Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 14

Conclusion

With no doubt, most awaited features of the new Pioneer DVR-107D are its impressive DVD recording speeds. Although the 8x DVD-R media available in the market is limited, the drive reacted positively to JVC 8x DVD-R and gave us the best recording time for the -R format. Commenting on the DVD-RW's performance; Pioneer recorded at 4x with JVC DVD-RW discs. About the plus format, we achieved the maximum 8x writing speed with 8x Mitsubishi Chemicals media only. Generally, the drive did not allow 8x recording on any 4x DVD±R media. Although this behavior could protect users from creating low quality recordings, some DVD recording enthusiasts could be disappointed. Pioneer will release a new firmware for the drive expanding the supported DVD media list very soon.

But perhaps the most impressive results were the land and pit jitter measurements which were all very low. Coupled with the equally good results in the C1/C2 error measurement tests, it appears to be a high quality CD writer. This could be the reason for Pioneer's choice to support only maximum writing speed of 24x for CD-R, thus preserving writing quality. In case of DVD, the KProbe scannings gave adequate results even for the highest recording speeds.

The drive had high seek times (especially full), with CD media. However, its performance with the ABEX CD test discs was among the best we have seen and it managed to read successfully the first four check levels of the Audio Test Disc, and 2 out of 5 from the 5th level. Very few drives have managed to get that far.

With DVD and DVD-RAM media, it again had high seek times but managed to achieve good reading speeds. Here too, it continued its good performance with the ABEX suite of test discs, this time for DVD media where defects and scratches did not prove a problem for the drive.

With backups of protected game titles, as it is the case with most DVD recorders, it did not manage backing up the latest SafeDisc v2.x.x. schemes. SafeDisc builds higher than 2.51x were working only in the same drive. With Digital Audio Extraction, the drive could not read or rip the Key2Audio protected disc. Other than that, it managed to rip the contents of our 90/99min test discs and its speeds overall for audio extraction were satisfying.

The DVD writing tests produced some strange graphs where we encoutered undulations and spikes. Despite this there appeared to be no problems and the writing times were quite good.

Pioneer DVR-107D is available in the market for €150-200. The price is reasonable for an 8x dual DVD burner, although competition is very tough in the market. If you are seeking for quality and reliability, the Pioneer drive meets your requirements.