Pioneer USA was kind enough to send us their new BDR-205BK Blu-ray
disc writer. This is an internal SATA drive capable of writing both Single and
Dual layer Blu-ray media at up to 12x, DVD media at 16x and CD-R writing at 40x
respectively.

In this review we will show the performance
of the Pioneer BDR-205BK by running the drive through many tests on a
considerable amount of various CD/DVD/BD media.

Corporate Information:

---

Pioneer was
founded in 1938 in Tokyo, Japan by Nozomu Matsumoto - a man with a passion for
music that he hoped to share with the world through high quality audio
speakers. That passion began with a small operation to repair and manufacture
speakers in Matsumoto's garage. It has since grown to international stature as
a manufacturer of audio and video products for use at home, in the car and in
business environments.

If you are interested in reading more about Pioneer USA,
please visit: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/

Drive Specifications:

---

Let us take a look at the detailed specifications of the Pioneer
BDR-205BK Blu-ray
disc writer:

What’s inside the box?

---

Let’s take a look at the Drive:

Pioneer USA has sent us the OEM Drive.

• The Pioneer BDR-205BK Blu-ray disc writer
• Quick Setup Guide and Limited Warranty booklet (not shown)

BD Advisor showing
Blu-Ray compatibility

BD Advisor showing
Advanced Playback

Now let’s take look at some screen shots of the drive
itself:                                                  

Front

Back

 
Top

Drive Sticker

On the top of the drive we found a sticker
that shows the drive was "Made in Japan" and has a production date of
September 2009.

Bottom

Drive Right

Drive Left

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features,
program bundle and writing technology on the next page…

Test machine

---

For this review we will be using two computers with the
following configuration:

Review PC #1:

·        
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EX58-UD5      

·        
Processor: Intel i7 920 @ 4.0GHz

·        
Memory: 3X2GB G-Skill DDR3

·        
Video: eVGA GTX 260

·        
Display: 24" Acer HDMI LCD

·        
Sound: Realtek ALC889A HDAudio (Onboard)

·        
Hard Disks: Seagate SATA II 320GB

·        
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 is
installed on this machine

Review PC #2:

·        
Motherboard: Asus P5K Deluxe WI-FI/AP

·        
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe @3.70 GHz

·        
Memory: 4x 2GB A-DATA PC2-6400 DDR2

·        
Video: ATI  2600HD Pro HDMI

·        
Display: Hanns·G HG-216DPO 21.6" 5ms Widescreen HDMI
LCD

·        
Sound: SoundMAX Digital HD Audio (Onboard)

·        
Hard Disks: 2x 320GB – 1x 750GB Seagate SATA-II

·        
Operating System: Windows Vista Ultimate x64 SP1 is
installed on this machine

Software:

We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero 9.0.9.4
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool 5.1.0.0
• Exact Audio Copy V0.95 beta 4

Installation and Supported Features:

---

The installation was flawless; we hooked the drive up using
a standard SATA cable and upon booting into Windows the drive was immediately
recognized.

Here is the Nero InfoTool output for the drive and its
supported features:

CD-DVD Speed reports the burst rate of 32 MB/s:

 

Disc Writing Technology:

---

Now let's take a closer look at the writing technology of
the Pioneer BDR-205BK:

CD-Recordable:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant
Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40x, this
gives an average speed of 30.91x.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our chart the Pioneer BDR-205BK is
average at writing our test CD-R media at 40X.

24x CD-Rewritable: 

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses Z-CAV 2-Zone (Zone-Constant
Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 24X,
this gives an average speed of 22.50X.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from the graph, our Pioneer BDR-205BK is one
of the fastest at CD-RW writing, with a time of 3m:42s.

16X DVD+R writing speed:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CAV, (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16X. This
gives an average write speed of 11.72X and a writing time of 5 minutes 59
seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from the graph, our Pioneer BDR-205BK does a
good job at DVD+R writing, with a time of 5m:59s.

16X DVD-R Writing speed:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CAV, (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-R at the maximum supported speed of 16X. This
gives an average write speed of 11.01X and a writing time of 5 minutes 46
seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from the graph, our Pioneer BDR-205BK posts
very fast 16x burn times.

