Turn off the Ad Banner  

To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu.

    -----------------------------------------------
This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,
located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.
-----------------------------------------------


Appeared on: Thursday, June 10, 2004
Pioneer DVR-S706-J


1. Retail Package - Installation

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 1

The Pioneer DVR-S706 is an external 8x DVD dual format optical disc drive compatible with all current formats such as DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and CDs. The external case has a fancy and stylish design and comes with connection interfaces for IEEE1394 firewire and USB2.0 ports. The drive can sit vertically or horizontally on your desk.

- Features

The DVR-S706 features 8x DVD±R writing, 4x DVD±RW rewriting, 24x CD-R writing, 24x CD-RW rewriting, 40x CD-ROM reading, 32x CD-RW reading and 12x DVD-ROM reading and 2x DVD-RAM reading. Buffer underrun protection is also supported.

 

 

 

Advanced technological features:

- Specifications
Host/Interface

USB 2.0 / USBB1.1 / USB1.0, IEEE1394

Usable Discs

Write Supported Discs:
4.7GB DVD-R for General, Version 2.0
4x-speed DVD-R Revision 1.0 for Video, for Data
6x-speed DVD-R Revision 2.0 for Video, for Data
8x-speed DVD-R Revision 3.0 for Video, for Data

4.7GB DVD-RW Version 1.1
2x-speed DVD-RW Revision 1.0 for Video, for Data

4.7GB DVD-RW Version 1.2
2x-speed DVD-RW Revision 1.0 for Video, for Data
4x-speed DVD-RW Revision 2.0 for Video, for Data

DVD+R Version 1.2
DVD+RW Version 1.2
CD-R, CD-RW

Read Supported Discs:
DVD-R (for Video, for Data)
DVD-RW (for Video, for Data)
DVD+R Version 1.2
DVD+RW Version 1.2
DVD-RAM Version 2.0/Version 2.1
DVD-ROM Single Layer, Dual Layer
Audio CD, CD-TEXT, Photo-CD, CD-EXTRA, Video CD, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW

Write speed

DVD-R: 8x-speed (Zone CLV), 6x-speed, 4x-speed, 2x-speed, 1x-speed

DVD-RW: 4x-speed, 2x-speed, 1x-speed

DVD+R: 8x-speed (Zone CLV), 6x-speed, 4x-speed , 2.4x-speed

DVD+RW: 4x-speed, 2.4x-speed

CD-R: 24x-speed (Zone CLV), 16x-speed , 8x-speed, 4x-speed

US-RW: 24x-speed (Zone CLV), 16x-speed

HS-RW: 10x-speed, 4x-speed

Read speed

DVD-R: Max.8x-speed

DVD-RW: Max.8x-speed

DVD+R: Max.8x-speed

DVD+RW: Max.8x-speed

DVD-RAM: 2x-speed (CLV)

DVD-ROM (Single Layer):
Quiet mode: Max.5x-speed
Performance mode: Max.12x-speed

DVD-ROM (Dual Layer):
Quiet mode: Max.5x-speed
Performance mode: Max.8x-speed

DVD-Video (Dual layer):
Quiet mode: Max.5x-speed
Performance mode: Max.8x-speed

CD-ROM: Max.40x-speed

Video CD: Max.9.3x-speed

Audio CD (Data extraction):
Quiet mode: Max.9.3x-speed
Performance mode: Max.40x-speed

CD-R: Max.40x-speed

CD-RW: Max.32x-speed

Buffer memory
2 MB with Buffer Underrun Protection
Weight
2.1kg
Dimensions (WxDxH)
167mm x 272.8mm x 56.2mm

The drive uses a 2MB buffer memory store and supports RAW-DAO96 writing (CD). The drive does not support writing of DVD-RAM, DVD+R DL and Mount Rainier formats as well as DVD+R DL and CD+G reading features. The drive uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. There is "patched" firmware that can disable RPC1 protection, but is not recommended for amateur users. Use it at your own risk.

