Why I buy this one ?
- Write Speeds - Up to 2.4x Double Layer DVD+R, 16x Single Layer DVD+R, 4x DVD+RW, 8x DVD-R, 4x DVD-RW, 48x CD-R, & 24x CD-RW
- Read Speeds - Up to 16x DVD-ROM and 48x CD-ROM
- Buffer Underrun Protection Technology
- PC compatible and requires Windows 2000 Professional, Windows XP Home, or Windows XP Professional
- Wide Range of Compatible DVD+R/+RW Media

What our customer's say!

"The bad reviews are just wrong...", It sounds like none of the owners of these alleged broken drives took advantage of their automatic 1-year warranty. That's their own fault, and only the very small but very vocal minority bother to post reviews on here 9 times out of 10. It also helps to use real blank media and not generic crap you buy on eBay. Crap in is crap out.

I'm here to help out Sony and their perfect burning machine. I've owned this drive for almost 3 years, and it works as good now as it did the first time I used it.

"Quit reading CD's after a few months", Drive was fine for a few months and now it won't read or write CDR's anymore, DVD's are fine(read and write). More junk from Sony. Some of their stuff is great, and well the rest of it is.......

"never buying sony again", Makes me wish for a "zero" star option. Burns CD's but only very infrequently recognizes DVD's (commercial and blank). Problems began about 8 months into ownership. At first the problem seemed to be resolved by uninstalling and reinstalling drivers and nero over and over again, but lately nothing has worked. Tech help is useless. I have never purchased such a flawed product and it seems others have had similar problems. The price and rebates were the deciding factor on my drive purchase. I have learned my lesson.

"Won't buy another Sony drive......", The drive just gone dead on me and would not burn any disc after about 11 month of infrequent use. Had spend the extra money to get the Sony brand but am totally disappointed. Will be staying away from Sony drives going forward.

"NOT A GOOD DVD/CD REWRITABLE DRIVE", I PURCHASED THIS UNIT IN JANUARY 2005. BY JUNE 2006 (just 6 months after the warranty EXPIRED) IT WOULD NOT READ DVDs, called SONY Technical Support, they just wasted my time. I just changed it out with a NEC ND-3550A.

Read this reviews before You buy...

"Very reliable", I've had this burner for about 6 months, and I've burned a ton of DVDs with it. I've burned both data DVDs and video DVDs. I always use DVD+R media, but I've used all sorts of brands and speeds from 4X to 16X. I've found this to be a fast and reliable burner that produces video DVDs that can be read on everything I've tried from computers to various consumer DVD players. I almost always use Nero 6.6 to burn, by the way.

This is in marked contrast to two other burners I've owned, which proved to be dicey.

There is a newer DRU-800A model that I may get next.

"Fine for Data disks, questionable for DVD Video", I actually have two of these drives in my PC.

They work great for data disks... I usually use +R and when burning at 16x on just about any media, they're readable on any other PC. I also use a lot of +RW and have never had any problems. I've used -R a few times and had no problems. I've not tried dual layer yet so can't comment.

For DVD Video... anything I burn higher than 4x is unreadable by any other stand alone player I've ever tried (I've tried several - relatives and friends, too.)
. The burns go fine, but when put into the player, the players can read the menus and whatnot but when playing the video, there's usually lots of weird pixelations and freeze ups. If I burn at 4x or 2x there are no problems at all, though.

Forums and whatnot say that Sony support doesn't want to hear your problem if the media your using isn't on the drive's 'media compatibility list'. It's interesting to note, then, that even though they sell this as a 16X drive, the highest rated media on the list is only 8X. So I guess if you have *any* 16X problems, don't ask Sony for help.


"Sony DVD Writer - NO Mail and rebate", The product may be good. i dont know who offered the rebate.but they didnt keep up their word. i got the writer in late May or early June and still i have not got my rebate. Im dissappointed. i would say i lost $60.


"Don't bother with Sony drives", My drive like this stopped working in about 15 days. Which makes you wonder if I just got a dud. (Most likely) But then I start thinking about it and I have had 2 previous single layer models. Both of those died in 2 completely different computers over the span of 3 months each. One of which was a store replacement for the other. But 3 sony drives on 2 different computers, all dead. This new one was in a spanking new system I just built with it. Now I have 2 Plextor Dual Layer DVD burners in both of those systems and they have worked flawlessly ever sense.

I would suggest you stay away from Sony drives. Get anything else. Doesn't have to be what I have. I think anything else should do. (but I understand Sony drives are often just remarked LightOn's. Something to think about.) I'm 3 for 3 on Sony and 0 for 2 using other brands. Seems like a pretty lousy gamble buying Sony DVD burners to me.

"stopped doing +Rs after six months", This drive worked perfectly for about 6 months, at which time it suddenly lost the ability to burn anything properly in DVD+R format. Every single DVD+R format disc I now burn has serious pixelation and freezing problems (oddly, this doesn't happen with DVD-Rs). I wasted about an hour waiting for and dealing with Sony customer service, only to have the rep tell me that the first four brands of blank media I rattled off were "inferior." When I asked him which ones were NOT inferior, the list he gave me included one brand that I had also had recent problems with (and didn't mention at first). Basically, Sony has made an inferior product that does not withstand the test of time, and is now trying to weasel its way out of a one-year warranty. I will not buy another Sony product if I have a choice.