Pioneer DVR-112 DVD Burner Review

March 24, 2007

Review: Pioneer DVR-112
Reviewed by: Dee-27
Provided by: Pioneer Europe NV
Firmware: 1.09
Manufactured: December 2006

Pioneer was kind enough to send us the DVR-112 for review. In this review we will be seeing how this drive from one the world's best known electronics manufacturers performs in our tests.

The Pioneer DVR-112 supports 18x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 10x DVD+R DL/-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written. In addition this drive also supports DVD-RAM at 12x.

Drive Specifications

We found the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112 at the Pioneer website

_{Specifications}	_DVR-112
_{Write Support}	_{· DVD-R (4.7GB, Ver 2.0 & 2.1 for General)} _{· DVD-R DL (8.54GB, Dual Layer, Ver 3.0)} _{· DVD-RW (4.7GB, Ver 1.0, 1.1 & 1.2)} _{· +R (4.7GB, Ver 1.0, 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3)} _{· +R DL (8.54GB Double Layer, Ver 1.0 & 1.1)} _{· +RW (4.7GB, Ver 1.1, 1.2 & 1.3)} _{· +RW High Speed (4.7GB, Ver 1.0)} _{· DVD-RAM (4.7GB, Ver 2.0, 2.1 & 2.2 (Class0) and [RAM2(Class1)], non-cartridge versions)} _{· CD-R (Type 74, 650MB & Type 80, 700MB)} _{· CD-RW (including HS, US, US+)}
_{Read Support}	_{· DVD-ROM (Single & Dual Layer, Single & Dual Sided)} _{· DVD-RAM (Ver 2.0, 2.1 & 2.2 (Class0) and [RAM2(Class1)], non-cartridge version)} _{· DVD-R, DVD-R DL (Dual Layer), DVD-RW} _{· +R, +R DL (Double Layer), +RW} _{· CD-ROM Mode 1, CD-ROM XA Mode 2 (Form 1, Form 2)} _{· CD-Text, Photo-CD (Single & Multiple Session), CD-DA, CD-Extra, CD-Text, Video CD, CD-R, CD-RW (including HS, US, US+)}

_{Write Speed DVD-R}	_{· 18x CAV (24.93 MB/sec)} _{· 16x CAV (22.16 MB/sec)} _{· 12x PCAV / Zone CLV (16.62 MB/sec)} _{· 8x PCAV / Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec)} _{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)} _{· 2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)} _{· 1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)} *It is required to use a cable corresponding to U-ATA66 (80-wire conductor cable)

_{Write Speed DVD-R Dual Layer}	_{· 10x Zone CLV (13.85 MB/sec} _{· 8x Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec} _{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)} _{· 2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)} *This specification describes the maximum speed in one zone

_{Write Speed DVD-RW}	_{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)} _{· 2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)} _{· 1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)}

_{Write Speed 8cm DVD-R/RW with Adapter}	_{· 2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)} _{· 1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)}

_{Write Speed +R}	_{· 18x CAV (24.93 MB/sec)} _{· 16x CAV (22.16 MB/sec)} _{· 12x PCAV / Zone CLV (16.62 MB/sec)} _{· 8x PCAV / Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec) MB/sec)} _{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)} _{· 2.4x CLV (3.32 MB/sec)} *It is required to use a cable corresponding to U-ATA66 (80-wire conductor cable)

_{Write Speed +R Double Layer}	_{· 10x Zone CLV (13.85 MB/sec} _{· 8x Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec} _{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)} _{· 2.4x CLV (3.32 MB/sec)} This specification describes the maximum speed in one zone

_{Write Speed +RW}	_{· 8x Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec)} _{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)} _{· 3.3x CLV (4.57 MB/sec)} _{· 2.4x CLV (3.32 MB/sec)}

_{Write Speed DVD-RAM}	_{· 12x PCAV (16.62 MB/sec)} _{· 8x PCAV (11.08 MB/sec)} _{· 6x CLV (8.31 MB/sec)} _{· 5x CLV (6.92 MB/sec)} _{· 3x CLV (4.15 MB/sec)} _{· 2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)}

_{Write Speed CD-R}	_{· 40x CAV (6.00 MB/sec)} _{· 32x PCAV / Zone CLV (4.80 MB/sec)} _{· 24x PCAV / Zone CLV (3.60 MB/sec)} _{· 16x CLV (2.40 MB/sec)} _{· 10x CLV (1.50 MB/sec)} _{· 4x CLV (0.60 MB/sec)}