8X DVD+RW writing speed: 

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant
Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8X. The average speed is 7.77X
and total writing time is 7:26 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As you can see from our graph the Pioneer BDR-205BK is very
fast at writing DVD+RW, with a time of 7m:26s.

6X DVD-RW writing speed: 

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CLV (Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6X. The average speed is 6.00X and total
writing time is 9:53 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As you can see from our graph the Pioneer BDR-205BK is at
the top with the rest of the competition writing DVD-RW, with a time of 9m:53s.

8X DVD+R DL writing speed:  

The Pioneer BDR-205BK supports 8x writing speed on DVD+R DL
media.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant
Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL media at 8X which gives an
average write speed of 7.49X and a total write time of 15 minutes and 26
seconds.

8X DVD-R DL writing speed:  

The Pioneer BDR-205 supports 8X writing speed on DVD-R DL
media.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-R DL media at 8X. The average speed is 7.08x and
the total writing time is 16 minutes and 28 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from our chart above the Pioneer BDR-205BK posts
very competitive times when we compare it at 8X writing on both DVD+DL
media.

DVD-RAM

The specifications for the Pioneer BDR-205BK state that the
drive is capable of writing DVD-RAM at 5X.  Let’s take a look at the write
strategy for this media.

5X DVD-RAM Writing

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CLV (Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at is maximum speed of 5X.  This gives an average
speed of 4.57X and a total writing time of 12 minutes and 20 seconds.

Below, we made a comparison table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK was about average when writing our
DVD-RAM media.

 

BD-R

The specifications for the Pioneer BDR-205BK state that the
drive is capable of writing BD-R at 12X.  Let’s take a look at the write
strategy for this media.

12X BD-R Writing

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity), to write at is maximum speed of 12X.  This gives an average
speed of 9.03X and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 57 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-205BK was by far the fastest drive when
writing BD-R media.

BD-RE

The specifications for the Pioneer BDR-205BK state that the
drive is capable of writing BD-RE at 2X.  Let’s take a look at the write
strategy for this media.

2X BD-RE Writing

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CLV (Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at is maximum speed of 2X.  This gives an average
speed of 1.99X and a total writing time of 45 minutes and 51 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-205BKdoes a good job when writing our BD-RE
media.

Book type (bitsetting):

The Pioneer BDR-205BK does not support bitsetting.

On the next page let’s take a look at the Reading Performance…

 

Reading performance:

---

We will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD
Discs; including audio discs and DVD-media.

Pressed discs:

For this test we used an original pressed CD-ROM disc
containing the World of Warcraft that is about 74 minutes in length.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
makes it to 39.43x

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from our chart the Pioneer BDR-205BK is a
fast drive reading pressed CD-ROM discs.

CD-Recordable Discs:  

For this test we used the same Pressed Data CD-R as above
and made a copy using Nero Express “Copy Entire CD”. The disc we used was a
Microboards Technology 48x CD-R disc manufactured by Taiyo Yuden burned at 40X.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
reached 31.07x when reading the copied Pressed Data disc

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK does a very good job when reading back
CD-Recordable discs.

CD-Rewritable discs: 

We made another Data CD with Nero Express “Copy Entire CD”, this
time we are using a Verbatim DataLifePlus Ultra Speed+ (32X) CD-RW disc. (Thanks
Verbatim USA for sending us
this media.)

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
read the CD-RW discs back at the top speed of 24.45x speed

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK did a average job reading our CD-Rewritable
disc. 

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction

---

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Pioneer
BDR-205BK we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is 79 minutes in length (79:47.10).

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
reached 41.90X when reading a full pressed audio disc

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK did very well when reading the
Audio-CD disc.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

---

For our next test we will use the “Advanced DAE Quality
Test” feature in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The CD-R media we are using a 52X Write
supported CD-R made by Taiyo Yuden. (Thanks to Rima.com
for sending us this media.)

The extracting
quality is excellent but the drive cannot read the lead-in or lead-out

DVD reading performance:

---

Again, we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the reading
performance, this time for various types of DVD discs.