For our tests, we changed the region code to 2 (Europe) (hence the reason 4 changes left in the screenshot above). Using DVDInfoPro software we can also check the drive's features:

The screenshot above was taken after the tests were completed, and after Pioneer had released the new firmware, hence this is the reason why the Firmware Revision is shown as 1.16.

- Retail package

The retail package includes an AC adaptor (AC100V), one USB cable (1m), two IEEE1394 cables, one 6pin - 6pin, 1.5m and one 6pin - 4pin, 1.5m. Also included are two stands for vertical mounting.

The drive's front panel's color is black and the case is silver. On the tray loader on the left side we can see the 8X8 DVD writing logo, in the middle the DVD-R/RW logo and on the right side the RW DVD+ReWritable logo, UltraSpeed Rewritable logo and the DVD Multi Player logo (the drive supports reading of DVD-RAM media).

Below from left to right we can also see the power/operation led (lights dark blue when on), the Pioneer logo and the eject button. The emergency eject hole is located below the 8x8 DVD writing logo.

On the rear panel you can see two firewire and one USB 2.0 connectors, the power button and the power connection.

- Installation

The device was connected to our test PC using a firewire connection and was identified as "Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-107D" under WinXP, which is the same id as the DVR-107D internal drive from Pioneer. All tests were done with firmware revision 1.15.

By the time we finished all tests, Pioneer had released a new firmware revision (v1.16) that supported more media types for 8X DVD-R writing:

The following pages include test results for the Pioneer DVR-S706 drive compared with the internal Pioneer DVR-107D drive to check performance differences between the external firewire and the internal atapi drive.

- Testing software

In order to perform our tests we used:

  1. Nero CD-DVD Speed v3.00
  2. CDVD Benchmark v1.21
  3. ExactAudioCopy v0.9 beta5
  4. Nero Info Tool v2.21
  5. KProbe v2.1.0 (Reader: LiteOn LDW-811S firmware vHS0Q, Reading speed 8X CAV)
  6. PlexTools v2.13 (Reader: Plextor PX-712A firmware v1.01, Reading speed 8X CLV for CD-R)
  7. DVDInfoPro v2.54
  8. Nero Burning Rom v6.3.1.10

2. Data CD Reading Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 2

Data CD Reading Tests

- Pressed CD results (Click for CDSpeed results)

The Pioneer DVR-S706 supports up to 40X reading speed. Below are the transfer rate graphs:

The drive has an acceptable transfer rate and the seek times are good except for the full seek time which is a little high.
- CD-R results (Click for CDSpeed results)

We made a copy of the previous pressed CD in order to test the drive's behavior with CD-R media. As with the previous test, the Pioneer and its twin, the DVR-107D, exhibit very similar results.

The resulting seek times are close to those with pressed CD.

- ReWritable Media (Click for CDSpeed results)

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

No differences here also between the external and the internal drive.


3. CD Error Correction Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 3

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: 1251308
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
Num: 55396 Avg: - 73.0 dB(A) Max: -14.7 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples
Num: 3952 Avg: 1.0 Samples Max: 40 Samples
Skips Samples
Num: 0 Avg: 0.0 Samples Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result
76.5 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

The performance with this disc is satisfactory. The total error count is a little on the high side, and the maximum loudness error level is also high at -14.7 dB(A). There were no skipped samples and the total score is quite acceptable.

- ABEX TCD-726

Errors total
Num: 1374
Errors (Loudness) dB(A)
Num: 71 Avg:-69.6 dB(A) Max:-50.4 dB(A)
Error Muting Samples
Num: 14 Avg:1.1 Samples Max: 2 Samples
Skips Samples
Num: 0 Avg: 0 Samples Max: 0 Samples
Total Test Result
88.7 points (out of 100.0 maximum)

The Abex TCD-726 test disc is a usually a simpler test for error correction. The DVR-S706 drive did not perform as well as could be expected. The total error count isn`t high and there are only a few muted samples. Nonetheless, the better drives usually manage no errors with this disc and a perfect score or close to. The total score 88.7 out of 100 is acceptable.

