Pioneer's drives are always highly anticipated in the optical drive community. I was a little surprised to see this review come out today, as the 110 from Pioneer is expected this summer.
Have Pioneer learned from their mistakes in earlier drives? Unfortunately not, it seems like it still fails in the same categories as before. But let us summarize our impressions of this drive:
The main positive points: You can’t get around it; this drive has some of the best, if not the best writing quality of all DVD-Writers on the market. This could be the key point for many to get just this drive. It also supports 6x DVD+R double layer writing and 6x DVD-R dual layer writing, as well as 16x +/-R writing using CAV writing technology.
The main negative points: The key point is that the media compatibility with this drive is horrible, media that have been on the market for over a year and more is still not supported at certified speed, even from large known manufacturers like Ritek and CMC Magnetics. Pioneer should really work on improving the CD-R and DVD+/-R media compatibility. 8x DVD+RW media have been available as samples since late last year, and even with the latest 1.50 firmware there are no support for the 8x DVD+RW that is available, very disappointing to see 8x DVD+RW in the specs when it doesn’t support it. Besides this there are some other noticeable drawbacks; missing bitsetting support for +R/RW, missing PIE/PIF scanning support in Nero CD/DVD speed, No overburning abilities, problems with protected audio discs as well as an riplock at 5x.
To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: “If your main concern is DVD-Writing quality and nothing else – then this drive may fit your needs. But look elsewhere for a good all-round drive.” If pioneer would take a closer look at its competition and maintain the same excellent writing quality, the company would have a winner.
While the DVD writing itself was excellent, it needed some help in other areas. Not the best all around drive.
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