_{Write Speed CD-RW}	_{· 32x Zone CLV (4.80 MB/sec) (US+)} _{· 24x Zone CLV (3.60 MB/sec) (US and US+)} _{· 20x Zone CLV (3.00 MB/sec) (US)} _{· 16x CLV (2.40 MB/sec) (US and US+)} _{· 10x CLV (1.50 MB/sec) (HS and US)} _{· 4x CLV (0.60 MB/sec) (Normal and HS)}

_{Write Speed 8cm CD-R/RW with Adapter}	_{4x CLV (0.60 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed DVD-ROM (Single Layer)}	_{Max. 16x CAV (22.16 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed DVD-ROM (Dual Layer)}	_{Max. 12x CAV (16.62 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed DVD-Video (with CSS, Single / Dual Layer)}	_{Max. 5x CAV (6.925 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed DVD-RAM}	_{12x PCAV (16.62 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed DVD-R, DVD-R Dual Layer, DVD-RW}	_{Max. 12x CAV (16.62 MB/sec), Max. 8x CAV (11.08 MB/sec), Max. 8x CAV (11.08 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed +R, +R Double Layer, +RW}	_{Max. 12x CAV (16.62 MB/sec), Max. 8x CAV (11.08 MB/sec), Max. 8x CAV (11.08 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed 8cm DVD-ROM DVD-R/RW DVD Video with Adapter}	_{Max. 3.4x CAV (4.70 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed CD-ROM}	_{Max. 40x CAV (6.00 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed CD-R,CD-RW}	_{Max. 40x CAV (6.00 MB/sec), Max. 32x CAV (4.80 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed 8cm CDROM CDR/RW CDDA with Adapter}	_{Max. 6.1x CAV (0.91 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed CD-DA CD-TEXT Mixed CD CD-Extra (Play audio)}	_{Max. 9.3x CAV (1.39 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed CD-DA CD-TEXT Mixed CD CD-Extra (Data extraction)}	_{Max. 40x CAV (6.00 MB/sec)}

_{Read Speed Video-CD}	_{Max. 9.3x CAV (1.39 MB/sec)}

_{Access Time DVD-ROM}	_{130 msec (Random Average)}

_{Access Time DVD-RAM}	_{210 msec (Random Average)}

_{Access Time CD}	_{120 msec (Random Average)}

_Interface	_{ATA/ATAPI-7, SFF-8090}

_{IDE Data Transfer Mode}	_{PIO Mode 4, Multi Word DMA Mode 2, Ultra DMA Mode 2, Ultra DMA Mode 4 (Ultra-DMA66)*} It is required to use a cable corresponding to U-ATA66 (80-wire conductor cable)

_{Data Buffer}	_{2 MB}

_{Mounting Orientation}	_{Horizontal and Vertical (+/- 5 degrees)} *80mm discs cannot be used when the drive is vertically mounted. The case remains even when an adapter is used.

_{Power Requirement}	_{+5V 1.4A +12V 0.85A (Average during 18x CAV DVD-R writing process)}

_{Power Consumption}	_{17.2W (Average during 18x DVD-R CAV writing process)}

_{Regulatory Approval}	_{UL60950-1 First Edition, CSA C22.2 No.60950-1-03, EN60950-1:2001+A11, CB Report: IEC60950-1:2001, FIMKO, SEMKO (Optional)}

_{Dimensions (W x H x D)}	_{(Including height of Front Bezel) 148 x 42.3 x 180 mm}

_{Net Weight}	_0.9 kg

What’s inside the box

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

Our bulk package contained the DVR-112 drive and manual.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

The bezel of the Pioneer DVR-112 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 one label and we can see the drive was manufactured in China during December 2006

On the rear of the drive we can see from left to right, an audio connector, Master/Slave/CS jumpers, IDE connector and a power connector.

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

Test machine

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

Hardware:

Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5W DH Deluxe (Intel Glendale DG I975x chipset)
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
RAM: 2 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3)
Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
Hard disk: 2X 250GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA 2)

System setup:

The Pioneer DVR-112 was connected to a Primary Slave IDE channel. As we can see from the above screenshot, Nero InfoTool reports the Pioneer DVR-112 as a UDMA4 compatible device.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer DVR-112 supports DVD-RAM read/write but the drive does not support Mount Rainier. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.09.

Installed software:

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

Features and techniques

The Pioneer DVR-112 is powered by an NEC MC-10041 chipset.

In the above screenshot we can see the internal PCB of the Pioneer DVR-112.

