Pioneer DVR-111 DVD Burner Review

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Pioneer Europe NV was kind enough to send us their latest DVD Multi drive, the DVR-111. Pioneer has a good reputation for producing quality products. In this review, will be putting the Pioneer DVR-111 through its paces to find out how well this latest drive performs.

The Pioneer DVR-111 supports 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 8x/8x DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5GB to be written. The DVR-111 also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at 5x. 

Company information:

Drive specifications:

The specifications of the Pioneer DVR-111 were found at the Pioneer UK website.

What's inside the box?

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

The drive supplied was an OEM version, so only the bare drive was supplied.

Bezel

The bezel of the Pioneer DVR-111 is plainly styled. On the tray we can see various logo's, and we can also see an emergency eject hole, a single coloured green LED for read and write, and an eject button.

Top

Label

On the top of the drive we found one label, and we can see that the drive was made in China, dated January 2006.

Bottom

Rear

On the rear of the drive starting from the left, we can see a diagnostics connector, analogue audio connector, jumpers for cable select, slave, and master; IDE connector, and finally the power connector.

Let's head on to the next page where we will take a look at our test PC and the drive features....

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Test machine:

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

Hardware:

⋅         Motherboard: ASUSTeK A8N-SLI DELUXE (nForce 4 SLI chipset)
⋅         Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice) 1000 MHz Hyper Transport
⋅         RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX 2CL DDR
⋅         GFX: Leadtek Winfast 6600 TD (PCI Express nVidia)
⋅         Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
⋅         Hard disk: 2X 200GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA).

System set-up:

The Pioneer DVR-111 was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer DVR-111 supports DVD-RAM read/write, but does not support Mount Rainier. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.02.

Firmware Update:

We checked Pioneer's website and found a later firmware version. (1.06) So we proceeded to update the firmware.

Below we can see the firmware update process in action.

Our review PC was restarted after the firmware update process had completed.

We once again run InfoTool to check that the firmware had updated correctly (see the above screenshot).

Installed Software:

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 1 for x64. We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.1.4
• Nero CD/DVD Speed V4.50
• Nero InfoTool v4.03
• Slysoft CloneCD v5.2.5.1
• Exact Audio Copy v0.95 beta 2
• K-Probe v2.5.2

Features and techniques:

The Pioneer internal design is clean and well constructed.

From the above screenshots we can see that the Pioneer DVR-111 is driven by NEC's latest chipset, the D63645AGM.

Writing Technology:

In the following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the Pioneer DVR-111.

For these tests we simply burned a disc with Nero CD-Speed's 'create data disc" function.

CD-Recordable:

The Pioneer DVR-111 used CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write our CD-R media at 40x, this gave an average write speed of 30.31x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

Below we have 3 other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of 36.68x, and as we can see, it took the PX-755A 2 minutes 44 seconds to write the disc.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of 37.22x.

The LG GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. The drive wrote the last zone at 40.41X and this gives an average speed of 31.70x.

 For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from the table, the Pioneer DVR-111 was about average when it comes to writing CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Pioneer used Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write our CD-RW at its maximum speed of 32x, this gave an average write speed of 24.90x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 49 seconds.

Below are some other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write
CD-RW at its maximum speed of 24x, with an average write speed of 23.51x and a
total write time of 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write
CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of 28.32x
and a total writing time of 3 minutes 35 seconds.

The NEC
ND-3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) writing technology to write at 32X for CD-RW
discs, the average speed is 29.75x.

For a better overview we present the following comparison
table:

As we can see from the table, the Pioneer was above average
when writing CD-RW media.

16X DVD+R Writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed
of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.60x and a writing time of 6
minutes and 13 seconds.

16X DVD-R Writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at the maximum supported speed
of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.54x and a writing time of 5
minutes and 57 seconds.

Below are some write graphs from some other drives for
comparison.

The NEC 3540A
uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.81x and a writing time of 5 minutes
and 58 seconds.

The Philips DVDR16LS uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is
11.33x and total writing time is 6 minutes and 8 seconds. The average speed is
lower and the writing time is higher than it could have been due to the Walking
OPC generation 2 using some time to constantly adjust the writing quality, we
could see this as constant dips in the speed curve.

The LG GSA-4163B uses P-CAV, (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD-R at 16x. The average speed is 12.90x and total writing time is 5 minutes
and 20 seconds.

