ok im getting my old man a dvd burner for Father's day, and im trying to decide between the Pioneer DVR-a05/105 or the Sony DRU-530A.
Ive read both good and bad reviews for both...so i dont know what to pick. i have a pioneer a05 myself, so i was thinking another pioneer should be great. but ive also heard good things about sony drives.

(the pionner is $150 OEM and the Sony is $160 in the retail box. price doesnt really matter though...neither does the box.)

*EDIT* Nevermind didn't realize you were in Canada. Anyways definitely go for the Pioneer. Sonys are generally rebadged Lite-On or Optowrite drives now anyways. Not saying that either of those two drives are bad but you would be paying a hell of alot more for them by picking up the Sony labeled ones than the Pioneer and I would still pay extra to take the Pioneer over either of those two drives.

I have a Sony DRU510a & pioneer A07 at work & an NEC 2500a at home.

all are good drives, but personally I would go with the NEC as it can be flashed for Dual Layer disks when they become available (I think the A07 can also be flashed the same)

D/L is a joke at this point. A few places have it in stock and it runs $10-$15 a disc (USD). There are only a handful of games that are D/L at this point. It is true the D/L format would come in handy for movie backups but lets face it, for that price you could buy another original in a number of cases (older movies and used movies are generally in that price range). I wouldn't touch the D/L format for probably another year by which time media will be more affordable and they will have faster burners anyway.

I know the format is a joke at present, but it's always wise to be prepared & nice to have the option to upgrade at no cost later.

I have a Pioneer 106D, and I have never had a problem with it.

I know you are asking about the 107, but unless they screwed something up big time I see little reason why it should be any worse, if anything it should be better

alrite, pioneer it is then thanks...meanwhile i was reading some more stuff on it, and apparently with the pioneer's v1.0 firmware, there were loads of problems. should have all been fixed with the latest firmware though...something like 1.15.

new egg has the NEC 2500 burner for 69.99

I know its not either that you listed but the TDK 880n is a great multi format burner. And it is pretty cheap, I got mine for about $170.