RW reading tests

- Nero CD Speed v0.84 Test: (Click to see the CD Speed graph)

For the RW tests, we used Traxdata 4x RW media. The Pioneer drive isn't the faster drive we tested with RW media but it will do the job:

CloneCD Reading Tests

- Procedure:
We used CloneCD (v3.0.8.2) and 5 original CDs - Euro 2000 (SafeDisc 1), No One Lives For Ever (SafeDisc 2), Rally Masters (LaserLock 1), Desperados (LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) - in order to test the reading performance of the Pioneer DVR-A03. We also tested its reading performance with backups of the original CDs, since the reading speed varies between the original and the backup media. The following pictures show reading/writing capabilities for both drives:

- SafeDisc 1/2 Results:

The Pioneer DVR-A03 is not what we would call a good choice for reading SD1/2 protected CDs. The drive needs over one hour to finish the task, so it is advisable to have another drive for this task.

With SafeDisc v2.0 protected CDs, the Pioneer DVR-A03 performs slight better but not even close to satisfactory.

LaserLock 1/2 Results:

In the LaserLock 1/2 protected CDs tests, the Pioneer DVR-A03 performed very badly once again, and you should really think of buying another drive for that purpose.

SecuROM Results

The Pioneer DVR-A03 can only read 16bytes of SubChannel data from Data/Audio tracks. This means that you can backup SecuROM 2 CDs but not LibCrypt PSX protected titles.