Pioneer Electronics has launched two new retail upgrade drive kits in response to the growing demand for drives offering both recording and DVD playback functionality.

DVD RECORDER KIT

The DVR-104EXT combines Pioneer’s popular DVD-R/RW “Superdrive” with an attractive, fully enclosed Firewire IEEE1394/USB 2.0 external case for convenient and portable connection to desktop or laptop computers. This kit enables recording to DVD-R media at 2X and DVD-RW at 1X. It will also record to CD media (8X to CD-R and 4X to CD-RW) as well as playing back CD and DVD-ROMs, VCDs and DVD-Video discs.

The DVD-R/RW format has proved to be the most popular DVD recording format locally due to its high compatibility of recorded media when played back in DVD players or DVD-ROM drives and the low cost of DVD-R and -RW media. The format is also approved by the DVD Forum which controls DVD standards and licensing worldwide.

DVR-104EXT Unit

As a special bonus offer the DVR-104EXT kit contains DVDit! Professional Edition DVD authoring software valued at $1,699 RRP which includes an MPEG2 encoder. Writing and video editing software is also included along with DVD-R and -RW media and firewire IEEE1394 and USB cables.

The DVR-104EXT retails for $1,199 and is covered by a 1 year warranty.

DVD-ROM CD RECORDER KIT

The DCR-111KIT contains a Pioneer Internal IDE Combo Drive (CD-R/RW/DVD-ROM), Veritas RecordNow and DLA writing software and the popular PowerDVD XP MPEG2 decoder for watching DVD movies on your PC.

The DCR-111 Combo Drive records to CD-R at 12X and to CD-RW at 10X as well as playing back DVD-ROM at 12X and CD-ROM at 40X. This is an ideal solution for anyone requiring the ability to record to CD and play back those increasingly popular DVDs.

The DCR-111KIT retails for $269 and, like all Pioneer optical drives, offers whisper quiet operation even at the highest speeds thanks to Pioneer’s extensive experience in this technology over more than 20 years.