DVD – DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start
with 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

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK performed extremely well compared with
the other drives reading DVD-Video Single Layer at 16x and DVD-Video Double Layer
at 12x.

DVD+R and DVD+RW:

For this next test we used a Verbatim 16x DVD+R and a Ritek
8X DVD+RW both with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Ritek USA and Verbatim USA for sending us this
media.) Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK posts very good speeds when reading
our test discs.  Reading DVD+R disc at 16X speed and the DVD+RW disc at over 12X
speed.

Now let’s see how it will perform
on DVD-R/RW discs.

DVD–R and DVD-RW:  

For this test we used a Verbatim 16x DVD-R and a Verbatim 6X
DVD-RW with 4.38GB of data. (Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this
media.) Below are the results:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK performs very well reading the DVD-R
disc at 16X speed and the DVD-RW disc at 12X speed.

DVD – DVD±R DL:  

For this test we used a Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL and a
Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL disc both filled with 7.96GB of data. (Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this
media.) Our test results are found below:

DVD+R DL

 
DVD-R DL

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK performs the best while reading DVD+R
DL and DVD-R DL at well over 12x speeds.

DVD-RAM

For this part of our test we are using a Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
filled with 4.27GB of data. Our test results are found below:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
will read DVD-RAM at 5X; here we see an average read speed of 4.96x

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

The Pioneer BDR-205BKdid very well when reading our test
DVD-RAM media. (Thanks to Maxell USA
for sending us this media.)

---

Overall thoughts:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK is a very fast reader while reading CD
media, Single Layer DVD/RW and Dual Layer DVD media.

Now it’s time to head on to the next section: CD-R/CD-RW
Writing Performance…

 

 

The specifications of the Pioneer BDR-205BK state that the
drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40X and CD-RW discs at 24X. Let’s find out
how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Write Quality:   

---

First we test CD-R discs from different CD-R manufacturers. 
To measure the write speed we will use the “Create Data CD” function from
within Nero CD-DVD Speed.  We wrote these discs at the maximum speed that the
drive supports.  For the quality test, we will be using Nero CD-DVD Speed. 
CD-DVD Speed runs under Windows and supports several drives.  Also note that
different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained
when scanning the discs. For our CD Quality and Transfer Rate scanning we will
be using the Optiarc AD-7200S with Nero CD-DVD Speed.

Disc Quality Scanning - C1/C2 (and CU); here is an
explanation in more detail:

CDs use an error detection and correction system (CIRC)
which is for the most part not seen by the user when reading the disc.  We can
get a working idea of the quality of the media in question by performing Disc
Quality Scanning that will show us the amount of errors the drive is detecting
and correcting while reading the media.

There is more than one way to handle C1 and C2 error
detection/correction, but a simple and common way is to detect and correct up
to two errors per frame in each stage and detect three or more errors:

·        
E11: 1 error detected and corrected by C1 layer

·        
E21: 2 errors detected and corrected by C1 layer

·        
E31: 3 or more errors detected but not corrected by C1
layer

The sum of these (per second) is called the BLock Error
Rate: BLER=E11+E21+E31

·        
E32: 3 or more errors detected but not corrected by C2
layer

Any E31 is uncorrectable by the C1 layer and will result in
the bytes in that frame being redistributed into multiple frames which are
passed to the C2 layer.

Any E32 is uncorrectable by the C2 layer and will result in
interpolation being used for Audio CDs or will result in third layer error
correction being use for Data CDs.

Different drives have different ways of reporting these
errors in a Disc Quality scan.  Optiarc
CD-RW drives will report C1 and C2 errors this way:

·        
C1=BLER=E11+E21+E31

·        
C2=E32

Here is a little easier way to look at Disc Quality
Scanning:

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 Excellent quality discs, or at
least below 50.0 C1 average for OK quality discs. After C2 errors, there are
only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

In short, our analysis will be based on this guideline to
determine the quality of the burned disc:

CD-R/RW quality scans
guideline

---

And below are the obtained results:

Quality

Transfer Rate

Taiyo Yuden media has low C1 errors and no C2 errors so it
goes in the “Excellent Quality” category. (Thanks to Rima.com for providing us
with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

Maxell media – manufactured by RiTEK Corporation has low C1
errors and no C2 errors so it goes in the “Very Good Quality” category.

