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Review: Pioneer BDR-202 Reviewed by: Dee-27 Provided by: Pioneer Europe NV Firmware: 1.04 Manufactured: May 2007

Pioneer was kind enough to send us the BDR-202 Blu-ray writer for review. The drive supports Blu-ray writing and reading, in addition, this drive also supports DVD±R/RW, DVD-RAM and CD-R/RW writing.

It’s always exciting to get hold of a new piece of technology, especially when the leap in technology is so far reaching as Blu-ray offers, with much improved storage capacity, the possibility of being able to watch movies in Hi Definition, bringing a completely new viewing experience.

In this review we will be testing out the latest Blu-ray burner the BDR-202 from Pioneer, one of the world’s most respected electronics manufacturers.

The Pioneer BDR-202 supports 4x BD-R, 2x BD-RE, 12x DVD±R, 6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 4x DVD+R DL/-R DL writing technology, allowing Blu-ray discs of 25GB and DVD Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written. In addition, the Pioneer BDR-202 also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at 5x.

Company Information

We are sure that most of you know Pioneer already, but let us take a look at some of the company information found at: http://www.pioneer.eu/

Pioneer Corporation is a global leader in electronics and audio/video products for the home, car, commerce and industry, particularly in the following core multimedia technologies – digital versatile disc (DVD), plasma display panels (PDP) and in-car navigation and A/V systems.

Founded in 1938 as a manufacturer of audio products and headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Pioneer has more than 39,000 employees worldwide. Its shares are traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

The company’s track record for developing class-leading technologies has consistently attracted industry acclaim. And its continued focus on innovation remains at the heart of its drive to shape the future of its core consumer electronics markets.

Pioneer world firsts include:

·         Separate stereo system, 1962

·         Component car stereo, 1975 

·         GPS car navigation, 1990

·         DVD/LD/CD compatible player, 1996

·         Plasma display technology, 1997

·         DVD recorder compatible with DVD-RW, 1999

·         DVD player for professional DJs and VJs, 2004

Pioneer is focused on four key business objectives to be achieved by 2006:

• To be the global leader in the DVD industry

• To build firm foundations for next generation displays
• To develop and strengthen its network-related product line
• To expand into key devices and key technology businesses

Sound. Vision. Soul

Pioneer’s ethos of ‘Sound.Vision.Soul’ is at the heart of every aspect of its business.  With the world of entertainment developing faster than ever, Pioneer’s aim is to provide visionary products with the ultimate in sound and audio performance, combined with convenience and flexibility to encompass the soul quality of its business and provide the definitive entertainment experience.

Drive Specifications

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We found the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202 at the Pioneer website

What’s inside the box

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Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself and what the drive came shipped with.

Our bulk package contained the Pioneer BDR-202 drive, software CD-ROM and manual.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

The bezel of the Pioneer BDR-202 is plainly styled. We can also see various logos, an emergency eject hole, single green LED and an eject button.

Drive top

Drive bottom

On the top of the drive we found two labels and we can see the drive was manufactured in Japan during May 2007

On the rear of the drive we can see from left to right, an unspecified connector, SATA power and data connectors and an unspecified terminal block. The unspecified connector and terminal block are used for configuring the drive in the factory.

Now let’s head on to the next page were we can take a look at the features of the drive….

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Test machine

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For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster CX226BW 22” widescreen (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

System setup:

The Pioneer BDR-202 was connected to one of the main boards SATA ports and reports as a PIONEER BD-RW BDR-202.

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer BDR-202 supports BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM reading. According to Nero InfoTool, it also reports that the drive is capable of writing BD-R and BD-RE media. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.04 and no updates were available at the time of writing this review.

Installed software:

• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• KProbe

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed.

Features and techniques

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Internal layout

Now let’s take a look at the internals of the Pioneer BDR-202

In the above screenshot we can see the Pioneer BDR-202 PCB.

The Pioneer BDR-202 is powered by a Renesas R8J32500FPV chipset.

Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a look at the supplied software bundle. Please note, we may not use any of this software in this review.

The Pioneer BDR-202 is supplied with CyberLink’s BD Solution software and includes the following applications.

• Power Producer 4
• Power Director 5
• PowerDVD 7.3
• Instant Burn 5
• Power 2Go 5.5

In the above screenshot we can see the main CyberLink BD Solution install screen. The package contains a good starting point for new owners of the Pioneer BDR-202.

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer BDR-202 supports automatic bit-setting, and is capable of writing DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type. However, Bit-Setting of DVD+R/RW is not supported.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R DL with book type DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Pioneer BDR-202:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and Nero Disc Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 20.60x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 47 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 22.02x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 22 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-202 was one of the fastest compared to our other drives when writing CD-RW media.

