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slow DVD burning on VGN-A497XP

esdc
Visitor

slow DVD burning on VGN-A497XP

Hello,
I have enjoyed my VGNA497XP for 2 months now and I must say that I am very happy with it.
The only problem is about the DVD burner that works but can never achieve writing speeds higher than 1.8 (that's shown in the RecordNow window).
I have used several type of DVDs (+R / -R / +RW, x2.4, x4, x8) without ever achieving total burning time lower than 50 min (for 4.7 GB of data).
The drive (DW56A) seems to be loaded with latest firmware (PSF3 I think it's called).
Is that burning speed kind of normal performance or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for the attention.

12 REPLIES 12
profile.country.GB.title
jumpsuit
Expert

What program do you use for burning?

esdc
Visitor

The RecordNow program that was supplied with the machine.

Twisted-Rizla
Visitor

Contact Sony.

The DW56A is a batch of moody drives - well, judging by the numerous complaints about it on this forum it seems to be.

There is a firmware update available from Vaio-Link which might fix the problem or, as some have discovered, make it worse.

Good luck

profile.country.GB.title
jumpsuit
Expert

Would it be something as simple as checking burning options on that program?

esdc
Visitor

Checked the options:
- RecordNow does not load at startup
- Burn speed is set to max
- I just increased cache to max (75 MB) but made no change

It is recording a x8 DVD+R (recognised as x4 by the program!) at 1.4.

Do I have to try to put RecordNow into Startup?

Thanks

profile.country.GB.title
jumpsuit
Expert

I don't think startup will make any difference.

I'd go with Mr Rizla (not literally:smileygrin: ) and look into your drive.

Alternatively try another prog eg Nero.

I have a couple of progs that depending on what you're doing sometimes burn below max speed.

profile.country.en_GB.title
kee-lo_
Member

The GRX's CD-RW drive had a similar problem, when I wrote at 16x it really didn't go over 8x

wheresmybeaver
Visitor

Nero burning rom is pretty good for burning, it gives more feedback and more burning options than recordnow. Different burning methods could mean faster speed.

Was your drive always that slow at burning? Because just before my D56A drive broke completely it got pretty slow at burning (between 1 and 2 speed) on media that had previously burned at 4 speed... hopefully not the case for you though.

esdc
Visitor

Yes,
Machine is fairly new (came at beginning of August) and the drive was always that slow.
I shall try Nero soon.

Thanks