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

FalconMedia Pro media– manufactured by FTI in Dubai has no
C2 errors and low C1 errors so it goes in the “Excellent Quality” category.
(Thanks to cddimensions.com for
providing us with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

Verbatim media – manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation has low C1 errors and no C2 errors so it goes in the “Very Good
Quality” category. (Thanks to Verbatim
USA for providing us with this media)

Editor’s note: This Verbatim CD-R media is Made in India.

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

Fujifilm media – manufactured by Daxon has low C1 errors and
no C2 errors so it goes in the “Excellent Quality” category.

Writing Quality with CD-RW discs:

---

Due to requests 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 you are unsure. All discs used for these tests are new and have not been
written to before.

Quality

Transfer Rate

Verbatim media - manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation has High over "50" C1 but has no C2 errors so it goes in
the “Poor” category.

Overall thoughts:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK is a good CD-R writer showing results
with no C2 errors on all our CD-R media but had a little trouble handling our Verbatim
Ultra High Speed 32X media.

On the next page let’s take a look at the DVD+R/RW
Writing Performance…

 

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should
write DVD±R at 16X, DVD+RW at 8x, and DVD-RW at 6x. In this next section we
will measure the write time for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs.
We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

Now let us see how the writing quality is.

Write quality:

---

Disc Quality Scanning - PI/PO:

DVDs use an error detection and correction system (ECC)
which is usually transparent to the end-user, but we can get an idea of the
"quality" of a disc by  performing Disc Quality Scanning, which shows
how many errors the drive is detecting and correcting behind the scenes.

There are two layers or stages of error detection and
correction on all DVD media; these are called Parity Inner (PI) and Parity
Outer (PO). Data is arranged in ECC blocks containing rows and columns of user
data with additional columns of PI error correction and rows of PO error correction.

An ECC block contains 32 kByte of user data with some added
control data, scrambled and arranged in 192 rows and 172 columns with an
additional 10 columns of PI error correction and 16 rows of PO error
correction.

The Parity Inner stage is performed first, and up to 5 bytes
in a row can be corrected. Any row with one or more errors is counted as a
Parity Inner Error (PIE). Any row with more than 5 errors is considered
uncorrectable and is counted as a Parity Inner Failure (PIF).

The Parity Outer stage is performed next and will detect and
attempt to correct any errors that are still left after the PI stage. Any
column that has errors is counted as a Parity Outer Error (POE), and any column
that has uncorrectable errors is counted as a Parity Outer Failure (POF). If a
POF occurs the drive can sometimes re-read the problematic spot and correct the
problem; this happens only during normal reading and not during scanning, however.

Disc Quality scanning is influenced by the drive performing
the test, and that's why different drives report different results and even the
same drive will report (slightly) different results when scanning the same disc
again. Please note that PI/PO and Jitter scans only test some aspects of disc
quality and that other important aspects are not revealed.

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 scans from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan above shows the results from a pressed, Single
Layer DVD-Video disc (Flicka).

This above scan shows the result from a pressed Double Layer
DVD-Video disc (MI3).

The Lite-On DVD burners used in this review report errors as
follows.

• PIE per 8 ECC blocks (rows with 1 or more bytes in error)
• PIF per 1 ECC block (rows with 6 or more bytes in error)

We want to see as low error numbers as possible.
PIE per 8 ECC blocks should be no higher than 280.
PIF per 1 ECC block should be no higher than 4.

Both the pressed DVD-discs above are well within the
standards.

If you want to look at the standards for yourself, 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.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity,
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
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-7200S DVD-Writer which by default is able
to read DVD±R media at 16x speed. A small speed reduction near the end is still
accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a
bad sign.

Here is an easier explanation on how to read the test results

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to
look for in your Nero DiscSpeed Quality Scans?

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: the lower is better.

---

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality 

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On
iHAS220 drive along with Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the
disc quality. We will provide you with an image of the Quality Scan, Transfer
Rate Test (TRT), and a Table which gives the pertinent details for the burn and
quality scan to include the number of samples taken in the Quality Scan. We
will also be using the Optiarc AD-7200S along with Nero CD-DVD Speed for our
read-back tests.

