Test machine

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: ATI HD 4870 (512 Megabytes GDDR5 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster 245B 24” widescreen LCD (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) with Service Pack 1

System setup:

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK was connected to the master channel on the main boards JMicron’s PATA controller.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer DVR-116DBK supports DVD-RAM read, but not write. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.06.

Drive internals:

Now let’s take a look at the Pioneer DVR-116DBK internal layout.

Internal PCB and drive mechanism

We can see the Pioneer DVR-116DBK is powered by an NEC chipset, although the revision number proved nearly impossible to read, we are pretty sure the chipset is the NEC MC-10043B chipset.

Installed software:

For conducting our various tests, we will be using the following applications.

• Nero Burning Rom 8
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• DVDFab Platinum
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed with Service Pack 1.

Features and techniques

Pioneer Drive Utility

Pioneer has produced a utility aimed at making sure you get a good quality burn on any media. This utility seems to achieve this by slowing down the burning speed automatically. Below is a screenshot of the utility.

Drive Utility

Simply clicking on the “enable” radio button and, then ticking the “Saves optimal writing speed setting to drive” and then clicking on “Apply” will save this setting to the drive. It can be disabled later on by using the utility once more.

We tested the feature on one disc, a Verbatim MCC004. The burning speed was reduced to 6x. The result is below.

The writing quality is excellent, but 6x is rather slow for this media.

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK supports automatic bit-setting and supports Bit-Setting on DVD+R DL media via burning applications such as Nero Burning Rom.

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 something like this:

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM

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

Writing technique

Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Pioneer DVR-116DBK:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 40x.

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. This gives an average speed of 30.19x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 19 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer DVR-116DBK was one of the slowest drives when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.96x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 2 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer DVR-116DBK was the slowest drive when writing CD-RW media.

20x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 20x.

DVD+R

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.61x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 40 seconds.

DVD-R

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.60x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 46 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our table, the Pioneer DVR-116DBK was above average when writing our test DVD R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.83x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 19 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK was one of the fastest drives when writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.01x and a total writing time of 9 minutes and 53 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK was one of the fastest drives when writing DVD-RW media.

12x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 12x. Unfortunately we did not have any media that the Pioneer DVR-116DBK could write at 12x

10x DVD+R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 10X. This gives an average speed of 8.37x and a total writing time of 14 minutes and 36 seconds.

12x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer DVR-116DBK, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 12x. Unfortunately we did not have any media that the Pioneer DVR-116DBK could write at 12x

10x DVD-R DL writing speed:

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 10X. This gives an average speed of 8.19x and a total writing time of 15 minutes and 22 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK was one of the fastest drives when writing double layer media.

Summary:

The Pioneer DVR-116DBK has excellent writing performance on DVD media. Writing performance on CD-R media is not as fast as the Pioneer DVR-116DBK is restricted to 40x writing speed.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….