Disc Quality Scanning:

The Pioneer DVR-112 can be used along with Nero CD-Speed for “Disc Quality Scanning”.

Disc Quality Scan at 8x scanning speed using CD-Speed.

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer DVR-112 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

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Pioneer DVR-112:

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

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 40x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. This gives an average speed of 30.27x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 14 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

CD-R Disc Writing	Supported Write Speed	Write Strategy	Start Write Speed	End Write Speed	Average Write Speed	Write Time Full 80min
NEC ND-4551A	48x	CAV	21.41x	47.92x	36.32x	3m:02s
Philips DVDR1660	48x	CAV	21.33x	48.06x	35.53x	3m:04s
Samsung SH-W162L	48x	CAV	21.88x	48.36	37.21x	2m:52s
Samsung SE-W164L	48x	CAV	21.94x	48.24x	37.30x	2m:52s
Samsung SE-S184M	48x	CAV	21.82x	48.52x	37.21x	3m:00s
Pioneer DVR-112	40x	CAV	17.83x	40.47x	30.27x	3m:14s

As we can see, the Pioneer DVR-112 was the slowest compared to our other drives when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.97x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 45 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

CD-RW Disc Writing	Supported Write Speed	Write Strategy	Start Write Speed	End Write Speed	Average Write Speed	Write Time Full 80min
NEC ND-4551A	32x	Z-CLV 4 Zones	20.08x	32.00x	29.71x	3m:11s
Philips DVDR1660	32x	P-CAV	21.37x	32.16x	29.77x	3m:20s
Samsung SH-W162L	32x	Z-CLV 3 Zones	16.09x	32.30x	28.44x	3m:35s
Samsung SE-W164L	32x	Z-CLV 3 Zones	16.01x	32.02x	28.28x	3m:38s
Samsung SE-S184M	32x	Z-CLV 3 Zones	16.09x	32.18x	28.44x	3m:27s
Pioneer DVR-112	32x	Z-CLV 3 Zones	16.03x	32.07x	24.97x	3m:45s

As we can see, the Pioneer DVR-112 was a little slower compared to our other drives when writing CD-RW media.

18x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 18x.

DVD+R

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 18X. This gives an average speed of 13.17x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 11 seconds.

DVD-R

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 18X. This gives an average speed of 13.12x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 13 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

18x DVDR Disc Writing	Supported Write Speed	Write Strategy	Start Write Speed	End Write Speed	Average Write Speed	Write Time Full 4.38Gb
Samsung SH-S182D	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.54x 7.58x	18.12x 18.16x	13.21x 13.42x	5m:34s 5m:16s
Optiarc AD-7173A	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.53x 7.53x	18.02x 18.05x	13.26x 13.29x	5m:26s 5m:27s
Plextor PX-760A	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.23x 7.24x	18.00x 18.06x	12.41x 12.35x	5m:34s 5m:41s
Samsung SE-S184M	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.62x 7.63x	18.24x 18.22x	13.46x 13.48x	5m:19s 5m:18s
Pioneer DVR-112	18x +R 18x –R	CAV CAV	7.51x 7.51x	18.16x 13.34x	13.17x 13.12x	5m:11s 5m:13s

As we can see from our table, the Pioneer DVR-112 was the fastest drive when writing DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.83x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

DVD+RW Drive	Writing Speed	Average Speed	Writing Time
Pioneer DVR-111	8x Z-CLV	7.83x	7m:26s
Plextor PX-760A	8x P-CAV	7.87x	7m:15s
Samsung SE-S184M	8x Z-CLV	6.96x	9m:12s
Pioneer DVR-112	8x Z-CLV	7.83x	7m:42s

The Pioneer DVR-112 was about average at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.02x and a total writing time of 9 minutes and 50 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

DVD-RW Drive	Writing Speed	Average Speed	Writing Time
Pioneer DVR-111	6x CLV	6.01x	9m:56s
Plextor PX-760A	6x CLV	6.03x	10m:00s
Samsung SE-S184M	6x Z-CLV	5.67x	10m:44s
Pioneer DVR-112	6x CLV	6.02x	9m:50s

The Pioneer DVR-112 was the fastest drive when writing DVD-RW media.

10x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 10x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 10X. This gives an average speed of 8.55x and a total writing time of 15 minutes and 07 seconds.