Below, we made a comparison table:

From the table above, we can see that the Pioneer DVR-111 is
about average when it comes to burning DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.83x and total writing time is 7 minutes and
26 seconds.

Below are two drives for comparison.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.74x and total writing time is 7 minutes and
35 seconds.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.98x and total writing time is 7 minutes and
15 seconds.

We made the table below for easy comparison.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was above average when it came to
writing DVD+RW at 8x.

6X DVD-RW writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is
6.01x and the total writing time is 9 minutes and 56 seconds.

Below are two other drives for comparison.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.83x and total writing time is 10 minutes
and 55 seconds.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.80x and total writing time is 11 minutes 6
seconds.

We present the table below for easy comparison.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was one of the fastest drives when
writing DVD-RW media

8X DVD+R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 7.30x and total writing time is 17:03
minutes.

Below are three other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A used P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity) to write
the Verbatim DVD+R DL disc at 10x. The average speed was 8.61x and the total
writing time was 14 minutes and 14 seconds.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone
Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL media at 8x which gives an
average write speed of 6.55x and a total write time of 18 minutes and 40
seconds.

The BenQ DW1640 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R DL at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average write speed of 7.32x
and a total write time of 15 minutes and 36 seconds.

8X DVD-R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-R DL at 8x. This gives an average writing speed of 7.40x and a total write
time of 16 minutes and 57 seconds.

Below are three other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A used CLV, (Constant inear Velocity) to
write the Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 5.35x and the
total writing time was 21 minutes and 14 seconds

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S used CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The
average speed was 4.02x and the total writing time was 27 minutes and 32
seconds.

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-R DL at 8x. This gives an average writing speed of 7.06x and a total write
time of 17 minutes and 55 seconds.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone
Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL media at 6x which gives an
average write speed of 5.67x and a total write time of 20 minutes and 41
seconds.

We present the table below for easy comparison.

With its 8x DVD-R DL write speed, the Pioneer DVR-111 was
the fastest drive writing our test DVD-R DL media, and was around average when
writing our DVD+R DL media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVDR-111 it
should be able to write DVD-RAM media at 5x.
For this
test we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc. To test the drives maximum
write speed, we turned off 'write with Verify"

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x.
This resulted in an average write speed of 4.83x and a total write time of 11
minutes 30 seconds.

Below are three other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-750A uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x.
This resulted in an average write speed of 4.98x and a total write time of 11
minutes and 8 seconds

The NEC ND-4550A uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x.
This gives an average write speed of 4.87x and a total write time of 11 minutes
28 seconds.

The LG GSA-4167B uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD-RAM at its maximum write speed of 5x. This gives an average write speed of
4.57x and a total write time of 12 minutes 28 seconds.

We included the table below for easy comparison.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was around average when writing DVD-RAM
at 5x

Book type (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer DVR-111 supports auto Bitsetting, and supports
DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type.

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 the following screen:

DVD+R DL with
book type DVD-ROM.

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

This should
say DVD-ROM.

Now let us
take a look at the reading performance of the Pioneer DVR-111  on the next
page….

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Reading
performance:

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

• DVD-ROM :
  16x
• CD-ROM :
  40x 

Pressed
discs:

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 DVR-111
reached 41.95x, and will reach faster speeds on a full disc. Let's compare the
result in the table below:

The Pioneer DVR-11 was
around average reading a pressed 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. 

As we can see from the
above screenshot, the Pioneer DVR-111 reached 41.16x when reading CD-R. This
gives an average read speed of 31.30x.

Now let us compare with
the drives below.

Once again the Pioneer
DVR-111 was around average for reading CD-R media.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

CD-Rewritable
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.

As we can see above, the
Pioneer DVR-111 is speed locked to 32x when reading CD-RW; now let us compare it
to other drives below.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was
around average when reading CD-RW media.

* Some
drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without
actually moving the pickup.

100
minutes CD:

We used Nero CD-DVD Speed
to measure the transfer rate. The 100 min disc we used is slightly larger than
the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it is 97 minutes and 50 seconds
long.

As we can see, the
Pioneer DVR-111 had no problems in reading the disc, but an error occurred
during the seek tests.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio
extraction performance of the Pioneer DVR-111, 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 DVR-111
reached 41.80x when reading our Audio-CD; let us compare the result with other
drives:

The Pioneer DVR-111
performed about average reading the Audio-CD.

* Some
drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without
actually moving the pickup.

For this test we used EAC
(Exact Audio Copy) to test the drives Audio extraction performance. As we can
see from the screenshot below, the drive supports accurate stream and caching.

