Pioneer DVR-A08XLA DVD Burner

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PioneerEurope was kind enough to send us their latest DVD-Writer;
The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA. This writer is a much anticipated drive and our
expectations are very high. In this review we will run the drive through several
advanced tests, and try to test as many aspects as possible.

Some short Pioneer information:

Pioneer is a large and well-known company over the whole
world and has since the 1930s been providing quality products, so let us take a
look at their product history:

As we can see they have been providing high tech, quality
products for a long time. Pioneer, as we know them now, has the following
vision:

sound.vision.soul

Pioneer group's sense of purpose

Everyone's got soul. The never-ending challenge is to find
better ways to feel it deeper down inside. At Pioneer, 'Move the Heart and Touch the Soul" means more than
words can express. It's our mission to stir as many senses and sensibilities as
we can through the wonders of everlasting sound and vision.

Since we are pretty sure that almost everyone knows
Pioneer, we do not think a longer company presentation is needed and go directly
to drive specifications.

Drive specifications:

These are the specifications of this drive, found at the
Pioneer webpage:

High Speed DVD-R/RW CD-R/RW Writer
The DVR-A08XLA is the industry's first DVD writer to support 16x write speeds on both DVD-R/+R along with the option to write at 4x speed on Double Layer media. This extends Pioneer's track record of establishing key performance benchmarks when introducing new DVD writers.   Press Release: DVR-A08XL: First Multiple Format 16x DVD Writer with 4x +R double layer recording capability
Key features	DVR-A08XLA
	Writes and reads DVD-R/RW, +R/RW and CD R/RW formats
	DVD/CD buffer under-run protection
	Max. 16x writing speed for DVD-R/ +R Max. 4x writing speed for +R Double Layer Discs Max. 4x writing speed for DVD-RW/ +RW
	DVD data capacity of 4.7 GB per single-sided disc and 8.4 GB Double layer discs
	Bundled Software: 'Sonic Digital Media Suite' includes... - MyDVD Deluxe - DLA - RecordNow! - SimpleBackup - CinePlayer
Specifications	DVR-A08XLA
Write Support	DVD-R (4.7 GB for General disc only), DVD-RW , +R, +RW  CD-R, CD-RW
Read Support	DVD-ROM (Single layer & Dual layers)  DVD-RAM (Version 2 - 2.1 only)  DVD-R (all types), DVD-RW, +R, +R DL, +RW  CD-ROM Mode 1, CD-ROM XA Mode 2 (Form 1, Form 2)  CD-Text, Photo-CD (Single or Multiple session),CD-DA, CD-Extra  CD-R, CD-RW (Supports AM2)
Write Speed DVD-R	16x Zone CLV (22.16 MB/sec)  8x Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec)  4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)  2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)  1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)
Write Speed DVD-RW	4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)  2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)  1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)
Write Speed +R	16x Zone CLV (22.16 MB/sec)  8x Zone CLV (11.08 MB/sec)  4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)  2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)  1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)
Write Speed +R Double Layer	4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)  2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)  1x CLV (1.385 MB/sec)
Write Speed +RW	4x CLV (5.54 MB/sec)  2.4x CLV (3.240 MB/sec)
Write Speed CD-R	32x Zone CLV (4.8 MB/sec)  24x Zone CLV (3.6 MB/sec)  16x CLV (2.46 MB/sec)  12x CLV (1.845 MB/sec)  8x CLV (1.23 MB/sec)  4x CLV (0.615 MB/sec)
Write Speed CD-RW	24x Zone CLV (3.6 MB/sec)  16x CLV (2.46 MB/sec)  10x CLV (1.5 MB/sec)  4x CLV (0.615 MB/sec)
Read Speed DVD-ROM (Single)	Max. 16x CAV (22.16 MB/sec)
Read Speed DVD-ROM (Dual)	Max. 12x CAV (16.62 MB/sec)
Read Speed DVD-RAM	Max. 2x CLV (2.77 MB/sec)
Read Speed DVD-R, DVD-RW	Max. 12x CAV (16.62 MB/sec), Max. 8x CAV (11.08 MB/sec)
Read Speed +R,+RW	Max. 12x CAV (16.62 MB/sec), Max. 8x CAV (11.08 MB/sec)
Read Speed CD-ROM	Max. 40x CAV (6 MB/sec)
Read Speed CD-R,CD-RW	Max. 40x CAV (6 MB/sec), Max 32x CAV (4.92 MB/sec)
Read Speed CD-Audio	Max. 40x
Read Speed Video-CD	9.3x CLV (1.395 MB/sec)
Access Time DVD	140 msec (Random Average)
Access Time CD (Random Average)	130 msec
Interface	ATAPI (ATA/ATAPI-5 & MCC3, SFFCINF 8090 Ver.5.11)
Data Buffer	2 MB
Mounting Orientation	Horizontal and Vertical
Power Requirement	+5 V 1.4A Max. +12 V 1.4A Max
Power Consumption	22.60 Watt Max.
Regulatory Approval	UL, CSA, TéœV, CB Report, FIMKO, FCC Class B, FDA, CE Marking, C-Tick, CISPR-22B, Korean EMC, Taiwan EMC
Dimensions (W x H x D)	148 x 42.3 x 198 mm
Net Weight	1.1 kg

