Sony DRU500AX and Meritline 4x Media Tested!

[ddubb]

I have a Sony DRU500AX with 2.0c Firmware. I purchased a 50 pack of Meritline 4x media from Meritline, originally thought I got Ritek. The Meritline media looks just like Ritek media. If any one knows of a good program that will tell you Manufacturer and crucial info of a disk, please post so I can do a little more research on these Meritline 4x Media to see if they are renamed Ritek discs.

I tested with the DVD, Rules of Attraction. The first disc I burnt was using Veritas RecordNow with no image file created, just a data job and the VIDEO and AUDIO TS folder dropped in. It recognized the 4x media fine and burnt the disc at 4x (15 minutes) with no, 0, nada problems. I tried the disc in my APEX AD-1500 and S@#$, it didn't work. Now I'm hoping I didn't just get screwed buying a 50 pack of unusable media.

So, I tried again! This time I created an image of the files using Nero 5.5.10.7b. I then burnt the image using Nero, it detected the 4x media, burnt the image again at 4x (16 minutes) 4.36 GB of data. This time it worked like a champ in my APEX and another DVD player (GoVideo dual deck) just fine. Now I feel a lot better!

So the summary I found is, don't burn at 4x without making an image (iso) first. Others may disagree, but it worked for me! The Sony500AX burnt at 4x flawlessly and I'm a happy camper.

Hope this helps you all out with your future 4x Media purchases if you have a Sony DRU500AX...

Keep on ddubbin!

[arklab]

Thats good news, ddubb
Thanks!

Could you post a link to where you got 'em, and mention the price?

[ddubb]

A couple more tidbits. I gave a buddy 5 of the 4x Meritlines to test as well on a Pioneer DVR105 or A05, I forget. He emailed me last night and the 4x media DID NOT burn at 4x, he said he only got 2.4x high and a 2x avg. SORRY!

I paid $92.50 for a 50pk from Meritline with no problems and got em on the 3rd business day after the order using the free UPS grnd shipping. It helps that they are out of Cali and so am I, Fast!!.

Here the link: http://meritline.com/merexrit4xdv.html

[MonteLDS]

i wonder if i would get the same results as you did with the AX.. even thought mine is the DRU500a 1.0g. I just wantted to know if i was about to lose all of my money if the DVD-Rs didn't work

[wizard]

Sony told me that the 500a and 500ax are the same identical drive as long as the firmware on the 500a is flashed to the newest 1.0g. I contacted them again to ask why the 500ax's firmware version was 2.0c if they are supposed to be identical drives with the 500a flashed to 1.0g and they told me that the firmware version 1.0g for 500a and 2.0c for 500ax are identical firmwares and that the reason they show different numbers is because since the 500ax is listed as a different model the different numbers are used to tell the drives apart.

don't know why they would lie about it....so if what they told me is true then everything with the 500a flashed to 1.0g should be the same as with the 500ax with 2.0c.

[MonteLDS]

oh brother i just bought a 25 pack.. Lets pray

[boblx2]

I had all kinds of problems with my Sony DRU-500A (1.0g). It would not burn any 4X software any faster then 2X. I tried three different vendors and they were all selling Ritek 4X media. I finally nailed the problem down to the Sony's bus placement. I had it on an added bus by itself. Moving it to the slave on the primary IDE bus corrected the problem. Now it will burn any of that media at 4X. However there is a caveat that I have not worked out. It seems to be pretty shaky using DVD DEcrypter, which is the way you tell the maker of the media, it will only got to 2X but that is probably another problem.
If I use Stomp or Nero the Sony happily burns at 4X everytime. Also I have an A05 that burns all of the Ritek 4X media at 4X. I learned I have to be more careful with installation with these fast drives.

Good luck with it, thought you might like to know this.

[fng]

If any one knows of a good program that will tell you Manufacturer and crucial info of a disk, please post so I can do a little more research on these Meritline 4x Media to see if they are renamed Ritek discs.

ADVDinfo is one program that does this.

