Sony DRX830UL/T External DVD+/-R 18X Double/Dual Layer and Dual Format DVD Drive

After burning forty plus gigs on 15 discs, my Sony DRX830UL/T still works just fine. I did end up with one coaster, but quickly realized it was my error. I dragged an entire folder to burn rather than opening it and uploading each individual file. After that, no more coasters. I've been burning on Sony and Maxell DVD+R discs. Using 16x discs makes the burning process really fast.

The Nero software is awful (it's a mess when compared to the streamlined sensibility of Windows Media software). After downloading it, my computer was overtaken with a landslide of Nero programs. Photos, music, videos, and such were being displayed with confusing and choppy Nero programs. But that was my fault. I agreed to everything during the installation, never imagining what I would end up with. But this was resolved by going into the Nero file and deselecting a dozen or so boxes. I kept only the stuff associated with burning DVDs. I'm now a happy camper.

I have Windows XP and the installation was simple. Turn on your computer, plug in the AC power cord and the USB cable, and download the installation software. That's it. It's quiet, fast, and works great. The only gripe I have about the player is the power switch. I would prefer it on the front of the player instead of the back.



SONY advertised this as a 18x burner for DVD+R media. I used the recommended brand (Verbatim) and Taiko-Yuden which are very high end media. I was only backing up home movies from my panasonic camcorder. The movies are in .mpeg format, I was only writing data and it should be no problem for any writter. Unfortunately, I got only 12x write speed with the provided software, in a mac as well as in a PC. (Just slower than advertised, no clusters).
It is a noisy drive too.
I spoke with SONY costumer service and I could not get any satisfactory answers. I had to wait a long time to be helped. They said that the drive was probably damaged. I returned it and I do not think the drive quality or the customer support represents the price of this drive.



I bought this to work with my eMac/700. It met all of the system requirements given. What wasn't said was that it wasn't supported by the Mac's 10.3.9 operating system and would only work while running the Toast 6 lite. In other words I couldn't read or write disks from any other application on the Mac. In fact it would immediately eject the disk when I quit Toast.

Luckily, Amazon took it back. They even paid the postage. Unfortunately I'm still out my hours of research and 30 mile drive getting it to the post office. Additionally, having found a new "hi tech" way to fib, I'm discourage from buying computer peripherals from Amazon. I blame Sony for this. I know Amazon can't check out every manufacturer's claims.

I am upset with my burner's apparent inability to burn movie files onto any of the 16X DVD-R's that I bought in bulk for it. CD's and other slower speeds of DVD-R's play and burn just fine, however now I'm stuck with 200 DVDs that my burner can't work with.

This product only work for burn around 6 dvd's in two weeks.
suddenly when i going to play a movie, give me an error and never works again.

i don't undertand because i have at my office and i didn't move it.

just simply stops.

don't waste your money as i do.

Can not really fault this machine. The only slight problem is the computer doesn't recognise it occaionally when hooked up through the USB, but if you switch it off, and restart the computer, it usually fixes it. It could be the computer's fault and not the DVD drive (I am not a computer expert). otherwise it has been a totla pleasure burning dvd's, and the Nero software is good too!

I purchased the Sony DRX830UL/T External DVD burner after reading reviews and comtemplating what I wanted from a burner. I know I wanted a combination of quality, ease of use and the ability of utilizing different formats in reading, burning DVD's and of course CD copies.
This machine for me offers all that plus tools I've not even explored yet. It's also complimentary to the limited space I have on my desk standing vertically between my tower and my monitor. It's attractive in looks and simply a very practical product. I find it's quite fast in burning also. In addition; where I've had problems playing a DVD on my home theater due to perhaps scratches and flaws on the DVD, this machine seems to over-ride those problems and I have with satisfaction been able to enjoy a movie without any problem.

I was in need of a dvd burner after my Superdrive for my G4 iMac went belly up. Before trying this I went with the Lacie 16x Lightscribe DVD Burner but found that when connected via Firewire it could read CD's but not burn or properly rip them and forget burning dvd's with it (I was forced to connect via USB and burning a 3 gb dvd took about 3 hours!) I returned it and got another one through Lacie but the same problem occured and I returned that upset and confused, wondering if the problem was my computer and not the burner.

I decided to try the Sony burner out, even though it only got an average rating here on Amazon, because they had it at a local store. When I plugged it in via Firewire I really wasn't expecting it to work on my computer. But to my surprise not only did it work, but the read and write speeds were excellent. I was able to get 9x speed when ripping a cd and when burning a dvd I was able to burn a 4 gb dvd in about 12 minutes with verification and thats using a 4x dvd.

Needless to say I am very happy with this product, it was easy to set up, just plug in the connections and start up. If you have Toast already you don't even need the program that comes with the burner. As far as the aesthetics, it is one of the prettier hardware products out there with a mirror coated cover a space saving stand and the brushed metal exterior, it may not match up with my white iMac but it still looks cool.

The reason for not getting 5 stars is that it comes bundled with an old copy of Toast 6 Lite. Since this product just recently came out (about the time they announced Toast 8) they could have at least packaged it with Toast 7 but if you just want to burn dvd's and cd's then the bundled hardware does its job.

