I'd have to disagree. I have a Sony 500 and it work just fine. Also I've found 4x media burnt at 4x is more compatible than if it's burnt at 1x.
The tricky part with high speed media is getting it to burn at lower speeds, so in general my advice now is if you have a 4x DVD burner and a 4x DVD burn at that speed. I've also noticed a lot of 2.4x media will not burn at 1x.

I have to agree with farss regarding the Sonys. I have two internals and three daisy chained externals at home and five externals daisy chained for duplication at work. All work perfectly, as Sony products should. I got Encore with the RT X100 and the couple of discs I made with it work fine. I master at 1X but duplicate at 4X via Record Now Max and, knock on wood, haven't had any problems lately. Encore appears to do everything ReelDVD does and more so I guess ReelDVD is going to go on the surplus shelf soon. I still like DVD-A for making simple discs though. Maybe Sony will learn from Adobe and make DVD-A more versatile.

Peter

Using the PX-708A and burning 8X on 4X +R media with no problems (all my dvd's have worked in all DVD-players i've tried them in). Of course DVDA doesn't support my burner so I don't burn with it, I just prepare the files with DVDA then use other programs to burn the files. I haven't seen any real evidence as to why I shouldn't burn at Max speed just a lot of speculation. Then again, I'm not charging anyone for my products so I feel no need to be conservative.

DejaVu:

http://www.mediasoftware.sonypictures.com/forums/ShowMessage.asp?MessageID=238066&Page=0

"All work perfectly, as Sony products should."
======================================
A quick Google search regarding Sony Consumer Products reliability will prove otherwise as will Consumer Reports Frequency of Repair records.
I think you are confusing their Broadcast and Professional Equipment line with their Consumer Product line.
Recent Google Post:
"I took the drive back to Best Buy and exchanged it for another Sony DRU-500ax. The problem was the drive. My system now wakes from standby and my drive does not disappear from Windows anymore. Everything is working well."
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"I master at 1X but duplicate at 4X via Record Now Max and, knock on wood, haven't had any problems lately."

In the posts I've seen, Sony 500 users seemed to indicate that the burner would only work properly with the Record Now DX software that came with the burner and not with the commercial version of Record Now Max.

John

craftech for some reason dosnt like Sony, and tries to push his opinion to everyone else... musta have some bad expirience with Sony I guess.
Well, i dont care about what "Google posts" said, I have Sony drive, works like a charm with every recording software I'v tried (nero, recordnow, clonecd, fireburner, cdr-win...)
Anyway, the post wasnt about who lkes what and who hates whom, question was
OPINIONS ON 8x BURNING
which I also would like to see.

All I can say is I'm a Sony 500ax user and have authored over 100 DVDs on it and duplicated maybe 200 and so far not one drink coaster from either + or -R media, well apart from a few due to dud media where I could see the crap embedded in the disk.. I'd add that due to my own negligence I've smashed the draw out of the drive on one occassion, shoved in back in and despite a few missing bits of plastic it still works flawlessly.
I do seem to recall that I updated the firmware as soon as I got it, I wonder how many people neglect to check for updates on so many things before they scream it's broken.

"craftech for some reason dosnt like Sony, and tries to push his opinion to everyone else... musta have some bad expirience with Sony I guess."
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Craftech has a Sony VX2000 for his main camera and loves it. Craftech also has a Sony TRV85 Hi8 camera and loves it. Craftech has a Sony WV-DR9 DV editing deck and loves it. Craftech has a 13" Sony TV/Monitor in his edit bay and loves it. Craftech uses a 9" Sony TV/field monitor for shooting and loves it. Craftech has a blast with both of his Sony MZ-R37 minidisc recorders (last good one they made). Craftech has never had a problem with the Sony products he buys (and loves) because he reads first before he buys.
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"Anyway, the post wasnt about who lkes what and who hates whom, question was
OPINIONS ON 8x BURNING
which I also would like to see. "
=====================================================

Click on the link in my post above for a lengthy discussion on this subject which I also participated in. Sony/SF tech support also agrees that burning at 1x will ensure greater compatibility.

One of the biggest problems we face is that there is a lot of outsourcing of media manufacture and phony labeling of media. You absolutely need to research this and use a tool such as DVDInfo to know what you bought. That combined with software, encoders, burners, etc puts too many variables into coming up with a compatible DVD.

For further information look here:
www.lordsmurf.com and click on "Blank Media and Quality FAQ

or peruse this:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia

or read this thread:

FAQ's & The Biggest Misconceptions of DVD MEDIA by BJ_M at Aug. 14, 2003 2:36 am gmt on the Vegas DMN forums. Unable to link it for some reason. Search the author's name. You'll find it.
John

PS: CrazyRussian.......Didn't mean to sound heavy-handed with this. Only trying to help.