Found on Ebay - SLOT LOADING Panasonic UJ-815-B (DVD-RW/CD-RW) $139.50

Supermike · 06-09-2004, 10:25 PM

I just found this on Ebay, seems like a great price for this slot DVD drive:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...sPageName=WDVW

The description does not say SLOT LOADING, but if you Google the model #, it will show that it is - also a close look at the pics shows it is a slot-load.

Best prices on Froogle.com:

http://froogle.google.com/froogle?q=...-8&sa=N&tab=wf

Drive specs:

http://www.dfwdepot.com/pdf_files/UJ815BSpecs.pdf

By the way, I am not the seller

kmkestell · 06-09-2004, 10:29 PM

$14.50 to ship that thing? I'll pass.

Supermike · 06-09-2004, 10:31 PM

That is not too bad a price for shipping, I always expect some gouging on that - the point is that the drive is normally $230-250 (not including shipping).

kmkestell · 06-09-2004, 10:32 PM

Yeah, seems like a nice drive at a good price. I just can never understand where these Ebay sellers get off trying to turn a profit by jacking the S&H up so high.

coachreed · 06-09-2004, 11:00 PM

Dang! I just bought the Panasonic slot load CD/RW DVD ROM drive for nearly the same price! DOH! I wish I woulda seen this a couple weeks ago! As for shipping, most eBay people make as much if not MORE money off of shipping than anything else. Just part of the business.

TTYL!

Coach... aka Randy!

fondoo · 06-09-2004, 11:05 PM

thats how ebay works. they jack up shipping to profit from that too.

Supermike · 06-10-2004, 12:17 AM

There are only 3 left now, was 6 when I bought mine

err... make that 5 after I bought mine

Supermike · 06-10-2004, 03:57 AM

ONE LEFT on EBAY

To make this (or any laptop CD/DVD) work you will need one of these:

http://www.pcalchemy.com/product_inf...products_id/68

I have shopped this around and the run about $10 + s/h. I ordered from the above link after I verified that they ship it with the mounting screws to hold it on the back of the drive (important since the connector may work itself loose if not screwed down).

d_sellers1 · 06-10-2004, 08:06 AM

Not sure where you guys are doing you shopping to find this drive for $230-250 before shipping. I first found this driveon my own without any help from the forum $160 with free UPS Ground shipping. Found the Pioneer slot load for $32.75 after shipping. These were from online stores, not EBay. I can usually find computer parts cheaper than going through EBay.

EBay sellers are going to more on shipping because EBay doesn't charge fees against the shipping. The higher shipping rates covers the filing fees with EBay and additional packing materials (boxes, etc.) that may be needed.

Derek

Supermike · 06-10-2004, 09:43 AM

Where did you find it, I tried Pricewatch and froogle and nobody was even close. Thanks in advance.

therussman2002 · 06-10-2004, 10:17 AM

guess i snagged the last one... i do hope this is not a hoax

I was waiting to buy the dvd/cdrw model (the cheaper one) to find a less expensive slimline slotload dvd solution, but this was hard to pass up

did this guy see a box of these fall off the truck or what?

elec999 · 06-10-2004, 10:21 AM

Panasonic isnt a very good burner, I have a cdrw on my laptop and dont really like it.

Supermike · 06-10-2004, 05:41 PM

I am not going to worry about this being a hoax. The seller appears legit - he has 577 feedback and only 1 negative. He also has an Ebay store. I have bought a lot of stuff on Ebay and have never been burned, but have been disappointed a few times. Anyway, I also ordered one and am in the same boat, so I hope it works out

As far as this not being a good burner, I do not know. It seems to be able to do more than the DVD/CDRW combo that I was looking at - and is cheaper. Only problem that I have read about is that it may not burn DVD-RAM and may need a firmware upgrade to do DVD-R at 2x (that was for the MAC version though). I did see in a forum posting that the B version of this is PC specific since the A version was for Apple (but I think either can be used in a PC).

Another thing to note is that the Master and Slave settings are designated by the firmware and the drive would need to be flashed to change that. If you have a problem with the install, try putting it on as master first by itself, then try it as a slave using another drive as master. There is also a cable select version of firmware, so that would be another option to try. Once I get mine I will post my experiences. I have emailed Panasonic to see if I can get the latest firmware for both master and slave.

I have found firmware (including hacked firmware) at a popular firmware site, but I am not going to post the link since it is not specific to this *Exact* model - it is for the UJ-815 (not A or B). If it turns out that I need it to get it working right then I will post here.