Below is the results
produced by EAC:

 Burst
mode

 Secure
mode

The drive performed very
well in burst mode, but was much slower in secure mode.

Advanced
audio '“ DAE quality test:

Before we move on to
testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used
the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used a
CD-R media from RICOH (Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this
media).

The extracting quality is
excellent, but the drive had a few problems with the copy on the fly
tests.

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
16X.

DVD '“
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 (OPT)

DVD-Video Double Layer (PTP)

The Pioneer DVR-111 is
not RIPLOCKED and reads a pressed DVD-Video at up to 16x for a Single Layer
disc, and at 12x for a Double Layer disc.

Now let us test a pressed
DVD-ROM disc. For this test we used the 'Plextor PX-716A" install DVD, which is
around 4.37 Gigabyte in size.

As we can see from the
above screenshot, the Pioneer DVR-111 reads a DVD-ROM at 16x.

The Pioneer DVR-111
performed well with our SL DVD-Video test. It was one of the fastest drives at
reading a pressed SL DVD-Video disc. With the Double Layer DVD-Video it was also
among the fastest drives.

DVD
'“ DVD+R/RW:

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

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The Pioneer DVR-111 read
speed is locked at 12x when reading DVD+R media and 8x reading DVD+RW media. The
performance was around average.

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

The Pioneer DVR-111 once
again performed averagely when reading DVD-R/RW media.

Overall
thoughts:

Overall reading
performance is good, we would have liked faster DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW read
speeds. During our tests, the Pioneer DVR-111 proved to be a reliable
reader.

But now it's time to
head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW
discs…

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The specifications of the
Pioneer DVR-111 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40x and
CD-RW at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and
quality.

Writing Data CD-R
discs:

For our data writing
tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703Mb using Nero Burning ROM
software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and
the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with 'finalize disc" enabled. The
screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed.
(40x):

The drive took 3 minutes
and 28 seconds to write the disc at 40x. Let us see how this compares to other
drives in the table below:

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:

Brand:	Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:18s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.12
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by Taiyo Yuden
have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of 0.12 it goes
into the group 'best
quality disc" category. Highly recommended!

 

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India Limited
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	1x-52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:18s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.24
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

RICOH media '“ manufactured
by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 4.24 it goes in the
'good quality disc"
category. 

The result on this
Verbatim Super AZO+Crystal DL disc is very good. With a C1 error average of
1.57, this disc goes into our 'best quality disc" category. Highly recommended!
However the disc was only written at 32x

Another excellent result
from the Emgeton branded CD-R media manufactured by Fornet International. With
its C1 average of 1.83, it places this disc in our 'best quality disc" category.
However the disc was only written at 32x

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RiTEK
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	4m:04s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.80
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The Traxdata CD-R
manufactured by RITEK, with its C1 average of 1.08 places this disc in our 'best
quality disc" category. Highly recommended! However the disc was only written at
32x

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	97m22s67f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	4m:05s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.47
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another excellent burn,
with a C1 average of 0.47, this places this disc in our 'best quality disc"
category. Highly recommended! However the disc was only written at
32x

Brand:	HP '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.33
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Once again we have an
excellent result, with a C1 average of 1.33, this places the HP CD-R
manufactured by CMC Magnetics in our 'best quality disc" category. Highly
recommended!

Brand:	Infiniti Printable '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SKC
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.09 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:16s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.84
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another good result, with
a C1 average of only 0.84, this places this disc in our 'best quality disc"
category. Highly Recommended!

Another excellent result,
with an C1 average of 0.46, this places this disc in our 'best disc's" category.
Highly recommended!

Writing
Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Due to
requests from our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with
re-writable media. Settings and testing procedures are the same as used earlier
in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All
discs used for these tests have been written to before, but none have been
written to more than 5 times.

CD-ReWritable
media:

Brand:	Verbatim Ultra speed 32x '“ Thanks to Verbatim UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:49s
C1 Average/Sec:	139.80
C2 Average/Sec:	0.05

C1 errors are very high
and we have C2 errors, a poor result.

 

Brand:	Daxon Ultra Speed '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	97m22s60f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	4m:03s
C1 Average/Sec:	135.00
C2 Average/Sec:	0.67

Again we
have high C1 errors and there are C2 errors, a poor result.

C1 errors
are low and there are no C2 errors, with a C1 average of 5.44, this places this
disc in our 'good disc" category.

