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1. Retail Package - Installation

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 1

Pioneer enters the 8x DVD recording market with the new DVR-107D. Being the first 8x DVD burner offering this speed for DVD±R and 4x for DVD±RW, the drive brings the anticipated "balance" in the recording speeds of the +R/RW and the -R/RW formats. With NEC (ND-2500A) and LiteOn (SOHW-812S) as its main competitors in the retail market, the benchmark results of Pioneer DVR-107D would be interesting to most of you.

- Features

Pioneer's DVR-107D offers wider compatibility compared to previous Pioneer DVD writers, supporting high speed writing with various media. DVD±R writing at 8x and DVD±RW at 4x. Moreover, Pioneer has developed a series of technologies with the aim towards the improvement of final recording performance.

• Precision Recording Technology

Precision Recording Technology utilizes an auto-adjustable writing technique to enable recording under the best conditions for each disc characteristic at all times. This technology, first introduced in the DVR-A06, enables the DVR-107D to achieve optimal initial writing performance and helps to minimize the normal deterioration of re-recordable discs due to repeated writing. As a result, the quality for repeatedly used DVD-RW discs is up to 10 times better than previous writers.

The drive also uses an industry- first DRT-DM (Distributed Real Time Defect Management) offering a form of defect management that conforms to the DVD format without sacrificing write performance. The result is compatible writing even on discs that have been rewritten many times, without causing a degradation of disc quality.

• Ultra DRA (Dynamic Resonance Absorber)

Imbalanced discs can cause vibrations that affect performance during high speed recording and playback. An Ultra Dynamic Resonance Absorber reduces vibrations that can affect performance during high-speed recording and playback of some discs. With this feature, the high precision servo system remains stable during both high-speed recording and playback.

In the picture below you can see the Ultra DRA effect on the total vibrations of the drive. The feature reduces the vibrations by 65% at 9200rpm rotation speed.

• Smart laser drive technology

Pioneer?s advanced laser drive uses a pickup that incorporates a write strategy control circuit, ensuring stable write performance at high speed recording.

• Liquid crystal tilt technology

Pioneer?s liquid crystal tilt mechanism provides accurate and reliable operation with discs having uneven curvature or thickness. This mechanism is used for both recording and playback.

- Specifications

Interface	ATA/ATAPI-5	IDE Data Transfer Mode PIO Mode 4, Multi Word DMA Mode 2, Ultra DMA Mode 2
Buffer Size		2MB
Write Speed	DVD-R	1X , 2X , 4X , 6X and 8X Z-CLV
	DVD-RW	1X, 2X and 4X CLV
	DVD+R	2.4X, 4X , 6X CLV and 8X Z-CLV
	DVD+RW	2.4X and 4X CLV
	CD-R	4X , 8X , 12X, 16X CLV and 24X Z-CLV
	CD-RW	4X, 10X ,16X CLV and 24X Z-CLV
Read Speed	DVD-ROM (Single)	5.0x-12X CAV
	DVD-ROM (Dual layer)	3.3X-8.0X CAV
	DVD-R (4X media)	3.3X-8.0X CAV
	DVD-RW (2X media)	2X CLV
	DVD+R/+RW	3.3X- 8.0X CAV
	DVD-RAM	2.0X CLV
	DVD-Video (Single)	2.0X-5X CAV
	DVD-Video (Dual)	2.0X-5X CAV
	8cm DVD	1.3X – 2.1X CAV
	CD-ROM/-R	17.2X- 40X CAV
	CD-RW	13.7X-32X CAV
	CD-DA (DAE)	17.2X- 40X CAV
	CD-Audio Play	4.3X-10X CAV
	Video CD	4.0X CLV
	8cm CD (with Adapter)	4.1X- 6.2X CAV
Disc Format		DVD single layer/Dual layer DVD-R (Ver.1.0 for authoring 3.95GB & Ver.2.0 for authoring 4.7GB and general 4.7GB; But in case of write, General disc only.) DVD-RW (Ver.1.0 &1.1) DVD+R (Ver.1.0 & Ver.1.1) DVD+RW (Ver.1.2) DVD-RAM (Ver.2.0 & Ver.2.1) CD-ROM Mode 1 CD-ROM XA Mode2 (form 1, form2) Video CD Photo CD (single and multiple session) CD-DA CD-R CD-RW (Supports AM2, Supports High Speed CD-RW, Support Ultra Speed CD-RW) CD-Text
Write Format		DVD-R: Disc at Once, Incremental recording, Multi-border recording DVD-RW: Restricted Overwriting DVD+R: Incremental recording, DVD+RW: Random recording CD-R and CD-RW: Disc at Once, Track at Once, Session at Once, Packet write
Random Seek Time		DVD (-R/RW)(+R/RW): 130 msec DVD-RAM: 140 msec CD: 120 msec

