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) 1000 MHz Hyper Transport
⋅         RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX 2CL DDR
⋅         GFX: Leadtek Winfast 6600 TD (PCI Express nVidia)
⋅         Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
⋅         Hard disk: 2X 200GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA).

System set-up:

The Pioneer DVR-111 was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer DVR-111 supports DVD-RAM read/write, but does not support Mount Rainier. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.02.

Firmware Update:

We checked Pioneer's website and found a later firmware version. (1.06) So we proceeded to update the firmware.

Below we can see the firmware update process in action.

Our review PC was restarted after the firmware update process had completed.

We once again run InfoTool to check that the firmware had updated correctly (see the above screenshot).

Installed Software:

Windows XP Professional x64 Edition is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 1 for x64. We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero Burning ROM version 6.6.1.4
• Nero CD/DVD Speed V4.50
• Nero InfoTool v4.03
• Slysoft CloneCD v5.2.5.1
• Exact Audio Copy v0.95 beta 2
• K-Probe v2.5.2

Features and techniques:

The Pioneer internal design is clean and well constructed.

From the above screenshots we can see that the Pioneer DVR-111 is driven by NEC's latest chipset, the D63645AGM.

Writing Technology:

In the following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the Pioneer DVR-111.

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

CD-Recordable:

The Pioneer DVR-111 used CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write our CD-R media at 40x, this gave an average write speed of 30.31x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 15 seconds.

Below we have 3 other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of 36.68x, and as we can see, it took the PX-755A 2 minutes 44 seconds to write the disc.

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 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-111 was about average when it comes to writing CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Pioneer used Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write our CD-RW at its maximum speed of 32x, this gave an average write speed of 24.90x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 49 seconds.

Below are some other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW at its maximum speed of 24x, with an average write speed of 23.51x and a total write time of 3 minutes and 50 seconds.

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.

For a better overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see from the table, the Pioneer was above average when writing CD-RW media.

16X DVD+R Writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.60x and a writing time of 6 minutes and 13 seconds.

16X DVD-R Writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of 11.54x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 57 seconds.

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

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-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:

From the table above, we can see that the Pioneer DVR-111 is about average when it comes to burning DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.83x and total writing time is 7 minutes and 26 seconds.

Below are two drives for comparison.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.74x and total writing time is 7 minutes and 35 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-111 was above average when it came to writing DVD+RW at 8x.

6X DVD-RW writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 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 56 seconds.

Below are two other drives for comparison.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.83x and total writing time is 10 minutes and 55 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.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was one of the fastest drives when writing DVD-RW media

8X DVD+R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-111 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 7.30x and total writing time is 17:03 minutes.

Below are three other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A used P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity) to write the Verbatim DVD+R DL disc at 10x. The average speed was 8.61x and the total writing time was 14 minutes and 14 seconds.

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-111 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL at 8x. This gives an average writing speed of 7.40x and a total write time of 16 minutes and 57 seconds.

Below are three other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-755A used CLV, (Constant inear Velocity) to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 5.35x and the total writing time was 21 minutes and 14 seconds

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S used CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 4.02x and the total writing time was 27 minutes and 32 seconds.

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.

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.

We present the table below for easy comparison.

With its 8x DVD-R DL write speed, the Pioneer DVR-111 was the fastest drive writing our test DVD-R DL media, and was around average when writing our DVD+R DL media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVDR-111 it should be able to write DVD-RAM media at 5x.
For this test we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc. To test the drives maximum write speed, we turned off 'write with Verify"

The Pioneer DVR-111 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 30 seconds.

Below are three other drives for comparison.

The Plextor PX-750A uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RAM at its maximum speed of 5x. This resulted in an average write speed of 4.98x and a total write time of 11 minutes and 8 seconds

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.

The Pioneer DVR-111 was around average when writing DVD-RAM at 5x

Book type (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer DVR-111 supports auto Bitsetting, 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-111  on the next page….