Quality

Transfer Rate

Disc quality is Excellent and the Transfer Rate Test has a
smooth curve. (Thanks to Verbatim
USA for providing us with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very Good results and the Transfer Rate
Test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to Rima.com for providing us
with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Excellent results and the Transfer Rate
Test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to cddimensions.com
for providing us with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very Good results and the Transfer Rate
Test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to Rima.com for providing us
with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very Good quality and the Transfer Rate
Test has a smooth curve.

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burned with Excellent results and the Transfer
Rate test has a smooth curve.

---

DVD+ReWritable media:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK supports writing to DVD+RW discs at
maximum 8X speed.

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with good results and the Transfer Rate Test
has a smooth curve. (Thanks to Ritek USA
for providing us with this media)

On the next page let’s take a look at the DVD-R/RW
Writing Performance...

 

DVD-R/RW Writing Performance:

---

In these tests again we will be using a Lite-On iHAS220 drive along with Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the disc quality.
We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7200S along with Nero CD-DVD Speed for our read-back tests.

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burned with Excellent results and the Transfer
Rate test has a smooth curve.

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Good results and the Transfer Rate test
has a smooth curve. (Thanks to Rima.com for providing us
with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Excellent results and the Transfer Rate
test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to cddimensions.com
for providing us with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Excellent results and the Transfer Rate
test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to Verbatim
USA for providing us with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Excellent results and the Transfer Rate
has a smooth curve.

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very good results and the Transfer Rate
has a smooth curve.

DVD-ReWritable media:

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very Good results and the Transfer Rate
test has a smooth curve.

Moving on to next page you can read about DVD+R DL and
DVD-R DL compatibility and Writing Performance...

 

 

DVD+R Double Layer writing speed and quality:

---

The Pioneer BDR-205BK supports the DVD+R DL standard for writing
Double Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 8x.

Testing procedure:       

For these tests we wrote an image file of a DVD-Video
compilation of as near full capacity as possible with CD-Speed. We then used
the Lite-On iHAS220 along with CD-Speed to test the disc’s quality; we then
finally ran a read-back test on our Optiarc AD-7200A using Nero CD-Speed.

Below are the results:

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very good results and the Transfer Rate
Test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to Verbatim
USA for providing us with this media)

---

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Very Good results and the Transfer Rate
Test has a smooth curve. (Thanks to cddimensions.com
for providing us with this media)

DVD-R Dual Layer writing speed and quality:

---

The Pioneer BDR-205BK supports the DVD-R DL standard for
writing Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing maximum speed
of 8x.

We will be using the same testing procedure we outline for
the DVD+R DL media.

Quality

Transfer Rate

The media burns with Good
results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Moving on to next page you can read about DVD-RAM Writing
Performance...

 

DVD-RAM Performance:

---

The Pioneer BDR-205BK drive also supports writing and
reading the DVD-RAM format; reading and writing at 5X.  

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 is 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.

Lets us take a look how the drive performs:

Maxell branded 5x media manufactured by Maxell.
Thanks to Maxell USA for providing this media.

Writing Maxell 5x without verification

Writing Maxell 5x with verification

Transfer Rate test

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-205BK writes 5x DVD-RAM
without any problem in 11:06 minutes, reads back the disc at 5x speed.

For those of you who are not familiar with DVD-RAM, you may
probably think that something went wrong during the write process with the verification
turned on, since the 5x media was written at 1.3x and 2x, respectively.
But don’t worry, that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM discs. The reason for the
lower writing speed is, the drive constantly reads back the data after writing
it to verify that it’s written correctly. We can also call it a “bullet proof”
writing/verify technique, with no data loss/errors.

Overall thoughts:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK is a very good disc writer showing Good
to Excellent results in burning DVD±R/RW media. In writing DVD±DL media the Pioneer
BDR-205BK did a Very good job.

 

On to next page you can read about Blu-Ray Performance...