The drive uses a 2MB buffer memory. The RAW DAO 96 writing (CD) is supported while Mount Rainier is not.

The Pioneer DVR-107D uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. For our tests, we set the region code to 2 (Europe).

- Retail package

In our labs we received a sample engineers version of the Pioneer drive, having come without logos, as can be seen on the following pictures.

Pioneer Europe will not be releasing a "retail" version of the DVR-107D, due to the lack of 8X media at the time. As well, there is only a short period between the DVR-A07 and the DVR-A07XL (Advance). This will be on-sale in Europe as a retail product by approximately Mid-March.

In the retail version (picture above) available in Australia and US, however, the included software is:

Ulead DVD MovieFactory 3 Disc Creator allows you to burn movies, slideshows, data and music to CD or DVD in an instant.

Ulead Video Studio 7SE allows first-time users to easily create professional-looking video. Ulead Photo Explorer 8.0 provides an efficient way to transfer, browse, modify and distribute digital media.
Ulead My Scrapbook 2 offers everything the scrapbooker needs to create scrapbook pages, clip art and titles on the computer.
Ulead Burn.Now is easy to use disc recording software. Users can take full advantage of their CD/DVD burner to create data and audio discs plus copy discs.
Ulead DVD Player offers high compatibility and plays commercial DVDs and DVDs created by other Ulead products.
NovaBACKUP 7.1 allows you to back up your computer to just about any tape drive, hard disk, removable, CD-R/RW or DVD drive.

- The drive

As was previously mentioned there is no Pioneer logo on the drive's front panel since we received a sample version. The drive's front panel is colored light gray and despite being a sample version, has the CD-RW and both the +RW and -RW logos. On the right is the eject button and next to it two ventilation holes just like in previous Pioneer writers. The activity led indicator is placed left of the ventilation holes and further left is the emergency eject hole.

On the rear panel there are the analogue audio output, the IDE connector and the power input.

Removing the screws and opening the drive's cover voids the drive's warranty. For reference reasons, we post the following pictures.

- Installation

The Pioneer drive was connected to our test PC and was identified as "Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-107D" under WinXP. All tests were done with firmware v1.05.

The following pages include the test results of the Pioneer drive in comparison to two other dual DVD burners, the new Sony DRU-503A and the Plextor PX-708A

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2. Data CD Reading Tests

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 2

Data CD Reading Tests

- Pressed CD results (Click for CDSpeed results)

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports a maximum reading speed of 40x. The drive reached a final reading speed of 41.93x. The Plextor drive was the fastest and had a final speed of 42.88x

On the seek times test the Pioneer drive needed 295ms for a full seek, a time that is very slow and almost double that of the other two drives.On the random and 1/3 seek times, the Pioneer returned times of 118ms and 145 respectively and was slowest among the three.

- CD-R Media results (Click for CDSpeed results)

With CD-R media, as was the case with the pressed CD previously, the Pioneer drive with a final speed of 42.3x was only slightly slower than the Plextor.

Again the full seek time of the Pioneer drive is double the time of the other two drives. The random and 1/3 seek times were also the slowest among the three drives and a little on the slow side.

- ReWritable Media (Click for CDSpeed results)

For the rewritable reading test we used 24x High Speed rewritable media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports a maximum reading speed of 32x for the cd-rw format. The drive reached a final speed of 33.66x.

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3. CD Error Correction Tests

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Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we check the drive's behavior when reading scratched / defective audio discs. The test discs used were the ABEX series from ALMEDIO.

