Test machine

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster CX226BW 22” widescreen (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

System setup:

The Pioneer BDR-202 was connected to one of the main boards SATA ports and reports as a PIONEER BD-RW BDR-202.

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer BDR-202 supports BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM reading. According to Nero InfoTool, it also reports that the drive is capable of writing BD-R and BD-RE media. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.04 and no updates were available at the time of writing this review.

Installed software:

• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• KProbe

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

Features and techniques

Internal layout

Now let’s take a look at the internals of the Pioneer BDR-202

In the above screenshot we can see the Pioneer BDR-202 PCB.

The Pioneer BDR-202 is powered by a Renesas R8J32500FPV chipset.

Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a look at the supplied software bundle. Please note, we may not use any of this software in this review.

The Pioneer BDR-202 is supplied with CyberLink’s BD Solution software and includes the following applications.

• Power Producer 4
• Power Director 5
• PowerDVD 7.3
• Instant Burn 5
• Power 2Go 5.5

In the above screenshot we can see the main CyberLink BD Solution install screen. The package contains a good starting point for new owners of the Pioneer BDR-202.

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer BDR-202 supports automatic bit-setting, and is capable of writing DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type. However, Bit-Setting of DVD+R/RW is not supported.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R DL with book type DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

Writing technique

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Pioneer BDR-202:

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

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 20.60x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 47 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 22.02x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 22 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-202 was one of the fastest compared to our other drives when writing CD-RW media.

12x DVD+R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 12x.

DVD+R

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.46x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 18 seconds.

12x DVD-R writing speed:

DVD-R

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.46x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 3 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our tables, the Pioneer BDR-202 was above average when writing DVD±R media.

6X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.01x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 23 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was one of the slowest at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.00x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 14 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when writing DVD-RW media.

4x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 4x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. This gives an average speed of 3.95x and a total writing time of 27 minutes and 13 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

4x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 4x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. This gives an average speed of 3.94x and a total writing time of 27 minutes and 48 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was about average when writing DVD-R DL media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-202, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 5x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 5X. This gives an average speed of 4.97x and a total writing time of 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

Below, we made a comparison table:

The Pioneer BDR-202 was the fastest drive when writing our DVD-RAM media.

4x BD-R (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications, the Pioneer BDR-202 drive should be able to write BD-R 25GB Single Layer media at 4x. For this test we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc. To test the drives maximum write speed, we enabled “Streaming.”

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X. This gives an average speed of 3.99x and a total writing time of 23 minutes and 8 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was above average when writing BD-R media.

2x BD-RE (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications, the Pioneer BDR-202 drive should be able to write BD-RE 25GB Single Layer media at 2x.

The Pioneer BDR-202 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 2X. This gives an average speed of 2.00x and a total writing time of 46 minutes and 45 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-202 was the slowest drive when writing our BD-RE media.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-202 performed well in our writing tests, keeping pace in most cases with our other tested drives.

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

Introduction

Reading performance