DVD-Rom Roundup Vol2

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. Data Tests
3. CloneCD Tests
4. DAE Tests
5. DVD Tests
6. Conclusion

DVD Round-up Vol2 - Page 6

Conclusion

Pioneer DVD-106
Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Good CD/DVD access time - Very good HSRW reading performance - Very good SafeDisk v.1 performance - Read up to 92 min CDs - Low operation noise - Can read DVD-R/DVD+RW/DVD-RW formats - No problems during DVD playback	- Low DVD/CD reading performance - Low DVD ripping speed - Low DAE ripping speed - Bad CloneCD performance (except from SafeDisk v1) - Low DVD-R reading performance - Bad DAE performance with scratched media - Cannot handle Audio protected CDs - Cannot read 96bytes from SubChannel data

BTC 316B
Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Very good DVD ripping speed - Very good DVD-ROM reading speed - Good CD reading speed - Very good PSX ripping speed - Good DVD-ROM access time - Good LaserLock v1/2 performance - Good SecuROM performance - Read up to 90 min CDs - Support of DVD-R, DVD+RW formats - Good DVD-R reading performance	- High CD access time - Very low SafeDisk v1/2 performance - Failed in the Bad Media extraction test - No 99 minutes CDs support - Does not support DVD-RW format - Cannot handle Audio protected CDs

Both Pioneer and BTC drives did not gave any outstanding performance that would make the difference between the compatible drives. Pioneer DVD-106 supports reading of all the DVD formats except from DVD-RAM, has a good DVD/CD access time performance, very good performance with HSRW CD media and SafeDisk v1 protected titles. Pioneer engineers worked on reducing the drive's operation noise. The drive has not a silent operation, the produced noise level is lower than the company's previous drives. On the other hand, Pioneer DVD-106 is not the faster DVD/CD reader and failed to give a high enough DAE performance. Lastly, the drive does not support reading of 96 bytes of Subchannel data.

BTC 316B gave a very good DVD ripping speed, and also high DVD/CD reading speeds. The drive supports the DVD-R/DVD+RW formats and has an impressive performance with PSX titles (51 sec full ripping). As for the CloneCD performance, LaserLock v1/2 and SecuROM protections will not be a problem for Pioneer, however the drive hardly back ups SafeDisk v1/2 CDs. BTC does not support DVD-RW and 99 min CD media and also failed to extract the bad quality audio CD in the relative test.

Generally, LiteOn LTD163 still holds the first place in the performance chart and both Pioneer and BTC drives need further improvements to reach the top. You will need approximately $ 75 to buy the Pioneer DVD-106 and almost $65 for BTC 316B. LiteOn LTD163 costs around $52 and AOpen 1648 $68.