DVD-R DL writing at 8X burning speed is currently the fastest DL writing speed for the -R DL format thanks to the DVR-110D, the latest release from Pioneer. This is the major difference between this drive and its predecessor, the DVR-109. Apart from that, it is a 16X/16X enabled drive and can re-write DVD media at 8X/6X for DVD+RW and DVD-RW respectively.

As discussed earlier, the supported media list for the DVR-110D is quite limited and as soon as a firmware release is made, we will be posting more results in an update to this review regarding the burning capabilities with various media for both formats.

The DVR-110D is not the fastest drive on the market when it comes to reading CD media, due to its 40X max reading speed. With DVD media, the drive supports SL reading speed up to 16X, as do most of the other market drives, while the max supported reading speed for DL media is 12X. Pioneer enthusiasts will be glad to hear that the riplock feature has been removed and higher ripping speeds can now be achieved.

Unfortunately, we could not gauge the CD error correction capabilities of the drive due to what we believe is a firmware issue when it came to the ABEX 721 & 726 test discs. So we had to evaluate the drives CD error correction mechanism only with the CD-Check Audio Test Disc and the results were pretty good, as the drive managed to reach the fifth check level. Last, but not least, the Pioneer DVR-110D can read DVD-RAM media at 2X max speed.

In the protected media backup tests, the DVR-110D did not perform so well. Protected games were an issue here, as the 110D took about an hour with the safedisc backup. The other two games in our list were ripped quickly and successfully with PSX being ripped in 1:00. With protected audio media, the drive failed to successfully rip the Key2Audio protected disc, resulting in an unplayable backup. Both the other protected audio discs were ripped flawlessly while the drive managed to produce an error free backup as the plextools scans reported.

Fast reader? May be, but fast CD writer? No, this is not the case with the DVR-110D. The potential buyer must take a closer look at the available media list prior to burning any CD media and look at the max support speed, that of the 40X. The supported media list for this burner can be found in the DVD Rec page in this review or on the official Pioneer website.

DVD burning quality ranges from average to good, depending on the inserted media. Speed is not an issue for the drive as it manages to write a full SL image in 6:00 mins. On top of that, the DVR-110 can overspeed most of the 8X inserted media for both the DVD-R and +R formats. On the other hand, with DVD±RW media, the reported quality was not as expected resulting in average quality. DL writing quality is quite good, even at 8X burning speed for both formats, while the bitsetting for +R DL media is automatically changed to DVD-ROM prior to burning.

DVD-RAM writing is not supported with the DVR-110D version. As discussed earlier in this review, Pioneer will soon release four other drives, with two of them supporting DVD-RAM writing.

The Pioneer DVR-110D can be found on the market ranging in price from US$48 to US$54 including VAT.

Note that we will not evaluate the Retail package since the drive comes in bulk version.

- The Good

- Supports 8X DVD±R DL

- Very good DVD error correction

- Supports reading of DVD-RAM media

- Supports overspeed for 8X media at 12X

- No Riplock.

- The Bad

- Cannot accurately backup newest SafeDisk v2 protected titles

- Limited overburning for CD format (82mins)

- Doesn't support DVD-ROM booktype for DVD+R/+RW formats

- Limited media list for 16XDVD±R, DL and RW media

- No bundled software included

- Like To be fixed

- Writing quality for CD-R and DVD±RW media

- More media compatibility through firmware release

Reading
Error Correction
Protected Discs
Writing
Features

* Updated - Check the drive's performance with fw1.17 here.