1. Introduction
Pioneer DVD-U05S
SCSI DVD-ROM - Page 1
Introduction:
Pioneer
introduced the U05S model at 12/12/2000. As the press
release stated: "...The new DVD-U05S has improved performance and quality
compared to its predecessors. It is the worlds fastest SCSI drive proving
Pioneer position as leader in DVD technology. With a transfer rate of 13.5MB/s
(max.); a faster average access time for DVD-ROM of 95ms (80ms for CD-ROM);
also seek time has been reduced from 90msec to 85sec (70msec for CD-ROM). Compatibility
with CD-DA/ROM/R/RW/Extra/Video CD and DVD-ROM/R/RW/VIDEO the drive is truly
more versatile with multiple possible applications. The new 10X SCSI drive is
also available in bulk version (DVD-305S).."
Pioneer feels that U05S are for professional use and that is
most users feel about SCSI models. The drive as all previous models we have
tested is slot-in and supports:
|
Specs
|
DVD Read Speed
|
4.1x - 10x CAV
|
CD-ROM Read Speed
|
17.2x - 40x CAV
|
Data Buffer Size
|
512 Kbytes
|
Average Access Times
DVD-ROM:
CD-ROM:
|
95 ms
80 ms
|
Average Seek Times
DVD-ROM:
CD-ROM:
|
85 ms
70 ms
|
DVD Formats
|
DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-Video
|
CD-ROM Formats
|
CD-DA, CD-ROM Mode 1, CD-XA Mode 2, CD-R,
CD-RW, Video CD, Kodak Photo-CD, CD-Text, CD-Extra |
We will see how the latest Pioneer SCSI model performs and compare
it with other Pioneer DVD-ROMs in order to have a clear look if the drive is
really improved! All DVD-Rom drives produced after January 1st 2000 are RPC2
compliant. This means that now the region lock is based on both hardware (drive)
and software (player) and it gives the user the chance to change the region
only 5 times. After that, the player is locked to the last region change. Read
more about it over
here.
- Package :
We received the retail version of Pioneer 10x SCSI DVD-Rom (DVD-U05S), which
included the drive, manual, audio cable, jumpers and mounting screws. As you
can see in the pictures, this model has a slot-in system for loading discs.
You might find this drive at OEM version with the code DVD-305S. The front of
the drive is identical to the previous 105S:
- Installation :
Since
this model was SCSI we set the SCSI ID and rebooted. The drive identified itself
as "Pioneer DVD-Rom DVD-305S" from both DOS and Windows. We checked
"Sync Data Transfer" under WinME and after that we were ready to start
the test. We also installed the latest PowerDVD version (3.0) for measuring
the DVD performance.
The supplied drive was a November 2000 model with v1.00 firmware
revision. You must specify one region when you first try to use the drive as
a DVD player. We selected Region 2 for our tests and we had another four hardware
changes left before the drive locks forever. Till now there is no region free
solution as with previous Pioneer models.
Test Machine
WinMe OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
CL GForce2 GTS
Plextor UltraPlex 40max firmware v1.04
Pioneer DVD-105S firmware v1.22
Pioneer DVD-104S firmware v2.02
Pioneer DVD-U05S firmware v1.00
2. Data Tests
Pioneer
DVD-U05S SCSI DVD-ROM - Page
2
Data Tests
Test Method
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0: This was used to compare the Pioneer U05S vs.
previous Pioneer's DVD-ROM I/O performance models (see charts). We used a pressed
CD containing PlexTools v1.06 for all of the tests.
- CD Speed 99 v0.80 was also used to check the drive performance with
pressed CDs. For that test we used PlexTools v1.06 original CD.
- SCSI Mechanic v3.0 results
As you can see from the graph above, the DVD-U05S model is very
fast model and managed to outperform even the supposed faster Pioneer DVD-105S
16x DVD-ROM in both Average Random and Sequential I/O tests! We think that Pioneer
really improved the drive as posted in the press release.
- CD Speed 99 v0.80 results
Using CD Speed 0.80, we can see that the DVD-U05S model is again
faster than the DVD-105S model.
The DVD-U05S has much lower seek times than the 105S does.
