Pioneer DVR-108D - Crowning a new Champion
by Kristopher Kubicki on August 31, 2004 12:02 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Features
Below, you can see the Infotool readout from Nero. Nero incorrectly reports the drive as only an 8X read, 4X write drive. For a little more detail, we will have to rely on DVD Info Pro. You may notice that we are still using the version 1.04 firmware; you can download the 1.06 firmware from the Pioneer Japan or Pioneer Australia websites, but since we bought the drive in the US, it only makes sense to wait for a retail US firmware update.
Click to enlarge.
There are no stellar features on this drive. We do not have any HD-Burn capability, and Mount Rainier DVD+RW is obviously not supported either. However, DVD+R Dual Layer (DVD+R9) is fully supported, and we are excited to see such an inexpensive drive support such features.
| Pioneer DVR-108D 16x DVD-/+RW Drive | |
| Interface | PATA |
| CD Write Speed | 32X, 24X ZCLV 16X, 8X, 4X CLV |
| CD Rewrite Speed | 24X ZCLV 16X, 10X, 4X CLV |
| CD Read Speed | 40X MAX CAV |
| DVD-R Write Speed | 16X, 12X, 8X CLV 4X, 2X, 1X |
| DVD-RW Rewrite Speed | 4X, 2X, 1X CLV |
| DVD+R Write Speed | 16X, 12X, 8X ZCLV 4X, 2.4X |
| DVD+RW Rewrite Speed | 4X, 2.4X CLV |
| DVD-RAM Read Speed | 2X CLV |
| DVD Read Speed | 16X MAX CAV |
| Supported Modes | DAO / DAO-RAW 16 & 96 TAO SAO / RAW SAO, RAW SAO 16 & 96 Packet Write Multi-Session |
| Supported Formats | DVD+R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD+RW (random) DVD-R (DAO, incremental, seq) DVD-RW (restricted overwrite) CD-R, CD-RW, CD-ROM, CD-DA, Mixed Mode, CD Extra Photo CD, CD Text, Bootable CD, UDF |
| Access Time | CD: 130ms DVD: 140ms |
| Buffer | 2MB |
From the chipset information, this is by far the most ambitious drive that we have seen to date. We see identical features surface on a few other drives, including the NEC 3500A and the ASUS DRW-1604P, but we will get more into detail about those drives later.
The DVR-108D has the capabilities to write to DVD+R DL media at up to 4x and read it back at up to 8x speeds.
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KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
Degrador, fixed, thanks.Kristopher
Degrador - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
Bitsetting basically describes what type of disc it is (only matters for DVD+R(W) and DL discs). Having a drive able to let you set the bitsetting means you can write discs that seem to be DVD-ROM discs not writables, and so old dvd-players can handle them better.Another thing I noticed in the article, the image shows the Ritek R03 discs burnt at only 4X on the Pioneer, yet you say "Even at that ambitious burn ..." and "the Pioneer wins this bout both in speed and write quality". Wrong image link perhaps?
KristopherKubicki - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
saechaka: someone said a hacked 3500A firmware supports bitsetting. I think its a pretty moot issue nowadays but some people find it really important.Kristopher
saechaka - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
what's the significance of this bitsetting? and will the 3500a be able to utilize that feature? thanksDegrador - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
Under the features table, you have the drive listed as writing DVD-RAM at 2X. This drive actually doesn't support writing DVD-RAM, only reading.Perhaps another thing of note is that the retail version has better noise management / control than the OEM version.
Also, is there any chance of doing some benchmarks with the newly released 1.10 firmware?
Thanks
Budman - Tuesday, August 31, 2004 - link
Pioneer DVD burners Rule!!