware that some will not read/play burned DVDs. I've lived this problem. It's frustrating, but I found a new, very inexpensive DVD player that works well.
One drawback... using the stand-alone option with a Digital Video Camera requires the signal to be converted to analog, then back to digital & there's certain to be loss of picture resolution - whether it's noticable may be a matter of opinion. Fortunately, you can hook up your Digital Video Camera to your computer via firewire and utilize the Video Capture software by Nero, that I found to be very straightforward. I recommend using the DVD+VR software feature that allows you to insert your latest video footage into a previously burned DVD+RW disk that works in most all newer DVD players.
I didn't commit to converting my old VHS to digital until I found an older VHS tape whose image quality had detiorated so much as to be useless. What a loss! I had been intimidated by peers who'd told me to plan on spending upwards of 10 hours to edit a single hour of finished tape. The standalone operation & the quality Nero software bundled with the software make this Sony product a less-intimidating, worthwhile investment.

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Includes: NeroVision Express, Nero Burning ROM SE, Ahead InCD, Nero Showtime, Nero BackitUp, AC adapter, & USB cable. SonyVRD-VC10 DVDirect External DVD Recorder - DVDirect is an all-in-one solution for burning video, and other data, to DVD media. When usedwith a computer, it operates as a dual layer DVD burner that can write any kind of data to DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, & CD-R/RW media. Withouta computer, it can capture video footage directly from a VCR or camcorder, encode it, and then burn it to DVD media.3 Recording Qualities - SLP (single layer (SL) 6 hours/double layer (DL) 12 hours), SP (SL 2 hours/DL 4 hours), HQ (SL 1 hour/DL 2 hours) Easy Start/Stop/Pause Recording Supports Dolby Digital (AC3) Automatic Chaptering - 5, 10, or 15 minutes Connects to a PC via USB 2.0 Supports Microsoft windows 2000 / XP

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