- 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 being reproduced through a software multimedia player (i.e. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone 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
BTC DRW 1108IM
5/5
5/5
5/5
5/5
0/5

The drive performed very well here. It managed to playback five out of five attempts for four of the five levels. The attempt can be considered much better than average as most drives manage to play up to the third only.

- Summary

Test Disc
Reading Speed
Score
ABEX TCD-721R
Max
76.5
ABEX TCD-726
88.7
Average Score
82.6

The final average score for the drive is good.


4. DVD reading tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 4

DVD reading tests

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

The transfer rates and seek times are more or less the same. Full stroke seek time is a little higher compared with other DVD recorders..

- 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.

The DVD dual layer speed results reach a high level. The seek times still are good.

- 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 disc's second layer. 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.

As can been seen from the following screenshot, the OTP dual layer DVD test disc had the same speed as the PTP. The seek times are at about the same levels.

- DVD Ripping Tests

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

Here DVR-S706 drive was slower than DVR-107D. The reported 3041 kb/s is an average transfer rate. This happens because of the different firmware between two drives.

- DVD Recordable / Rewritable reading Tests

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

- DVD RAM reading test

CD Speed reports CLV read mode with DVD-RAM media. The disc we used for this test is a Panasonic DVD-RAM 4.7GB Single Sided Type 2 rewritable media. Disc was read at 2x speed and full seek time was increased.

 

 

 


5. DVD Error Correction Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 5

DVD Error Correction Tests

In the following tests we examined the DVD reading capabilities of DVR-S706 drive with scratched / defective DVD media. For the tests we used CDVD Benchmark and Nero CDSpeed. The testing media referred, 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 read the contents of the 821 test disc without any read errors.

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 of the TDR-821, with the difference that there are no scratches on the surface but defective areas ranging in dimensions from 0.5 to 1.1 mm.

There are also fingerprints with height between 65 and 75 micrometers.

Here too, the drive managed to read the defective areas on the disc without problems.

- 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.

The drive continues without problems.

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 from 65 to 75 microns (micrometers).

Test finished successfully without reporting any read errors.

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 testing pictures and 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 reading speed of the drive increased smoothly in the first layer, but the layer switch produced a sharp drop in speed from 8.45x tojust above 6x, but finished the test successfully, without read errors.

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 micrometer high fingerprints.

No errors or speed fluctuations were reported. This disc was not a problem for the DVR-S706 drive.


6. DAE Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 6

DAE Tests

- Pressed and CDR AudioCD

DVR-S706 uses 40x CAV reading strategy for CD-DA. Below you can see the results from the CDSpeed transfer rate test with a pressed audio CD:

According to Nero CDSpeed, the average reading speed was 31.04x, while at the end of the reading process it reached a maximum speed of 41.28x. The seek times are also good, although the full seek time is a little high.

When using a pressed AudioCD and its CD-R copy, with EAC, we logged the following results:

The DVR-107D was slightly faster than the DVR-S706 with these test discs. As EAC reports, the drive caches DAE, supports accurate stream but can`t report C2 error information.

- Advanced DAE Quality

The Pioneer DVR-S706 received a score of 100 (perfect) in the Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test. CDSpeed showed that the average reading speed is 26.61X, and that the drive supports reading CD Text but doesn`t support Leadin / Leadout data, CD read subchannel data and best, on the fly copying occurs at 4x speed.

- Reading 90/ 99mins AudioCDs

Click To Enlarge!

Pioneer DVR-S706 managed to read a full 90min audio CD without problems.

Click To Enlarge!

Pioneer DVR-S706 managed to read a full 99min audio CD without problems.


7. Protected AudioCD Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 7

Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used three audio discs with different audio copy protection schemes. The ripping process for all protected Audio discs was performed with Exact Audio Copy v0.9beta5.

The tested protected Audio discs were:

The Cactus Data Shield 200, contains artificial errors that are not easy to bypassed from the reader, while the Key2Audio contains a second session, causing problems to readers when trying to read the Table Of Contents (TOC).

