Panasonic LF-D521U DVD-Writer

Have tried the software that comes...

Strengths: It reads fine

Weakness: Many write errors.

Have tried the software that comes with it, Have tried Hero 5.5, CloneCD and some other try once shareware. It fails to write to CD's DVD'd and RAM DVD's. Have tried different media also. There is no help on the Panasonic website either. A drive to be avoided.

By joem1k - Apr 28, 2004

Here’s what I like about this...

Strengths: Plug and play operability - allows you to work with all types of media.

Weakness: Takes awhile to understand all of the utility software that comes with it.

Here’s what I like about this burner -- the big advantage of DVD-RAM and the ability to use cheap write once –R. For starters, you don’t need special burning software and files can be dragged and dropped easily or even be combined on one DVD. So I can have my home movies, work files, pix from vacation and more -- all on one DVD. Another great thing is the durability: not only can I rewrite...
Read Full Review

Here’s what I like about this burner -- the big advantage of DVD-RAM and the ability to use cheap write once –R. For starters, you don’t need special burning software and files can be dragged and dropped easily or even be combined on one DVD. So I can have my home movies, work files, pix from vacation and more -- all on one DVD. Another great thing is the durability: not only can I rewrite to this 100,000 times, but even with my kids sticky fingerprints I was able to burn music to the DVD – without getting one of those annoying disk errors.

This drive acts just like my PC and finds room for my files on the DVD without me having to look for free space. This also makes editing easy because I can do the editing right on the DVD and not worry about erasing over any segments I might still need and wasting hard drive space. This gives me a more flexible way of working than say other formats.

As for software, the burner comes with plenty of it and a couple of DVD-R and DVD-RAM discs.

I like the choices this drive gives me, the cool stuff I get from RAM, how easily I can swap DVD’s between my current player in my living room and that I can use DVD-R to share files with my friends. What more can you ask for under $300.

By rmanna - Apr 18, 2003

The software bundle becomes a...

Strengths: works like a ROM-Drive

Weakness: I believe it's the software bundle. I have the panasonic DMR-HS2 RAM which is excellent VHS replacement and works very well

The software bundle becomes a nightmare full of errors after you make your first copy. The movie album edits sometimes, it usually locks up and indicates its loading onto the Ram disc but it never does and freezes up. B's recorder will not let you transfer RAM to R as it says this is copy writed. MYDVD 3.5 doesn't accept still jpeg pictures, you have to copy RAm onto Hard-drive and then onto...
Read Full Review

The software bundle becomes a nightmare full of errors after you make your first copy. The movie album edits sometimes, it usually locks up and indicates its loading onto the Ram disc but it never does and freezes up. B's recorder will not let you transfer RAM to R as it says this is copy writed. MYDVD 3.5 doesn't accept still jpeg pictures, you have to copy RAm onto Hard-drive and then onto MYDVD (for MPEG format to copy still pictures)to get any sort of custom look but you get a degraded copy.

By bently1 - Feb 21, 2003