The specifications are pretty good, but 32x CD-Writing is a
bit low compared to other new drives. The specifications do also state that it
uses Z-CLV/CLV writing strategy, many new writers use CAV/P-CAV which is a
faster (but maybe harder to implement) strategy. We will later on see how this
affects the performance of the drive.

What's inside the
box?

Let us start out pretty easy with taking a look at what we
got and what the box contained.

 

The drive we received was a retail drive that came in a
nice looking box, but a nice box is not worth much '“ so let us look at the
content.

 

Looks like a very small bundle but to make sure that we do
not miss anything we list what we got below:

This is what the Retail bundle consists of:

⋅
The drive itself
⋅
Sonic software CD
⋅
Manual
⋅
Screws

Far from the best bundle we have seen, we are missing
IDE-Cable, Audio cable as well as empty media.

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

 

It does at least have a very special looking front, very
stylish. But it is very stripped for features, there is just a small one
coloured led, we prefer a different led colour when writing compared to when
reading, and there is no head phone connector and volume knob either.

 

Our sample was produced in China and has a production date of
July 2004.

 

On the back of the drive there are from the left: one
undocumented connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the
drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector, power connector. The
digital audio connector is missing.

Now, let us install the drive and check out the features
and program bundle of this drive on the next page…

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Test machine:

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

Hardware:

⋅         Motherboard:Gigabyte GA-8KNXP version 2.1 Limited Edition i875P
⋅         Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2,8GHz 800MHz FSB with Hyper Threading support.
⋅         RAM: 1Gb PC3500 DDR
⋅         GFX: ATI Radeon 9800 pro
⋅         Sound: SB Audigy 2
⋅         Hard disks: 2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7k250 160Gb S-ATA in RAID 0 on the i875P S-ATA RAID controller.

System set-up:

 

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-108. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

Software:

Windows XP professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

⋅         Ahead Nero Burning ROM version 6.3.1.25
⋅         Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed v3.42
⋅         Ahead Nero InfoTool v2.27
⋅         DVD-Identifier 3.4
⋅         K-Probe v2.4.2

Installation and supported features:

We quickly installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info tool:

 

Our drive came shipped with firmware 1.10, we updated the firmware version 1.14 for this review. The only drawbacks we could see are the inability to read CD+G discs as well as missing Mt Rainier support along with a bit small buffer. A larger buffer would at least smoothen up the data transfer to the drive a bit on stressed systems.

Quiet read tool:

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA features the so called ' Quiet Drive " technology. Basically it means that it will read DVD-Video and audio discs at reduced speed to avoid noise.

 

For this review we are using the Performance mode to make sure that we get as good performance as possible.

Included software:

Now it's time to look at the included software, and comment it if needed. Notice that we may not use the included software in our performance testing part of the review.

Sonic CinePlayer 2:

The drive includes Sonic CinePlayer 2 to play DVD and VCD movies. Does the job but our favourites are WinDVD or PowerDVD.

Sonic MyDVD 2:

Pioneer has included Sonic MyDVD 2, a very easy to use program to make your own home DVD-Movies.

Sonic RecordNow 7.2:

 

Sorry for the Norwegian text on that image, but it was installed in Norwegian as default. Sonic Record Now is a very easy to use program that most will find good enough for their needs. We do still prefer Nero Burning ROM 6 over it though.

Sonic DLA 4.90:

Sonic DLA (Drive Letter Access) installs, but is invisible until you right click on your writer, now you are able to see the format option.

