detail information

Test machine:

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

Hardware:

⋅         Motherboard: ASUSTeK A8N-SLI DELUXE (nForce 4 SLI chipset)
⋅         Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice) 800 MHz FSB.
⋅         RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX 2CL DDR
⋅         GFX: Leadtek Winfast  6600 TD (PCI Express nVidia)
⋅         Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
⋅         Hard disk: 1X 200GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA): 1X 120GB Maxtor (SATA).

System set-up:

The Pioneer DVR-110 was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-110. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

NOTE: This motherboard has 8 IDE channels; although the screenshot states the Pioneer DVR-110 is connected to a Primary IDE channel. It is in fact connected as Secondary Master

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we can see DVD-RAM read/write is supported but we miss Mt.Rainier support and a larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware version 1.22

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:

• Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.0.18 and V7.0
• Nero CD/DVD Speed V4.10
• Nero Info Tool v4.00
• Slysoft CloneCD v5.2.5.1
• Exact Audio Copy v0.95 beta 2
• K-Probe v2.5.1

Features and techniques:

As we can see in the above screenshot, the Pioneer DVR-110 is based on a NEC chipset.

Pioneer uses Active OPC Technology with its optical hardware. Active OPC constantly monitors the sensitivity of the media and adjusts the laser strength to achieve the best possible results. It does this by analyzing the reflection from the media's surface.

Disc Writing Technology:

In the following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the Pioneer DVR-110.

For these tests we simple burned a disc with Nero CD-Speed's 'create data disc" function.

CD-Recordable:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40x. This gives an average write speed of 30.12x, and as we can see, it took the Pioneer DVR-110 3 minutes 19 seconds to write the disc.

Below we have 3 other drives for comparison.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of 37.22x.

The Samsung TS-E552U uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its rated speed of 40x. This gives an average speed of 34.39x.

The LG GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. The drive wrote the last zone at 40.41X and this gives an average speed of 31.70x.

 For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from the table, the Pioneer DVR-110 is about average when it comes to writing CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of 24.90x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds

Below are some other drives for comparison.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of 28.32x and a total writing time of 3 minutes 35 seconds.

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity writing technology to write at 32X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 29.75x.

The NU DHW-164 uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) writing technology to write at 24X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 23.16x.

For a better overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see from the table, the Pioneer DVR-110 performed below average when writing CD-RW's.

16X DVD+R Writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.62x and a writing time of 6 minutes 12 seconds.

16X DVD-R Writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.59x and a writing time of 6 minutes and 1 second.

Below are some write graphs from some other drives for comparison.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.83x and a writing time of 5 minutes 38 seconds.

The NEC 3540A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.81x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 58 seconds.

The Philips DVDR16LS uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.33x and total writing time is 6 minutes and 8 seconds. The average speed is lower and the writing time is higher than it could have been due to the Walking OPC generation 2 using some time to constantly adjust the writing quality, we could see this as constant dips in the speed curve.

The LG GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.60x and total writing time is 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

The LG GSA-4163B uses P-CAV, (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. The average speed is 12.90x and total writing time is 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

Below, we made a comparison table:

*1 - Actual writing speed was max 14x due to USB-Bridge limitations.
*2 - Actual writing speed was max 13x due to USB-Bridge limitations.

From the table above, we can see that the Pioneer DVR-110 is around average when it comes to burning DVD±R media.

8X DVD+R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 supports 8x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 7.00x and total writing time is 18:06 minutes.

Below are two other drives for comparison.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL media at 8x which gives an average write speed of 6.55x and a total write time of 18 minutes and 40 seconds.

The BenQ DW1640 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average write speed of 7.32x and a total write time of 15 minutes and 36 seconds.

8X DVD-R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL at 8x. This gives an average writing speed of 7.06x and a total write time of 17 minutes and 55 seconds.

Below are two other drives for comparison.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL media at 6x which gives an average write speed of 5.67x and a total write time of 20 minutes and 41 seconds.

The BenQ DW1640 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL at its maximum speed of 4x. This gives an average write speed of 3.74x and a total write time of 29 minutes and 56 seconds.

We present the table below for easy comparison.

The Pioneer DVR-110 is about average for 8x DVD+R DL writing speed, but is clearly the fastest drive at writing DVD-R DL media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.81x and total writing time is 8 minutes and 43 seconds.

Below are two drives for comparison.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.52x and total writing time is 7 minutes and 52 seconds.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.98x and total writing time is 7 minutes and 15 seconds.

We made the table below for easy comparison.

The Pioneer DVR-110 was the slowest drive when it came to writing DVD+RW at 8x.

6X DVD-RW writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 6.01x and the total writing time is 9 minutes and 53 seconds.

Below are two other drives for comparison.

The Samsung SE-W164C uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.88x and total writing time is 10 minutes 23 seconds.

The NEC ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.80x and total writing time is 11 minutes 6 seconds.

We present the table below for easy comparison.

As expected, with its 6x CLV write strategy, the Pioneer DVR-110 is the fastest drive when burning DVD-RW media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-110 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x. This resulted in an average write speed of 4.83x and a total write time of 11 minutes 28 seconds.

Below are two other drives for comparison.

The NEC ND-4550A uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x. This gives an average write speed of 4.87x and a total write time of 11 minutes 28 seconds.

The LG GSA-4167B uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum write speed of 5x. This gives an average write speed of 4.57x and a total write time of 12 minutes 28 seconds.

We included the table below for easy comparison.

From the table above we can see the Pioneer DVR-110 was equally the fastest drive for writing DVD-RAM at 5x write speed.

Book type (bitsetting):

The Pioneer DVR-110 supports auto bitsetting, via burn applications such as Nero, and supports DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type.

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 the following screen:

DVD+R DL with book type DVD-ROM.

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

This should say DVD-ROM.

Now let us take a look at the reading performance of the Pioneer DVR-110 on the nest page….