Works With Macbook

I went out looking for a Burner i could use with my macbook i already had software but needed to find a burner that was compatible with Mac's i have had this burner for over 2 weeks and have burned probably 30 dvd's no problems it works great and is really quiet plus it can burn up to speeds of 20x this is a great buy.

Great DVD Burner!

I love this external DVD Burner it is a snap to set up and so easy to use. I would recommend this product to anyone who is looking to buy a new external DVD burner. It has cut my burning time down from 2 hours on an old computer to approximately 30 minutes. Not to say, the USB makes setting up a cinch.

Excellent burner for OS X

I use this burner for my Macbook Air, as the Apple drive will not work through a hub. This drive works out of the box. As with most things with OS X, you just plug it in and go. It is also super fast, the fastest burner I have ever owned. And since it does dual/double layer DVD burning, it is a great product for the price.

Not completely Mac compatible

This CD/DVD drive/burner from SONY works great, and the drive looks good on my desk. Unfortunately it is not totally compatible with Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger). (It does ship with PC software.) At first I could not figure out how to open the Sony drawer on my Mac G5 Tower. The eject button on the keyboard opens only the internal CD/DVD drive. Eventually I found that iTunes has a preference setting to select the drive, and the eject button in iTunes will open the Sony drive. But this is inconvenient. I contacted Sony, and here is the reply:

"Sony bundles Nero Recording software for Windows with this unit. If you would like to use this drive on a MAC you will need to purchase MAC recording software. Please visit this website for 3rd party software information. [...]

Thus there may be a hidden expense if you are buying this drive for the Mac.

By the way, I did find another solution for opening the Sony drawer without having to buy new software for the Mac. With Automator, I used the "Run Shell  more

Software NOT MAC Compatible - and thumbs down for misleading buyers.

Contrary to some other reviews and the tiny little "Mac Compatible" sticker on the front of the box, the NERO software that comes with the Sony Burner is NOT Mac compatible. The user guide clearly states that using software other than that supplied is not covered by warranty and not supported by Sony. Search the web and you'll fine more than a few unhappy purchasers who planned to use this with their Mac.

The operating system requirements are as follows:

Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition * Microsoft Windows XP Professional * Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional * Microsoft Windows Vista

You will find Mac OS nowhere else on the box, the instructions, or in the user guide. Mac Users - you're on your own. Disc Utility or Finder and no warranty, and it still makes coasters.

Worth every penny

My only complaint about this product was that if you want to burn onto a DVD-R DL only one brand of disks were compatible i.e. Verbatim. This brand has proven to be high-quality so the inconvenience was a minor one.

I have burned nearly 100 projects so far and not one glitch. This burner is also fairly quiet.

Sony has produced a quality product with this burner.

Excellent DVD Burner

Setup was very simple. Comes with Nero v7.0

I've burned all varieties (DVD+R, DVD-R, CD audio) and all came out flawless at expected speed.

This is a great burner without any noticeable flaws.

SOOOO EASY PLUG AND PLAY

I have windows XP, media center edition. I have hated my DVD burner since I got it with my tower, I have an HP pavilion media center edition. The samsung Tsstcorp TS-H652L CD/DVD drive that came installed has been nothing but a headache to me. It not only required updates on the driver, I had to search out patches on the internet, JUST to make it work the first time. Then, it never agreed with all my programs, and it hated sonic programs in particular. Which is weird, since sonic came as free software with my computer! And it was picky, it would eat most disks but preferred to eat the expensive verbatim and TDK. It liked to turn those to coasters.
I brought this home, plugged and played. AWESOME. I was up half the night burning home movies using my sonic programs (free programs) onto dual layer DVD's.
To another comment on a review of this product, yes, it plays and burns :)
I'm so happy. I'd give it a hundred stars if possible, burns fast, burns great, I have already plowed through many  more

GREAT product!

I did not even use the provided install disk since i used my current dvd burning software. also this unit is plug and play with windows XP so if you have windows xp and allready own cd/dvd burning software you are ready to burn in a matter of minutes just plug it in.

This drive is quiet. although the unit is not light it is meant to be an desktop unit but it looks well made and i think that the drive would travel well.

A Great DVD/CD Burner Replacement For Your iMac!

After having ripped AND burned over 1000 discs, the SuperDrive on my two-year old iMac decided to die on me (thanks Apple for the longevity :). This Sony DVD Writer is a wonderful alternative to the pricey $250 replacement SuperDrive--and it works right out of the box with no software tinkering (just choose drive option when needed). Fully compatible with both Tiger and Leopard, this Sony Writer gets a HUGE thumbs up for all Apple Users in need of an extra burner or those with konked-out ones!