Here you may select to do a full format or quick format as well as giving the disc a Volume label. Notice that Sonic DLA will not install if you have EasyCDCreator, DirectCD, Nero, InCD or some other similar programs installed. You have to uninstall all those programs (Which is very annoying for users using multiple writing programs) for Sonic DLA to install, this is due to the fact that Sonic DLA conflicts with all those programs! Beside this it's a good packet writing program as far as we could say.

Now that we have finished examining the drive and bundled programs '“ let us head on to the next page, which is reading performance test…

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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 sports a specified read speed of 16X for DVD's and 40X for CD's.

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing PlexTools v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

 

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA reached 41x at the end, to see how this compares to other drives, look below:

The speed is very good compared to the other drives, but it takes the last place for seek times, which is a bit disappointing.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original PlexTools v1.08 CD. The disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

 

Again a good result, look below for a comparison table.

Same here as well, good speed but poor seek times.

CD-ReWritable
discs:

Again we made a copy of the original PlexTools v1.08 disc, this time we used a Verbatim
High Speed (10X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

 

The drive reads CD-RW discs at approximately 32x. Let us
compare it to other drives below.

Lags behind the best drives due to a reading speed of only
32x, and the seek times are still a lot higher than for the other drives.

Audio '“ Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the
Pioneer DVR-A08XLA, we again 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 about 78 minutes long (77:56:57).

 

The drive had no problems with reading the audio disc at
full speed and everything seems good, so let us compare the result with other
drives:

The reading curve seems very uneven, but that seems to be
normal for Pioneer drives as the DVR-107D had the same behaviour. It's ok speed
wise but the seek times are again in the high end.

Advanced audio '“ DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds we will take a
last audio test, this time we used the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed.

 

The Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA did very well and came out with perfect scores, but it does
not support reading data from the lead in/out. We will see later in this review
if this affects the reading of copy protected audio discs.

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 single and dual 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.

 

 

As we can see, this drive reads single layer DVD-Video
discs at almost 16x speed and double layer DVD-Video discs at 12x speed, but it
seems to be picky about the discs as it slowed down on our usual test disc. We
tried another disc that is slightly smaller and it did not have any problems
with this disc:

How this compares to other drives may be seen in the table
below.

The drive read very well and is actually the fastest reader
for double layer discs we have had. But there may be potential reading problems
since the drive slowed down on our test disc.

 DVD+R(W):

For this test we used a Taiyo
Yuden 4X DVD+R
and a Ricoh 4X DVD+RW with about
4,4Gb of data. Below are the results:

 

 

The reading speed was locked to 12x for DVD+R and 8x for DVD+RW.

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA reads DVD+R media at 12x speed and
DVD+RW media at 8x speed. Nice to see that the manufacturers are finally
increasing the reading speed for DVDR media as well.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Taiyo
Yuden 4X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 2X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4,4Gb of data. Our test
results are found below:

 

 

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

The speed is the same as for reading the DVD+R/RW
discs.

Overall thoughts:

The drive is an ok reader, no doubts about that, but the
seek times are very high and there may be potential problems reading some
discs at full speed as it slowed down on one of our test discs.

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-A08XLA state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

Let us first take a look at the CD-R write technology used by the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA:

 

As we could see the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA uses Zone-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write at its rated speed of 32x, this gives an average speed of 24.94x. This of
course makes it a lot slower than many other new drives, let's compare it with
two of the fastest writers below.

As we could see the Plextor PX-708A uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) writing strategy to reach it rated speed of
40X. This gives an average speed of 33.38x.

 

As we could see the Plextor PX-712A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) writing
strategy to reach it rated speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 36.43x.

And as a last test we wrote a disc containing 700Mb 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 Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA used 4 minutes and 15 second to write the disc at 32x. Let us see how this compares to other
drives;

As we could see it's over a minute slower than the fastest
drives due to the low writing speed of only 32x Z-CLV. But the writing quality
may make up for the lack of speed, head on and find out.

Write
Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 7 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
LTR-52246S drive with firmware 6S0F 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
average for good quality discs.
After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc
unusable.

Why wait any longer? Below are the obtained results:

 

Brand:	Memorex, thanks to Memorex for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	11.92
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

CMC Magnetics
is not known for making the best CD-R discs and as we could see the error level
is a bit high, especially the area written at 32x.