An Introduction to Blu-Ray Disc:

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

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

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

Blu-ray media is structurally
different from DVD media. The Blu-ray disc consists of a single 1.1 mm thick
polycarbonate substrate with a 0.1 mm thick cover layer on the bottom side of
the disc, while the DVD disc is made of two 0.6 mm thick substrates. In both
cases, two substrates are bonded together by a UV-cured resin adhesive:

DVD vs. Blu-ray disc structure

The larger 25 GB and 50 GB
storage capacity of the Blu-ray disc is due to the higher density of pits and
tracks on the disc. Unlike previous optical discs, Blu-ray uses a
shorter-wavelength, tighter-focused violet laser to read and write pits that
are about three times smaller than pits used in DVDs:

CD, DVD and Blu-ray laser beam color and size

CD, DVD and Blu-ray pits and tracks as seen by a scanning electron microscope

Blu-ray disc surface mapped by an atomic force microscope

Blu-Ray Reading Performance: 

Here we will look at how the Pioneer BDR-205BK performs when
reading Blu-Ray discs.

BD-ROM SL

The Pioneer BDR-205BK read our SL BD-ROM at a speed of 8X.

BD-ROM DL

The Pioneer BDR-205BK read our DL BD-ROM at a speed of 8X.

BD-R SL Video

The Pioneer BDR-205BK reader had no problem reading our SL
BD-R Video disc at its rated speed of 8X.

BD-R SL Data

The Pioneer BDR-205BK reader had no problem reading our BD-R
SL Data disc at its rated speed of 8X. (Special thank to nikoneko Ya!
for supplying us with this media)

BD-RE SL

The Pioneer BDR-205BK did a great job of reading our BD-RE
disc at its rated speed of 8X. (Special thank to nikoneko Ya!
for supplying us with this media)

 

BD-R DL

The Pioneer BDR-205BK was only able to read our TDK BD-R DL
at a maximum speed of 8X.

BD-RE DL

The Pioneer BDR-205BK did a great job of reading our BD-RE
Dual Layer disc at its rated speed of 6X.

Moving on to next page you can read about Blu-ray Writing
Performance...

Blu-ray Writing Performance: 

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To demonstrate burning data on a Blu-ray disc, we will be
using Nero CDSpeed's "Create Disc" function so we can ensure the
discs were burned consistently throughout the process.

The ScanDisc will be performed using our Lite-On DH401S and
the Transfer Rate tests will be performed using our LH BH08LS20 drive to check
if there is any issue with the burned disc.   

Now let us take a look how the Pioneer BDR-205BK performs on
various BD-R media:

BD-R SL: 

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems with this TDK media.

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As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding this 4x Panasonic media to 10x.

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As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding this 4x Ridata media to 10x. (Thank you
to Rima.com
for supplying us with this media.)

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As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding this 4x Verbatim media to 10x. (Thank
you to Verbatim
USA for supplying us with this media.)

---

As you can see from
the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding
this 6x TDK media to 10x.

---

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding this 6x Sony media to 12x. (Special
thank to nikoneko
Ya! for supplying us with this media)

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As you can see from
the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer BDR-205BK had no problems with this Verbatim
"LTH Type" media. (Special thanks to Verbatim
for supplying us with this media)

BD-R DL: 

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding this 4x TDK Dual Layer media to 8x.

BD-R DL: 

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems Overspeeding this Panasonic Dual Layer media to almost
12x. (Special thank to nikoneko Ya!
for supplying us with this media)

BD-RE SL: 

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems with this Sony Rewritable media. (Special thank to nikoneko Ya!
for supplying us with this media)

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems with this TDK Rewritable media.

BD-RE DL: 

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the Pioneer
BDR-205BK had no problems with this TDK Rewritable media.

Overall thoughts:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK did a great job both reading and writing
our vast variety of BD media, the disc writer was able to overspeed all of our
4x media to 10x.

Summary: 

Now let's more to the Authors Page…

Authors Page:

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Introduction:

On this page, the author of the review has the freedom to
run tests that she/he thinks will enhance the review. These tests, unlike our
standard tests, which we try to keep consistent throughout the whole review
team, so that our reviews are as consistent as possible. This page gives the
reviewer the opportunity to show some advanced and real world tests that other
review team members may not be able to run.