Summary:

The Pioneer
DVR-111 writes CD-R with very good quality, but media compatibility could be
better. The Pioneer DVR-111 had problems writing our 'ultra speed" CD-RW media.
This is something we would like to see improved.

So let us head on to
next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance…

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The specifications of
this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 16x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In
this part, we will measure the write time 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:

In this test we will
measure the time for writing to DVD±R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an
ISO compilation containing 4480MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write
method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Look below for the
results.

The results are about
average when compared to other drives.

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 SHW-16H5S
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-uncorrectable"."

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 (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:

'In any
ECC Block the number of
PI - uncorrectable 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 a NEC ND-3540A 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
has 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 SHM-165P6S with firmware MS0M along with K-Probe to measure the
disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4570A with firmware 1.02 along
with CD-Speed for our read-back tests. 

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:31s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.46
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The disc has been written
with outstanding quality, but the burn speed was only 12x

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.60
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Burn quality is once
again excellent and the disc was this time written at 16x, Highly
Recommended!

Brand:	Datawrite '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics Corporation
Code:	CMC MAG M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.32
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

A very good result from
this difficult to handle media, but the disc was written at 12x

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	7m:35s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.95
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

No surprises here, an
excellent result from the Verbatim 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, and the
disc was written at 12x. Highly recommended!

Once again the result is
excellent. Highly recommended!

Brand:	Plextor '“ Thanks to Plextor for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:13s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.58
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Another excellent burn
from the Plextor media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. Highly
recommended!

Brand:	Verbatim Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Verbatim
Code:	MCC003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.61
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The PI errors are
extremely low. Considering this media was burned faster than its rated speed, we
have another excellent result. Highly recommended!

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon Taiwan for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	Daxon AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.88
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The burn quality is very
good but the disc was only written at 12x

We have another very good
result from the HP media manufactured by CMC Magnetics. Recommended!

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TDK003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:22s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.11
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

To finish off our DVD+R
tests, we have another very good result from the TDK 16x media.

DVD+ReWritable media:

We used the same test
procedures as in our DVD+R tests.
Below are our obtained results

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RICOH Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPNW21
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	64.19
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.11

PI errors are high but
within specification and PIF errors are reasonably low, we have a perfect
read-back curve; the result is good.

The Traxdata media was
not supported in the firmware, but the Pioneer DVR-111 still managed to burn the
disc within specification, although we do have a slight slowdown with our
read-back test.

To sum
it up: So far the
Pioneer DVR-111 writes DVD+R with excellent quality. DVD+RW write quality is ok
but could be improved.

On the next page you
will find the DVD-R/RW writing results...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be
using a Lite-On SHM-165P6S with firmware MS0M along with K-Probe to measure the
disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4570A with firmware 1.02 along
with CD-Speed for our read-back tests. 

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.08
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

PI errors are a high
throughout the disc but well within specification, PIF errors are low, although
there are a few spikes at the start of the disc. The read-back curve is perfect;
we have a good result.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.58
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Low PI and PIF errors on
this disc make this an excellent result. Recommended!

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.09
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

PIF errors are
astonishingly low on this disc, an excellent result. Recommended!

Brand:	HP '“ Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAGAE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:13s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	11.04
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

A very good result
considering this disc was burned at 12x

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK F1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.92
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

A good result from this
difficult to handle media, although the disc was only burned at 12x.

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	DAXON 016S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.29
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

The write quality is very
good, but the disc was only burned at 12x.

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY 08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:22s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.51
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Once again we have a very
good result, and the disc was burned at 12x.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAG AM3
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.17
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The write quality is
good, but the disc was only burned at 12x

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TTH02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:18s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	37.70
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

PI errors are rising
towards the end of the disc, but are well within specification. PIF errors
values are low, but fairly constant throughout the disc. The result is
good.

DVD-ReWritable media:

We used the same testing
procedures as we did for DVD-R media.
Our obtained results can be seen
below. 

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MKM01RW6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x (CLV)
Write Time:	9m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.90
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

PI and PIF errors are low
and we have a perfect read-back curve; the result is excellent.

Brand:	Infiniti '“ Thanks to Medea International for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMCW02
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	2x
Write Speed:	2x (CLV)
Write Time:	30m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.66
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Once again we have
another very good result from the Infiniti media manufactured by CMC
Magnetics.

To sum it
up: Very good to
excellent writing quality with DVD-R/RW media.