[boblx2]

ADVDINFO can be troublesome. I have had several systems that would give me an aspi error. A much more reliable source is DVD Decrypter in the .ISO write mode. I have never had trouble reading a disc with it. It is also free software as is ADVDINFO.
Anyway that has been my experience.

........

[fng]

I had that problem on one of my systems. I had to update my SCSI driver (even though I didn't have any SCSI devices). It worked fine after that.

[VEFF]

Sony told me that the 500a and 500ax are the same identical drive as long as the firmware on the 500a is flashed to the newest 1.0g. I contacted them again to ask why the 500ax's firmware version was 2.0c if they are supposed to be identical drives with the 500a flashed to 1.0g and they told me that the firmware version 1.0g for 500a and 2.0c for 500ax are identical firmwares and that the reason they show different numbers is because since the 500ax is listed as a different model the different numbers are used to tell the drives apart.

don't know why they would lie about it....so if what they told me is true then everything with the 500a flashed to 1.0g should be the same as with the 500ax with 2.0c.

Normally I would believe and understand the different firmware excuse due to model numbers, BUT several people (on at least two forums) said that the 500AX shows up as 500A in Device Manager!?

[jrlo]

The Sony DRU-500-AX does indeed show up in several places (in my Windows XP system) listed as "Sony DRU500A". Not sure why or for what reason.

I have taken some screenshots from several tools and placed them online for viewing at :

http://www.truesoldier.org/dru500ax_photos/

This drive is definitely a dru500ax, for whatever its worth, at least according to the box it came in, and judging by both the date and revision of the firmware. Who knows what the guts actually are (same/different).

[MonteLDS]

Sony DRU-500A firmware 1.0g connected to a HD (DRU=Master) on 2nd IDE port on my Asus board (P4TE). using Nero 5.5.9.17 took 17:13 (stupid lead in and lead out)

So yes good 4x media so far with this 1 disc. One comment is that when i was burnin the puppy it sat at 1% for almost a min... then it went pretty quick.

[ddubb]

I've been burning with these 4x discs for the past 5 days without a single problem on my Sony 500AX. I also found that every software I burn with sits for about a min before it spins up and starts writing data, but for the most part 15-16 minute burns everytime using Nero (latest) RecordMax, Alcohol 120% and DVD Decrypter. Now I'm spoiled and wont be going back to anything less than 4x.

[boblx2]

Since my above post I have found the problem I was having with DVD Decrypter and my Sony. I suspect my media got mixed up and I was not really using the Ritek 4X media. Now that is all straightened out I also have trouble going back to the slow media. Especially when the Ritek is so cheap. And I never get a coaster any more using Ritek. I have an A05 and a Sony so I can burn 4X at work or at home. Life is good!

............

[madmax]

Just got the SONY DRU-500AX 2.0 firmware build date january 2003 when i use DVD Decrypter it rips at 2x how do i change it to 4x as this is what i believe my writer supports.....................

[Rpbertxyz]

It's a bummer. I also have the Sony 500AX. That's all it will do. I bought a Pioneer-120 CD/DVD rom to take care of the problem. There are other burners out there that also only do 2X.

[madmax]

Is this hardware or software problem as someone on cd freaks form told me nero can do it at 4x but dvd decrypter only at 2x that points at software but also on vcd help i was told it was hardware problem
does anyone know of a fix for this
madmax

[craz]

Thanks ddubb, after I read your post I bought 50 discs and I have good success writing at 4x with version 1.0f. Tried with DVD Decrypter and RecordNowDX. Nero crashes my computer.

Just got the SONY DRU-500AX 2.0 firmware build date january 2003 when i use DVD Decrypter it rips at 2x

I think the burner is locked at 2x when rips DVD. Get another DVD rom for playing and ripping.

[MonteLDS]

DVD Auth speed comes out @ 4x too!

using Ulead DVD Work Shop i was able to burn completly sucessfully. at 4x. I was so amazed how fast it burned. Just cause i was burning some old 2x media (i was making multi copies). It was so crazy cool!