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Pioneer DVR-108 Provisional Results | I received my DVR-108 drive on Saturday morning by special delivery. It is a bare OEM drive with just an instruction leaflet and no accessories. I checked the firmware and found it to be Pioneer GENERAL v1.04. As
Pioneer have just released v1.06, I updated to this version before carrying out any of my tests.
Fitting the drive was no different from fitting any other DVR drive: it was installed as master to my Toshiba DVD-ROM drive.
My favourite burning program Record Now Max 4.5
with PXEngine 507 failed yet again to allow selection of the burning speeds as was normal with most new drives. I modified the PXDRV.DLL to recognise this drive and now can select all the available burning speeds with the absence of 12x for some unknown reason. The modified PXDRV.DLL can be downloaded from HERE
Just replace the existing one in your Windows\System32 folder
(this has to be done without Record Now Max running).
This absence of the12x speed writing selection is no real problem when using media capable of writing at 12x speed you just need to select a higher burning speed and when the burning commences it will default to the maximum available burning speed for the media in question. I have successfully burnt RITEKG05 media at 12x speed with the official 1.14 firmware and Record Now Max 4.5
My provisional tests were done with currently available DVD-R 8x speed media. As I have no Dual Layer or 16x speed media available I will have to review these later.
I haven�t found anything that will officially burn at 16x.
Here are some test burns
All these first tests have been carried out on my pioneer DVR-108 with official, unmodified 1.06 firmware.
4x Media Burnt at 4x Constant Speed
| Media code/Manufacturer ID | AN32 | | Format Capacity | Not Formatted | | Free Blocks | 412352512 | | Free Capacity | 4.38GB(4.71GB) | | Book Type | DVD-R | | Media Type | DVD-R | | Media Id Code Speed | 4.0x 5540KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 4.0x 5540KBps | | Available Write Descriptor AN32 | CLV 2.0x 2770KBps | | Not Formatted | CLV 1.0x 1385KBps |
Budget TYG02 Media With an Attempted Burn at 12x
| Media code/Manufacturer ID | TYG02 | | Format Capacity | Not Formatted | | Free Blocks | 411107328 | | Free Capacity | 4.38GB(4.71GB) | | Book Type | DVD-R | | Media Type | DVD-R | | Media Id Code Speed | 8.0x 11080KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 12.0x 16620KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 8.0x 11080KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 6.0x 8310KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 4.0x 5540KBps |
Note the burning speed rises to 12x for a short while and then drops back down to 8x when the drive checks the quality of the burn and finds it unsuitable at 12x.
RITEKG05 Media Burnt at 12x Speed
| Media code/Manufacturer ID | RITEKG05 | | Format Capacity | Not Formatted | | Free Blocks | 411107328 | | Free Capacity | 4.38GB(4.71GB) | | Book Type | DVD-R | | Media Type | DVD-R | | Media Id Code Speed | 8.0x 11080KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 12.0x 16620KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 8.0x 11080KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 6.0x 8310KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 4.0x 5540KBps |
A read test on this media also showed it to be a good burn.
The ripping speed for DVD-R media is also good. It starts at just over 5x and ends at just over 12x which is a big improvement on the earlier Pioneer models.
Datawrite FUJIFILM03 Burnt at the Maximum 8x Speed
| Media code/Manufacturer ID | FUJIFILM03 | | Format Capacity | Not Formatted | | Free Blocks | 411107328 | | Free Capacity | 4.38GB(4.71GB) | | Book Type | DVD-R | | Media Type | DVD-R | | Media Id Code Speed | 8.0x 11080KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 8.0x 11080KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 6.0x 8310KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 4.0x 5540KBps |
2x Media
I have checked various 2x media to find they will only burn at 1x speed.
| Media code/Manufacturer ID | PRODISCG02 | | Format Capacity | Not Formatted | | Free Blocks | 412352512 | | Free Capacity | 4.38GB(4.71GB) | | Book Type | DVD-R | | Media Type | DVD-R | | Media Id Code Speed | 2.0x 2770KBps | | Available Write Descriptor | CLV 1.0x 1385KBps |
Conclusions
From the above it can be seen that some 8X media will reach the 12x burning and the minimum burning speed for any 8x media is 4x.
The TYG02 burn shows the burn speeding up to 12x and then dropping down to 8x after finding the 12x burn unsuitable this was apparent when the media failed with a read test.
The RITEKG05 reached the 12x burn point and continued at 12x to the end of the burn. A read test of this disc showed the burn to be good.
The FUJIFILM03 burnt at a maximum of 8x speed.
You can see that the 12x burns are only just over 1 minute faster than 8x and just over twice as fast as 4x burns.
| 2x burn | 29:44 | | 4x burn | 15:02 | | 6x burn | 10:07 | | 8x burn | 08:05 | | 12x burn | 06:58 | | 16x burn | 07:04 |
These burning speeds are for a test burn of a full data disc under ideal conditions with no bottlenecks causing the buffer underun protection to kick in.
As you can see it actually takes 6 seconds longer to burn at 16x than at 12x. The reason for this being the delay in changing from 12x to 16x is longer than the time saved by burning the last 200meg at 16x. I have not yet been able to burn a disc at 16x that did not have errors at the 16x speed switch point but I have not yet been able to find any 16x certified media.