- ABEX TCD-721R

Errors total	Num: 1217073
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 58985	Avg: -73.4 dB(A)	Max: -25.2 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 3810	Avg: 1.0 Samples	Max: 40 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result	76.4 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

This is generally a difficult disc for most drives to read correctly. The Pioneer DVR-107D performed admirably in this test with a low total error count and no samples skipped, receiving a test score of 76.4 out of 100.

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total	Num: 873
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)	Num: 70	Avg: -74.1 dB(A)	Max: -63.2 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples	Num: 4	Avg:1.0 Samples	Max: 1 Samples
Skips Samples	Num: 0	Avg: 0 Samples	Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result	90.1 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

This is a much easier test disc from the TDR-721R but there were some loudness and muting errors. The best drives will usually register a perfect score of 100 or very close to it, and the Pioneer drive managed 90.1 points which is a very good score.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction / Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively more difficult tests. These tracks are referred to as Check Level-1 through Check Level-5.

The tracks are reproduced (played) through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone coming out from the speakers is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested drive.

Error Level	1	2	3	4	5
Pioneer DVR-107D	5/5	5/5	5/5	5/5	2/5

The drive successfully passed the first 4 check levels for this test. On the fifth check level, where the scratch is 1.500mm, the drive managed to playback two out of five times without any audible clicks. Not many drives manage to reach the fifth check level, let alone managing to read it even once.

- Summary

Test Disc	Reading Speed	Score
ABEX TCD-721R	Max	76.4
ABEX TCD-726		90.1
Average Score		83.25

The average score of the Abex tests is 83.25 points for the Pioneer DVR-107D. This is among the best scores we have recorded and indicates that the drive is very capable with defective CD media.

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4. DVD Reading Tests

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 4

DVD reading tests

- Single Layer DVD-ROM (Click for CDSpeed results)

The Pioneer drive was the fastest with single layer DVD-ROM media. The drive reached 12.65x reading speed at the end of the test while the average reported reading speed was 9.46x.

As with CD seek times, so too with DVD media the Pioneer DVR-107D returned some slow times, and especially the full seek.

- Dual Layer PTP DVD-ROM (Click for CDSpeed results)

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting the read process from the inner tracks on the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, and progressing outwards towards to the outer tracks for each layer.

On the Dual layer DVD-ROM reading test the Pioneer drive was fast with an average reading speed of 6.32x. The reading strategy is CAV and the reported speed at the end of each layer is 8.46x. All drives gave back similar with the Sony being the fastest and Plextor the slowest.

Nothing has changed with the seek times however, with the Pioneer drive being slow, and a full seek which is double the time of the other drives.

- Dual Layer OTP DVD-ROM

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks inwards towards the inner tracks of the disc.

 

The Dual layer OTP written disc did not present any problems for the Pioneer DVR-107D drive. The average reading speed was 6.28x and the reading strategy is CAV.

- DVD Ripping Tests

We measured the DVD-Video ripping speed of the Pioneer DVR-107D using the latest version of DVD Decrypter. The DVD Video title is the "Matrix" pressed DVD-Video.

The ripping test with the Pioneer RW drive shows it is very fast with an average read rate of 5,816 KB/s (4.2x) and a maximum reading rate of 7,202 KB/s (5.2x)

- DVD Recordable / Rewritable reading Tests

The chart below shows the Nero CDSpeed average reading speed results with the following media:

• 8x DVD+R
• 4x DVD+RW

• 8x DVD-R
• 4x DVD-RW

The Pioneer DVR-107D read all four media types using CAV, and where the average reading speed was from 6.16x to 6.25x.

- DVD RAM reading test

Pioneer supports reading of the DVD-Ram format. The specification of the drive are confirmed here by the Nero CDSpeed. After the end of the test the software reports that the drive read the DVD-Ram under CLV mode. The disc we used for this test is a Panasonic 2x DVD-RAM Ver2.0, and a Maxell 3x DVD-RAM Ver.2.1. Both discs were read at 2x CLV. Again, the Full seek times are increased.

