Officedepot has the Sony 48x24x48 CD-Writer for $19
- Thread starter ford50mus
- Start date
spoofee has the same two rebate links listed on the home page for this deal..
I think the second one should be:
rebate from Sony
I think the second one should be:
rebate from Sony
phew! what an F'n pain in the arse.
1.5 hours later I have it ordered w/ the $20 off coupon.. I had to clear cookies a few times and select different in-store pickup locations.. but I finally found one in town that has them in stock (supposedly) and it took my order.
Good news is, I should have this drive by 2pm today.
1.5 hours later I have it ordered w/ the $20 off coupon.. I had to clear cookies a few times and select different in-store pickup locations.. but I finally found one in town that has them in stock (supposedly) and it took my order.
Good news is, I should have this drive by 2pm today.
I'm VERY suspicious that this Sony drive is NOT a Lite-On (as so many are suggesting, the model #s just don't seem right, the hack site talks about E units, but this is an A unit, bet it's an Acer!, and the packaging says Power-Burn), would sure be nice if someone provided confirmation upon receiving their unit.
FWIW, Best Buy is selling the BUSlink 48x12x48 w/ Smart-Burn which is DEFINITELY a Lite-On, and like many others, I found a 48x24x48 in the box, upgradeable to 52x24x52. Selling for $70 - 10% (Sports Illustrated coupon) - $40 rebates = $23. For three bucks more, UNLESS someone confirms the Sony is a Lite-On, I'd rather take my chances w/ the BUSlink.
FWIW, Best Buy is selling the BUSlink 48x12x48 w/ Smart-Burn which is DEFINITELY a Lite-On, and like many others, I found a 48x24x48 in the box, upgradeable to 52x24x52. Selling for $70 - 10% (Sports Illustrated coupon) - $40 rebates = $23. For three bucks more, UNLESS someone confirms the Sony is a Lite-On, I'd rather take my chances w/ the BUSlink.
spoofed, someone on fatwallet.com said they bought this unit and did indeed upgrade it to the lite-on firmware.. so he confirmed it..
But I haven't read about why I should upgrade the firmware yet.. i've burned only one disc and it seemed to work fine..
But I haven't read about why I should upgrade the firmware yet.. i've burned only one disc and it seemed to work fine..
kyoo, while you CAN upgrade the Lite-On to 52x24x52, it's not all that compelling. People are reporting that some cheap media can EXPLODE at those speeds, some even at 48x (btw, reportedly Plextor has reinforced their 48x/52x unit's front bezel as a precautionary measure!). The significant jump here is definitely the ReWrite 24x (Ultra High Speed) vs. the older 12x and under (High Speed). Even if the media didn't explode, we're talking a few extra seconds here, and I'm hearing not all drives are writing at 52x reliably either (even with quality media), some good media requiring 40x or less. So 52x upgradeability doesn't mean much.
Shanna,
Lite-On is a CD-RW manufacturer that sells to OTHER manufacturers, who simply re-badge the item and sell it under their own name. You can usually tell a Lite-On from several clues. The outside box may say "Smart-Burn" (for error/buffer underrun protection), which is the trademark name for Lite-On's technology. In the case of Sony, if it is a Lite-On, they may have been given permission to re-badge the technology too, which they call Power-Burn. In some cases, the re-badging companies use MULTIPLE vendors (I presume based on pricing and availability), these units usually don't refer to a specific trademark name for buffer underrun or error protection technology (they'll just refer to it generically as I just did). For example, in the case of CenDyne (commonly sold at OfficeMax), you need to check the UPC/serial # on the box, if it begins w/ LTR..., it's a Lite-On. If it begins w/ CW... something, it's probably an Acer.
Why does it matter? The Lite-On's (in my opinion) are the poor man's Plextor, I LOVE 'EM, they work very well, and fully support CloneCD (for making backups of your copy protected CD's!). In many cases, an Acer, Ricoh, even big names like Pioneer, Toshiba, often can NOT. Lite-On's use to be of less than stellar quality, but have improved tremendously in the past couple years. And they provide frequent firmware updates, necessary for accurately detecting and burning new media as it becomes available.
Lite-On does sell its own drives directly (check out Newegg.com, they're selling their 48x24x48 for $61, and 52x48x52 for $66, good deals considering what a Plextor, the KING of CD-RW, costs, about TWICE as much for essentially the same capabilities). Btw, the ONLY difference between the 48x and 52x in this case is the fireware, so you could just buy the 48x from Newegg.com and apply the firmware update, save $5 bucks.
But why even pay $61 or $66, when you can pick of the re-badged units for $20 - $30 after rebate! That's why everyone is looking for the Lite-On's. When you compare the capabilities/features of a Lite-On to a Plextor, the Lite-On is an incredible value.
Btw, here's the Lite-On site if you're interested, it's a Taiwan site, so a little awkward to navigate, but dig down a little and you'll find the firmware updates:
Lite-On Website
HTH
Lite-On is a CD-RW manufacturer that sells to OTHER manufacturers, who simply re-badge the item and sell it under their own name. You can usually tell a Lite-On from several clues. The outside box may say "Smart-Burn" (for error/buffer underrun protection), which is the trademark name for Lite-On's technology. In the case of Sony, if it is a Lite-On, they may have been given permission to re-badge the technology too, which they call Power-Burn. In some cases, the re-badging companies use MULTIPLE vendors (I presume based on pricing and availability), these units usually don't refer to a specific trademark name for buffer underrun or error protection technology (they'll just refer to it generically as I just did). For example, in the case of CenDyne (commonly sold at OfficeMax), you need to check the UPC/serial # on the box, if it begins w/ LTR..., it's a Lite-On. If it begins w/ CW... something, it's probably an Acer.
Why does it matter? The Lite-On's (in my opinion) are the poor man's Plextor, I LOVE 'EM, they work very well, and fully support CloneCD (for making backups of your copy protected CD's!). In many cases, an Acer, Ricoh, even big names like Pioneer, Toshiba, often can NOT. Lite-On's use to be of less than stellar quality, but have improved tremendously in the past couple years. And they provide frequent firmware updates, necessary for accurately detecting and burning new media as it becomes available.
Lite-On does sell its own drives directly (check out Newegg.com, they're selling their 48x24x48 for $61, and 52x48x52 for $66, good deals considering what a Plextor, the KING of CD-RW, costs, about TWICE as much for essentially the same capabilities). Btw, the ONLY difference between the 48x and 52x in this case is the fireware, so you could just buy the 48x from Newegg.com and apply the firmware update, save $5 bucks.
But why even pay $61 or $66, when you can pick of the re-badged units for $20 - $30 after rebate! That's why everyone is looking for the Lite-On's. When you compare the capabilities/features of a Lite-On to a Plextor, the Lite-On is an incredible value.
Btw, here's the Lite-On site if you're interested, it's a Taiwan site, so a little awkward to navigate, but dig down a little and you'll find the firmware updates:
Lite-On Website
HTH
