SONY Black 12X BD-R 2X BD-RE 8X DVD+R 5X DVD-RAM 8X BD-ROM 8MB Cache SATA Blu-ray Burner BD-5300S-0B - OEM

Pros: Fast Blu-Ray burner. Time from box on the porch to running was 45 minutes. That included the time to physically install it, have my XP Pro recognize it, install the software and then update the drivers on line. Quiet and works exactly as expected. I've burned CDs, DVDs, and Blu-Rays on it with no errors or coasters. Something I can't say about the older Liteon drive it replaced!!

Cons: None other than no standard 4 pin power connector. OEM packaging so no cables, instructions, or driver discs. That is what OEM means gang. Read the descriptions before you buy. The unit is FULL SATA so you need SATA data and power cables to plug it in. Have them on hand and you are golden.

Overall Review: Excellent upgrade that allows me to watch Blu-Rays on my computer and pipe them by HDMI to my 32 inch computer room HDTV for less than the cost of a stand alone Blu-Ray player! Plus it burns discs too!! Very fast very quiet except during the finalization when it gets a tiny bit noisy. Noise level is still below that of my two HP DVD-Rs.

Pros: It is a good blu-ray burner. Had 8mb cache while other brands had 2mb.

Cons: OEM, so no software or anything. Not even warranty card. Most BD-r are 4x (this can do 12x) so it takes like 40-60mins to burn a full disc.

Overall Review: Downloaded free blu-ray burning software like CDburner XP, ImgBurn, and Ashampoo works. Free disc burner 3 doesn't work.

Pros: Have used with Win7 and Memorex/Optical Quantum Media. Has burnt at 4x without any trouble (maximum speed of the media I have). Hooked this up via a SATA USB external enclosure and has had no trouble operating over USB 2.0. Also shows up as a BD-R in OS X 10.6.6 on my darwin boot. I'm crossing my fingers that this little guy will do as well as my Toshiba DVD-R 4x drive which I have used to burn over 400 discs since purchasing nearly 7 years ago. It was time for an upgrade and so far this drive appears to be holding its own.

Cons: So far nothing much--it is an OEM drive and came packaged only in bubble wrap (no cords or manual)--but that is as advertised so you can't really complain.

Pros: Works good, no coasters. Used it with Memorex DVD-R, BD-R AND Verbatim BD-RE plus various brand CD-R disc. The black face is a perfect match to my Ultra X-Blaster Black ATX Mid-Tower Case.

Cons: Can't think of any.

Overall Review: Updated firmware to Version 1.04 from the Sony-Optiarc website.

Pros: No Coasters yet, over ripped/burnt 100+ discs. I burn A lot of BD-R Dual Layer discs and my Pioneer BDR-205BK BD-R drive totally stopped recognizing BD-R media after 6 months of ownership, so I Bought this Sony optical Drive and so far everything has been flawless. It is important to me that my discs turn out since the majority are BD-R DL(Dual Layer) 50gig discs, which cost around $8.00 A piece. I use it for 3D movie burning/ripping. Also for regular Blu-ray movies. I also have A LG Blu-ray 10x Blu-ray optical drive that has been good to me, but I mostly use this Sony BD optical drive.

Cons: Could be less expensive, but I will always say that, since I rather keep my money that spend it! lol

Overall Review: Great results with this burner. buy it

Pros: Consistent good blu ray burns.(now) NO problem playing in PS3. It does what i needed it to do. I'd give 3.5 out of five. Not rounding up though.

Cons: Worst build quality of any optical drive I've owned. Didnt recognize blank bd-r till firmware update. First bd-r burn hung infinity during the finalize disc operation. First dvd burn was a coaster as well. Doing alright now. Do burners need to be broken in? Weird.

Overall Review: Using with Memorex in combo deal. They have a good look and work. Not a lot of options out there for burning software. Tried a few. Im really liking Dvdfab. Great options,fast and just works.

Pros: Works fine on my XP MCE HP. My SATA connections are at 1.5gb/s but, that wasn't a problem either. Most of my hard drives have to have jumper settings. I Know Sony quality and have Used NEC brand DVD burners for 7 years now and only had one give out on me after probably burning 500+dvds and cds. Nothing last forever.

Cons: Yes, the drive is pretty lite compaired to older CD/DVD burners (NOT A CON). People complaining about this drive being OEM. Not having any software or power and data cables No where is it writen or in any pictures does it show cables, and software. READ BEFORE YOU BUY! Don't give a great product a lower review cause you can't read.

Overall Review: OK with XP this drive Shows up as a DVD-RAM drive. XP doesn't reconize and Blu-ray meida Blank or original movies. It will run autoplay for CD's and DVD's. You will need to get programs that support Blu-ray playback/burning.

Pros: Nice drive smooth operation, quiet and fast. 15 to 25 minutes to rip a blu ray is good. Contrary to other people who have given this a rating of 1 for not reading blu ray movies. It reads blu ray movies just fine if you have the right software installed. Reading blu ray movies will not happen without the right decoder and player software.

Cons: None

Overall Review: Don't buy this for playing blu ray discs if you are not going to buy the software to read and play them.