DVD-R's from new SONY DRU530 don't play in my portable (SONY) DVD Player.

Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/11/2004, 12:20 PM
Hmmm..... I purchased a really great little portable Sony DVD Player a few months ago. Prior to purchasing I checked out that my DVD's burned using my Sony DRU500 would play just fine. They Did.

Last week my DRU500 started playing up and due to time constraints / project deadlines I just went out and bought a new Sony DRU530... of course expecting this would be just as compatible with my player.

But... NO. I cannot get any of my new DVD-R's to play in this dam thing. They do play in other standard DVD Players I have in my house.

This is just a real bummer!

[edit]... I just found that DVD-RW disks burned with the new DRU530 work just fine. What a weird world this is!

Comments

riredale wrote on 3/11/2004, 3:57 PM
I have no idea what's wrong, but check for a firmware update. There's a lot more going on in these boxes than I would have thought.

Also, try doing a burn with a different program, such as Nero.
Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/11/2004, 9:47 PM
I have the very latest firmware... and I tried burning with Recordnow and with DVDA... no dice.
farss wrote on 3/11/2004, 11:06 PM
Portable DVD players have always been a bit ify with burnt media as far as I know. I believe the problem is they reduce the laser power to save on battery life.

Bu it's mighty odd that they'd play discs burnt with the old burner and not the new.

Now if you think that's wierd, we have a couple of Philips STB DVD burners. When you put blank media in they come up with a menu. Tried a very good brand of blank media and the menu doesn't appear. They burnt just fine and on completion the menu comes up to finalise and they play fine.

We live in very strange times.
richard-courtney wrote on 3/12/2004, 6:05 AM
Same -R media being used?

Does the DRU530 burn +R media? Try it on the player?
winrockpost wrote on 3/12/2004, 6:10 AM
Same burn speed ?
riredale wrote on 3/12/2004, 8:30 AM
This drive apparently has some problems:

www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Articles/Specific.asp?ArticleHeadline=Sony+DRU%2D530A&index=14

There might be some firmware fixes that will help out, such as:

http://forum.rpc-1.com/viewtopic.php?t=23051&highlight=dru530&sid=282a620780e3214b56d59fff5eb628e1

If it's not too late to return it, I have heard excellent things about the Plextor 708 and the Pionner 107. Sorry.
Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/12/2004, 12:14 PM
I tried the same burn speed (4x) and slower 1x.
Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/12/2004, 12:15 PM
I'll have to get some +R to try out. My stocks of DVD's are all -R
Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/12/2004, 12:17 PM
I may just take this one back and go with a Pioneer. I already have the latest firware in the burner... but thanks for the links.
riredale wrote on 3/12/2004, 4:06 PM
BTW, you know the joke about buying a PC and watching in dismay as it becomes obsolete on the drive home? I just saw that Pioneer announced a 12x burner for the summer, and a dual-layer burner is apparently slated for the fall. On the other hand, if you get the 8x, then a 12x is not that much faster (probably 6:30 rather than 8:30 for a full disk). What an amazing industry.
crh24 wrote on 3/13/2004, 2:46 AM
I had the 530 for exactly 1 day before I returned it. Burned anything I threw at it without reporting a single error. Unfortunately, the burned CD's, CD-RW's, DVD+R's couldn't be read by anything, not 1 good burn was accomplished. I replaced the 530 with the Plextor 708A.

The 708A isn't supported by DVDA, but appears to work fine with +R. Only glitch I've had with it is sometimes DVDA fails to close the session. Running Roxio 7, importing the session and then closing it solves that problem. Of course just burning in Roxio 7 works, too.
DigitalSteve wrote on 3/13/2004, 5:44 AM
For those considering an internal dual mode 8X burner, I just picked up a Pioneer DVR 107D (OEM version) from newegg.com for a mere $130 and got a free gift (newegg T-shirt) to boot. The 107D is highly rated. I only have done limited testing, but it works fine with DVDA and is very forgiving using media for multiple brands from the lowest Staples unpackaged bargain specials to Ritek media. Only comes in beige (no black option) in the U.S.
Liam_Vegas wrote on 3/13/2004, 10:04 AM
I had a "chat" session with sony storage support and their opinion was that the problem was not a burner issue - because the same DVD's are playable in other full-size DVD-Players.

I could not seem to get any recognition that if the 500 burned them just fine and they played in the same portable player there is just a possibility that something needs improving in the 530's firmware to compensate.

After all why would they say this in their firmware upgrade summary;

Improvements: Improves reading and writing performance on DVD-R. Improves reliability and recognition on certain DVD-R's.

Issn't compatability <mostly> about getting your burned DVD's to play in the widest range of players... so if you (the firmware developers) find your discs are not playing in some players (your own brand as well) that you would make adjustments to allow it to work more reliably.

Am I missing something here?