Hi all,
I have browsed the site over and over and cannot find anything like my problem. Help please. I am running a Sony DVD RW DRU 500-A on a PIII 900 MHZ with 256 megs RAM, 40 GIG HD,64 MB vid. I am using Shrink DVD and Nero 6. Everything works great together except I cannot burn a DVD-R or DVD+R that will play on my stand alone DVD player. It keeps showing "no disk" evertime I try to play them. They play on my computer with Power DVD fine. There are 2 strange things happening here. I can burn a DVD- or + rewritable and it will play on my computer and every other stand alone I have tried also I was able to burn DVD-+ prior to updating my firmware. My questions are can I revert to the old firmware and how do I do that and has anyone else ever heard of this problem. By the way I can burn any brand of rewritable including cheap no names and I am using Verbatim DVD-+ for my media. They are rated for 2x-4x. Any help will be great. Thanks in advance.
Interesting problem bloonight. My first thought was that maybe this drive was designed for +/-RW only but CDRLabs.com gives the following information:
Quote:This new DVD writer is the first drive with the ability to write to DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW discs and is the first drive to hit the market with support for 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW speeds. Of course Sony hasn't stopped there. They've also included a whopping 8MB buffer, support for their Power-Burn technology and 24x CD writing speeds, the fastest found on a DVD writer.
Firmware version and media you are using are the things you need to check next. What firmware version are you using? What +/-R brand discs have you tried? What speed are you writing at?
Quote:it came with the firmware version 1.0d, now it's replaced with 1.0f. The new version supports recording of DVD+R at 4X and has the read speed for DVD lifted up, though it's not specified up to what level.
The new version has some negative effect as well. Some of the users complain that the drive does not write Princo 2x discs at 2x and allows only for 1x.
Reportedly, there are also Power Calibration Errors when any discs from Princo are used...............Looking though leaflets supplied with the drive........Verbatim warns that early 2x discs from Verbatim can cause a record error on this drive. The following types are under suspicion: Reorder number 43136 and 43166............a similar warning from Pioneer which notifies about possible write errors in case of DVD-R discs of the DVS-R47A/EN type.
Tests done by that site showed:
Quote:cheap noname discs which were detected as clones of TDK ........failed on the SONY DRU-500A.......they can be recorded only at 1x..........two Princo's discs.........flawless, though only at 1x.
The verdict after testing was that:
Quote:users should choose DVD-R media very carefully.
Fortunately, there were no problems with the DVD-RW media.
This is just a small portion of the information available. Try doing a websearch with these indicators: Sony DVD RW DRU 500-A best firmware media (substitute the word media with the media code or brand and type of + or - R disc you have been using)
Hi bloonight, The site I list is mainly for firmware hacks and problems. If there is any type of problem with a firmware version, this site should have a thread about it. Just do a search for your model when you get there. Hope this helps.
Thanks you two for the help.....I just finished work and found your responses. I have been to Videohelp.com and they say the player I have is fine for all formats and I have Verbatim DVD-r and DVD+R and I am about to see about updating the firmware. I know this drive works as it was working in another machine. One more question for both of you please.....in the other machine it was running under Windows Millenium and I am running the drive under Windows XP. Does the operating system make a difference. I have read a lot about the different systems but can't seem to figure out what is bes and what's not. Thanks again for the input.I owe you a beer.
Operating systems are a bit like car models - user preferences define choices. For me personally I wouldn't go past xp - it operates far more smoothly and with virtually less crashes than any other version I've previously used. I shouldn't think that XP would be having too much effect on your burner.
You should perhaps check whether you have the IMAPI CD Burning Service enabled though as this can sometimes play havic with your burning software.
This link will take you to a previous post of mine explaining how to disable it.