 

 

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5. DVD Error Correction Tests

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DVD Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we examined the DVD reading capabilities of the Pioneer DVR-107D drive with scratched / defective DVD media. For the tests we used CDVD Benchmark and Nero CDSpeed. The reference test media come from ALMEDIO.

- Single Layer media

ABEX TDR-821

This is a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM with a 4.7GB capacity, and its surface has an artificial scratch of dimensions varying from 0.4 to 3.0 mm. The following transfer rate picture comes from the CDVD Benchmark v1.21 transfer rate test.

The drive manage to read the disc accurately without any read errors. The test finished with an end speed of about 12x

ABEX TDR-825

This is also a single sided, single layer DVD-ROM of 4.7GB capacity. The data structure of the disc is exactly the same as that of the TDR-821, with the difference that there are no scratches on the surface and instead defective areas ranging in dimensions from 0.5 to 1.1 mm. There are also fingerprints with height between 65 and 75 micrometers.

As in the previous test, no read errors occurred during the reading process. The drive managed to reach maximum reading speed at the end of the disc at 12x.

- Dual Layer media

ABEX TDR-841

This is an 8.5GB dual layer, single sided DVD-ROM disc with artificial scratches of dimensions ranging from 0.4 to 3.0mm, on both layers.

Pioneer DVR-107D once again performed well and managed to finish the test without posting any errors. The test reached a maximum reading speed a little above 8x.

ABEX TDR-845

This disc is a single sided, dual layer DVD-ROM disc with capacity of 8.5GB. The only difference between the TDR-845 and the TDR-841 is that the first includes both defective areas and fingerprints. The dimensions of the defective areas range from 0.5 to 1.1 mm and the fingerprints have height sized from 65 to 75 microns (micrometres).

Just like the 841 dual layer DVD the 845 dual layer DVD did not pose a problem for the Pionee DVR-107D.

ABEX TDV-541

The TDV-541 is a single sided, dual layer DVD-VIDEO disc, with a capacity of 8.5GB.The disc is based on the TDV-540 series which is designed for inspection and adjustment of DVD-VIDEO players. The disc checks the layer switch operation from layer 0 to layer 1 and also includes test pictures and test signals for DVD sound files. The current TDV-541 also checks the error correcting capabilities of the drive and includes scratches sized from 0.4 to 3.0 mm.

 

The dual layer 541 DVD-ROM was read under CAV mode. NeroCD Speed reports high seek times, something that seems to be a characteristic of the drive, with a full seek requiring 306ms. However the graph above shows a perfect result and there was no problem switching from layer 0 to layer 1.

ABEX TDV-545

The TDV-545 disc is based on the TDV-540 series. It is a single sided, dual layer Video/S-2 disc with a capacity of 8.5GB. The TDV-545 includes artificial black dots on the disc's surface, sized from 0.4 to 1.0 mm. It also has 65 - 75 micrometre high fingerprints.

 

 

 

Once again CAV mode for the reading strategy, high seek times but no problems reading the disc.

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6. Protected Disc Tests

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 6

- Reading Tests

To create an image of the various protected titles onto a hard disk, we used CloneCD v.4.3.1.9 software and the appropriate settings, depending on the protection type of the inserted discs. Below are summarized the capabilities of the Pioneer drive, according to CloneCD software. Notice that the drive supports writing of CD+G under RAW DAO:

The game titles we used for each protection scheme are given in the table below:

Game Title	Protection Scheme
PSX "NBA Jam Extreme"	Lybcrypt
Serious Sam The Second Encounter v1.07	SafeDisc v.2.60.052
VRally II	SecuROM v.2

PSX Pressed Media

SafeDisc v.2

SecuROM v.2

The Pioneer drive managed to make images of all tested games. The drive was fast with the PSX and SecuRom images, completing the task with an average speed of 15.65x and 29.96x respectively. With the Safedisc2 protected game disc the drive decreased reading speed to 2.35x

- Writing Tests

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports the DAO-RAW writing mode. For checking the drive's EFM correction status, we used 3 different game titles with different SafeDisc 2 versions with the latest software patches installed. After making the images of the various titles to the hard disk, we burned them (maximum speed) with CloneCD. Two different discs were created for each title; one with the "Amplify Weak Sectors" enabled and one more with the function disabled.