RW reading tests
For the RW tests we used Ricoh HS RW media written at 10x speed:
The U05 model gave back the exact same performance with 105S
model. The average reading speed of 24.33x is very fast!
CloneCD Tests
- Verdict of CloneCD Tests:
As happened with previous Pioneer models, the CloneCD performance of U05S
is very bad. Notice that the drive does not support reading of SubChannel data
as CloneCD stated. People who might want to use this drive mainly with CloneCD
should look elsewhere.
3. DAE Tests
Pioneer
DVD-U05S SCSI DVD-ROM -
Page 3
DAE Tests
Test Method
We used CD DAE 99 v0.2 with AudioCDs in order to check DAE performance
of the Pioneer DVD-U05S and we compared it with others Pioneer DVD-Rom models.
As the retail box stated, the U05S is only capable of 12x CLV DAE speed.
:(
- Pressed AudioCD results
No surprises here since all Pioneer DVD-ROM models have their DAE speed
locked at 13x max:
- Princo 74min AudioCD:
The same thing happened with CDR media. All drive delivered around 12.5x,
which is very low compared with what the competition is able to do:
- Advanced DAE Quality
Here at last is another big improval over the previous Pioneer
DVD-Rom models. The U05S from our tests seem to have the best DAE quality
among Pioneer models but misses to get a perfect score (100). Notice the
low data errors (only 16871) compared to the 10x and 16x Pioneer DVD-ROMs.
We hope that this small bug will be fixed soon and the drive will have perfect
DAE in near future.
4. DVD Tests
Pioneer
DVD-U05S SCSI DVD-ROM - Page
4
DVD Tests
- Test Method
We used DVD Speed 99 v0.2 to run DVD tests (DMA enabled for both drives).
All tests were performed at least 3 times with the same DVD title (we took the
worst results). The DVD Speed author suggests avoiding using dual layer DVDs
since the performance might be lower than the actual one. For that propose we
used a single-layered DVD title, taken from PC Magazine.
- DVD Speed results:
The DVD Speed results shows that the U05S really gives out what it promises
as 10x DVD-Rom drive. The average DVD reading speed is around 9.8mb/s: Very
close to the specifications, but much lower than what the 16x model can do.
The seek times are also improved but the 10x IDE DVD-ROM seems slightly better
in this area.
- DVD Ripping Tests
We measured the DVD Ripping speed using two DVDs (Matrix and Gladiator)
using VobDec 3.1. The U05S really rocks and gave out the best ripping performance
we have seen from DVD-ROM drive. Good news for DivX rippers I suppose :)
- Movie Tests :
We tested Pioneer DVD-U05S with many DVDs and our total impression is good.
When playing DVD movies, the average CPU Usage was 40% using Power DVD v3.0.
We noticed no problems during the playback procedure. The only negative point
here is the noise which the drive produces. Some people will find that very
annoying.
5. Final Verdict
Pioneer
DVD-U05S SCSI DVD-ROM -
Page 5
Final Verdict
Positive (+)
|
Negative (-)
|
- SCSI Interface
- CD Text Support
- Very Improved performance over previous Pioneer models
- Blazing fast DVD Ripping speed
- Very good Data transfer times
- Very good seek times
- Very good DVD performance
|
- Region-locked in hardware (RPC2)
- Low DAE speed
- Bad CloneCD performance
- Still noisy enough
- No Digital Output
- Doesn't support 90 and 99min CDs
|
The Pioneer DVD-U05S model is the best DVD-ROM ever tested. Some people
may be confused by the "low" 10x DVD-ROM speed but the tests clearly
showed that the drive kicks butt of the 16x model. The data reading performance
is the best and the seek times are very fast for most users. The DAE speed is
still slow, but is nearly perfect. CloneCD users will find this drive a bad
choice due to its bad performance but will be pleased with the fastest DVD ripping
speed we got from a DVD-ROM drive! The final product shows that Pioneer worked
hard and presented a very good DVD-ROM for power users. The SCSI interface among
with the various improvements over the previous Pioneer models will make many
people drop ATAPI DVD-ROM models from their systems - at least we did after
the end of tests. ;-)