Head on to next page
and read about DVD+R DL compatibility and write
quality...

---

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing
speed and compatibility:

The Pioneer DVR-111
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 8x. Let us first take a look at
the media we will use:

Let's find
the manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use Nero CD-DVD
Speed version 4.50:

Verbatim 2.4x '“
Manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this
media.

Ricoh JPN D00,
manufactured by Ricoh. Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this
media.

Infiniti reference series
- Manufactured by CMC Magnetics. Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us
this media.

Testing
procedure:
We
created an ISO Image from a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a
total on-disc size of 8146 MB. We then wrote this image file using Nero Burning
ROM 6. Below are the results:

Verbatim 2.4x Media

Nero reported a
successful burn with the Verbatim 2.4x media in 17 minutes and 39 seconds.
(write speed 8x)

Let us take a look at the
K-Probe result:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	17m:39s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	31.07
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.22

The result is good,
considering this 2.4x media was written at 4 times its rated speed.

Ricoh Media

Nero reported a
successful burn with the Ricoh 2.4x media in 45 minutes and 23 seconds. (write
speed 2.4x)

Let us take a look at the
K-Probe result:

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RICOH
Code:	JPN D00
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x (CLV)
Write Time:	45m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	42.23
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.46

PI and PIF errors are
high but within specification, the result is ok but could be better

Infiniti 2.4x Media

Nero reported a
successful burn with the Infiniti 2.4x media in 45 minutes and 40 seconds.
(write speed 2.4x)

Now let us take a look at
the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Infiniti '“ Thanks to Medea International UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAD D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	45m:40s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.25
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.14

PI and PIF levels are
fairly low, there is a group of PIF near at the end of the disc but they are
within specification; the result is good.

Now let us try and read
the Double Layer media back, first on the Pioneer DVR-111 and then the BenQ
DW1640.

Pioneer DVR-111 read-back test (MKM 001)

BenQ DW1640 read-back test (MKM 001)

Pioneer DVR-111
read-back test (RICOH JPN D00)

BenQ DW1640 read-back test (RICOH JPN D00)

Pioneer DVR-111 read-back test (Infiniti CMC MAG D01)

Benq DW1640 read-back test (Infiniti CMC MAG D01)

As we can see from our
results, both drives were able to read our test discs without any
problems.

Let's compare the Pioneer
DVR-111 with some other DL capable drives.

*1 Verbatim DVD+R DL
(MKM001)
*2 Traxdata DVD+R DL (RITEK D01)
*3 Ricoh DVD+R DL (RICOH JPN
D00)
*4 Infiniti DVD+R DL (CMC MAG D01)
*5 Verbatim DVD+R DL (MKM
003)
*6 Ricoh DVD+R DL (JPN D01)

DVD-R
DL

As mentioned at the top
of this page, the Pioneer DVR-111 supports the DVD-R DL standard at 8x. Let us
first take a look at the media we will use:

Let's find
the manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use CD-Speed
4.50:

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this
media.

Again, we used Nero
Burning Rom 6 to write the DVD Image:

The Pioneer DVR-111 took
17 minutes and 26 seconds to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL media at 8x.

Now let's take a look at
the Kprobe result:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	17m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	35.50
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.17

As we can see from our
result, PI errors are quite high but within specification. PIF errors are fairly
low except for a few worrying clusters after the layer break.

We will now check the
read-back curves on two different drives.

Pioneer DVR-111 read-back test

BenQ DW1640 read-back test

As we can see from the
above read-back tests; both drives were able to read the Verbatim DVD-R DL media
without problems.

Standalone
DVD-Player compatibility:

We only have 3 standalone
DVD-Players available and 1 standalone DVD-RAM DVD-R recorder to test the DVD+R
DL medias (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type:
DVD-R):

• Panasonic
  DVD-RV32
• Panasonic
  SA-HT520
• Proline DVDP350
• Panasonic DMR-E50
  recorder

Compatibility
results: 

All our DVD Standalone
devices played the DVD+R DL media burned by the Pioneer DVR-111 without any
problems.

Only one DVD Standalone
device would play the Pioneer DVR-111 burned DVD-R DL media without any
problems.

We would like to mention,
that the compatibility issue with standalone DVD Players/Recorders and the DVD-R
DL media format is caused by incompatibilities with the standalone devices used
in this review, and not the Pioneer DVR-111 or media format used.

Summary: The Pioneer DVR-111 burned our
Double Layer media with good quality. All our test disc's were well within
specification.