10x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 10x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 10X. This gives an average speed of 8.47x and a total writing time of 15 minutes and 31 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

DVD DL Drive	Size	Writing Speed	Writing Time	Book Type
Plextor PX-755A	8152MB	DVD+R DL 10x DVD-R DL 4x	14m:14s 21m:14s	DVD-ROM DVD-R
Pioneer DVR-111	8152MB	DVD+R DL 8x DVD-R DL 8x	17m:03s 16m:57s	DVD-ROM DVD-R
Plextor PX-760A	8152MB	DVD+R DL 10x DVD-R DL 6x	13m:55s 18m:33s	DVD-ROM DVD-R
Samsung SE-S184M	8152MB	DVD+R DL 8x DVD-R DL 8x	19m:06s	DVD-ROM DVD-R
Pioneer DVR-112	8152MB	DVD+R DL 10x DVD-R DL 10x	15m:07s 15m:31s	DVD-ROM DVD-R

The Pioneer DVR-112 was among the fastest drives when writing DVD+R DL and the fastest drive when writing DVD-R DL media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The Pioneer DVR-112 uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 10.35x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 33 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

DVD-RAM Drive	Writing Speed	Average Speed	Writing Time
Pioneer DVR-111	5x CLV	4.83x	11m:30s
Plextor PX-750A	5x CLV	4.98x	11m:08s
Samsung SE-S184M	12x P-CAV	10.11x	5m:42s
Pioneer DVR-112	12x P-CAV	10.35x	5m:33s

The Pioneer DVR-112 was the fastest drive when writing DVD-RAM media.

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

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-112 reached 41.28x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

Pressed Discs	Average Read Speed	Start Read Speed	End Read Speed	Seek Times Random	Seek Times 1/3	Seek Times Full
NEC ND-4550A	34.75x	19.87x	45.99x	128ms	136ms	216ms
NEC ND-4551A	34.71x	20.01x	45.97x	135ms	145ms	222ms
Philips DVDR1660	35.70x	20.13x	47.29x	106ms	124ms	176ms
Samsung SH-W162L	35.75x	17.35x	47.38x	95ms	95ms	169ms
Samsung SH-S182D	35.58x	19.75x	47.10x	99ms	95ms	169ms
Samsung SE-S184M	36.25x	17.36x	48.08x	109ms	115ms	187ms
Pioneer DRV-112	31.25x	18.12x	41.36x	105ms	122ms	198ms

The Pioneer DVR-112 proved to be below average at reading our test CD-ROM. Access and seek times were fairly good.

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 DVR-112 reached 41.36x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

CD-R Discs	Average Read Speed	Start Read Speed	End Read Speed	Seek Times Random	Seek Times 1/3	Seek Times Full
NEC ND-4550A	35.60x	20.74x	47.01x	134ms	136ms	210ms
NEC ND-4551A	35.53x	20.67x	46.77x	187ms	146ms	218ms
Philips DVDR1660	36.54x	20.94x	48.27x	104ms	113ms	169ms
Samsung SH-W162L	30.82x	16.85x	40.66x	88ms	90ms	157ms
Samsung SH-S182D	30.65x	17.28x	40.52x	92ms	90ms	162ms
Samsung SE-S184M	30.84x	16.51x	40.73x	105ms	108ms	178ms
Pioneer DVR-112	31.95x	18.38x	41.36x	116ms	132ms	199ms

The Pioneer DVR-112 performed above average with our CD-R test disc.

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 DVR-112 reached 32.94x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

CD-RW Discs	Average Read Speed	Start Read Speed	End Read Speed	Seek Times Random	Seek Times 1/3	Seek Times Full
NEC ND-4550A	30.66x	17.92x	40.12x	134ms	141ms	214ms
NEC ND-4551A	30.63x	17.94x	40.08x	171ms	166ms	317ms
Philips DVDR1660	30.75x	17.67x	40.55x	106ms	115ms	170ms
Samsung SH-W162L	30.84x	17.52x	40.68x	87ms	90ms	159ms
Samsung SH-S182D	30.65x	16.43x	40.44x	91ms	90ms	163ms
Samsung SE-S184M	31.17x	16.75x	41.15x	102ms	107ms	176ms
Pioneer DVR-112	24.96x	14.61x	32.94x	117ms	131ms	205ms

The Pioneer DVR-112 proved to be the slowest drive when reading CD-RW media.

