Review of the Pioneer DVR-110D By CDRinfo

[PC-GUY]

With the release of the DVR-110D Burner, Pioneer has made another stride in the DVD-REC race. This latest model, the 110D which is to be officially released early this September, is not simply an 8X/6X DVD±RW enabled drive, but it is also an 8X/8X DVD±R DL Burner, offering the highest -R DL writing speed available on the market. Other than that, the Pioneer 110D is a typical 16X/16X ±R drive, also capable of reading DVD-RAM at the maximum speed of 2X.

Along with the release of the DVR-110D, Pioneer will release four other models, two SuperMulti format and two Dual format. These are the DVR-110DBK (Dual), the DVR-110DSV (Dual), the DVR-110 (SuperMulti) and the DVR-110BK (SuperMulti). The first two drives are to be released around the same time as the reviewed drive, while the other two drives are to be released later on this year (late september).

Throughout this review, we will see how the Pioneer DVR-110D performs against two other latest releases, the NEC model ND-3540A and the BenQ 1640.

For the rest of the Review try this or for the conclusion read on.

DVD-R DL writing at 8X burning speed is currently the fastest DL writing speed for the -R DL format thanks to the DVR-110D, the latest release from Pioneer. This is the major difference between this drive and its predecessor, the DVR-109. Apart from that, it is a 16X/16X enabled drive and can re-write DVD media at 8X/6X for DVD+RW and DVD-RW respectively.

As discussed earlier, the supported media list for the DVR-110D is quite limited and as soon as a firmware release is made, we will be posting more results in an update to this review regarding the burning capabilities with various media for both formats.

The DVR-110D is not the fastest drive on the market when it comes to reading CD media, due to its 40X max reading speed. With DVD media, the drive supports SL reading speed up to 16X, as do most of the other market drives, while the max supported reading speed for DL media is 12X. Pioneer enthusiasts will be glad to hear that the riplock feature has been removed and higher ripping speeds can now be achieved.

Unfortunately, we could not gauge the CD error correction capabilities of the drive due to what we believe is a firmware issue when it came to the ABEX 721 & 726 test discs. So we had to evaluate the drives CD error correction mechanism only with the CD-Check Audio Test Disc and the results were pretty good, as the drive managed to reach the fifth check level. Last, but not least, the Pioneer DVR-110D can read DVD-RAM media at 2X max speed.

In the protected media backup tests, the DVR-110D did not perform so well. Protected games were an issue here, as the 110D took about an hour with the safedisc backup. The other two games in our list were ripped quickly and successfully with PSX being ripped in 1:00. With protected audio media, the drive failed to successfully rip the Key2Audio protected disc, resulting in an unplayable backup. Both the other protected audio discs were ripped flawlessly while the drive managed to produce an error free backup as the plextools scans reported.


Fast reader? May be, but fast CD writer? No, this is not the case with the DVR-110D. The potential buyer must take a closer look at the available media list prior to burning any CD media and look at the max support speed, that of the 40X. The supported media list for this burner can be found in the DVD Rec page in this review or on the official Pioneer website.

DVD burning quality ranges from average to good, depending on the inserted media. Speed is not an issue for the drive as it manages to write a full SL image in 6:00 mins. On top of that, the DVR-110 can overspeed most of the 8X inserted media for both the DVD-R and +R formats. On the other hand, with DVD±RW media, the reported quality was not as expected resulting in average quality. DL writing quality is quite good, even at 8X burning speed for both formats, while the bitsetting for +R DL media is automatically changed to DVD-ROM prior to burning.

DVD-RAM writing is not supported with the DVR-110D version. As discussed earlier in this review, Pioneer will soon release four other drives, with two of them supporting DVD-RAM writing.

The Pioneer DVR-110D can be found on the market ranging in price from US$48 to US$54 including VAT.

Note that we will not evaluate the Retail package since the drive comes in bulk version.

- The Good

- Supports 8X DVD±R DL

- Very good DVD error correction

- Supports reading of DVD-RAM media

- Supports overspeed for 8X media at 12X

- No Riplock.

- The Bad

- Cannot accurately backup newest SafeDisk v2 protected titles

- Limited overburning for CD format (82mins)

- Doesn't support DVD-ROM booktype for DVD+R/+RW formats

- Limited media list for 16XDVD±R, DL and RW media

- No bundled software included

- Like To be fixed

- Writing quality for CD-R and DVD±RW media

- More media compatibility through firmware release

[LTR12101B]

The answer to the often-asked question... "Will it be possible to flash a 109 up to a 110"

Since the 110 is a later version of the NEC chipset, the D63645GM instead of the D63641GM, it looks like there will be no backdoor upgrade.

It seems that most of the problems of the DVR-109 are repeated in the DVR-110, since the 109 also had weak support for 16x media, overburning and SD2 backup, with a similar speed for CD-R.

For all the waiting, it's not much of an upgrade on the 109.

[PC-GUY]

It seems that most of the problems of the DVR-109 are repeated in the DVR-110, since the 109 also had weak support for 16x media, overburning and SD2 backup, with a similar speed for CD-R.

For all the waiting, it's not much of an upgrade on the 109.

Thats why I bought a BenQ 1640.

[LTR12101B]

What HAPPENED to Pioneer?

Once upon a time, they were the king, at least of -R, with good results on media many other drives would choke on.

Now they seem to be playing catchup, with many suggesting that the DVR-108 was their best drive.

NEC drives seem to be a better example of the NEC chipset, though with the news that they will be made by Liteon, that may no longer be the case... If Liteon got NEC chipsets, it may well improve Liteon, but it would be a dark day, and possibly the end of the NEC chipset, if NEC drives were merely rebadged Mediatek chipset Liteons