The tested tasks are:

The Pioneer DVR-S706 recognized up to the 12th Audio track of CDS200 disc,

and with the "Retrieve Native TOC" option removed the 13th Data track.

The test results are shown at the following table:

Key2Audio
CDS200
Pioneer DVR-S706
Drive recognizes the disc but cannot play or rip the contents
Ripping process completed, Read&Test CRC comparison not the same for all tracks

While the Pioneer will rip CDS200 protected audio discs, it can`t do the same with Key2Audio where it recognized the disc but couldn`t play or rip the tracks.

This is a "special" CDS200 build, since it doesn't contain any artificial errors during the ripping process. Most problems occur when trying to write the ripped wav files, since the produced CD-R disc contains C2 and CU errors! This "problem" is rumoured to be connected to specific chipset weaknesses...

We ripped the disc contents with EAC and burned the produced wav with the latest Nero version as AudioCD+CD-Text. The burned media was checked for C1/C2 errors with PlexTools/KProbe software using Plextor PX-712A (firmware v1.01) and LiteOn LDW-811S (firmware vHS0Q).

CDS 200.0.4 - 3.0 build 16a
Pioneer DVR-S706
Reading performed without any errors as well as writing process

The C1/C2 error graphs indicate that the drive managed to produce a 100% error free disc.

Lets try to extract all wav files with the Plextor PX-712A and PlexTool DAE Error Correction 5th Level enabled:

No errors were reported after extracting all files. The drive's error correction mechanism corrected the errors.


8. Game Protection Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 8

Protected Disc Tests
- Reading Tests

To create an image of various protected titles onto a hard disk we used Alcohol v.1.9.2.1705 software and the appropriate settings depending on the protection type of the inserted discs. Below, the capabilities of the Pioneer drive are summarized according to CloneCD software. As can be seen 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 DVR-S706 managed to rip the contents of all test discs successfully without major differences compared to the DVR-107D, except with SecuROM where it was slower.

- Writing Tests

The DVR-S706 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 having the latest software patches installed. After making the images of the various titles onto the hard disk, we burned them (maximum speed) with Alcohol 120% v1.9.2.1705. Two different discs were created for each title; one with the "Bypass EFM error" enabled and one more with the function disabled.

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

Drive

Fifa 2004
SD v3.1

Sims Superstar SD v2.9
Sims Unleashed SD v2.8
Serious Sam-Second Encounter
SD v2.51.051
Max Payne
SD v2.51.020
EFM OFF
EFM ON
EFM OFF
EFM ON
EFM OFF
EFM ON
EFM OFF
EFM ON
EFM OFF
EFM ON
Toshiba
SD-M1502
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Creative CD5233E
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes

Pioneer
DVR-S706

No
No
No
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes

The drive didn`t managed to make working backups of all the game titles we tried. SafeDisc v2.8 and v2.6 discs wre backed up, but the burned CD was usable only on the same drive. Only with SafeDisc v2.51 was the burned CD operational with other drives.


9. CD Recording Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 9

CD Recording Tests

- CD-R Writing Tests

The Pioneer DVR-S706 drive supports 4x, 8x, 16x, 24x, writing speeds. Below you can see the CDSpeed writing simulation graph with Taiyo Yuden 48x CD-R media. The simulation test under Nero CD Speed confirmed the manufacturer's specifications of 24x Z-CLV recording. The average speed was 22.42x.

Click for the full graph!

- Recording Times

We created an 80min data compilation with Nero Burning Rom and recorded it on a 700MB disc. The DVR-S706 needed 4:26 to conclude the burning procedure which was the faster time between the two drives.

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

- CD-RW Writing Tests

The drive supports 24x Z-CLV maximum rewriting speed with Ultra Speed rewritable media. Below you can see the results from the CDSpeed writing simulation test with blank 24x US-RW media from Mitsubishi Chemicals.

The test once again confirmed the drive's specifications for 24x rewriting. The average speed at the end of the test was 22.31x.

Click for the full graph!

We also used Nero Burning Rom software to burn a 24x US-RW data media from Mitsubishi Chemicals. The data compilation we burned onto the disc had a size of 651 MB. The duration of the recording process was 4:01 minutes.