100 minute CD-R:

The Pioneer DVR-112 reached 42.67x when reading our test 100 minute CD-R, the DVR-112 failed to complete the seek time tests ending with an error.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Pioneer DVR-112, 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-112 reached 42.44x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

Audio Discs	Average Read Speed	Start Read Speed	End Read Speed	Seek Times Random	Seek Times 1/3	Seek Times Full
NEC ND-4550A	31.33x	17.97x	40.11x	123ms	138ms	220ms
NEC ND-4551A	31.30x	17.89x	40.13x	122ms	142ms	222ms
Philips DVDR1660	37.42x	20.09x	49.65x	107ms	125ms	173ms
Samsung SH-W162L	31.55x	17.57x	41.85x	86ms	101ms	172ms
Samsung SH-S182D	31.39x	17.68x	41.61x	88ms	104ms	181ms
Samsung SE-S184M	31.46x	17.67x	41.77x	111ms	128ms	192ms
Pioneer DVR-112	31.61X	19.04X	42.44X	132MS	152MS	223MS

The Pioneer DVR-112 performed about average when reading our audio test CD.

Audio Extraction:

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 audio caching, but doesn't support C2 error info.

Below is the results produced by EAC:

Burst mode.

Secure mode.

The Pioneer DVR-112 performed 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 extraction quality was excellent however; the Pioneer DVR-112 did not do well 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.

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 DVR-112 is not riplocked and read our single layer disc at 16x and our double layer test discs at 12x

DVD Video	Average Read Speed (SL)	Start Read Speed (SL)	End Read Speed (SL)	Average Read Speed (DL)	Start Read Speed (DL)	End Read Speed (DL)
NEC ND-4550A	11.84x	6.57x	15.82x	8.90x	4.95x	11.83x
NEC ND-4551A	11.83x	6.56x	15.77x	8.89x	4.94x	11.82x
Philips DVDR1660	12.00x	6.64x	15.99x	9.05x	5.00x	12.04x
Samsung SH-W162L	12.12x	6.78x	16.16x	6.44x	3.60x	8.57x
Samsung SH-S182D	12.06x	6.66x	16.07x	6.41x	3.58x	8.52x
Samsung SE-S184M	12.22x	6.75x	16.29x	6.38x	3.61x	8.29x
Pioneer DVR-112	11.99x	6.74x	16.03x	9.36x	5.31x	12.44

The Pioneer DVR-112 performed well in our single layer test and was the fastest drive in our double layer read tests.

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

DVD+R DVD+RW	Average Read Speed (+R)	Start Read Speed (+R)	End Read Speed (+R)	Average Read Speed (+RW)	Start Read Speed (+RW)	End Read Speed (+RW)
NEC ND-4550A	11.93x	6.53x	15.95x	9.79x	5.40x	13.08x
NEC ND-4551A	11.95x	6.59x	15.98x	9.79x	5.37x	13.08x
Philips DVDR1660	9.38x	5.13x	12.53x	9.38x	5.13x	12.54x
Samsung SH-W162L	9.15x	5.03x	12.22x	6.24x	3.45x	8.34x
Samsung SH-S182D	9.09x	5.02x	12.16x	6.21x	3.43x	8.29x
Samsung SE-S184M	9.12x	5.00x	12.06x	6.23x	3.43x	8.33x
Pioneer DVR-112	9.36x	5.19x	12.23x	6.25x	3.47x	8.35x

The Pioneer DVR-112 performed about average when reading our test DVD+R/RW test discs. Now let’s see how it will perform with DVD-R/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.

DVD-R DVD-RW	Average Read Speed (-R)	Start Read Speed (-R)	End Read Speed (-R)	Average Read Speed (-RW)	Start Read Speed (-RW)	End Read Speed (-RW)
NEC ND-4550A	11.97x	6.58x	16.01x	9.78x	5.37x	13.07x
NEC ND-4551A	11.98x	6.56x	15.98x	9.78x	5.37x	13.07x
Philips DVDR1660	9.37x	5.13x	12.53x	9.38x	5.13x	12.53x
Samsung SH-W162L	9.18x	5.08x	12.26x	6.24x	3.44x	8.34x
Samsung SH-S182D	9.12x	5.05x	12.19x	6.22x	3.43x	8.31x
Samsung SE-S184M	9.14x	5.03x	12.21x	6.24x	3.44x	8.34x
Pioneer DVR-112	9.36x	5.18x	12.52x	6.23x	3.46x	8.33x

Once again the Pioneer DVR-112 performed about average when reading our DVD-R/RW test discs.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The Pioneer DVR-112 read our DVD+R DL test disc at 8x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Pioneer DVR-112 read our DVD-R DL test disc at 8x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

The Pioneer DVR-112 read our DVD-RAM disc at 12x using a P-CAV reading method.

Summary:

The Pioneer DVR-112 proved to be a reliable reader and had little or no problems reading all our test discs. The Pioneer DVR-112 however was not the fastest reader we have reviewed.

