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Pioneer DVR-A05 Review
kila_m writes "
Over at DVD Writers
we have the world's first review of the
recently announced Pioneer DVR-A05 DVD writer. It supports
4 speed DVD-R writing, 2 speed DVD-RW, 16 speed CD-R and is
able to write to CD-RW disks at 8 speed. The review is based on a
pre-release unit and is fairly comprehensive.
" The review itself is one level deeper.
We are using the DVR A03 here for backup purposes and hacking together Linux DVDs. I must say that this device really is great. Pioneer support is also quite good. The writer died a couple of weeks ago, but an exchange device came only a few days later.
And with DVD-R media at about 3,- EUR and DVD-RW at 6,- it also becomes a feasible alternative to CD-R/RW. The old DVR A03 also costs "only" 300,- EUR now. That's a price many people might be willing to pay, and when the DVR A05 hits the stores, I think prices will fall even more.
[--- PGP key and more on http://www.root42.de ---]
Maybe because you can't write on a small CD with slot loading writers... But again, you can't read them using the Pioneer DVD's... Strange.
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-Kevin
Heck, I've got audio cd-rs that I burned a few years back that are still fine, even though they've spent quite a bit of time in the car.
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Because more and more companies are realizing that SCSI does not provide us with substantial performance advantage.. and only few high-end motherboards have scsi controllers on-board, but they all have ATA/IDE controllers.
...
SCSI burners work better and tend to last longer, although the only metric I have are my Plextors who have lasted a few years now. This is versus HP IDE burners which have both failed.
That has nothing to do with scsi/ide... my IDE Plextor did not fail in 2 years too. But friends HP did.
Anyway.. we're all waiting for SATA. serial, cheap, faster, thinner cables,
The "performance" that most people generally think of is maximum transfer speed. However, as IDE doesn't allow nice bus sharing or commands to be processed by different drives, SCSI basically allows you to do more things at a time. Also, the very low CPU usage helps out too. I used to have a Yamaha SCSI drive, and I would expect the IDE drive to be nearly identical in "performance" and reliability. However, I also used to burn CDs, surf the Web, copy large files, etc., at the same time. Never burnt a coaster. This was on a P2-300 BTW.
Thus, there is no real standard for "generic" 2x discs; those that claim to be are either re-labeled (and expensive) or (speculation) have "fake" identifiers -- the quality and compatability varies greatly, but suffice to say, most are quite poor.
Though, I did say that consumer DVD-R is here: Princo ($0.66) and Ritek ($1.00) both make fine (and cheap) 1x discs which can be burned at 2x using a "hacked" firmware. My experience suggests that Princo 1x media are good for 2x, although set-top compatability seems to suffer. Many have reported good luck with Riteks, although I've had poor luck with discs over 4.00 GB (full capacity is 4.38 GB).
Does it support both +R and -R discs?
I'm waiting for one of the standards to go away or both to merge in all drives (betamax-fobia).
Sony has a DVD-RW/+RW unit coming out next month. The positive reviews, speedy 4x DVD+RW write speed, and a pretty good pricepoint ($350) might make this a popular unit VERY quickly.
The neutrality of this sig is disputed.
is only to serve as a warning to others.
Don't get sucked in by a low priced HP DVD i100 burner. I picked one up to create ghost images for our SE's demo laptops. With the latest bios, drivers, etc - I've found two DVD-ROM's that will actually read a burned CD. Unfortunately, that does not include any of the IBM think pads, Dell latitudes, or any other Dell workstation in our shop.
For $99, HP will 'update' the drive to make it work with DVD-R's. That is another stinky issue since they advertised it worked with the -R media, but I'm OK with DVD-RW media if it actually was readable by anything I picked it up for. The box said it ran under Win2K server - it does, but only as a DVD-ROM. The burning software only 'works' with Win2K workstation and below. Customer Service was less than helpful.
Rather than spend the $99 and hope - We picked up a Pioneer unit (not the one in this review, but don't remember the number) and have had no problems. Fool me once...
+++ UGUCAUCGUAUUUCU
No, you're not magically going to burn a sincle CD faster with a SCSI drive. But using speed as the only rationale is not looking at the whole picture. It's sort of like saying that the dual 600MHz Origin server is less worthwhile than my PC, because my PC crunches numbers faster and is cheaper.
If the extra $100 I pay for a SCSI drive means that I will enjoy never having to replace the drive; never having to deal with a software compatibility hassle; never having to deal with an interoperability hassle with another device in my loaded system; and never having less than the best performance that I expect from the equipment, then that's an extra fee that I will be happy to pay and not look back.
The choice is up to the individual, but all these people bemoaning those who have preferred, and still prefer, SCSI drives is sort of ridiculous. Isn't a diverse marketplace supposed to be a good thing?
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I just got the Sony DRU500A yesterday. For those looking for one CompUSA actually had them in stock when NO ONE else did. Dell screwed me on my order for one pushing it back until Nov. 29th...so I gave in and went to Comp and got it for $349.
It's a great drive. Does DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, and CD-R/RW. No more worrying about DVD standards. So far I've only got to test it at 1x since that's the media I have, but it worked just fine.
My only complaint is the the front of the tray is Sony silver, while the rest of the drive is white. Might look OK in an aluminum case, though.
Because it's a composition of several factors. First off 1x is about 3 times faster than 1x CD. (Ie the disc spins 3 times faster.)
Second the data is more densely packed on the disc, this contributes another factor of 3.
Total ~ 9 times faster.