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

- CD-RW Mount Rainier Tests

We used Philips Mount Rainier Validation Suite v2.2 to test the drive's compliance with the Mount Rainier format. None of the three scripts loaded in the Validation Suite (mandatory command set, Light R'n'R and Heavy R'n'R) worked, since the drive doesn't support Mount Rainier format.


10. Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 10

Writing Quality Tests - 3T Jitter Tests

With Nero audio compilation we burned various media and tested for jitter. The recording speed was the maximum allowable in all cases. The following graphs indicate the 3T Pit & Land Jitter results.

- 3T Pit results

According to results from jitter measurements, the Pioneer drive performed well with some of the media brands we used. MAM and That`s proved to be very good combinations with the Pioneer recorder but Taiyo Yuden returned high jitter results.

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

- 3T Land results

The land jitter values were almost at the same levels as the 3T pit jitter where MAM media produced the best results.

Recording Speed
Average 3T Pit Jitter (ns)
Average 3T Land Jitter (ns)
> 35ns
Max 3T jitter values (ns)
CMC 48x
31,54
34
No
33 Pit, 35 Land
That`s 48x
29,80
32,93
No
32 Pit, 38 Land
Traxdata 52x
32,78
32,63
No
36 Pit, 35 Land
Mam 52x
28,59
27,32
No
32 Pit, 30 Land
Taiyo Yuden 48x
34,34
36
Yes
43 Pit, 41 Land

The drive performed poorly only with Taiyo Yuden media while MAM media had the best values.

On the following page we check the C1 and C2 error rates for the same discs.


11. Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 / CU Error Measurements

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 11

Writing Quality Tests - C1 / C2 / CU Error Measurements

The C1 / C2 / CU error rate was measured from the recorded discs burned during the previous writing tests (jitter). The software used is PlexTools Professional v2.11 and the reader is the Plexwritter Premium drive.

MEDIA
C1
C2
CU
Taiyo Yuden
Avg/Sec
0.4
0
0
Max/Sec
19
0
0
Total
2077
0
0
CMC
Avg/Sec
1.5
0
0
Max/Sec
37
51
0
Total
7361
92
0
That`s
Avg/Sec
0.7
0.1
0
Max/Sec
23
35
0
Total
3435
690
0
Traxdata
Avg/Sec
4.5
3.4
0
Max/Sec
45
304
0
Total
21536
16227
0
Mam
Avg/Sec
4.4
1.3
0
Max/Sec
54
125
0
Total
20973
6449
0
  • Taiyo Yuden 48x recorded at 24x

  • CMC Magnetics 48x recorded at 24x

- Summary

According to our measurements CD writing quality is generally good.

- Appendix

Media Label
ID Code
Manufacturer Name
Lead Out Time
MMore 80min 52X
97m17s 6f
Moser Baer India
79m59s74f
Intenso 80min 52X
97m32s19f
Prodisc
79m59s71f
CMC Magnetics 80min 48X
97m26s66f
CMC Magnetics
79m59s71f
Mam SGUltra 80min 52X
97m27s58f
Mitsui Chemicals
79m59s74f
BenQ 80min 48X
97m22s67f
Daxon Technology
79m59s74f
TY 80min 48X
97m24s 1f
Taiyo Yuden
79m59s72f
TraxData 80min 52X
97m15s17f
Ritek
79m59s70f

12. DVD Recording Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 12

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

The Pioneer DVR-S706 supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum supported speed for DVD+R and DVD-R is 8x Z-CLV and 4x CLV for DVD+/-RW media.

An 8x DVD+R disc from CMC was used to check the 8x writing strategy of the drive. The software used was Nero CDSpeed, with its "create disc" function.

Click for the full graph!

The drive start writing at 6x and end at 8.36x with an average speed at 7.64x.

Simulation with 8x DVD-R was almost the same as with 8x DVD+R media.

Click for the full graph!

Click for the full graph!

Click for the full graph!

- Burning Tests

The best recording times are illustrated in the following table. The values were taken after burning 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media, using the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc.