 

Brand:	MMORE
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.27
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The best results we got, ironically enough it's still worse
than the worst result we got with the BenQ DW1620A…

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	MitsubishiChina
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:01s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.57
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Acceptable, but not perfect.

 

Brand:	That's Write - Thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek (JS Dye)
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	6.83
C2 Average/Sec:	0.95

Not good, the disc has a lot of C2 errors near the end, the
LTR-52246S slowed down the reading speed near the end as we could see on the
result.

 

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ Thanks to Miflop for providing it
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.66
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Acceptable, but still far from the best we have seen with
TY.

 

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Prodisc China
Code:	97m32s19f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	10x
Write Time:	9m:12s
C1 Average/Sec:	6.97
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

For a reason or another it would only write these prodisc
CD-R's at 10x, and the quality is nothing to shout hurray for either.

 

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Systems, Ltd.
Code:	97m27s18f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	14.50
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

We have found these Samsung CD-R discs, manufactured by
Plasmon, to be of very low
quality. And as we could see the C1 error count is pretty high on
these.

Brand:	BenQ, thanks to Daxon for providing it
Manufacturer:	Daxon (but with Hitachi Maxell ATIP)
Code:	97m25s29f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	54.04
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The drive has clear problems with the 32x writing speed on
these discs as the C1 error count is sky high.

CD-ReWritable:

The Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA supports a CD ReWriting speed of 24x, let us see how this compares to other writers.
Let us start with taking a look at the writing strategy it uses;

 

The Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of
22.47x. This again seems a bit slower compared to other drives, below are
some other drives for comparison.

 

The Pioneer
DVR-107D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of
22.47x.

 

The Plextor
PX-712A, with its P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) write speed
of 24X for Ultra Speed CD-RW discs is among the faster writers due to its high
starting speed of 21.12x.

And we did also write a disc in Nero Burning ROM, the
compilation we made was 650Mb large and we wrote the disc with the Disc At Once
write method.

 

The Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA used 4 minutes for writing the disc at 24x, let us compare this to some other writers;

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA lags behind the other drives due to a
bit slower writing strategy and higher time consumption for writing lead-in/out.
But let us look at the CD-RW writing quality:

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics, but with Mitsubishi dye and ATIP
Code:	97m34s24f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 4: Long Strategy (Phase Change)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	4m:04s
C1 Average/Sec:	131.70
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

There are at least no C2 errors, but it's far from the best
result we have seen with these discs.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Plasmon data systems
Code:	97m27s12f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 2: Long Strategy (Phase Change)
Capacity:	74:41.00 (656MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	4m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	697.80
C2 Average/Sec:	0.02

Low quality discs, and as we could see the result is not
good. When trying to read it back we found it to be completely
unreadable.

Summary:
Far from the best CD-Writer we have
seen as it's quite slow and the writing quality is far from as good as with many
other drives we have tested.

But after all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page
and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media
compatibility…

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The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD-R discs at 16X speed. In this part we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+/-R(W) discs. We do also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

We will start with taking a look at the writing strategy used and compare it to other drives;

 

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity). The first zone from 0-0,4Gb is done at 6x speed; the next zone from 0,4Gb to 1,9Gb is done at 8x speed, next zone from 1,9Gb to 4,0Gb at 12x and the last zone from 4,0Gb to 4,4Gb at 16x. This gives an average speed of 10.33x and a total writing time of 6m:42s. Notice that this is the only disc we were able to write at 16x. All other discs was 12x max '“ even if they should be supported at 16x.

 

The above image shows an 16x DVD+R disc written at 16x.

The BenQ DW1620 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.51x and the lowest time we have obtained are 5 minutes and 47 seconds. The drive uses a bit longer time than ideal since it uses OPC technology when writing (shown as small dips in the transfer curve above).

 

The NEC ND-3500AG uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. The average speed for the NEC ND-3500AG is 11.70x and total writing time is 6 minutes and 4 seconds.

Let us see how long time it needs to create a disc with Nero. We used Nero burning Rom to set up a new UDF/ISO compilation containing 4483Mb of data, and started the write process. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

The DVD+R disc was finished in 7 minutes and 3 seconds, while the DVD-R disc was finished in 6 minutes and 50 seconds. This looks higher than expected, one reason is that the drive uses Z-CLV writing technology the other reason is that our test sample would never upshift to 16x (except for one case which is shown above when showing the writing strategy).