12x DVD+R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 12x.

DVD+R

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.46x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 18 seconds.

12x DVD-R writing speed:

DVD-R

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.46x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 3 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our tables, the Pioneer BDR-202 was above average when writing DVD±R media.

6X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.01x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 23 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was one of the slowest at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.00x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 14 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when writing DVD-RW media.

4x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 4x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. This gives an average speed of 3.95x and a total writing time of 27 minutes and 13 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

4x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 4x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. This gives an average speed of 3.94x and a total writing time of 27 minutes and 48 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when writing DVD-R DL media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 5x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 5X. This gives an average speed of 4.97x and a total writing time of 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

Below, we made a comparison table:

The Pioneer BDR-202 was the fastest drive when writing our DVD-RAM media.

4x BD-R (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications, the Pioneer BDR-202 drive should be able to write BD-R 25GB Single Layer media at 4x. For this test we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc. To test the drives maximum write speed, we enabled “Streaming.”

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. This gives an average speed of 3.99x and a total writing time of 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was above average when writing BD-R media.

2x BD-RE (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications, the Pioneer BDR-202 drive should be able to write BD-RE 25GB Single Layer media at 2x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 2X. This gives an average speed of 2.00x and a total writing time of 46 minutes and 45 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was the slowest drive when writing our BD-RE media.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 performed well in our writing tests, keeping pace in most cases with our other tested drives.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….

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Reading performance

For these tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various BD, CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• BD-ROM SL (5x)
• BD-ROM DL (2x)
• BD-ROM (BD9) (8x)
• BD-R SL (5x)
• BD-R DL (2x)
• BD-RE SL (5x)
• BD-RE DL (2x)
• DVD-ROM SL 12x
• DVD-ROM DL (8x)
• DVD-RAM (5x)
• CD-ROM 32x

 

Blu-ray reading performance:

BD-ROM:

We only had one pressed BD-ROM DL disc to test. The disc contained a high definition Blu-ray movie (Casino Royale)

The Pioneer BDR-202 read our DL BD-ROM at 2x reading speed.

BD-R:

The Pioneer BDR-202 read our BD-R disc at 5x reading speed.

BD-RE:

The Pioneer BDR-202 read our BD-RE disc at 5x reading speed.

CD reading performance:

CD-ROM:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD that is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced result:

The Pioneer BDR-202 reached 33.33x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when reading our test CD-ROM

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD. The disc we used was a Ricoh 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Moser Baer India.

The Pioneer BDR-202 reached 32.91x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when reading our test CD-R

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The Pioneer BDR-202 reached 24.53x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when reading our test CD-RW.

100 minute CD-R:

The Pioneer BDR-202 reached 33.89x when reading our test 100 minute CD-R and had no problems reading our 100 minute test CD.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Pioneer BDR-202, again we used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it’s nearly 79 minutes in length (78:53:31).

The Pioneer BDR-202 reached 33.64x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was above average when reading our test CD-Audio disc.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 12X.

Pressed DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD Video (single layer)

DVD Video (double layer OTP)

DVD Video (double layer PTP)

The Pioneer BDR-202 is riplocked and read our single layer disc at 5x and our double layer test discs at 5x

We present the table below for comparison with other Blu-ray drives.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was one of the slowest drives when reading pressed DVD-Video discs.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a RICOH 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

We present the table below for comparison with other Blu-ray drives.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was the fastest drive when reading DVD+R and about average when reading DVD+RW.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4Gb of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences in the speed, compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

We present the table below for comparison with other Blu-ray drives.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was the fastest drive when reading DVD-R and about average when reading DVD-RW.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The Pioneer BDR-202 read our DVD+R DL test disc at 8x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Pioneer BDR-202 read our DVD-R DL test disc at 8x reading speed.

We present the table below for comparison with other Blu-ray drives.

The Pioneer was the fastest drive when reading our test DVD±DL media.

DVD-RAM:

We present the table below for comparison with other Blu-ray drives.

The Pioneer was about average when reading our test DVD-RAM media..

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when reading our test CD media. When reading DVD±R and DVD±DL media, it was the fastest drive and proved to be a reliable reader throughout our tests.

Now let’s head over to the next page where we will test CD-R/RW writing performance……

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The specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202 state that the drive is able to write CD-R/RW discs at 24x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

Write quality:

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the obtained results:

An excellent result to start our CD-R quality tests, (highly recommended).

Our RICOH media manufactured by Moser Baer India has burned with very good quality.

Another excellent result (highly recommended).

