Pioneer BD-ROM BDC-202

Review Pages

1. Introduction
2. CD - DVD Reading
3. CD Error Correction
4. DVD Error Correction
5. MEMOREX CDR
6. Verbatim CDR
7. Taiyo Yuden CD-R
8. Verbatim CDRW
9. DaTARIUS DVD Analyzer R 2x
10. CMC MAG AE1
11. CMC MAG AM3
12. DAXON016S
13. FUJIFILM03
14. OPTODISCR008
15. Prodisc F02
16. RITEK F1
17. TTH02
18. MCC 03RG20
19. CMC MAG E01
20. DAXON AZ3
21. OPTODISC OR8
22. PRODISC R04
23. RICOHJPN R01
24. RICOHJPN R03 (004)
25. MCC 004
26. YUDEN000 T03
27. MKM 03RD30
28. RITEK S04 001
29. MKM 003 000
30. MKM 01RW6X01
31. MKM A03
32. Media List
33. Playback Tests
34. Conclusion

Pioneer turns out to be a pioneer once again in the optical storage market with the release of the new BDC-202 (OEM) or BDC-S02 (retail) drive. Being among the first manufacturers to have released a Blu-Ray burner, the Japanese company decided to incorporate the Blu-Ray playback capabilities of the high-end Blu-Ray drives, onto a SATA DVD burner. The BDC-202 is the first DVD Burner that offers BD-ROM/R/RE reading support, providing users with a cost-effective option when it comes to experiencing Blu-ray entertainment on their home PC.

The IDE drive supports Blu-Ray reading at 5x, as well as BD-ROM DL at 2x. The writing speed remains at 12x for DVD+R/-R, 4x for DVD-R DL/+R DL and 5x for DVD-RAMs.

- Drive Features & Specification

Media	Read Speed	Write Speed
BD-ROM / R / RE (Single Layer)	5x	-
BD-ROM DL /R DL / RE DL (Dual Layer)	2x	-
DVD-ROM (Single Layer)	12x	-
DVD-ROM DL (Dual Layer)	8x	-
DVD-R/+R	12x	12x
DVD-RW/+RW	8x	6x
DVD-R DL (Dual Layer) / +R DL (Double Layer)	8x	4x
DVD-RAM	5x	5x
DVD Video with CSS (Single Layer / Dual Layer)	5x	-
CD-ROM and CD-R	32x	24x
CD-RW	24x	24x
Video CD	9.3x	-
CD-DA, CD-Text, Mixed-CD,CD-Extra (play audio)	9.3x	-
CD-DA, CD-Text, Mixed-CD, CD-Extra (Data extraction)	24x	-

- Additional Specs Include:

Buffer Memory Size: 4MB (Buffer Under Run Protection for DVD and CD)
Atapi interface: Serial ATA Revision 1.0
Data Transfer Mode: Gen1i, 1,5Gbits/sec
Audio Interface: Stereo audio output
Dimensions: W=148 x D=185 x H=42.3mm (including front bezel)
Net Weight: 0.98 k

For testing in our labs, we received a Pre-production sample of the Pioneer BDC-202. This does not in any way mean that our drive lacks any features compared to the final, production model - it just indicates that there might be room for performance improvements before the product reaches the store shelves.

The retail version of the drive, will be available in both black and beige. Our sample (photo below) was manufactured in April of 2007. On the drive's front panel, we can see the BD-ROM DVD/CD Writer logo, as well as the "Blu-Ray disc", "DVD+RW" and "DVD Multi Recorder" official logos.