The table below shows the results of the attempted backups and whether they ran (game installed / played normally), or not.

Drive	Game Title	SD2 Build	Settings
			Amplify Weak Sectors On	Amplify Weak Sectors Off
Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-107D	Max Payne	v2.51.020	Yes	Yes
	Serious Sam - The Second Encounter v1.07	v.2.60.052	No*	No*
	The Sims Unleashed	v.2.8	No*	No*
	The Sims Superstar	v2.9	No	No

The drive is not the best recorder for creating backups of SafeDisc protected discs. Protection builds higher than v2.51 could not be handled.

*Both backups of SafeDisc v2.60.x and v2.8 discs worked in the same Pioneer DVR-107D ONLY.

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7. CD-DA - DAE Tests

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 7

DAE Tests

- Pressed and CDR AudioCD results

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports a maximum reading speed of 40x, and reads the audio disc using CAV.

After the end of the test, Nero CdSpeed reports that the drive's average speed was 30.85x, while it reached a final reading speed of 41x and had a random seek time of 123ms. The resultant graph below shows some undulations during reading.

 

 

 

In order to test the average ripping speed of the Pioneer drive we used an original pressed audio CD and a copy on a CDR audio disc. The results of ripping each disc are illustrated on the graphs below.

- Advanced DAE Quality

In the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test, the Pioneer DVR-107D returned an average speed of 27.81x which is the slowest among the three drives, although not by much. The reported quality score is 100 and the software reports that the drive can be used for on the fly copying up to 16x, can read CD Text and Subchannel Data but cannot read informations from the Leadin and Leadout area.

- Support of 90/99mins AudioCDs

The Pioneer drive managed to rip the contents of our 90/99min test discs successfully.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used two audio discs with different audio protection schemes. We tested for both recognition and ripping to the hard disk. The software used was Exact Audio Copy.

* Pressed Audio disc protected by Sony Key2Audio (Celine Dion - New Day Has Come)

* Pressed Audio disc protected by Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies sIsland)

	Key2Audio	CDS200
	EAC
Pioneer DVR-RW DVR-107D	No	OK
SONY DRU-530A	OK	Recognize the disc but cannot rip or play the contents
Plextor PX-708A	OK	OK

The Pioneer DVR-107D had no problems with either playback or extraction of the contents of the CDS200 protected audio disc. The Key2Audio protected disc did not play on the Pioneer drive and hence the contents could not be rippped. The best performance on this test comes from the Plextor drive which managed to rip the contents of both tested discs.

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8. CD Recording Tests

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CD Recording Tests

- CD-R Writing Tests

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports 4X , 8X , 12X, 16X CLV and the maximum 24X writing speeds. Below you can see the CDSpeed writing simulation graph with Taiyo Yuden 48x CD-R media.

The characteristic of Z-CLV is a series of zones that look like steps, each one reaching closer to the maximum speed of the drive. When the maximum speed is reached, the drive speed levels off and remains constant until the end. The graph below has a couple of steps at the beginning and levels of at 24x, but both speed and velocity exhibit a lot of undulations. This is not normal behaviour.

 

 

 

- Recording Times

We created an 80min data compilation with Nero Burning Rom and recorded it on a 700MB disc. Both Sony and Plextor support 40x writing speed while Pioneer supports 24x. With the specific compilation the drive needed 4:49 minutes to complete the writing process.

Below are the best writing times at all avaliable writing speeds of all three drives. The graph shows that at the 24x max writing speed of the Pioneer drive, Sony is 49sec faster.

In the following graph you can see the recording times with various media brands.

 

- CD-RW Writing Tests

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports 4X, 10X ,16X CLV and 24X Z-CLV rewriting speeds, with Ultra Speed rewritable media. Below are the results from the CDSpeed writing simulation test with blank 24x US-RW media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.

The test confirmed the drives specifications for 24x rewriting. The burning procedure started at 15.36x and finished at 24.83x having an average speed of 22.41x. The steps (if we ignore for the moment the spikes) at the beginning shows Z-CLV, but just as with the CD-R writing test where we had undulations, here we have spikes.

