Pioneers Powerful 1st Punch
Written: Dec 31 '01
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Pros: DVD Compatibility, writes to DVD-R,DVD-RW,CD-R,CD-RW and reads them all.
Cons: DVD-RW media pricy, will not use highspeed 4x to 10/12 CD-RW media no burnproof
The Bottom Line: DVD Compatibility, DVD-R & RW, playback in home and computer DVD rom drives, A superb one optical drive that does all.
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| tophat3's Full Review: Pioneer DVR A03 DVD-RW Burner |
Well you know me, I tend to be the first one to get things and this item is no exception. Within the first 3 weeks of it's release I got one ( and paid too high of a price for it as well ). But considering the foot dragging the DVD+RW camp has been doing on getting there drives out to the market, I was not at all hesitant about getting this unit.
The drive is ATAPI ( IDE ) unit ( no scsi version of this drive exsists thought Pioneer does make a SCSI DVD-R drive ) and it handles quite a few formats...
It WRITES: to DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD-R and CD-RW and reads all of the above. So that meant for me getting all kinds of media to feed through this unit as I really never had a CD-RW unit ever, my last CD-R burner being the Plextor 8x20.
For DVD-R it a full 4.7Gb worth of writing takes 30 minutes, dumping data or video. This is write times, not authoring or rendering times used by another program(s). I used Pioneer media and have yet to try the $2.95 single sided or $4.95 doublesided media that can be found.
For DVD-RW it's a full 1 hour to write, and full erases take as much, quick erases take less, but seeing how I use my RW for checking my DVD discs prior to burn to DVD-R I always do a full erase as want smooth playback of my video files with no errors.
For CD-R it burns at 8x, and if you got a 8x or higher burner you know this translates into 9 minutes for 650 mb discs.
For CD-RW it burns at 4x, and at this it will only use 4x rated media, nothing faster like 4x to 10 or higher. I am thinking due to dye layer or reflectivity rating, as none of my high speed RW discs ( rated up to 12x ) will work with the Pioneer, they work with my Plextor 24/12/40 though. :)
For it's reading prowness it's ok, I was not expecting s uberfast cd reader ( 24x is not too bad at all CD ROM @ CAV CD-R/CD-RW are 16x @ CAV) nor cd audio ripper (10x @ CAV), as it's a good trade off considering what it can do and the stability at which it does it. True it's not like my Plextor 24/12/40, but then that unit is a speed freak of it own nature, and I wait with baited breath at the day Plextor makes a DVD-R/RW drive to show everyone how it's done right.
For the Software, Clone Cd and CDRWin do not work with it ( yet.. ) so this might be a concern if you run a single system with only 1 optical drive in the computer, but Nero does work with it and version above 5.5.3.5 and above will recognize DVD-R and DVD-RW discs and allow writing to them for data and video. I do not use the provided software of Primus DVD as I prefer Nero, nor do I like MyDVD, instead prefering Ulead Movie Factory and Ulead DVD Picture show as both work well with the drive.
The question will now pop up of media compatibility, I make no bones about my dislike for the HP's entry as it's a DVD+RW, and is not an approved format of the DVD Forum. The DVD-R and DVD-RW discs are and will playback on most newer DVD players ( and alot of older ones ) and all computers with a DVD Rom drive, yes the HP is faster but the compatibility and when th e DVD+R discs come out they will not play back on any home unit or computer units, a big drawback.One reason for this is due to the low reflectivity of the DVD+RW medium, DVD-R/RW has a high reflectivity in the medium and this is the reason that format has better DVD compatibility across home players and computer DVD Rom drives. As for running under Operating systems, since you really do not need a driver but just the ASPI layer installed under Windows 2000 or Windows XP to have the drive seen by other CDR software. I used Force ASPI v1.7 to get the ASPI layer installed under Windows 2000 ( and XP ) and the drive works flawlessly. Despite it only having 2Mb of memory for the buffer ( small considering most CDR drives have 4 to 8Mb ) I have yet to coaster a DVD-R, or CD-R, if you blow a CD-RW or DVD-RW you simply reformat and start all over again. I have blown a burn ( DVD-RW ) and I attribute that to Windows XP which I have since deinstalled and now run the drive under Windows 2000. Still with no burn proof I wouldn't do too much things in the foreground if it's burning away on any R media, be it DVD or CD. As it sits it the only optical drive on my 2nd system and set as master on it's own IDE channel, sometimes I pair it up with Pioneer's ATAPI ( IDE ) 16x DVD Rom reader, ( the reader set to slave ) for cd copying or ripping audio from a faster drive. But for a single all purpose optical drive I find it works well.
***** Mini Update ****
Since I have bought this drive it has come down in price to the $380-$420 Range. This makes the drive really attractive. And media is far easier to find than DVD+RW, I have seen it as low as $2.95 for single side DVD-R media and 4.95 for DOUBLESIDE DVD-R media at here:
http://shop.store.yahoo.com/cd-recordable-dot-com/dvdrcdrw.html . I have not brought any media from them but plan to do so and run some test to see how good this generic DVD-R media can be.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 600.00
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
tophat3
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Location: Orange County, California - USA
Reviews written: 13
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
SLI Equipped Fanatic
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