I was in need of a dvd burner after my Superdrive for my G4 iMac went belly up. Before trying this I went with the Lacie 16x Lightscribe DVD Burner but found that when connected via Firewire it could read CD's but not burn or properly rip them and forget burning dvd's with it (I was forced to connect via USB and burning a 3 gb dvd took about 3 hours!) I returned it and got another one through Lacie but the same problem occured and I returned that upset and confused, wondering if the problem was my computer and not the burner.

I decided to try the Sony burner out, even though it only got an average rating here on Amazon, because they had it at a local store. When I plugged it in via Firewire I really wasn't expecting it to work on my computer. But to my surprise not only did it work, but the read and write speeds were excellent. I was able to get 9x speed when ripping a cd and when burning a dvd I was able to burn a 4 gb dvd in about 12 minutes with verification and thats using a 4x dvd.

Needless to say I am very happy with this product, it was easy to set up, just plug in the connections and start up. If you have Toast already you don't even need the program that comes with the burner. As far as the aesthetics, it is one of the prettier hardware products out there with a mirror coated cover a space saving stand and the brushed metal exterior, it may not match up with my white iMac but it still looks cool.

The reason for not getting 5 stars is that it comes bundled with an old copy of Toast 6 Lite. Since this product just recently came out (about the time they announced Toast 8) they could have at least packaged it with Toast 7 but if you just want to burn dvd's and cd's then the bundled hardware does its job.

Can not really fault this machine. The only slight problem is the computer doesn't recognise it occaionally when hooked up through the USB, but if you switch it off, and restart the computer, it usually fixes it. It could be the computer's fault and not the DVD drive (I am not a computer expert). otherwise it has been a totla pleasure burning dvd's, and the Nero software is good too!

I purchased the Sony DRX830UL/T External DVD burner after reading reviews and comtemplating what I wanted from a burner. I know I wanted a combination of quality, ease of use and the ability of utilizing different formats in reading, burning DVD's and of course CD copies.
This machine for me offers all that plus tools I've not even explored yet. It's also complimentary to the limited space I have on my desk standing vertically between my tower and my monitor. It's attractive in looks and simply a very practical product. I find it's quite fast in burning also. In addition; where I've had problems playing a DVD on my home theater due to perhaps scratches and flaws on the DVD, this machine seems to over-ride those problems and I have with satisfaction been able to enjoy a movie without any problem.

This product only work for burn around 6 dvd's in two weeks.
suddenly when i going to play a movie, give me an error and never works again.

i don't undertand because i have at my office and i didn't move it.

just simply stops.

don't waste your money as i do.

SONY advertised this as a 18x burner for DVD+R media. I used the recommended brand (Verbatim) and Taiko-Yuden which are very high end media. I was only backing up home movies from my panasonic camcorder. The movies are in .mpeg format, I was only writing data and it should be no problem for any writter. Unfortunately, I got only 12x write speed with the provided software, in a mac as well as in a PC. (Just slower than advertised, no clusters).
It is a noisy drive too.
I spoke with SONY costumer service and I could not get any satisfactory answers. I had to wait a long time to be helped. They said that the drive was probably damaged. I returned it and I do not think the drive quality or the customer support represents the price of this drive.



I bought this to work with my eMac/700. It met all of the system requirements given. What wasn't said was that it wasn't supported by the Mac's 10.3.9 operating system and would only work while running the Toast 6 lite. In other words I couldn't read or write disks from any other application on the Mac. In fact it would immediately eject the disk when I quit Toast.

Luckily, Amazon took it back. They even paid the postage. Unfortunately I'm still out my hours of research and 30 mile drive getting it to the post office. Additionally, having found a new "hi tech" way to fib, I'm discourage from buying computer peripherals from Amazon. I blame Sony for this. I know Amazon can't check out every manufacturer's claims.

I am upset with my burner's apparent inability to burn movie files onto any of the 16X DVD-R's that I bought in bulk for it. CD's and other slower speeds of DVD-R's play and burn just fine, however now I'm stuck with 200 DVDs that my burner can't work with.

After burning forty plus gigs on 15 discs, my Sony DRX830UL/T still works just fine. I did end up with one coaster, but quickly realized it was my error. I dragged an entire folder to burn rather than opening it and uploading each individual file. After that, no more coasters. I've been burning on Sony and Maxell DVD+R discs. Using 16x discs makes the burning process really fast.

The Nero software is awful (it's a mess when compared to the streamlined sensibility of Windows Media software). After downloading it, my computer was overtaken with a landslide of Nero programs. Photos, music, videos, and such were being displayed with confusing and choppy Nero programs. But that was my fault. I agreed to everything during the installation, never imagining what I would end up with. But this was resolved by going into the Nero file and deselecting a dozen or so boxes. I kept only the stuff associated with burning DVDs. I'm now a happy camper.

I have Windows XP and the installation was simple. Turn on your computer, plug in the AC power cord and the USB cable, and download the installation software. That's it. It's quiet, fast, and works great. The only gripe I have about the player is the power switch. I would prefer it on the front of the player instead of the back.