We have another excellent result (highly recommended).

The result is excellent (highly recommended).

The result is good.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

The result is very good.

Summary:

With the Pioneer BDR-202 writing CD-R/RW at a maximum speed of only 24x, the drive is not the fastest at writing CD-R/RW discs. However, the writing quality is excellent in most cases.

 Now let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD recordable performance….

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The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 12x and DVD+RW/-RW at 6x. In this part, we will measure the writing times for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

Write quality:

You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers, so we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In this test we use a Lite-On SOHW-1653S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can’t be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures) set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-Video disc (GoldenEye).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (The Green Mile). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below, you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.

Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random errors:

A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.

Here we see that a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors and that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI errors.

But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything, but if you’re interested, look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher, giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:

“If a row of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be “PI-un-correctable”.”

In theory, an ECC block may in the worst-case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (un-correctable errors) allowed on a good disc:

“In any ECC Block the number of PI-un-correctable rows should not exceed 4.”  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1, the maximum error value should not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF’s.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc – but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from an Optiarc AD-7173A DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed the reader is that some companies disliked that we used a modified firmware to obtain 16x reading speed. So to please them, we are now using a drive that reads DVD+R/-R media at 16x as default. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Easier explanation on how to read the test results.

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in KProbe reports?

Use this as a guideline for good discs:

• PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
• PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.

And as always; lower is better

And look at the reading curve; if it looks clean with no dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests, we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1L with firmware BL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-03 along with CD-Speed and Nero Disc Speed for our read-back tests.

A very good result to start off our tests.

The result is very good.

No surprises here, an excellent result from the Verbatim 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

The result is very good.

The result is very good.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

We used the same test procedures as in our DVD+R tests.

Below are our obtained results.

PI and PIF errors are high and out of specification at the end of the disc. Although our read-back test is perfect, the result could be better.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 writes DVD+R with excellent/very good quality. DVD+RW writing with our tested media could be better.

Now let’s look at DVD-R/RW performance and quality on the next page…..

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DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1L with firmware BL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-03 along with CD-Speed and Nero Disc Speed for our read-back tests.

The result is good.

The result is excellent.

The result is excellent.

A cluster of PIF spikes spoil what would have been an excellent result. The result is still very good.

The result is very good.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

For this test we used the same testing procedures as in our DVD-R tests.

The result is excellent.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 has written our DVD-R media with excellent/very good quality. DVD-RW writing quality was excellent with our tested media.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD R DL writing performance and quality……

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The Pioneer BDR-202 supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 4x.

For these tests we pre-authored several video clips into an image file and burned the resulting image in Nero Burning Rom. We then used the Lite-On LH-20A1L along with KProbe to test the discs quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our Optiarc AD-7173A using Nero CD-Speed and Nero Disc Speed.

DVD+R DL:

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our 8x rated RiDisc media at 4x in 27 minutes and 21 seconds. PIF errors are fairly constant throughout the second layer, but our read-back test is near perfect. The result is good.

DVD-R DL:

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our Verbatim 4x media in 27 minutes and 48 seconds, with excellent writing quality.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our test DVD±DL media with good/excellent writing quality.

Let’s check out DVD-RAM reading and writing on the next page....

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DVD-RAM writing performance:

The Pioneer BDR-202 is a so-called Multi drive, meaning it also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also supports the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it has differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

We can see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots. These tick marks are "address information" ("Pre-mastered Pit Header Field") which are embedded onto the disc. This is header information in front of data sector area, and is the same format as HDD and MO.

A DVD-RAM’s disc can be formatted in the following formats:

• FAT32
• UDF 1.02
• UDF 1.50
• UDF 2.00
• UDF 2.01
• UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done as “background processes”. Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish, you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any “hangs” or CPU slowdowns.

DVD-RAM has error correction, but also has error replacement to spare sectors as a "defect management" function. This gives higher reliability than other DVD format.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100.000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors.

Now let’s burn a test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 wrote our test Verbatim 5x DVD-RAM media in 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

Now let’s try and read back our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 had no problems in reading back our test DVD-RAM media using a 5x CLV reading method.

We then used CD-Speed to run a Scan Disc test using the Pioneer BDR-202 on our burned media.

As we can see from the above screenshot, there are no errors on our disc.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 had no problems in reading and writing our test DVD-RAM media.

Let’s head on to the next page, where we test BD-R/RE writing performance....

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An Introduction to Blu-Ray

Until recently, optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM relied on a red laser to read and write data, the Blu-Ray format uses a blue-violet laser, which explains the name Blu-ray.

