Where can I get a Optiarc DVD RW AD-5280S-CB (EU)

[DrunkenNinja]

I have been looking around for one of these for some time but only Amazon (US) seem to have them.

 

Does anyone have any ideas whre I might pick one up with delivery to the (EU)

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Try contacting info.eu@vinpowerdigital.com and see if they have any details on where you can get one from.

[DrunkenNinja]

I tried contacting them but the e-mail is returned to me as undelivered and their phone just rings and rings...

 

I tried sending an e-mail to Sony Opriarc Europe also in the hope they could point me in the right direction but I don't hold out much hope...

 

Do you have any other ideas? The U.S. seem to have buckets of them but they are invisible anywhere else...

[DrunkenNinja]

Scrap that... Someone just replied

 

I am ordering a PLUS version, this thread can be deleted or closed now...

 

Cheers

Edited November 22, 2012 by DrunkenNinja

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I'd be interested to hear what they actually said... other people may want to order the same drive

[DrunkenNinja]

FIrst I got an undelivered message but later that day someone got in touch with me and told me they don't have a distributer in Cyprus.

 

After speaking with them further they mentioned that they could send me one directly, after some more discussion VAT etc. they sent me a pro-forma invoice and now I am just finalising the courier fee's etc. Not that cheap but I like the idea of having one of these badboys.

 

I can PM you any further info if you need it LUK.

 

Cheers again.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

Ah so it's coming direct from the US then?

 

Depending on how desperate you were for one, I was going to suggest one of those US to wherever forwarding companies. Then you could have just got it from Amazon.com.

[DrunkenNinja]

Yeah that would really be fun, I think if push came to shove I might have done it that way though.

 

Fortunatly it will be sent direct so I only have to worry when it hits Cyprus Shores, My iHas624-B has served me well but this would be a serious upgrade with proper support.

 

+ it's an Sony Opriarc the drive!!! that is very close to the one you originally recommended to me many, many moons ago.

 

I do wonder where their idea to do this came from though... I noticed your Robot PI/PIF scan results show the drive as an iHAS which was a bit weird.

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I noticed your Robot PI/PIF scan results show the drive as an iHAS which was a bit weird.

 

I'm scanning the burnt discs with an iHAS... totally unrelated to the burning drive - obviously

 

 

 

[DrunkenNinja]

That does make sense, (especially with Kprobe 2!!!),

 

I am guessing there would be no problem doing a scan with DVDINFOPRO and the ROBOT in tandum though...

[LIGHTNING UK!]

To be honest, I haven't even tried to see if the Optiarc can scan.

[DrunkenNinja]

When I get the drive I will do plenty of burns with the cheap Aone Gold Plus DL discs at different speeds (as you did in your very own tests), I won't be testing any other media for now, but it will be interesting to see how the PLUS and ROBOT models compare, there should not be any great difference but I will let you know and give you the IMGBURN log and dvdinfopro PIF/PIE/JITTER scan if you want them.

 

My iHas 624B writes the Aone Gold Plus DL discs at 2.4x (not native but modified with MCSE) with a quality value between 80% - 92% (DVDINFOPRO) now after much time, patience and what I consider to be a fully set write strategy, I can say it is consistant now with the cheaper media. I really want to see how the PLUS drive sizes up, specifically at 4x and 6x speeds, 8x is probably a no show, I will also use Liggy's firmware with the Booktype patch so it can be set the burn as DVD ROM.

Edited November 22, 2012 by DrunkenNinja

[LIGHTNING UK!]

They already bitset to DVD-ROM on DVD+R and DVD+R DL.

 

You can't change that on the original firmware but I managed to get them to officially add full bitsetting support for the next firmware release So basically, it's like Liggy's one, only official now.

 

From what I can remember of my own testing with the drive, they aren't good with anything other than MKM-001-00 and MKM-003-00 when it comes to overburning. The drive itself is only tested/certified for overburning on those disc - so that would make sense! I have requested a few additional tweaks but I don't know if they'll make it into the next firmware release or not.

[DrunkenNinja]

The latest firmware I could find was from Liggy's blog 1.Z7 and that included the original firmware also... (Not sure what firware will be on the drive when it arrives - I will let you know) Is there a more recent firmware out there? I checked the NEC site but read something on MYCE about them no longer supporting thier optical resourses (or something to that effect) and that this is now dealt with by Sony Optiarc directly.

 

It's good to hear that those guys are open to your input, and full bitsetting is a must nowadays, let me know if you get any feedback...

Edited November 22, 2012 by DrunkenNinja

[LIGHTNING UK!]

I'm sure yours will also ship with 1.Z7. I expect it'll be Vinpower that release new firmware as it's their drive.

 

Sony Optiarc have basically stopped operating now. The 5280/7280 drives should in theory be the last ones you'll ever see from them.