Pioneer
DVR-A03 IDE DVD-R/RW- Page
2
- Compatibilty
This is a very important part. Pioneer's marketing brochures
state: "...DVD-R/RW offers DVD-Video playback compatibility
with the majority of DVD-ROM equipped PCs and DVD-Video set top players. DVD-R/RW
disc is 100% logically and physically compatible with the DVD-Video standard..."
but real life shows slight different facts. There are several lists (DVDMadeEasy,
YesVideo.com,
HomeMovie.com,
and Apple),
that indicate player compatibility with DVD-R discs. Take a look and see if
your DVD player supports DVD-R media. After checking those lists we saw that
many DVD players support DVD-R media, but also there are many others that don't
:(.
Almost all newer DVD players should support both DVD-R/W media, and you
should have a closer look at the players specs, but you should be more concerned
about older ones. We did try to play a DVD-R disc with the Shinco
DVD8320 DVD player but the results were negative. Pioneer says that: "...It
should be possible to achieve playback on many DVD players and DVD-ROM drives,
barring some exceptions. Formats released by the DVD Forum are specifications
for the MEDIA only. Although a recorded DVD-R disc falls within the same specifications
as DVD-ROM (DVD-VIDEO), because the formats are media-related ONLY, support
will be entirely up to the hardware maker. According to a study conducted by
media makers, DVD-R media is capable of playback on many players with some exceptions.Examples
where playback may not be possible: Since the DVD-R Book was released AFTER
the DVD-VIDEO Book, 1st generation DVD-VIDEO players may have problems reading
DVD-R media. Also, some SLIM DVD-ROM drives and portable DVD players have been
known to have problems reading DVD-R media. It is recommended that when the
size of data is such that it will fit on a 3.95GB DVD-R then 3.95 blank media
should be used. This will ensure the widest compatibility with various brands
and models of DVD Players and DVD-ROM drives..."
As it seems the 3.95GB of media offers better compatibility than
the newer 4.7GB: "...The first issue is that 3.95GB media
has been around for some time now and many manufacturers have already designed
and released their products over 12 months ago to play this media. Secondly
4.7GB media has a finer track pitch, added to the fact that recordable media
has a lower reflectivity than normally replicated discs, some players have a
problem resolving the tracks and there for reading the data. It is fully expected
that as the various manufacturers design and release their newer models of DVD
Players and ROM drives that they will ensure their design is able to read 4.7GB
DVD-R media version 2.0. This is a similar situation that occurred when CD-R
was first released onto the market..."
Of course the Pioneer DVR-A03 cannot write 3.95GB media but that
is a totally different issue ;-)...
- The package:
We
got the retail European version of the drive. This included: The drive itself,
a short multilingual manual (7 languages), 5 pieces of Pioneer 74min CD-R blank,
2 pieces of Pioneer 4.7GB DVD-R "for General use" media, one piece
of Pioneer's 4.7GB DVD-RW v1.1, mounting crews, jumper, an ejection stick and
a STAEDLER LUMOCOLOR pen. The software supplied with the drive was Instant CD/DVD
v6.02, Sony MyDVD v2.33 and PowerDVD 3.0. The package is available worldwide
at the price of $620-650.
The front of the drive contains the "Pioneer", "DVD-R/W",
and "CD-R/W" logos. There are also two leds, the eject button and
the headphone input jack/volume selector. The exact colors for the "Read/Write"
led are: during reading it is "Green", during writing it is "Orange",
and when an error occurs it blinks "Orange". For the "Disc"
led, when tray is opened or closed it blinks "Green", when a read
only disc is loaded it lights "Green", when a recordable disc is loaded
it lights "Orange", and when an unsupported disc is loaded it blinks
"Orange":
On the back of the drive there are the usual connectors (IDE interface, power),
the jumpers for setting the drive as a Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector,
the analog/digital output connectors and a 2.7cm built-in fan for keeping the
drive at a low temperature. Don't forget that the DVD-R writing produces higher
temperatures than CD-R recording:
- Installation:
The
Pioneer DVR-A03 was installed as a Master in the secondary IDE BUS. Note that
Pioneer suggests using ONLY 40pin and not an 80pin IDE cable for drive
installation. The reason is unknown to us, but we followed Pioneer's instructions
just to be on the safe side. The drive worked in PIO MODE4 mode and after rebooting,
it identified itself as the "Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-103". We unchecked
the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted.
The
drive was a June 2001 model with firmware revision v1.55 installed. We used
Nero Burning ROM (5.5.4.0), Ahead InCD (2.26), CloneCD (3.0.8.2), Padus DJ (3.50.799),
InstantCD/DVD v6.02, Gear DVD Pro v2.03RC3, Prassi PrimoDVD v2.0.749 and Sonic
MyDVD v2.33 for the CD/DVD recording/authoring tests.
- 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
ATI AIW 128
Pioneer DVR-A03 firmware v1.55
