AR11S Blu-Ray Drive

[Melonfarmer]

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

[kee-lo_]

How much RAm does it have?

[HITS-UK]

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 ...

[Melonfarmer]

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.

[Thalamus.]

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....

[Melonfarmer]

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

[Thalamus.]

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:

[kee-lo_]

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

[Melonfarmer]

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

[kee-lo_]

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