Works great with DVDShrink and Nero

I bought this drive to use with a laptop that could not take an internal DVD-burner. I was a little afraid to buy an external burner, thinking that it could not keep up, resulting in many burn errors. The drive so far has worked flawlessly. The software includes a copy of nero essentials, which will accomplish most DVD tasks needed. It also works fine with DVDShrink.

The drive is somewhat large. This is really the only negative that I can think of.

Best External DVD Drive I have owned

I was in the market for a next external DVD drive when another one I got died after about 4 months. It did not really work out of the box. I had Past up the Sony DRX840U for A HP one. Big Mistake. The Sony DRX840U worked out of he box. I have used it to burn dvd's and read all my old DVD. I have watched movies on it and now I'm doing backups of old cd's to dvd's with out a problem. If anyone is in the market for a new External DVD drive this is the one to get.

Missing Utility Software?

Will someone enlighten me as to why Nero InCD and Nero BackItUp are missing from the Nero Essentials software bundled with this drive? Without one or both of these utilities, backup tasks are extremely cumbersome. At first, I thought maybe I had just overlooked the two utilities. But no, they are not part of the installation and, in fact, the Sony documentation does not list them as being included. They WERE included with previous versions of this Sony drive (e.g., Sony DRX-830U). Why did they vanish for the DRX-840U?

Follow-up: I've confirmed with Sony Tech Support that the two utilities were indeed deleted from the bundled software effective with release of the DRX-840U drive. One can only speculate as to the reasons for this. However, it's very hard to imagine that the DRX-840U firmware is somehow incompatible with Nero InCD and BackItUp. Whatever the reason, the deletion is made more annoying by the fact that Sony strongly suggests that only the bundled software be used with  more

Best "add on" technology

Of all the external devices I've added to my computer, the Sony DRX840U 20x External Dual-Layer DVD Burner is the best. Some people say the unit is noisy. All I can say is, with any external unit you can expect it to emit sound. This unit produces a gentle hum which I find comforting, knowing that it is actually working. The installation is simple. The Nero software that comes with it is lame, and takes up a lot of disk space. It would not work at first, and an e-mail to their Tech. Support people went unanswered for a week, and then gave vague instructions. It also only gives you a short "trial period" for use, and then requires that you purchase it. I purchased "Record Now!" instead, which is a great, easy to use product to burn/copy CD's and DVD's...and it uses a small footprint. I then deleted Nero. The Sony works very well, and burns at a reasonable speed. As for the accompanying Nero software...."forget about it!"

If you want an excellent external CD/DVD burner, that  more

Very Happy user

I burned 10 DL-DVDs (data mode) in quick succession and the unit did not lose any disks. Takes approximately 1 hour to burn and verify job integrity (2.4x speed). After burning, disks were normally read in other computer DVD drives. I haven't tried burning movies. Granted, I have had the unit for only a month, but I haven't experienced any of the door problems reported by others. My unit remains in the horizontal, rather than vertical (if this makes any difference, at all). I did not give 5 stars because I thought the unit to be somewhat bulky, although it does not appear to be any different from other external burners I have seen. Nero software installed without any glitch and is being used in all burning jobs; it appeared very intuitive to me.
Bottom line: so far an excellent job, no regrets, I hope it lasts many more years.

Sony Burner

The price is right no tax no shipping great.The Nero sofware gave me troulble so I had to delete and find other software which is working. Not sure if its me or the sofware. All in all good product.

Great DVD burner

I've burned about a dozen dual-layer DVDs now without a problem. And it burns faster than I expected. The included Nero software has an intuitive user interface and offers all the flexibility I need.

Sony DRX840U 20x just simply works

I have had an external burner for quite some time. With recent changes to my environment, I no longer had a Firewire port so I decided to switch to a USB 2.0 external burner. I had gone to Fry's, purchased another well known brand that was an 18x burner, brought it home, set it up, Windows XP Pro did its thing and all seemed right with the world. That was until I actually tried to use it. No matter what I did, Nero V7 and V8 saw it but refused to use either DVD+R or DVD-R media. I did the normal searching for solutions but none presented itself. After months of trying to get it to work, I finally gave up and decided to try another vendor.

In my searching on Amazon, I ran across this Sony drive and noticed it was one of the first to offer 20x burn speeds. The 20x burn speed, while certainly nice, was not what attracted me to this. Rather, it was the fact that, at 20x, this meant it was a relatively new design which meant it should work better. In my searching to resolve my previous external  more