 

In order to provide a comparison of the three drives when writing on HS-RW media, we used Nero Burning Rom software to burn a 651MB data compilation using 24x US-RW media from Mitsubishi Chemicals. The data compilation was burnt by all drives at 24x. The graph shows that the Pioneer drive needed slightly more time to finish both the writing and the quick erase task.

- Packet Writing Tests

For the packet writing test we used the InCD packet writing software from Nero and Mitsubishi Chemicals 24x US-RW media. The test file was a 403 MB file (412.822 KB) and we used the drag and drop method from Windows Explorer to write the file from our hard disk to the RW media. On both read and write processes, the Pioneer drive was fast with 17.7x average reading speed and 16.6x average writing speed.

 

Operation	Duration	Average speed
Read	2:35 min	17.7 X
Write	2:46 min	16.6 X

- Other features

Overburning	80min, No overburning
CD text reading/writing	Yes

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9. 3T Jitter Tests - Page 1

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 9

Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

In order to test the writing quality of the written disc with the Pioneer drive we summarise the 3T Pit & Land Jitter of the written discs on the following graph.

- 3T Pit results

The written discs from the Pioneer drive gave back excellent Pit Jitter values. Even at the highest speed of 24x, the Pit Jitter is well under the 35ns Red Book limit.

The average 3T Pit Jitter values for all recording speeds are illustrated in the following table.

All written discs gave back low average pit jitter values. The lowest average value was with 8x writing speed.

- 3T Land results

The Land Jitter values for the same discs written with the Pioneer DVR-107D are slighly increased in comparison with the pit values but again remained well below the 35ns Red Book limit.

The following average graph confirms the low levels.

The average Land Jitter values for all writen discs is extremely good. From the above graph we conclude that Pioneer DVR-107D is a very high quality writer for the CD-R format at all avaliable speeds.

Recording Speed	Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)	Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)	> 35ns	Max 3T jitter values (ns)
8X	23.41	25.41	No	25 Pit, 27 Land
16X	24.15	25.95	No	26 Pit, 27 Land
20X	25.59	27.17	No	29 Pit, 31 Land
24X	25.37	26.20	No	30 Pit, 29 Land

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10. 3T Jitter Tests - Page 2

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 10

Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

The same Nero compilation, as in the previous test, was used once again in order to burn media from different manufacturers. The recording speed was the maximum 24x in all cases. The following graphs show the 3T Pit & Land Jitter results.

- 3T Pit results

Except for Imation media which was for the most part above the Redbook limit, all other media had very low pit jitter values

The average 3T Jitter values for all manufacturers discs are illustrated in the following graph.

Notice the difference between Imation and all other brands.The graph shows that Imation is not a good choice for quality writing with Pioneer DVR-107D.

- 3T Land results

Once again all the media brands gave low land values except for Imation media.

The average values presented below illustrates the drives recording ability.

Once again the difference between Imation media and the other brands is self evident. Other than this, the jitter values are very low.

Recording Speed	Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)	Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)	> 35ns	Max 3T jitter values (ns)
FUJI 48X	23.54	23.78	No	25 Pit, 25 Land
SKC 48X	23.73	24.88	No	28 Pit, 28 Land
Imation 48X	36.32	36.98	Yes	41 Pit, 42 Land
MAM 48X	22.98	23.10	No	27 Pit, 27 Land
TDK 48X	22.51	23.37	No	24 Pit, 25 Land

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11. C1 / C2 Error Measurements

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 11

Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 Error Measurements

The C1 / C2 error rate was measured for the recorded discs burned during the previous writing tests (jitter). The software used was UMDoctor Pro II, and the reader the Optorite DD0203 drive.

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 8x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 16x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 20x

• Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 24x

 

• Imation 48x recorded at 24x

- Summary

The results are very good, one could even say impressive. There were no C2 errors reported except for the TDK disc at the end. The C1 values are also all excellent except for TDK again at the end, and Imation which doesn't seem to agree with the drive at all.

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12. DVD Recording Tests

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 12

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

The Pioneer DVR-107D supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum supported speed for DVD±R is 8x Z-CLV and 4x CLV for DVD±RW.