*Actual writing speed is 12x.

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA ends up slower than all the other drives, including the 12x DVD-Writer Plextor PX-712A. Disappointing, but let's see if the writing quality makes up for it.

Write quality:

You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers. So we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On, in this test we use a Lite-On SOHW-832S 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 Failueres) 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-ROM disc (Baldurs Gate DVD-ROM).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (Indiana Jones and the last crusade). 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 what 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 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 thePO (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 are what 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.

And 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 to 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-3500AG DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed 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 DVDR 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; does it look clean with no dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R03 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:39s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Give us a break! This media has been available for about a year and is still not supported at 8x? Very disappointing! The writing quality is ok though with only a slight reading problem near the end.

 

Brand:	Verbatim DataLifePlus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Real Mitsubishi disc from Singapore )
Code:	MCC 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.97
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

A very good result, no problems here!

 

Brand:	eProformance
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The drive performed very well with the prodisc media and we have no problems recommending
this media.

Brand:	Platinum
Manufacturer:	Ricoh by Ritek
Code:	RICOHJPNR02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x (but slowed down to 8x after a short while)
Write Time:	7m:32s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.66
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.17

Although the average PIF error level is a bit higher than
usual it's not worryingly high.

 

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.E01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.46
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

This media should work at 16x according to Pioneer, we tried
two discs and they both wrote at 12x only. And as we could see the disc is not
perfect near the end either.

Brand:	Philips
Manufacturer:	Philips by CMC Magnetics
Code:	PHILIPS.C08
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.88
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.10

No problems here.

Brand:	That's
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.62
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.18

Another disc type that should work at 16x according to
pioneer, we tried 4 different types (Verbatim pastell, That's, Plextor and
generic unbranded) of Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R and none worked at
more than 12x. The quality is still good though.

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON.AZ2
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.27
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Another highly recommended disc type.

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	OPTODISC.OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:1s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.72
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

We had some problem writing this media, the first two discs
we tried failed with a write error. But the third came out very
fine.

 

Brand:	Prodye Video
Manufacturer:	Plasmon
Code:	Plasmon1C01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:42s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.05
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.57

Unfortunately this media works at 4x only and we do not like
that error spike on the disc. But the reading curve shows no problems at
least.

Brand:	Fortis
Manufacturer:	Daxon with Sony tech.
Code:	SONY.D11
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.29
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

A slight increase in the error level near the end as well as
a minor slowdown in the reading speed, but not enough to cause any real
trouble.

To see if other 8x and better media types works at maximum
speed we have included the following table:

Now give us a break again! Philips.C16 16x DVD+R media has
been available since
late May and is still not supported? This media should have been supported
already with the very first firmware version as it had already been available
for quite some time then. And RITEK.R04 16x DVD+R has been available for some
time too! Unfortunately the other two media types are only supported at 4x as
well.

Head on to next page and read about DVD-R compatibility and
write quality as well as DVD+/-RW
writing quality and speed...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi ChemicalsSingapore
Code:	MCC02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	114.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	4.17

Oopsie, this was not so good. We tried two discs from different packs and got the same result with both. Discs from the same packs works fine in other drives we have tested.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.33
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Very good, excellent result '“ even at 12x J

Brand:	MiFlop Extreme '“ thanks to MiFlop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x '“ but slowed down to 8x near the end.
Write Time:	7m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.23
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Pretty good, but there is a slight slowdown near the end which is unusual for TY.

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Daxon '“ but with Sony ADIP.
Code:	SONY08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.25
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.11

According to Pioneer this media should work at 16x, and we
actually got one disc to work at 16x (the one shown under writing strategy
earlier in this review) but the 8 other discs we have wrote of this type has
been 12x max.

Brand:	Datawrite
Manufacturer:	Prodisc '“ but with Fujifilm technology and ADIP.
Code:	FUJIFILM03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8X
Write Speed:	8X
Write Time:	7m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.43
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Simply excellent.

Brand:	eProformance
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscS04
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.07
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Disappointing to see that media from a well known
manufacturer like prodisc do not even work at certified speed. But else the
result is excellent.

Brand:	Mirror '“ thanks to Miflop for providing it
Manufacturer:	Anwell Precision technology
Code:	AN31
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.92
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.22

Pretty good considering the low quality of this media.