Real World tests:

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Advanced audio – EAC test:

For our next test we used EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to test the
drive’s audio extraction performance. As we can see from the screenshot below
the drive supports accurate stream, audio cache and C2 error information.

Here are the results produced by EAC:

Burst Mode

Secure Mode

The Pioneer BDR-205BK performed Very fast in burst mode and
the extraction was a little slower in secure mode.

Writing Quality with CD-R discs:   

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For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new
compilation of about 702Mb 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):

 

DVD+R/RW writing performance:

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Let us see how long it takes the Pioneer BDR-205BK to create
an 16X disc. We used Nero Burning Rom to set up a new UDF/ISO compilation containing
4480MB (4.36GB) of data, and started the write process. We used the
Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Standalone DVD player compatibility:

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We used the Pioneer BDR-205BK to create DVD video discs on DVD+R
DL media (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and DVD-R DL media (Book Type: DVD-R) and tested
their playback on standalone DVD players: Sony Playstation 3 "slim"
and a Mintek DVD-1600.

Compatibility results: 

Both the Verbatim and Falcon media played flawlessly in both
of our players with no skipping during the movie.

Editors note: The Pioneer BDR-205BK does not support changing
the Book Type to DVD-ROM so in this instance the +R discs used are reported as
DVD+R DL.

CSS Encrypted DVD-Video ripping tests:

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Most modern DVD burners don’t have Video riplock and in most cases will
read a pressed DVD-Video SL disc at 16x speed. However, some drives use a CSS
riplock when it comes to extracting data from the disc. If you attempt to rip a
pressed DVD-Video with CSS encryption to your hard drive, then the ripping
speed may be locked at a much lower speed than 16x.

To test this feature, we needed a reference from a drive that we know
does not employ CSS riplock. We choose the Optiarc AD-7200S as a reference
drive for this purpose and ripped a SL and DL pressed DVD-Video to our hard
drive using DVDFab Platinum (full disc option).

We should point out, that ripping and compressing a DL DVD-Video disc
to DVD 5 format is quite CPU intensive. The more power your system has, the
less likely your system power will affect the results. The PC used in this
review is equipped with a fast Intel Dual Core processor and fast hard drives.
We checked to make sure our review PC was not having an impact on the results.

 

Below we can see our reference results.

SL CSS encrypted DVD
Video disc “Dances With Wolves Bonus Disc” (Optiarc AD-7200S reference result)

Time taken = 4m:53s

DL CSS encrypted DVD
Video disc “Titanic” (Optiarc AD-72000S reference result)

Time taken = 11m:35s

Now let’s test the Pioneer BDR-205BK using the same testing
procedures.

SL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (Dances With Wolves Bonus disc):

The Pioneer BDR-205BK does not employ CSS riplock and the
drive performed Very well, completing the test in 4 minutes and 52 seconds.

DL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (Titanic):

The Pioneer BDR-205BK does not employ CSS riplock and the
drive performed Very well, completing the test in 10 minutes and 43 seconds.

Encrypted BD-Video ripping tests:

To test this feature, we needed a reference from a drive
that we know does not employ BD-Video encryption riplock. We choose the Pioneer
BDR-203BK as a reference drive for this purpose and ripped a SL and DL pressed
(encrypted) BD-Video to our hard drive using DVDFab 6.0.1.0 (full disc option).

DVDFab 6.0.1.0
ripping an encrypted BD-Movie (SL)

Thanks to Fengtao software – For providing a full DVD
Fab license.

Below we can see our reference results.

Reference drive

SL encrypted BD-Video
"Planet Earth" (Pioneer BDR-203BK reference result)

Time taken = 16m:10s

 

DL encrypted BD-Video
"Casino Royale" (Pioneer BDR-203BK reference result)

Time taken = 31m:56s

Now let’s test the Pioneer BDR-205BK using the same testing
procedures.

SL encrypted BD-Video (Underworld Evolution)

The Pioneer BDR-205BK has no encryption riplocked and ripped
our test BD-Video SL disc in 15 minutes and 53 seconds.

DL encrypted BD-Video (Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End)

The Pioneer BDR-205BK has no encryption riplocked and ripped
our test BD-Video DL disc in 27 minutes, and 53 seconds.