Let us take a look at
DVD-RAM writing performance on the next
page….

---

 DVD-RAM:

The Pioneer DVR-111 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.

Lets us take a look at
the media we are going to use in these tests:

Maxell branded 5x media
manufactured by Maxell

Panasonic 2x media manufactured by
Matsushita

As we can see, the Maxell
media is rated at 5x and the Panasonic media is rated at 2x.

Now let's see how DVD-RAM
media is written and read by the Pioneer DVR-111 drive.

Maxell 5x without verification

Maxell 5x with verification

Panasonic 2x write without verification

For those of you who are
not familiar with DVD-RAM, you may probably think that something went wrong
during the write process with the verification turned on, since the 5x
media was written at 2x. But not to worry, that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM
discs, the reason for the 'low" speed is, the drive constantly reads back the
data after writing it to verify that it's written correctly. We can also call it
a 'bullet proof" writing/verify technique, with no data loss/errors.

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. Let's try to read back the 2 discs
that we wrote:

Maxell DVD-RAM

Panasonic DVD-RAM

As we can see, the
Pioneer DVR-111 also reads DVD-RAM using a fast CLV reading method, but reads
the disc at its rated write speed, meaning our 5x media was read at 5x and our
2x media was read at 2x. The Pioneer DVR-111 had no problems in reading our two
test discs.

We will now run a disc
quality scan on our burned media using the Lite-On SHM-165P6S and CD-Speed
version 4.50. We should mention that this should not be necessary under normal
use of DVD-RAM media, as the drive will automatically check the disc for errors
as it writes.

Let's head over to the next
page for some advanced tests....

---

 For this
test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That's because the logo of
the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a
sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that
the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not.
In this case we are interested in the writer's ability
to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: 'Correct
EFM encoding of regular
bit-patterns".

• No
  sheep: Can't backup any safedisc 2 versions
  without the help of software tricks
• 1 Sheep: Can backup
  safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
• 2 Sheep: Can backup
  safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
• 3 Sheep: Can write all
  possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum
moderators Womble, has written a guide concerning
the 'Sheep Test" that can be found here.

In the screenshot below
taken from CloneCD, we see the Pioneer DVR-111 supports all the required
features.

The Pioneer DVR-111
supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write
uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

As we can see from the
table the Pioneer DVR-111 is a 'Two Sheep Burner", but could not cope with
safedisc 2.90 or our Sheep 3 test files.

.

Copy
protected Audio:

For our protected audio
test, we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio
discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the
music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available
for this test: 

Celine Dion: A New Day
Has Come; protected with key2audio version 3.

 

Herbert Gé¶nemeyer: Mensch
- This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4 .3(build 12b)

And Michelle: Leben!;
protected with Cactus Datashield 200.5.1.91 '“ 5.10.090.

Results:

From our 'copy protected
audio disc" tests, we would have to conclude the Pioneer DVR-111 is a good drive
for ripping protected Audio CD's

Overburning:

CD-R
900MB (99 minute) over-burn test:

For this test we used an
Infiniti Professional Compax 99min/900mb CD-R. (Thanks to Medea International
(UK) for providing the disc).

From past experience with
the Pioneer drives, we expected the above error. We then tried to create a disc
with a capacity of 91:21.25 to test if the drive could handle discs of up to 90
minutes and beyond.

The Pioneer DVR-111
successfully created our test disc. We then tested to see if the Pioneer DVR-111
could read our created disc. As you can see from the screenshot below, the
Pioneer DVR-111 had no problems in reading our created disc.

DVD+R
over-burn test (5000MB):

For this test we used a
Plextor branded Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R media. (Thanks to Plextor for providing
this media)

The Pioneer DVR-111
reported no support for overburning our DVD+R media.

DVD-R
over-burn test (5000MB):

For this test we used a
Infiniti branded MCC03RG20 16x DVD+R media. (Thanks to SVP UK for providing this
media)

The Pioneer DVR-111
reported no support for overburning our DVD-R media.

Mini
DVD-R discs:

In this section we are
going to test if the Pioneer DVR-111 is capable of writing and reading mini
DVD-R discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

The Verbatim MINI DVD-R
was manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation. Thanks to SVP UK for
providing this media.

Now it was time to see if
the Pioneer DVR-111 could write our MINI DVD-R disc.

