PC-GUY
1
I found this information in another forum posted by Laz nice find Laz. 
The 108 is looking better and better. They seemed to have fixed the DL compatibility problem.
You may want to read the whole review its worth the look.
Conclusions
The Pioneer DVR-108 is all about writing quality. The firmware this drive carries is intended to provide the user with not only the ability to maintain high quality at higher write speeds, but also maximum compatibility with standalone DVD players when using
double layer media. Yes, the specs on this drive will definitely draw many in, however, it is important to understand how the drive actually writes to the media in order to get a good indication of what to expect. If you are not writing a full 4.7GB of data, it
is unlikely that you will hit 16x. Some of you may be disappointed by this, however, the difference between 12x and 16x write times is minimal and Pioneer is more concerned with write quality rather than speed. This is certainly a good thing as it ensures you will get the highest quality writing possible.
In our read tests, the drive did fairly well, with the exception of the DVD-Video tests. DVD Ripping was certainly affected by the poor DVD-Video read performance and the DVR-108 is not one of the faster ripping drives on the market. No drive is perfect, however, if this drive would have performed well in this area as well as DVD ripping, it sure would be close to being so. Although the drive did have significantly higher seek times, the CPU usage rates were some of the lowest I have come across. One other thing to mention is the fast load times on all supported media. Discs loaded quickly and all played back flawlessly.
As far as the write tests go, the drive did exceptionally well. Although some may find the 32X CD-R write speeds a bit disappointing, the drive did write at this speed to every single disc used in our testing without playback issues. If you take into account that most Multi-format DVD writers with 40x CD-R write speeds do not write to all
media at this rate, this actually balances out quite nicely. As far as writing to DVD media, the drive also performed well. Although we could not hit actual 16x write speeds, the DVR-108 will write to a majority of 8x discs at 12x without issues. 4x double layer writing is probably one of the main reasons why some may choose this drive. The Pioneer DVR-108 was able to write consistently at 4x to one of the three discs used in the tests. This cut down write times to double layer media by a substantial margin and is certainly a excellent feature. Verbatim DVD+R DL media were the only discs capable of 4x write speeds at this time. Although double layer media is still not readily available, Pioneer plans on providing firmware updates to increase 4x compatibility with other brands of double layer media.
I would highly recommend the Pioneer DVR-108 to those who's main concern is write quality as well as those who would like to take advantage of its 4x double layer writing capabilities. The automatic booktype change on double layer media is a key feature here and will ensure maximum compatibility. Unlike a majority of other DVD writers currently available, this drive writes at 12x to most discs that really do not support this speed. For example, Verbatim 8x media is quite easy to find, and this drive will write to them at 12x.
Considering all this drive has to offer, its price tag is extremely reasonable. The Pioneer DVR-108 is available at eWaggle.com for only $101.00 and includes an OEM version of the popular Nero6 burning software, blank disc and free shipping as well.
More information on this product can be found on the Pioneer Website.
The 108 is looking better and better. They seemed to have fixed the DL compatibility problem.
You may want to read the whole review its worth the look.
Conclusions
The Pioneer DVR-108 is all about writing quality. The firmware this drive carries is intended to provide the user with not only the ability to maintain high quality at higher write speeds, but also maximum compatibility with standalone DVD players when using
double layer media. Yes, the specs on this drive will definitely draw many in, however, it is important to understand how the drive actually writes to the media in order to get a good indication of what to expect. If you are not writing a full 4.7GB of data, it
is unlikely that you will hit 16x. Some of you may be disappointed by this, however, the difference between 12x and 16x write times is minimal and Pioneer is more concerned with write quality rather than speed. This is certainly a good thing as it ensures you will get the highest quality writing possible.
In our read tests, the drive did fairly well, with the exception of the DVD-Video tests. DVD Ripping was certainly affected by the poor DVD-Video read performance and the DVR-108 is not one of the faster ripping drives on the market. No drive is perfect, however, if this drive would have performed well in this area as well as DVD ripping, it sure would be close to being so. Although the drive did have significantly higher seek times, the CPU usage rates were some of the lowest I have come across. One other thing to mention is the fast load times on all supported media. Discs loaded quickly and all played back flawlessly.
As far as the write tests go, the drive did exceptionally well. Although some may find the 32X CD-R write speeds a bit disappointing, the drive did write at this speed to every single disc used in our testing without playback issues. If you take into account that most Multi-format DVD writers with 40x CD-R write speeds do not write to all
media at this rate, this actually balances out quite nicely. As far as writing to DVD media, the drive also performed well. Although we could not hit actual 16x write speeds, the DVR-108 will write to a majority of 8x discs at 12x without issues. 4x double layer writing is probably one of the main reasons why some may choose this drive. The Pioneer DVR-108 was able to write consistently at 4x to one of the three discs used in the tests. This cut down write times to double layer media by a substantial margin and is certainly a excellent feature. Verbatim DVD+R DL media were the only discs capable of 4x write speeds at this time. Although double layer media is still not readily available, Pioneer plans on providing firmware updates to increase 4x compatibility with other brands of double layer media.
I would highly recommend the Pioneer DVR-108 to those who's main concern is write quality as well as those who would like to take advantage of its 4x double layer writing capabilities. The automatic booktype change on double layer media is a key feature here and will ensure maximum compatibility. Unlike a majority of other DVD writers currently available, this drive writes at 12x to most discs that really do not support this speed. For example, Verbatim 8x media is quite easy to find, and this drive will write to them at 12x.
Considering all this drive has to offer, its price tag is extremely reasonable. The Pioneer DVR-108 is available at eWaggle.com for only $101.00 and includes an OEM version of the popular Nero6 burning software, blank disc and free shipping as well.
More information on this product can be found on the Pioneer Website.