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

The specifications of the Pioneer DVR-112 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 Pioneer DVR-112 took 3 minutes and 55 seconds to write the disc at 40x. Let us see how this compares to other drives in the table below:

Nero Burning Rom CD-R	Write Speed	Total Time
Lite-On SHW-16H5S	48x	3m:20s
Plextor PX-750A	40x	3m:16s
Plextor PX-755A	48x	2m:43s
Pioneer DVR-111	40x	3m:28x
Plextor PX-760A	48x	2m:54s
Samsung SE-S184M	48x	3m:08s
Pioneer DVR-112	40x	3m:55s

The Pioneer DVR-112 was fairly slow when writing our test CD-R media.

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:16s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.18
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

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

Brand:	Verbatim Super AZ0+Crystal DL – Thanks to Verbatim UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.87
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The write quality on the Verbatim 52x media is excellent, (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:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.87
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

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

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:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.44
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Once again we have an excellent result, (highly recommended).

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:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.66
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The HP media manufactured by CMC Magnetics has burned with excellent quality.

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:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.73
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another excellent result.

Brand:	Verbatim Super AZO – Thanks to Verbatim UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	3m:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.14
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

And another excellent result.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

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:45s
C1 Average/Sec:	7.27
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

The result is good.

Brand:	Traxdata – Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek.
Code:	97m27s12f
Disc Type:	High Speed CD-RW 8-24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	74:41.00
Certified Speed:	12x
Write Speed:	10x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	8m:34s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.06
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The result is good.

Summary:

CD-R writing quality and media compatibility is excellent with the Pioneer DVR-112 and CD-RW writing quality is good/very good.

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

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 18x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/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:

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 4483Mb of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Let’s compare with some other drives.

Write DVD data discs	DVD+R	DVD-R
Plextor PS-760A	5m:40s (18x speed)	5m:46s (18x speed)
Samsung SH-S182D	5m:31s (18x speed)	5m:21s (18x speed)
Samsung SE-S184M	5m:32s (18x speed)	5m:23s (18x speed)
Pioneer DVR-112	5m:19s (18x speed)	5m:21s (18x speed)

We can see the Pioneer DVR-112 has performed very well, but let’s see how good the writing quality is.

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 SHM-165P6S 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 a 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-20A1P with firmware KL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1.01 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	BenQ – Thanks to Daxon for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	DAXON AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.30
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is excellent but the disc was written at 12x.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK Corporation
Code:	TDK003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.91
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The result is very good, but once again the disc was written at 12x.

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.59
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

An excellent result and the disc were written at faster than its rated speed.

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:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.22
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The writing quality is excellent however, the disc was written at 12x.

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:	18x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.96
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.12

The result is good considering this disc was burned faster than its rated speed.

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 (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.61
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

No surprises here, an excellent result from the Verbatim 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden, all the more so as this disc was written faster than its rated speed.

Brand:	TDK – Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India
Code:	MBIPG101R04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	8m:05s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.47
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result is excellent.

Brand:	Pleomax – Thanks to Pleomax (NL) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	OPTODISC
Code:	OPTODISC R16
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	8m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.03
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

The result is very good, but the disc was only written at 8x

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony
Code:	SONY D21
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.01
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

Once again we have another very good result and the disc was written at faster than its rated speed.

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:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.65
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The writing quality is very good although the disc was only written at 12x.

Brand:	BenQ – Thanks to Daxon Taiwan for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	Daxon AZ2
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	8m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.03
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

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.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals
Code:	MKM A03
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:40s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.75
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The result is excellent.

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:	8m:44s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.14
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is very good.

Brand:	Memorex – Thanks to Memorex for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Philips
Code:	PHILIPS041
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	14m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.72
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.79

Once again the result is good.

Summary:

The Pioneer DVR-112 writes DVD+R/RW with excellent/very good quality and is able to burn selected media at higher than its rated speed. In contrast, it also writes selected media at lower than its rated speed.

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

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

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:	18x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:18s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is excellent and the media was burned at higher than its rated speed.

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.44
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Again the result is excellent and the media was burned faster than its rated speed.

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:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.43
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The result is very good.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TTH02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:42s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.51
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

The result is very good.

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY16D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:40s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.32
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Once again the result is very good.

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:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:42s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.85
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The result is very good.

Brand:	Pleomax – Thanks to Pleomax (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	OPTODISCR016
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.37
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.09

The result is very good although the write speed was 12x.

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:	6m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.69
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

Once again the result is excellent and the disc was burned at higher than its rated speed.