There is not much between the two drives as their values are very close, except with DVD+RW where the DVR-S706 was 1:18min faster.

The table below presents the writing speeds, media name and media code for the various discs used.
Media
Code
Speed
MMore 4x DVD+R
MBIPG101
4x
Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R
MCC 002
4x
Plextor 8x DVD+R
YUDEN000 T02
8x
CMC 8x DVD+R
CMC MAG E01
8x
Traxdata 8x DVD+R
RITEK R03
8x
Traxdata 8x DVD-R
RITEKG05
8x
MMore 4x DVD-R
MBI 01RG20
4x
CMC 8x DVD-R
CMCMAG.AE1
8x
BenQ 4x DVD-R
SONY04D1
4x
Mitsubishi Kagaku 8x DVD-R
MCC 02RG20
8x
Traxdata 4x DVD+RW
RICOHJPN W11
4x
Traxdata 4x DVD-RW
RITEKW04
4x

- DVD Overburning Tests

In order to test the drive's DVD overburning capabilities, we used two media types, one from CMC Mangetics 8X DVD-R and one from Traxdata 8X DVD+R. As you can see, the drive refused to start the test with both media types,

- DVD+MRW Tests

The Pioneer drive doesn't support the Mount Rainier format.


13. PI/PO quality results for DVD+R/RW

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 13

PI/PO quality results for DVD+R/RW

In the following screenshots you can see the PI/PIF scans for the DVD+R/RW media we burned with the Pioneer DVR-S706. The software we used for all measurements is the KProbe v2.1.0, and the reader is the LiteOn LDW-811S with "HS0Q patched" firmware, being able to read DVD±R/RW media up to 8X CAV. All scans have been performed at 8X with PI/PIF Sum8. Note that LiteOn drives cannot report PO but PIF errors, despite what KProbe reports. In addition, all discs have been scanned with PX-712A v1.01 using PlexTools v2.14 for comparison levels.

Comparing the KProbe/PlexTools scans we can see major differences in the reported PI/PIF error rates. The main explanation is that we have two different readers, with different pickup/chipset combinations, scanning at different reading speeds (8X CAV for KProbe, 2X CLV for PlexTools). It's interesting to see the disc scanned at low & high speed, since when error rate increases at a specific disc area, it should appear in both scans...else it would be, perhaps, a reading glitch of the tested reader.

Note: PI/PIF errors only give us a quick look at the error rate of the burned media. Those scans should be taken not as the absolute criteria of the burning quality but as an indication level.

The drive showed good writing quality, combined with good performance and compatibility with all the DVD+ media we used.

- Appendix

Media
Code
MMore 4x DVD+R
MBIPG101
Mitsubishi Chemicals 4x DVD+R
MCC 002
Plextor 8x DVD+R
YUDEN000 T02
CMC 8x DVD+R
CMC MAG E01
Traxdata 8x DVD+R
RITEK R03
Traxdata 4x DVD+RW
RICOHJPN W11

14. PI/PO quality results for DVD-R/RW

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 14

PI/PO quality results for DVD-R/RW

In the following screenshots you can see the PI/PIF scans for the DVD+R/RW media we burned with the Pioneer DVR-S706. The software we used for all measurements is the KProbe v2.1.0, and the reader is the LiteOn LDW-811S with "HS0Q patched" firmware, being able to read DVD±R/RW media up to 8X CAV. All scans have been performed at 8X with PI/PIF Sum8. Note that LiteOn drives cannot report PO but PIF errors, despite what KProbe reports. In addition, all discs have been scanned with PX-712A v1.01 using PlexTools v2.14 for comparison levels.

Comparing the KProbe/PlexTools scans we can see major differences in the reported PI/PIF error rates. The main explanation is that we have two different readers, with different pickup/chipset combinations, scanning at different reading speeds (8X CAV for KProbe, 2X CLV for PlexTools). It's interesting to see the disc scanned at low & high speed, since when error rate increases at a specific disc area, it should appear in both scans...else it would be, perhaps, a reading glitch of the tested reader.