Currently, only a few 8x certified DVD+R media are available on the market and fewer DVD-R 8x.

8x DVD-R

To test the writing strategy of the the Pioneer DVR-107D on the minus format we used Nero CDSpeed and a certified writing at 8x TY disc. The drive starts writing the specific media at 6x while the speed increased at 8x after 600mb. Despite the fact that CDSpeed identifies the writing type as P-CAV, the following screenshot clearly shows that it is indeed Z-CLV, confirming the manufacturers specification.

 

 

8x DVD+R

With plus media, the Pioneer drive supports 8x writing speed and uses Z-CLV writing strategy. For this test Nero CDSpeed "create disc" function. was not able to show the correct writting speed at 8x although Nero Burning Rom wrote the same disc at 8x.

 

 

 

4x DVD+RW

With DVD+RW media the drive supports 4x CLV writing. After the end of the test the manufacturers specifications were confirmed with start and end speed at around 4x.

 

 

 

4x DVD-RW

For the DVD-RW writing test we used a JVC-RW media certified writing at 4x. CDSpeed reported an average writing speed of 4x CLV.

 

 

 

 

- Burning Tests

The following graphs show the maximum writing speeds for all avaliable DVD formats for the Pioneer drive. For comparison, we also include the writing times for the Sony DRU-530A and Plextor PX-708 drives.

Because of the writing speed specifications for DVD-R/-RW, the Pioneer drive gave the lowest writing times among the three drives. For DVD+R/+RW media where all drives support 8x and 4x respectively, the Plextor drive was the fastest on the DVD+R writing with a burning time of 7:53 while Sony leads in the DVD+RW writing with burning time at 13:44

The following screenshots were taken from Nero, after successful burnings. The recording project is the same dvd-video compilation for all the tests.

• JVC 8x DVD-R

• MC 8x DVD+R

• JVC 4x DVD-RW

• MCC 4x DVD+RW

Media	Code	Speed
Mitshubishi Kagaku 8x DVD+R	MCC003	8x
JVC 8x DVD-R	TYG02	8x
TDK 4x DVD-R	TTG01	4x
Mam 4x DVD-R	MCI4XG01	4x
Pony 4x DVD-R	RITEKG04	4x
Verbatim 4x DVD-R	MCC01RG20	4x
CMC 4X DVD-R	CMCMAG.AF1	4x
CMC 8X DVD+R	CMCMAG EO1	4x
N-Tech 4x DVD-R	MXLRG01	2x
TY 4x DVD+R	YUDEN000T01	4x
PHILIPS DVD+RW 4X	PHILIPS 041	4x
JVC DVD-RW 4X	JVC0VictorD7	4x

The table above presents the writing speeds of the drive for the various media formats.

- Packet Writing Tests

For this test we copied a 403 MB file (412.822 KB) from Hard Disk (on the same PC as the recorder) to the formatted RW media through Windows explorer (drag and drop).

DVD-RW	Duration	Average speed
Read	2:31 min	2X
Write	2:57 min	1.99X

DVD+RW	Duration	Average speed
Read	2:02 min	2.5X
Write	1:26 min	3.5X

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13. KProbe PI/PO Error Measurements

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 13

KProbe PI/PO quality results

The following screenshots show the PI/PO scans for the various DVD-/+R and DVD-/+RW media, recorded with Pioneer DVR-107D at the maximum permitted speed.

The software used for the measurements was the KProbe v1.1.26, the ECC ws set to 8 and the reader was LiteOn LDW-811s. The specific methodology is very dependent on the drive used as a reader, while the reliability of the PI/PO provided output is also not technically confirmed. Hence as a result, we cannot safely come up with conclusive results, although we do make a comparison of the drive's behaviour when using various DVD recordable/rewritable media.

The discs used came from JVC, Verbatim, TDK, MAM, Ritek, CMC, Mitsubishi Chemicals, Taiyo Yuden and Philips. Further details about each disc type are presented at the bottom of this page.

