Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray Burner Preview

Test machine:

For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

⋅         Motherboard: ASUSTeK A8N-SLI DELUXE (nForce 4 SLI chipset)
⋅         Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Toledo) Dual Core
⋅         RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX 2CL DDR
⋅         GFX: Leadtek Winfast 6600 TD (PCI Express nVidia)
⋅         Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
⋅         Hard disk: 2X 250GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA 2)

System set-up:

The Pioneer BDR-101A was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as PIONEER BD-RW BDR-101A. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer BDR-101A supports BD-R/RE, but does not support CD-R/RW. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.01.

Installed Software:

Windows XP Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. We will be using the following software in this preview:

• Nero Burning ROM
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool  
• K-Probe v2.5.2

Features and techniques:

The Pioneer internal design is clean and well constructed.

From the above screenshots we can see that the Pioneer BDR-101A is driven by Pioneer’s own custom chipset.

An Introduction to Blu-Ray

Until recently, optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM relied on a red laser to read and write data, the Blu-Ray format uses a blue-violet laser, which explains the name Blu-ray.

A blue-violet laser (405nm) has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm); this makes it possible to focus the laser with even greater accuracy. This will allow data to be packed more tightly, so it’s possible to squeeze more data on the disc even though it’s the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 enables Blu-ray discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray drives can also be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

Now let’s take a look at the track pitch and compare them with that of DVD

As we can see in the above screenshots, the storage density of Blu-Ray is much higher than DVD. The Blu-Ray laser beam spot is also much narrower than that of DVD.

Blu-Ray Error specification:

In the above table we present some of the specifications for reported errors on Blu-Ray media. At present we have no equipment or software available for measuring these errors.

Writing Technology:

In the following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the Pioneer BDR-101A.

For these tests we simply burned a disc with Nero CD-Speed’s ‘create data disc” function.

Blu-Ray:

BD-R:

The Pioneer BDR-101A used CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write our BD-R disc at 2x, with a total writing time of 45 minutes and 3 seconds.

BD-RE:

The Pioneer BDR-101A used CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write our BD-RE disc at 2x, with a total writing time of 45 minutes and 33 seconds.

DVD±R:

DVD+R

The Pioneer BDR-101A used Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write our DVD+R disc at its maximum speed of 8x, with a total writing time of 10 minutes and 25 seconds.

DVD-R

The Pioneer BDR-101A used Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write our DVD-R disc at its maximum speed of 8x, with a total writing time of 10 minutes and 26 seconds.

DVD±RW:

DVD+RW:

The Pioneer BDR-101A used CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write our DVD+RW disc at its maximum speed of 4x, with a total writing time of 15 minutes and 15 seconds.

DVD-RW:

The Pioneer BDR-101A used CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write our DVD-RW disc at its maximum speed of 4x, with a total writing time of 14 minutes and 47 seconds.

DVD±R DL:

DVD+R DL:

The Pioneer BDR-101A used CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write our DVD+R DL disc at its maximum speed of 2.4x, with a total writing time of 44 minutes and 22 seconds.

DVD-R DL:

The Pioneer BDR-101A used CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write our DVD-R DL disc at its maximum speed of 2x, with a total writing time of 54 minutes and 13 seconds.

Book type (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer BDR-101A supports auto Bitsetting, and supports DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get the following screen:

DVD+R DL with book type DVD-ROM.

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

This should say DVD-ROM.

Now let us take a look at the reading performance of the Pioneer BDR-101A on the next page….