Home > Consumer Reviews > Sony DRU-530A Multi-Format Recorder ( DRU530A )

What company would make a drive that doesn't fit in its own computers? SONY that's who. I bought this for a Sony Vaio desktop, and once installed, the drive door wouldn't fit through the face plate of the Vaio! A call to Sony said they have a kit to fix this for $25 only thru them online, but they didn't have one for this particular model of drive! Huh? That's like buying a car part from the dealer and then they say "Oh, it won't fit your car!" "Buy a kit to make it fit!" WHAT!?!? Sony apparently would have you buy a new computer every time you wanted to upgrade! Boy, that's great business practice! Needless to say, I don't know how this drive is because I returned it the next day!!! Good luck with Sony!!!

I was drawn to this item as it supports all DVD formats, was fast, came from a market leader (Sony), and obtained good initial reviews. The first unit arrived in early January 04. Installation was a breeze. My first tests confirmed the drive played a music CD and a DVD movie. Next, I tried to burn my first DVD - no luck. I tried different software along with using native XP drag and drop. This was done with top quality (I can't remember the brand) -R discs. The next day, I purchased TDK +R discs and observed the same results. Sony offers a downloadable utility to check the health of the drive. It failed the write test. The utility has a neat feature that emails the results to Sony. They offer you a phone number to call in twenty four hours to discuss the results. Unfortunately, the email came back to me, "Undeliverable". I tried the same utility with the -R discs with the same, failed, results. I returned the drive disappointed - hey, this stuff happens. Today, I decided to engage in round two with a new drive. Again, the exact same result, including the failed email delivery of the test results to Sony. Tomorrow I'm returning the drive and moving on. Sorry Sony, two for two defective products with poor support equals former customer.

The SONY DVD RW is an excellent DVD burner, with easy install, friendly software. The write speed for both R and RW disks is amazing. Another great product from SONY at a bargain cost!