• JVC 8x DVD-R (Recorded at 8x)

• VERBATIM 4x DVD-R (Recorded at 4x)

• TDK 4x DVD-R (Recorded at 4x)

• MAM 4x DVD-R (Recorded at 4x)

• RITEK 4x DVD-R (Recorded at 4x)

• CMC 4x DVD-R (Recorded at 4x)

• TY 4x DVD+R (Recorded at 4x)

• CMC 8x DVD+R ( Recorded at 4x)

• MITSUBISHI KAKAGU 8x DVD+R (Recorded at 8x)

• PHILIPS 4x DVD+RW (Recorded at 4x)

• JVC 4x DVD-RW (Recorded at 4x)

Media	Code
JVC 8X DVD-R	TTG02
VERBATIM 4X DVD-R	MCC01RG20
CMC 4X DVD-R	CMCMAG.AF1
TDK 4X DVD-R	TTG01
MAM 4X DVD-R	MCI4XG01
RITEK 4X DVD-R	RITEKG04
MITSUBISHI KAGAKU 8X DVD+R	MCC003
TY 4X DVD+R	TY T01
CMC MAGENTICS 8x DVD+R	CMCMAG EO1
PHILIPS DVD+RW 4X	PHILIPS 041
JVC DVD-RW 4X	JVC0VictorD7

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14. Conclusion

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Pioneer DVD±RW DVR-107D - Page 14

Conclusion

Pros	Cons
8x DVD+R writing 8x DVD-R writing 4x DVD+RW/-R writing 24/24/40 CD-RW Very Good CD/DVD error correction Very Good writing quality with CD Supports CD-Text (reading/writing) Supports reading of 99min audio discs Good DVD-Video ripping speed High DAE-Speed DVD-RAM reading Good CD/DVD writing quality Low 3T Jitter (CD)	Increased CD/DVD/DVD-RAM Full seek times Cannot playback/rip Key2Audio CD Slow ripping speed with Safedisc game discs 24x CD-R max write speed could be higher Does not support latest SafeDisc builds Overburning

With no doubt, most awaited features of the new Pioneer DVR-107D are its impressive DVD recording speeds. Although the 8x DVD-R media available in the market is limited, the drive reacted positively to JVC 8x DVD-R and gave us the best recording time for the -R format. Commenting on the DVD-RW's performance; Pioneer recorded at 4x with JVC DVD-RW discs. About the plus format, we achieved the maximum 8x writing speed with 8x Mitsubishi Chemicals media only. Generally, the drive did not allow 8x recording on any 4x DVD±R media. Although this behavior could protect users from creating low quality recordings, some DVD recording enthusiasts could be disappointed. Pioneer will release a new firmware for the drive expanding the supported DVD media list very soon.

But perhaps the most impressive results were the land and pit jitter measurements which were all very low. Coupled with the equally good results in the C1/C2 error measurement tests, it appears to be a high quality CD writer. This could be the reason for Pioneer's choice to support only maximum writing speed of 24x for CD-R, thus preserving writing quality. In case of DVD, the KProbe scannings gave adequate results even for the highest recording speeds.

The drive had high seek times (especially full), with CD media. However, its performance with the ABEX CD test discs was among the best we have seen and it managed to read successfully the first four check levels of the Audio Test Disc, and 2 out of 5 from the 5th level. Very few drives have managed to get that far.

With DVD and DVD-RAM media, it again had high seek times but managed to achieve good reading speeds. Here too, it continued its good performance with the ABEX suite of test discs, this time for DVD media where defects and scratches did not prove a problem for the drive.

With backups of protected game titles, as it is the case with most DVD recorders, it did not manage backing up the latest SafeDisc v2.x.x. schemes. SafeDisc builds higher than 2.51x were working only in the same drive. With Digital Audio Extraction, the drive could not read or rip the Key2Audio protected disc. Other than that, it managed to rip the contents of our 90/99min test discs and its speeds overall for audio extraction were satisfying.

The DVD writing tests produced some strange graphs where we encoutered undulations and spikes. Despite this there appeared to be no problems and the writing times were quite good.

Pioneer DVR-107D is available in the market for €150-200. The price is reasonable for an 8x dual DVD burner, although competition is very tough in the market. If you are seeking for quality and reliability, the Pioneer drive meets your requirements.