We present the table below for comparison

The Pioneer BDR-205BK was very fast when ripping our tested
BD-Video media.

Advanced tests:

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CD-R Overburning test:

---

To test the CD-R overburning capabilities of Pioneer BDR-205BK,
we used the overburning test in Nero CD-DVD Speed. According to Nero CD-DVD
Speed the drive can overburn disc larger than 80 minutes. For this test we used
Ritek Ridata 80min CD-R which is rated 52x speed.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK reported a maximum overburn capacity
of 82:06.74 minutes in simulation mode, so we attempted to create a test disc
using Nero CD-DVD Speed with a slightly less capacity. See below:

The scan shows a good result with C1 average of 2.93. We
conclude that the Pioneer BDR-205BK supports overburning CD-R.

DVD+R Overburning test:

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To test the DVD+R overburning capabilities of the Pioneer
BDR-205BK, we used the overburning test in Nero CD-DVD Speed with Verbatim
DVD+R 16x certified media.

From Nero CD-DVD Speed Overburning Test screenshots above,
the drive does not support overburning. The test stopped at 4482MB which is the
standard size for DVD+R media. We will now attempt to verify this using Nero
CD-DVD Speed Create Data Disc:

As you can see that the drive failed to overburn the media.
We conclude that the Pioneer BDR-205BK does not support overburning DVD+R.

Mini Blu-ray:

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For our Mini Blu-ray testing we will use the same standards
for testing you found in the Blu-ray Writing Performance section.

Mini BD-R Writing Speed:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CLV (Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at is maximum speed of 2.00X.  This gives an average
speed of 1.98X and a total writing time of 14 minutes and 22 seconds.

Mini BD-R Reading Speed:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
has no problem reading back the TDK media

Mini BD-RE Writing Speed:

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The Pioneer BDR-205BK uses CLV (Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at is maximum speed of 2.00X.  This gives an average
speed of 1.99X and a total writing time of 14 minutes and 34 seconds.

Mini BD-RE Reading Speed:

The Pioneer BDR-205BK
has no problem reading back our TDK media

This concludes our Pioneer BDR-205BK review, lets
head on to the last page to read our Conclusion…

Positive:

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• Very fast 10x and 12x Writing speed on BD-R media
• Was able to Overspeed all of our 4x BD-R media to 10x
• Reads BD-ROM SL and DL media at 8x
• Reads BD-R at 8x and BD-RE media at 6x
• Writes both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x
• Good write quality on CD-R media at 40x
• Very fast audio extraction
• Extremely Quiet drive operation
• Writes DVD-RW media at 8x
• Supports 5x writing on DVD-RAM
• Very Good to Excellent DVD writing quality

Negative:

---

• Does not support Bitsetting +R media

Conclusion:

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

The Pioneer BDR-205BK's incredibly quiet drive operation
throughout our testing even at full reading and writing speeds would make this
drive ideal for any desktop PC or Home Theater PC (HTPC).

Writing of DVD-R and DVD+R media with the BDR-205BK at 16x with
good to excellent writing quality gives this unit the ability to be a single
drive solution for DVD burning. 

Writing of CD-R/RW media, 40x and 24x respectively with very
good quality is more than an added bonus, the Pioneer BDR-205BK is also a very
fast CD-R/RW reader; in addition the drive sports excellent audio extraction
results.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK supported Overspeeding all of our 4x
BD-R media to 10x, this cuts burning time well in half and we had no trouble
reading back any of these test discs. This is quite a bonus as 6x Blu-ray media
can still be considerably more costly.

The drive supports a SATA interface for quick and easy
installation.

We have only found one negative with this drive, the drive
does not support Bitsetting on +R Media.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “The Pioneer
BDR-205BK is an exceptionally fast and quiet drive
in both reading and writing Blu-ray media, additionally its capability to
write DVD and CD-R media with good to excellent quality make this drive a must
have.” We therefore award the Pioneer BDR-205BK the MyCE’ Editors Choice
Award.

We found the retail version of Pioneer BDR-205BK is listed
at cheapest price of $219.99 at Newegg.com
(November 2009).

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Thanks to:

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