A blue-violet laser (405nm) has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm); this makes it possible to focus the laser with even greater accuracy. This will allow data to be packed more tightly, so it's possible to squeeze more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 enables Blu-ray discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray drives can also be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

Now let’s take a look at the track pitch and compare them with that of DVD

As we can see in the above screenshots, the storage density of Blu-Ray is much higher than DVD. The Blu-Ray laser beam spot is also much narrower than that of DVD.

Blu-Ray Error specification:

In the above table we present some of the specifications for reported errors on Blu-Ray media. At present we have no equipment or software available for measuring these errors.

BD-R:

The specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202 state that the drive is able to write BD-R at 4x. Let us find out how the drive really performs.

For these tests we used Nero CD-Speed to create our test discs. In each case, we burned a full disc at the drives maximum rated speed.

BD-R CD-Speed created data discs:

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our test BD-R media from TDK in 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Pioneer BDR-202 can read back our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 had no problems in reading back our test disc. Now let’s try a Nero CD-Speed scandisc test.

As we can see, there are no errors on our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our test BD-R media from Verbatim in 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Pioneer BDR-202 can read back our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 had no problems in reading back our test disc. Now let’s try a Nero CD-Speed scandisc test.

As we can see, there are no errors on our test disc.

BD-RE:

The specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202 state that the drive is able to write BD-RE discs at 2x. Let us find out how the drive really performs.

BD-RE CD-Speed created data discs:

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our test BD-RE media from TDK in 46 minutes and 45 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Pioneer BDR-202 can read back our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 had no problems in reading back our test disc. Now let’s try a Nero CD-Speed scandisc test.

As we can see, there are no errors on our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned our test BD-RE media from Verbatim in 45 minutes and 35 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Pioneer BDR-202 can read back our test disc.

The Pioneer BDR-202 had no problems in reading back our test disc. Now let’s try a Nero CD-Speed scandisc test.

As we can see, there are no errors on our test disc.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 burned all our test Blu-ray recordable test discs at the fastest speed currently possible, BD-R 4x and BD-RE 2x and done so without any problems. The Pioneer BDR-202 also had no problems in reading back our test discs.

This concludes our Pioneer BDR-202 review. To read the conclusion, click on the link below.

Positive:

• Can write BD-R/RE at 4x/2x
• Can read BD-ROM/BD-R/RE at 5x reading speed
• Supports DVD-RAM read and write at 5x
• Excellent/very good CD-R/RW writing quality.
• Excellent/very good DVD±R/RW writing quality.
• Excellent DVD-R DL writing quality.
• Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R DL.
• Excellent build quality.
• Good software package.
• Near silent operation when playing back BD and DVD movies.

Negative:

• Doesn’t support BitSetting for DVD+R/RW
• DVD+RW writing quality on our tested media could be improved.
• Single coloured LED for read/write.
• Slow reading and writing of CD-R/DVD media by today’s standards.

 

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points:

The Pioneer BDR-202 performed extremely well in our tests. BD-R writing performance was excellent and BD-RE writing performance was also very good. Reading performance with BD media was also very strong, offering the fastest reading speeds currently available. We would also like to note that BDR-202 can read BD-ROM (BD9) at 8x reading speed, we however were not able to find this media type to run a test.

The Pioneer BDR-202 was able to burn all our tested CD-R/RW media with excellent/very good quality.

DVD±R/RW writing quality was also of a very high standard and on most media very good/excellent.

DVD-R DL writing quality was excellent with our tested media and BitSetting was also supported on DVD+R DL media with BookType set to DVD-ROM.

The inclusion of DVD-RAM read and write is also very useful and adds to the drive’s appeal.

The CyberLink BD Solution software bundle should provide a good starting point for owners of the Pioneer BDR-202 for playing and creating BD content. Blu-ray movie playback via PowerDVD using an HDCP compliant screen was excellent.

The Pioneer BDR-202’s build quality is also excellent. The drive has a solid feel and is fairly heavy. The eject tray has a nice firm feel to it. The drive is also quiet and almost completely silent when playing back Blu-ray or DVD movies.

The main negative points:

There are not many negative things to say about the Pioneer BDR-202. Our only real gripe is CD/DVD performance. The drive is slow in both reading and writing to CD and DVD recordable media. But we would like to add, no slower and indeed a lot faster than many other BD drives in this department. We would also have liked the drive to have been able to write to BD-R/RE double layer.

We would also like to see different coloured LED’s being used for read/write.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The Pioneer BDR-202 is a very strong performing Blu-ray drive and does exactly what Pioneer claims it can do. Another excellent effort from Pioneer”.

You may comment on this review below or in this forum thread.

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