CDR Tests

The Pioneer DVR-A03 supports 4x and 8x (CLV) writing. The drive does not utilise any anti-buffer underrun technology and the included 2MB of buffer seems enough to cover your needs, if you leave the PC alone while writing. We did our tests with Nero v5.5.4.9/5.5.5.1, CloneCD v3.0.8.2 and Padus DJ v3.50.799 software. For the CDR tests we used: Creation 74min (12x), Taiyo Yuden 74 & 80min (24x), Mitsui 74min (24 & 16x) and Verbatim/TDK 74min HS-RW media.

- CD-R Tests:
We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly higher than 74mins (74:03:65). We burned the same job with all three drives, using the same media:

The Pioneer DVR-A03 needs 596secs to finish the task, which seems a very good result, compared to other 8x CLV writers. The CPU usage stays on normal levels (8.5%).

- 80min CDs:
Following the same procedure as in the previous test, we created a DataCD with data lower than 80min (79:49:50). The Pioneer DVR-A03 supports overburning and seems much faster than other 8x CLV writers:

- Writing Quality Tests

We used Creation 74min CD-R 12x certified media (real manufacturer Plasmon), and wrote a full 74min CD. All CDs were burned with Nero 5.5.3.0, and they were Audio CDs with 74:51:27 length size. The produced CDs were measured from DigitalDrives and the results are very interesting:

The Pioneer DVR-A03 produced 6.4 average C1 errors, when using low quality media from "Creation". When using high quality media (such as Taiyo Yuden 80min 24x), it produced very low C1 error rates (0.3 average). The following graph comes from the Creation 74min 12x media:

- Overburning Tests:
Our attempts to overburn with the Pioneer DVR-A03 weren't successful. The drive kept locking up at the end of the project with 99mins media.

- CD-Text Results:
We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. The Pioneer DVR-A03 can write/read CD-Text without any problems.

- CloneCD Tests:
CloneCD v3.0.8.2 reports that the Pioneer DVR-A03 drive supports only SAO-RAW writing mode. According to our tests, Pioneer DVR-A03 cannot work with CloneCD in all available writing modes since it rejects the CUE sheet file as the CloneCD software reports:

We also tested the Pioneer with other RAW capable software and we had similar results. In other words the Pioneer DVR-A03 doesn't support neither RAW-SAO or RAW-DAO writing mode.

- 8cm mini CDs:
The Pioneer DVR-A03 does support 8cm CDs without any problems.

- Buffer Underrun tests:
The Pioneer DVR-A03 doesn't support anti-buffer underrun protection. This means that you will be able to do some work with your PC, but nothing too hard or else you will get a buffer underrun.