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	8m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.65
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is excellent.

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:	7.84
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The result is very good and the media was written at faster than its rated speed.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MKM01RW6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	9m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.04
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is excellent.

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK W06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x (CLV)
Write Time:	9m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.92
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

Once again the result is excellent.

Summary:

The Pioneer DVR-112 has written our DVD-R media with excellent/very good quality and wrote selected media at faster than its rated speed. Again just like DVD+R media, it wrote some media at lower than its rated speed. DVD-RW writing quality and performance was excellent.

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

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing performance and quality:

The Pioneer DVR-112 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 10x.

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-20A1P 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.

DVD+R DL:

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	10x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	15m:57s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.73
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02
BookType	DVD-ROM

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned our 8x rated Verbatim media in 15 minutes and 57 seconds. Writing quality is excellent and the media was burned faster than its rated speed.

Brand:	Infiniti – Thanks to Medea International (UK) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAG D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x (CLV)
Write Time:	45m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.19
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec :	0.06
BookType	DVD-ROM

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned our 2.4x rated Infiniti media in 45 minutes and 19 seconds. Writing quality is very good.

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	17m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.35
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.15
BookType	DVD-ROM

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned our 2.4x rated Verbatim media in 17 minutes and 36 seconds. The result is good and the media was burned much faster than its rated speed.

DVD-R DL:

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 03RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	10x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	15m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.84
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02
BookType	DVD-R

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned our Verbatim 8x media in 15 minutes and 38 seconds, with very good writing quality. The media was also burned faster than its rated speed.

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	8x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	16m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.11
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04
BookType	DVD-R

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned our Verbatim 4x rated test media in 16 minutes and 59 seconds, the writing quality is very good considering the media was written at twice its rated speed.

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-112 without any problems.

Only one DVD Standalone device would play the Pioneer DVR-112 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-112 or media format used.

Summary:

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned our test DVD DL media with excellent/very good quality and most media was burned at faster than its rated speed.

Let’s head onto the next page where we will take a look at DVD-RAM performance….

DVD-RAM writing performance:

The Pioneer DVR-112 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. Let’s try to read back the 2 discs that we wrote:

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

Maxell 12x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the Pioneer DVR-112 wrote our 12x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 12x in 5 minutes and 33 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Pioneer DVR-112 can read our test disc.

The Pioneer DVR-112 had no problems in reading our test disc at 12x.

Maxell 5x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the Pioneer DVR-112 wrote our 5x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 5x in 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Pioneer DVR-112 can read our test disc.

The Pioneer DVR-112 had no problems in reading our test disc at 5x.

Summary:

The Pioneer DVR-112 proved reliable at both reading and writing our test DVD-RAM media. When using 12x media the drive completed a full disc in 5 minutes and 41 seconds, which should be fast enough for every day backups.

To round of this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Pioneer DVR-112 on the next page….

To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Pioneer DVR-112. These tests are: “Sheep Test”, and some special disc 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 and be found here.

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Pioneer DVR-112 supports everything.

The Pioneer DVR-112 supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

As we can see from the table and screenshots, the Pioneer DVR-112 is a “Two Sheep Burner”.

Overburning:

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).

WE attempted to burn a test disc of 97 minutes, the disc failed at 80 minutes. WE tried again with another disc and same applied. The burn failed at 80 minutes.

700MB (80 minute) over-burn test:

From the screenshot above, the Pioneer DVR-112 reported a maximum overburn capacity of 82:22.74. We attempted to burn a disc slightly less than the reported maximum capacity. To be exact we setup a test burn of 82 minutes and 10 seconds. The burn once again failed at 80 minutes.

DVD+R over-burn test:

We first tried to burn a DVD+R media.

As we can see from the above screenshot, the Pioneer DVR-112 does not support overburning on this media type.

DVD-R over-burn test:

We will now try a DVD-R media.

Again the Pioneer DVR-112 did not support overburning to the media type.

MINI DVD discs:

In this section we are going to test if the Pioneer DVR-112 is capable of writing and reading mini DVD-RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

The Memorex media is made by CMC Magnetics. Thanks to Memorex Europe for sending us this media.

The Pioneer DVR-112 had no problems in writing our test MINI DVD-RW disc. Now let’s find out if the drive can read the disc.

The Pioneer DVR-112 read our test MINI DVD-RW media without any problems.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the Pioneer DVR-112 would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 7, and used NERO CD-DVD Speed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The Pioneer DVR-112 had no problems in reading our Video-CD disc at 40x read speed.