Note: PI/PIF errors only give us a quick look at the error rate of the burned media. Those scans should be taken not as the absolute criteria of the burning quality but as an indication level.

The drive reported good writing quality with the majority of the media except for Mitsubishi Kagaku 8X DVD-R media.

- Appendix

Media
Code
Traxdata 8x DVD-R
RITEKG05
MMore 4x DVD-R
MBI 01RG20
CMC 8x DVD-R
CMCMAG.AE1
BenQ 4x DVD-R
SONY04D1
Mitsubishi Kagaku 8x DVD-R
MCC 02RG20
Traxdata 4x DVD-RW
RITEKW04

15. BitSetting Tests

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 15

Booktype BitSetting

The Pioneer drive doesn't support Booktype Bitsetting since Pioneer believes that such ID changes are illegal, according to DVD-Forum specs.


16. Noise Reduction

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 16

QuietDrive Utility

?Honeycomb chassis? reduces the drives? resonance.

When a disc?s rotation gets faster, the ?sweeping-wind? noise levels become much more audible.To dampen this noise level, the DVR-A07XL has employed a Honeycomb chassis design in order to lessen the noise vibration made by the upper shell hard. Additional noise-absorbing pads are placed on the internal side of the shell.

?Quiet Firmware? further reduces the drives noise.

When the disc?s rotation gets faster, noise levels become much more audible. To dampen this noise level, the DVR-A07XL has adopted a switch-able firmware version which is used in conjunction with the ?Quiet Drive Utility?.

There are 3 modes available in the ?Quiet Drive Utility?
- Quiet Mode
- Performance Mode
- Standard Mode

Fanless Desing

With continued development and refinement, DVD writers can achieve recordings at ultra-high speed without the need for an additional cooling fan to reduce any internally generated heat.

According to Pioneer the combination of those three features reduse the noise levels up to 75% ( compared to DVR-107D).


17. Conclusion

PIONEER DVR-S706 DVD±R/RW recorder - Page 17

Conclusion

The Pioneer DVR-S706 is an external, stylishly designed multiformat DVD writer. Created to offer connection flexibility between different computers, it is a good buy for users who need to transport a burner between different computers and different operating systems, such as Windows Operating Systems, Mac Operating Systems, Linux, etc Pioneer, is a well known company for its drivers and firmware support, and warranty coverage.

The Pioneer drive performed nicely reading CDs, having good seek times. The error correction test results are also good, reaching higher than an average performance.

DVD reading was acceptable with both recordable and pressed media. Seek times were also good along with error correction capabilities. Only full seek times were a bit high. The drive managed to playback all of our test discs without reporting any errors or problems.

The Pioneer managed to make compatible working backups only with SafeDisc 2.51. With SafeDisc v2.8 & v2.6 the burned CD was usable only on the same drive.

The DVR-S706 behaved nicely with the CDS200 protection scheme while with Key2Audio protection, the drive recognizes the disc but cannot play or rip the contents. The drive can play our 90min & 99min AudioCDs.

The Pioneer burns quality CDs, as was the case with four of the five various media we used, where we had low jitter values. High C2 errors occurred with Traxdata and MAM media, but it seems not to be a problem as both of the media were usable (this was double checked with CDSpeed and OS). Also, overburning for 90min (800MB) and 99min (880MB) is not supported.

DVD burning showed compatibility with various manufacturer's media we used except for Mitsubishi Kagaku where there were read problems at specific points, changing the speed. General conclusions, it had good writing times and acceptable PI/PIF levels.

Booktype Bitsetting for +R/RW format and Mount Rainier for CD/DVD is not supported by the drive.

The drive is priced at around $260, which is not a high price for an external DVD writer offering high compatibility with the majority of the media.

- The Good

- The Bad

- Like to be fixed



Home | News | All News | Reviews | Articles | Guides | Download | Expert Area | Forum | Site Info
Site best viewed at 1024x768+ - CDRINFO.COM 1998-2024 - All rights reserved -
Privacy policy - Contact Us .