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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.
how foobar speed DVD relates to foobar speed CD?
:-)
Who will be the first to announce a DVD recorder that is 56x *
* Oh, by the way, that's equivillant to 56x CD, added by our marketing department
Also, as DVDs are thinner than CDs, can they spin faster without breaking???
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 ---]
I hope that I actually get the manual in the complete release:
"The package contains:
1 x Pioneer DVR-105 DVD Writer
1 x Manual (online) "
I'd have to say that it looks good, even the cons section had an awful lot of items solved by having a second read-only drive (which you usually have).
When on the subject I'd like to discuss a reliability issue. Burned CDs, and even more CDRWs, have a tendency to break after a while (don't expect a CDRW to hold data more than 1-2 years). Judging from the added complexity I doubt that burned DVDs are better. How does a burned DVD rate as a backup media? What is the error rate compared to your average tape?
I am just wondering how many more Atapi drives have to come out before they phase of that stupid 1/8" Jack nad Volume control that no-one uses. Would make them easier to paint and mod.
Of course everyone reading this probably uses them. I personaly never ever have.
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.
Donate free food to the hungry at The Hunger site.
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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Yes and no...
:-)
Joe Schmoe doesnt want a DVD writer except for one reason only... to write DVD's that have the home movies on them. currently the incompatability between burned DVD's and stand alone DVD players is so bad that even the seasoned DVD creators are standing back and waiting.. (No i do not have a DVD burner at home, only at work.. and on linux
Until they can make it as fool-proof as SVCD or VCD's on your dvd player... (my first firewire card came with videowaveIII that allowed me to capture/edit/burn to SVCD without even thinking... which is good for the average windows user.)
DVD VIDEO creation is still difficult and iffy. and at $5.00 a pop for the cheapest DVD blank... Joe doesnt want to risk it not being playable in aunt nellies dvd player.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Just like you said SCSI/IDE are just interfaces. I think your point of failure is the HP drives, Hoss. Stop buying them.
.3% more CPU, not worth spending $100+ more for a slower speed SCSI drive just to save that CPU.
Benefits to IDE: Cheaper to buy, doesn't take up a spot on my SCSI chain (I've got devices that actually need U160 on there.)
My recommendation: buy a cheap IDE controller (last time I checked Promise made one for $30) and a nice IDE burner. You'll see it utilize
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,
I'm just thrilled that it writes CDRs at 16x...I'm using an 8x notebook burner now, so I was resolved not to take a hit in speed when I get an external DVD writer. At 16x I think a lot of people can finally get one drive for all their burning needs, rather than a seperate CDRW and DVD-R.
There will be exceptions, if you need (or think you need) superfast burning. but this is welcome news.
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?
LRC, the best-read libertarian site on the web
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.