This concludes our Pioneer DVR-112 review. To read the conclusion, click on the link below.

Positive:

Excellent/very good CD-R/RW writing quality and compatibility.
Excellent/very good DVD±R/RW writing quality.
Excellent/Very good DVD±R DL writing quality and media compatibility.
Can burn selected DVD±R/DL media faster than its rated speed.
Reads pressed DVD Video SL/DL at 16x/12x
Supports DVD-RAM read/write at 12x speed.
Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R DL.
Supports Disc Quality Scanning with CD-Speed.
Can read/write MINI DVD

Negative:

Can only read DVD±R/RW media at 12x/8x.
Doesn’t support BitSetting for DVD+R/RW
Single coloured LED for read/write.
Some DVD±R media was written slower than its rated speed.
Cannot over-burn CD-R media or read/write 100 minute CD-R media.

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points:

The Pioneer DVR-112 is one of the fastest drive’s we have tested here on CD Freaks as far as writing DVD media is concerned. Being a so called multi-drive, the Pioneer DVR-112 supports all of the currently popular CD/DVD formats including DVD-RAM.

The Pioneer DVR-112 was able to burn all our tested CD-R/RW media with excellent/very good quality and media compatibility was also very good.

DVD±R/RW writing quality was also of a very high standard and on most media excellent, the Pioneer DVR-112 coping with some difficult to handle media extremely well. The Pioneer DVR-112 was also able to burn selected DVD±R media at faster than its rated speed, and overall burning performance with DVD±R media was very good indeed. Recording some of the fastest write times we have seen.

The Pioneer DVR-112 also proved to be a good performer with DVD-RAM media, again recording some very fast write times with our tested 12x DVD-RAM media.

The Pioneer DVR-112 was very impressive when writing to DVD DL media. Not only was the performance excellent, recording some of the fastest burn times we have seen, but also the writing quality on our tested media was very impressive.

The main negative points:

There are not many negative things to say about the Pioneer DVR-112. The drive is not the fastest reader in the world for recordable media, but during our reading tests it did prove reliable.

The Pioneer DVR-112 did not perform well in our audio extraction test, the drive proving to slow for copy on the fly. However, extraction quality was excellent.

The Pioneer DVR-112 also had some problems with over-burning and reading 100 minute CD-R. This is an area which could be improved.

The Pioneer DVR-112 burned some DVD±R media at lower than its rated speed. I am however hesitant to call this a negative point. The media burned at lower than its rated speed has proven to be troublesome when burned on other DVD Writers. So hats off to Pioneer for being brave enough to put writing quality before outright burning speed.

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 DVR-112 is fast, has a good feature set and burns media with excellent/very good quality. An excellent effort from Pioneer”

We were so impressed by the Pioneer DVR-112 burning quality; we decided to award the drive our CD Freaks “Editor’s Choice Award”.

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we were unable to find a price listing for the drive.

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

Thanks to:

	Plextor SA/NV (B) for providing the Plextor media used in this review.
	Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe – The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.
	Daxon Technology Inc – Taiwan for providing the BenQ media used in this article.
	Medea International – 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.
	Ricoh Europe – For providing the media used in this review.
	SVP Communication – The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
	Verbatim - United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.
	Pleomax for providing the media used in this review.

Company Information

Drive Specifications

What’s inside the box

Test machine

Hardware:

System setup:

Installed software:

Features and techniques

Disc Quality Scanning:

BookType (Bitsetting):

Writing technique

CD Recordable:

CD Re-writable:

18x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

10x DVD+R DL writing speed:

10x DVD-R DL writing speed:

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

Reading performance

Pressed discs:

CD Recordable discs:

CD Re-writable discs:

100 minute CD-R:

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

Audio Extraction:

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

DVD reading performance:

Pressed DVD Video:

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

DVD-R DL:

DVD-RAM:

Summary:

Writing Data CD-R discs:

Write quality:

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Summary:

DVD-Writing performance:

Write quality:

Random errors:

Easier explanation on how to read the test results.

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

Summary:

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

Summary:

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing performance and quality:

DVD+R DL:

DVD-R DL:

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

Compatibility results:

Summary:

DVD-RAM writing performance:

Summary:

Overburning:

900MB (99 minute) over-burn test:

700MB (80 minute) over-burn test:

DVD+R over-burn test:

DVD-R over-burn test:

MINI DVD discs:

Video-CD disc:

Positive:

Negative:

Conclusion:

The main positive points:

The main negative points:

Thanks to:

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