The Pioneer DVR-111 had
no problems writing our MINI DVD-R disc. Now let's see if the drive can read
back the disc.

The Pioneer DVR-111
successfully read back our MINI DVD-R disc.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we
wanted to see how the Pioneer DVR-111 would read a Video-CD, for this test we
created a Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 6, and used NERO CD-DVD Speed to read
the disc back. Below is our result:

The Pioneer read our test
VCD disc at its maximum read speed of 40x, as we can see, there was a slowdown
during the read process, but this was most likely caused by an error in our test
disc.

This concludes our
Pioneer DVR-111 review, let's head on to the last page to read our
conclusion…

Positive:

• Very good write
  quality with CD-R media
• Excellent write
  quality with most DVD±R/RW media
• Supports DVD+RW/-RW at
  8x/6x
• Supports DVD+R DL/-R
  DL at 8x/8x writing speed
• Supports DVD-RAM
  read/write at 5x
• Can write DVD±R/DL
  media at higher than its rated speed
• Supports 32x CD-RW
  writing speed
• Supports auto
  Bitsetting for DVD+R DL (BookType to DVD-ROM)
• Can read Pressed
  DVD-ROM/DVD-Video SL/DL at 16x/12x
• 'Two Sheep"
  writer
• Very good build
  quality
• Supports DAO-RAW
  writing
• Supports Mini DVD-R
  discs

Negative:

• Read speed is locked
  at 12x/8x for DVD±R/RW media
• Write quality on Ultra
  Speed CD-RW media could be improved
• Media compatibility on
  DVD±R media could be improved
• Media compatibility on
  CD-R media could be improved
• Single coloured LED
  for read/write
• Does not support
  Bitsetting on DVD+R/RW (BookType to DVD-ROM)
• Not a lead free
  product

Conclusion:

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

The main
positive points:
The Pioneer DVR-111 can produce excellent quality burns on DVD±R media. Every
one of our tested media had a perfect read-back curve and our KProbe scans
demonstrated how well the media had been written.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was
also able to burn CD-R media with very good quality, again our KProbe scans
showing us how well the media had been written.

The Pioneer DVR-111 can
also read and write DVD-RAM media, thus covering all common media types
currently available. The Pioneer DVR-111 was also able to write this media using
a fast 5x CLV writing method.

The Pioneer DVR-111
during this review proved to be a fairly quiet and unobtrusive drive. The drive
also run very cool, which may be important if the drive is housed in a cramped
PC case, or used in a hot climate.

The build quality of the
Pioneer was also of a very high standard, with solid construction and smooth
operating media drawer.

The main
negative points:  There are not that many negative
things to say about the Pioneer DVR-111. Media compatibility with CD-R and
DVD±R could be
better. Many of our 16x rated media was only burned at 12x. Having said that,
the media that did burn at 12x did burn with excellent quality, so perhaps this
was a wise decision on Pioneer's part, and I would chose quality over speed
every time.

The Pioneer DVR-111
reading performance could be better, although the drive performed well enough in
our tests. We would like to see DVD±R media being read at 16x and DVD±RW media
being read at 12x, instead of the present DVD±R/RW 12x/8x

We would also like to see
some improvements in writing quality when burning 'Ultra speed" CD-RW media.
This at present is one weak point with the Pioneer DVR-111.

To sum it
all up: Although
some areas of the drive need some improvement, the
Pioneer DVR-111 is an excellent writer for DVD±R media, and
produced some of the best quality burns we have seen here in CDFreaks labs.
With this in mind
we decided to award the Pioneer DVR-111 our CDFreaks 'safe buy" award.

By using our price
grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we were
unable to locate a listed price for the Pioneer DVR-111, however we found one UK
online retailer had the drive listed for £30.98 UK pounds including VAT (April 2006). 

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

Thanks
to:

Bell Technology spol s.r.o. '“ Czech
Republic for providing the media used in this review.

SVP Communications '“ The United Kingdom for
providing the media used in this review.

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe '“
The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.

Medea International '“ United
Kingdom for providing the Infiniti and HP media used in this review

 Plextor SA/NV (B) for providing the Plextor
media used in this review.

Ricoh Europe '“ For providing the media used
in this review.

E-Net Distribution '“ United Kingdom
for providing the media used in this review.

Verbatim
- Germany and United Kingdom for providing the media used in this
review.

For providing the Memorex media used in this
review. Memorex is one of the largest providers
of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

Daxon (Taiwan) for providing
the Daxon media used in this review.