Brand:	That's Write '“ Thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Lead Data.
Code:	LEADDATA01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	124.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.16

Again pretty good considering the low quality of this
media.

Overall thoughts: Let's start with the good thing: The writing quality is
excellent on almost every disc we threw in it. Impressive!! But to be honest we
are very
disappointed by the media compatibility of this drive. 8x media that has been on
the market for about a year is still not supported at certified speed and 16x
media that has been available for a long time before the drive was
released still do not work at 16x. And what is the point in selling a drive as
16x when it will not write at 16x to media that pioneer claims should work at
16x? And last '“ it uses Z-CLV writing strategy that makes it slower at 16x than
all other drives, even 12x speed with other drives is faster than this drive at
16x...

Re-Writing
data:

The Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA supports rewriting DVD-RW and DVD+RW at 4x
speed, let us write two discs in Nero and see how fast it is.

Here is the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a 4X Verbatim DVD-RW disc:

 

The drive used 14 minutes and 59 second to write the disc
at 4x speed.

And here is the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a Ricoh 4X DVD+RW disc:

 

The Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA used 14 minutes and 28 seconds to write the disc.

 Writing Quality with DVD
Re-Writable discs:

Due to request from our readers we will add a few write
quality tests with Re-Writable media. Settings and testing procedures is the
same as used earlier in this review so you may want to go back and read them if
unsure. All discs used for these tests have been written to before, but none
have been written to more than 25 times.

DVD+ReWritable media:

Brand:	That's Write - Thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh (by Ritek)
Code:	RICOHJPNW11
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:28s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.08
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

No problems with this media. Low error amount and no reading problems.

Brand:	Verbatim DataLifePlus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM A02
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	12.15
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	2.77

Not perfect, but there are no reading problems.

Brand:	Daxon '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	Daxon.D42
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:31s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	376.00
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	48.00

This media did not work well with this drive; maybe it is a
media issue as we had similar problems when reviewing the BenQ DW1620A. We will
take that up with daxon and hear what they have to say.

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW04
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.57
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.06

No problems with this media, highly recommended.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Real '“ Made in Singapore)
Code:	MCC01RW4X
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.30
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.65

No problems here.

To sum it up: The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA is a pretty good writer when it
comes to writing DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. No noticeable problems found.

But let us now look at the most interesting aspect of this
drive; Double Layer DVD+R
writing…

---

DVD+R
Dual Layer writing speed and compatibility:

The
Pioneer DVR-A08XLA supports the DVD+R9 DL standard for writing Dual Layer discs with a size
of 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 4x.

Testing
procedure: We
created a new compilation using Nero 6 and wrote it using the Disc-at-once
writing method: 

Verbatim DVD+R9 Double layer 2.4x written at 4x. Total writing time is 27 minutes and 2
seconds. 

Test
results:

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Taiwan)
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.42
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.11

There
were no noticeable reading problems, but we dislike that error spike around the
layer change.

Brand:	Traxdata
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	44m:48s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	81.41
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.56

Again we
could see that the ritek double layer media fails, we tried two discs as the
first one was not even detected by any drives. Looks like Ritek has some quality
improving to do or that the drive manufacturers have some firmware optimizing to
do.

Here are
some comparison results against other drives:

*Verbatim DVD+R9 DL
** Philips DVD+R9
DL

The
Verbatim DVD+R9 DL discs written by the Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA works fine in our Denver 1880 DivX
DVD-Player, thanks to the DVD-ROM bitsetting of
course.

Summary:
As long
as you use Verbatim double layer media there should be no problems and the drive
automatically bitsets the discs to
DVD-ROM.

Before
we round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at
next page…

---

To round
off this review we will run some advanced tests on the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA.

The 'Sheep test":

For this
test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander
Noé. Why is
it called sheep test? That is since the symbol of the first 1 to 1 copy program
called CloneCD is a sheep. And 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 could be found here.

In the
screenshot below taken from CloneCD v5, we could see
that the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA supports every feature in
CloneCD:

Pioneer
DVR-A08XLA
supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write
uncorrected data and subchannel data.

Drive
used to verify that the tests works is Lite-On
SOHD-167T. Below are our results from the 'Sheep Tests":

 

We were
quite surprised to find the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA to qualify as a two sheep
writer.

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:

 

Westlife: World
of our own is protected with Cactus data shield 100.

