DRU-500A

[Mike Trotter]

Sony DRU-500A Review
Thank you for the thorough review.
I was slightly puzzled by one thing you said in the Features section. In connection with making a CD of tracks of your choice, you said you were limited to 5 burns and after that needed an upgrade. Does this mean 5 burns to a disk containing that particular collection (i.e. generate 5 copies) or did it mean a total of 5 burns of 5 groups of different tracks and then upgrade software?

I want a DVD writer for three main things:
1. To store my data (more than 6 GB)
2. To back up my system for re-installation purposes - Is the DVD a bootable device?
3. To copy my classical music CD Collection (200+ discs) to reduce the space it occupies in my study.
4. To burn CD R's. I was an early adopter and have a 2 speed HP 7200 with Adaptec Direct CD software which allows me to drag and drop just as though it was another hard disc. Buffer underruns etc went out with version 1 of that software.
5. To copy some Videos of Operas that I have on VHS tape from BBC broadcasts.

Do you see any problems if I bought a DRU 500A? In particular would I be able to play the musical output through the sound card output into the Nicam TV or a HiFi amp?

Finally, is there any likelyhood of a PCMCIA interface and an external housing so that the system can work on a well speced Dell Inspiron 750 MHz 7500 notebook?

Many thanks again for the review and for your time in responding to my questions.

Mike Trotter

[Pradeep]

1. No problem
2. The drive is bootable but only if you have it installed internally. There is no x86 PC I know of that allows booting to an external Firewire/USB2 device.
3. No problem
4. I have no idea if there is such a limitation with the provided Veritas Record Now 4, but Stomp Record Now Max 4.5 is available on 30 day free trial. Apparently Sony will be providing an upgrade to Record Now DX sometime soon, tho the upgrade link has completely dissapeared off the Sony DVD site (previously it promised an upgrade by mid-November). Also Nero work fine for CD-R (still has issues with Video DVDs and DVD+R).
5. No problem, the provided MyDVD will do that just fine.

I use my internal 500A in an external ADS Pyro Firewire case, via Firewire attachment to both my desktop and Dell i8200. In your case, if your laptop doean't have Firewire than a PC Card with 2 or 3 Firewire ports ca be easily purchased.

It will play audio thru your audio card just fine (analog stereo output).

[Pradeep]

Sorry 4. should be: The provided DLA will work just fine as a drag and drop interface for CD-R or DVD.

[Ian]

total of 5 burns of 5 groups of different tracks and then upgrade software?

If this is in regard to the MusicMatch software, that is indeed what I meant.