The ripping speed for DVD-R media is also good it starts at just over 5x and ends at just over 12x which is a big improvement on the earlier pioneer models
Here's the list of MID from the firmware tables that will burn at more than 4x with the DVR-108 and firmware 1.06 (DVD-R media only ):
| TTG01 | 6x 8x | | SONY08D1 | 6x 8x 12x 16x | | TYG02 | 6x 8x 12x 16x | | FUJIFILM03 | 6x 8x | | TTG02 | 6x 8x 12x | | MXL RG03 | 6x 8x 12x 16x | | MCC 02RG20 | 6x 8x 12x | | RITEKG05 | 6x 8x 12x | | ProdiscF01 | 6x 8x | | CMC MAG. AE1 | 6x 8x 12x | | TTH01 | 6x 8x 12x 16x | | GSC003 | 6x 8x | | MBI 03RG3000 | 6x 8x |
16x-4-All Firmware
I have some beta 16x-4-All firmware and have carried out a few test burns:
Firstly set at 16x OTF from my Liteon DVD-ROM drive:
| 105 - 09/08/2004 16:21:37 |01| Job 1 Started | <<<<<<< Disc-to-Disc Copy - 1 Disc(s) 1 Recorder(s) - Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108 1.06 - 16x - Record >>>>>>> | | 115 - 09/08/2004 16:21:37 |01| Job 1 | Reader drive: Host:4 ID:1 (N:) - Jlms XJ-HD165H - DVD Closed Multiborder (DVD F3), 1 Zone(s), 4,489.25MB (2298496) Used | | 106 - 09/08/2004 16:21:39 |01| | Job 1 Round 1 Started - 1 Recorder(s) | | 107 - 09/08/2004 16:29:21 |01| | Job 1 Round 1 Terminated - 1 Good Disc(s) | | 109 - 09/08/2004 16:29:21 |01| | Job 1 Completed successfully <<<<<<< 1 Good Disc(s) >>>>>>> |
And here you can see it took 7 mins 45 seconds to complete a full disc-disc OTF copy.
My second test was a DVD Title set from my hard drive.
| 105 - 09/08/2004 16:37:08 |02| Job 2 Started | <<<<<<< Data Job - 1 Disc(s) 1 Recorder(s) - Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108 1.06 - 16x - Record >>>>>>> | | 115 - 09/08/2004 16:37:08 |02| | Job 2 - RecType:2 Mode:1 FSType:3 | | 106 - 09/08/2004 16:37:10 |02| | Job 2 Round 1 Started - 1 Recorder(s) | | 124 - 09/08/2004 16:37:14 |02| | Job 2 Scanning | | 107 - 09/08/2004 16:44:44 |02| | Job 2 Round 1 Terminated - 1 Good Disc(s) | | 109 - 09/08/2004 16:44:44 |02| | Job 2 Completed successfully <<<<<<< 1 Good Disc(s) >>>>>>> |
And here you can see it took 7mins 36 seconds to burn a full DVD Title Set
Monitoring the burning speeds they changed at the same intervals with each burn
6x speed > 385.56meg < 8x speed> 2,001.56meg <12x speed.> 4,265.56meg <16x speed> end
This last speed increase probably dropped about 5 seconds off the burning speed but added more to the burning time because of the pause between the speed changes.
I feel that we have been conned by Pioneer into believing we have a 16x speed writer when in fact it only burns at 16x speed for the last 200megs!
The test on the 16x burnt media which was FUJIFILM03 produced read errors at the outer edge. Added to that is the fact that it takes longer to switch to 16x speed so I would recommend setting the maximum burn speed to 12x. These burning speeds are slightly longer than the ideal speeds during my early data tests and this is due to minor bottlenecks in my system restricting the file transfer to my burner.
With the patched firmware I was able to do a test burn at 16x to Datawrite Grey PRODISCS03 4x media. Although the burn completed at 16X, for the last 200meg this section was unreadable. That is the same with ALL other media I have burnt at 16x speed. The disc up to 4.2gig produced a perfect burn, so it appears satisfactory to burn this media at up to 12x speed without any problems.
Here is a test burn on a DATAWRITE PRODISCS03 at 16X burning
As with all my 16x burns the last 200meg was unreadable.
These 16X speed burn results are only provisional as the firmware is still in the beta stage with a few minor bugs to be ironed out before its release.
It actually takes longer to burn at 16x speed and produce a coaster than it does at 12x speed and produce a usable disc
So in my book this drive is NOT 16X SPEED as per the specifications but 12X speed MAXIMUM.
As a 12x speed burner this drives performs very well and would highly recommend it but I have my doubts when it comes to calling it a 16x burner, but not having tested any other high speed burner I cannot offer any comparison so I have no standard to go by.
I have yet to test this drive on DVD+R burning and Dual Layer media but I felt it important enough to publish my provisional findings as early as possible.
Update 20-08-04
Pioneer have just released the firmware upgrade 1.10 for the 108 drive with the following improvements
Reduction of 12X/16X DVD-R Writing time
DVD-R Writability Improvement
Reduction of 12X/16X +R Writing time
+R Writability Improvement
CD-R Writability Improvement
DVD Playability Improvement
CD Playability Improvement
Currently I am on vacation but will be updating my results of my Battle of the Burners with this firmware upon my return
Since publishing this report I obtained the NEC ND-3500AG 16x speed Dual Format, Dual Layer DVD burner and as this drive is one of the main competitors to the Pioneer DVR-108 I decided to do a comparison between the two drives so check out my
Battle of the Burners |
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Added: Wednesday, August 18, 2004 Reviewer: Flashhits: 64770
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