 

Natalie
Imbruglias
White lilies Island. This
disc is protected with Cactus Datashield
200

 

Shakira:
Laundry service, which is protected with Key2Audio version
2.

 

And
finally Celine Dion: A new
day has come, that is protected with key2audio version 3

Results:

Unfortunately
the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA was unable to read two of our
testdiscs.

Overburning:

To test
the overburning capabilities of the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA
we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.
According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn
to 90 minutes:

 

Then we
tried to write a 90 minute disc in Nero:

 

Unfortunately
it failed and after some testing we found the maximum possible overburn to be
just under 89 minutes. Let's try to read a 99 minutes
disc:

 

Unfortunately
it failed when trying to do the seek time tests.

Now,
that concludes our Pioneer DVR-A08XLA review, head on
to the last page to read our conclusion…

Positive:

• Supports 4x DVD+R9 Double Layer writing
• Supports 16x DVD+/-R speed (at least on the paper…)
• Supports 4x DVD+/-RW speed.
• Good writing quality with most DVDR/RW discs
• Supports DAO-RAW writing.
• Supports reading and writing of full SubChannel Data.
• Good reading speed with most types of media, including DVD-Video discs.
• Fast and perfect audio extraction.
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R9 DL media.
• Nice design
• Relatively quiet operation
• Tool for adjusting performance/Noise ratio.
• 'Two sheep" writer '“ positive when backing up copy protected games.

Negative:

• Poor bundle (missing cables and empty discs).
• Would not write at 16x to DVD media that according to pioneer should work at 16x.
• VERY poor media compatibility!
• Less than perfect CD-Writing quality
• Questionable CD-RW writing quality.
• Z-CLV writing speed makes it slower than other drives (Example: Drive is slower at 16x DVD-writing than most other drives is at 12x DVD-Writing!)
• High seek times
• Does notsupport Mt. Rainier.
• Read CD-RW discs at 32x only.
• Problems reading/writing 99minutes CD-R discs
• Problems reading certain copy protected audio discs.
• Does not support bitsetting for DVD+R/RW media.
• No digital audio connector

Conclusion:

Well, this drive does have some good points '“ but we are not quite satisfied with it so read on to find out why.

 The main positive points: The most positive things with this drive is for sure the good writing quality with most DVD+R and DVD-R media types. 4x DVD+R9 DL writing speed is a welcomed improvement too. Beside this it's a quiet and nice looking drive. It's quite good as a reader too, including with Audio discs.

The main negative points: The main negative point in our opinion is the media compatibility, give us a break Pioneer! Some well known 8x media types that have been available for about a year still only works at 4x, and 16x media that has been available since long time before this drive became available is still not supported at 16x? Very disappointing! Beside this we were unable to write at 16x with the '16x qualified" media we tried. 16x? Yeah '“ but only on the paper. And the drive is slow at 16x due to the Z-CLV writing technology, most other drives are faster than the Pioneer DVR-A08XLA when writing at 12x! And it's far from the best CD-Writer we have had, there are some other negative points too as you may see above but these are not as important as these we have mentioned here.

To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: 'Excellent DVD-Writing quality, but poor media compatibility, low writing speed as well as many other small drawbacks puts this drive behind several other drives.". If Pioneer had fixed the media
compatibility issues as well as some other writing issues (writing speed and
CD-R writing quality) we would have brought out an award for it '“ but nope no
award for you this time either Pioneer.

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this
forum thread. This forum thread may also be used to ask questions around this drive or request additional tests.

Thanks to:

Conrexx for providing the  media used in this review. Conrexx technology is the supplier of Traxdata media as well as other Ritek media brands for whole Europe.

 For providing the That's Write media used in this review. That's Write focus on providing quality media at reduced prices in Europe.

 For providing some of 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.

 For providing us with Mirror and Miflop Extreme media. Miflop media aims at providing both cheap (INFOSMART) and expensive (Taiyo Yuden) quality media.

 For providing the RiData media used in this review. RiData is a Ritek brand and thus you are sure to get Ritek manufactured discs when buying RiData media.

 For providing the Daxon and BenQ media used in this review. Daxon manufacture high quality media for many large OEM customers lke BenQ and Sony.

 For providing the Verbatim DVD+R9 Double Layer media used in this review. Verbatim provides high quality media almost over the whole world.

Looking for CD and DVD-Media in Norway? Visit www.norwaydisc.no the Norwegian specialist on CD and DVD Media!