topic Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive in PCs & Accessories

AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 07:22:42 GMT

Hello all,

I know this is a very new laptop so don't hold out much hopes of getting an answer to this but has anyone been able to get the Blu-ray drive to burn a Blu-ray disk faster than .5x it says the drive can burn at 1x speed but i have never seen it actually burn faster than .5x I'm using Sony BD-RE media (rewritable) rated at 1x speed and Nero 7 Ultra (Latest version)

I upgraded to Nero ultra 7 cos the software that came with the Vaio was useless and it also only burned at .5x

Thanks in advance

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

kee-lo_ — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 14:31:11 GMT

How much RAm does it have?

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

HITS-UK — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 16:42:47 GMT

OK firstly any DVD burning takes a load of RAM and Blu Ray is even more hungry.

Secondly, you dumped the Sony version of software for another which will make the platform unstable - unless you know more than the manufacturer about the platform and software don't start meddling until you know it is safe to do so.

Thirdly - Blu Ray is not a ratified standard as yet and as such you will be at the mercy (or lack of it) of the media to which you are recording to and this will also have severe limitations on the speed of burning.

Lastly - go back to basics - if the claim is made that this drive can do all that it should - ask the question how and the exact conditions that allow this to take place. Place a case with Vaio Link and get them to tell you the exact conditions.

Let us know how you get on ...

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 20:42:18 GMT

The machine has 1gb RAM with a dual 100gb hard disk in raid configuration, nothing is running when i'm burning so it should have the maximum amount of RAM available.

I have tried burning a normal DVD with the drive and although the drive is rated at 8x for DVD it only burned at 4x. I have a Sony desktop and the same media in that burns at 8x

I dumped the Sony burning software cos it was just an SE version and did only basic burning tasks, but it also only burned Blu-ray media at .5x so i thought i'd upgrade my Nero to the latest version and install that but it too only burns at .5x

Hence I think it's either the firmware of the drive, a setting somewhere to do with power management and limiting the speed of the drive.

The media i choose specifically the Sony media, although more expensive i thought it would be the most compatible.

I have since played about with the cache and memory settings of the software and of windows itself and still no joy.

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Thalamus. — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 21:53:16 GMT

Hi Melonfarmer,

There is a Firmware Update available for your VGN-AR11S, but unfortunately it does not say if it will improve the burn speed and only states that the firmware fixes following issue :

- Improves BD-R/BD-RE readability....

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 22:01:15 GMT

thx i checked the firmware version on the drive and it matches the update so i guess it was already updated before i got the laptop, i'm gonna try a TDK media to see if maybe it's the sony media, it's says it's rated at 1x so should be ok but the TDK is 1x-2x so who knows

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Thalamus. — Mon, 07 Aug 2006 22:04:38 GMT

You're welcome, I'm not sure the firmware would have helped the burn speed but thought it worth mentioning..

Good luck with the TDK media...:smileyhappy:

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

kee-lo_ — Wed, 09 Aug 2006 13:31:56 GMT

Well I'm definately not going to Blu Ray yet - but thanks for letting us know about the pitfalls before we get one

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 14:20:46 GMT

Well i have tried TDK media and Sony x2 media and this drive still burns at .5x that is 3 HOURS+!!! to burn an entire 25gb disk my DAT drive is faster than that. Well i e-mailed Sony and still no answers. Reading the forum i see there are other problems with this laptop, low sound, low battery life, DVD's not playing etc etc, makes me wonder if i really have bought an expensive door stop. Well i can only hope some firmware update arrives that fixes these problems.

I sit and pray cos to be honest the laptop is virtually useless in this day and age

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

kee-lo_ — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 14:42:05 GMT

3hrs for 25GB is faster than burning 5-6DVDs

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 15:31:24 GMT

Actually 3hrs is not faster than burning 5-6 DVD's. I can burn 6 DVD's in 1.5 hours and that's on a x4 speed DVD burner which is what i have been doing on my other Sony Laptop. The fact of the matter is that the Blu-ray drive is rated at x1 speed and I'm using Sony media that Sony themselves recomend to use but it always burns at .5x

I don't expect the thing to burn a disk in seconds but 3hrs+ is just crazy.

BTW i used the x4 speed DVD as a comparison because roughly a x4 DVD is the same date transfer rate as a x1 Blu-ray

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

kee-lo_ — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 14:08:14 GMT

Yeah, totally agree, if it says 1x then 1x should be done. But as you know with Sony, 1x means .5x.

Very similar thing happened to me, couldn't really burn CDs at 12x, only 8x. As usual Sony played the "uhhh it's your media" card and well I tried different media. In the end I thought 8x is good enough and I'm fed up of coasters

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 15:31:59 GMT

Yep unless some firmware update comes out that fixes the issue, guess i'm stuck with the .5x speed, the problem is also that the drive is supposed to read back at 1x but it seems to only read back at .5x too as it took me nearly 3hrs to copy the data back, i'm really anxious to get hold of a Blu-ray movie disk to see if this will actually work as obviously the movie disk has to be read at 1x speed. If it's the case that it doesn't then to be honest the drive is useless. Oh well the perils of the early adopters

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

kee-lo_ — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 15:46:14 GMT

I don't know if anyone's actually started producing Blu Ray disks yet

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

lanciahf — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 18:12:49 GMT

hello !!! i'm from italy anyone solve the problem with burn blu ray disk at 0,5 x i buy this laptom yesterday and i have the same problem
thanks and sorry for my english

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

Melonfarmer — Sat, 23 Sep 2006 19:50:07 GMT

Nope not solved it at all, also i have tried a blu-ray movie on the drive too and it won't play properly, the movie stutters and jumps. I have seen that Sony plan on releasing an updated version of this laptop called AR21S it has a core 2 duo processor and 2gb RAM but otherwise the specs are the same including the same crappy blu-ray drive. This may have been the first laptop to have a blu-ray drive but with my experiences with it why did they bother, it's useless

Re: AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

lanciahf — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 14:11:24 GMT

ok thanks for all i have already installed 2 gb of memory !!!!!
but the drive still record at 0.5 speed
i'm waiting for a update firmware