UPDATE!, March 27, 2006:
I finally got some true DVD+R’s to try out at 16x. (See below for my original review of this drive, with a few surprises). I am disappointed to report that, while my CD burning software does in fact report that the disks are indeed burning at 16x, they still take 10 minutes to burn, a similar performance to the 8x discs. I have ran diagnostics and my computer is barely working hard during the burn. Since Sony cannot tell me why there is a problem (they don’t support the drive), I am downgrading my rating of the drive to 3 stars. Bummer. I also would no longer recommend this drive; 16x means 16x, not 8x.
Original review follows...
I have been happily using this CD-DVD RW for several months now, burning DVD’s at 8x. However, I recently got a pack of 100 Verbatim 16X DVD-R’s from Sams, and this drive didn’t recognize them (My burning software didn’t think there was a blank disc in the drive).
After a bit of research, I discovered that this is not a Sony drive at all, but a REBADGED version of a LiteOn SOHW-1633S! (See https://codeguys.rpc1.org/dvdrw_overview.html for details) Sony apparently provides NO SUPPORT for this drive...a search for DW-22A on the Sony website turns up nothing.
To get the drive to recognize the new media, I had to update the firmware in the drive to the latest version, BYS3. This is apparently Sony firmware; you cannot use a LiteOn update because the flasher utilities on the LiteOn website will not recognize this drive! After performing the firmware update, the drive recognized the new Verbatim media, and successfully burned a DVD at 8x (This drive requires DVD+R to burn at 16x, NOT DVD-R).
For those of you who are adventurous, the new firmware is available at: https://dhc014.rpc1.org/indexOEM.htm#DW-D22A. Get the BYS3 version. You also need the LtnFW Utility to perform the firmware update, available at https://upload.cdfreaks.com/ftools/LtnFW.zip.
You should be careful when attempting any kind of firmware update. It is possible to fry your drive if you perform a firmware update incorrectly, although I had no problems once I knew what to do.
This is an OEM drive, meaning that it typically does not come with any software (mine didn’t). However, Windows XP recognizes the drive just fine, so drivers are not a problem, and if you have your own burning software you are good to go.
Bottom Line: while I have been pretty satisfied by this product so far, and was happy that I could solve my media problem, I am ticked that the drive is not really a Sony drive, nor does Sony support it. I bought the drive in large part because it had the name Sony on it. Had I known it was really a LiteOn, I might have chosen something else.
I gave the drive four stars because it IS a good drive, and because I WAS able to solve my media problem (no thanks to Sony). I also said I would recommend it to a friend, but only if I could be there to help them with the firmware upgrade.