Pioneer DVR-A08XLA DVD Burner

Author

Jan70
Senior Administrator
Article posted 06 Nov 04 17:58

DVD-R/±RW Writing performance

 

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:



 

Brand:

Verbatim Data Life Plus

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi ChemicalsSingapore

Code:

MCC02RG20

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

6m:51s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

114.70

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

4.17

Oopsie, this was not so good. We tried two discs from different packs and got the same result with both. Discs from the same packs works fine in other drives we have tested.


 

Brand:

Traxdata ‘“ Thanks to Conrexx for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Ritek

Code:

RITEKG05

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

6m:50s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.33

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.06

Very good, excellent result ‘“ even at 12x J


 

Brand:

MiFlop Extreme ‘“ thanks to MiFlop for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden

Code:

TYG02

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x ‘“ but slowed down to 8x near the end.

Write Time:

7m:01s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.23

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.05

Pretty good, but there is a slight slowdown near the end which is unusual for TY.


 

Brand:

BenQ

Manufacturer:

Daxon ‘“ but with Sony ADIP.

Code:

SONY08D1

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

6m:51s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.25

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.11

According to Pioneer this media should work at 16x, and we actually got one disc to work at 16x (the one shown under writing strategy earlier in this review) but the 8 other discs we have wrote of this type has been 12x max.


Brand:

Datawrite

Manufacturer:

Prodisc ‘“ but with Fujifilm technology and ADIP.

Code:

FUJIFILM03

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8X

Write Speed:

8X

Write Time:

7m:59s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

0.43

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.04

Simply excellent.


 

Brand:

eProformance

Manufacturer:

Prodisc

Code:

ProdiscS04

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:55s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

6.07

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.02

Disappointing to see that media from a well known manufacturer like prodisc do not even work at certified speed. But else the result is excellent.


 

Brand:

Mirror ‘“ thanks to Miflop for providing it

Manufacturer:

Anwell Precision technology

Code:

AN31

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:51s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

8.92

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.22

Pretty good considering the low quality of this media.


 

Brand:

That’s Write ‘“ Thanks to That’s Write for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Lead Data.

Code:

LEADDATA01

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:47s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

124.70

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.16

Again pretty good considering the low quality of this media.

Overall thoughts: Let’s start with the good thing: The writing quality is excellent on almost every disc we threw in it. Impressive!! But to be honest we are very disappointed by the media compatibility of this drive. 8x media that has been on the market for about a year is still not supported at certified speed and 16x media that has been available for a long time before the drive was released still do not work at 16x. And what is the point in selling a drive as 16x when it will not write at 16x to media that pioneer claims should work at 16x? And last ‘“ it uses Z-CLV writing strategy that makes it slower at 16x than all other drives, even 12x speed with other drives is faster than this drive at 16x…

Re-Writing data:


The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA supports rewriting DVD-RW and DVD+RW at 4x speed, let us write two discs in Nero and see how fast it is.

Here is the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a 4X Verbatim DVD-RW disc:

 

The drive used 14 minutes and 59 second to write the disc at 4x speed.

And here is the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a Ricoh 4X DVD+RW disc:

 

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA used 14 minutes and 28 seconds to write the disc.

 Writing Quality with DVD Re-Writable discs:


Due to request from our readers we will add a few write quality tests with Re-Writable media. Settings and testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review so you may want to go back and read them if unsure. All discs used for these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 25 times.

DVD+ReWritable media:




Brand:

That’s Write – Thanks to That’s Write for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Ricoh (by Ritek)

Code:

RICOHJPNW11

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:28s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.08

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.03

No problems with this media. Low error amount and no reading problems.


 

Brand:

Verbatim DataLifePlus

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Code:

MKM A02

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:26s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

12.15

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

2.77

Not perfect, but there are no reading problems.


 

Brand:

Daxon ‘“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Daxon

Code:

Daxon.D42

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:31s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

376.00

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

48.00

This media did not work well with this drive; maybe it is a media issue as we had similar problems when reviewing the BenQ DW1620A. We will take that up with daxon and hear what they have to say.

DVD-ReWritable media:



 

Brand:

RiData ‘“ thanks to RiData for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Ritek

Code:

RITEKW04

Disc Type:

DVD-RW

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:58s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

7.57

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

1.06

No problems with this media, highly recommended.


 

Brand:

Verbatim Data Life Plus

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi (Real ‘“ Made in Singapore)

Code:

MCC01RW4X

Disc Type:

DVD-RW

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:58s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

14.30

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.65

No problems here.

To sum it up: The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA is a pretty good writer when it comes to writing DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. No noticeable problems found.

But let us now look at the most interesting aspect of this drive; Double Layer DVD+R writing…


9 Comments

SchiZomaGORE
Posts: 97
Posted on: 01 Nov 04 15:15
nice review! Now, wheres that px-716a review?
ernstblaauw
Posts: 218
Posted on: 02 Nov 04 10:54
Nice review! Still, my choice is the BenQ DW1620a which I ordered yesterday
Toshik
Posts: 7
Posted on: 02 Nov 04 13:59
tanx for this review, very good ;X ; where is px-716a review...
[edited by Toshik on 02.11.2004 14:07]
DoMiN8ToR
Posts: 9067
Posted on: 02 Nov 04 17:44
The PX-716 has not been released in Europe and also not to us (and European websites, as far as I know).
overclock
Posts: 16
Posted on: 16 Nov 04 16:51
Don't bother with the Plextor PX-716a. I bought one here in the USA at Best Buy and it didn't recognize a single disc, burnt, pressed, dvd, cd, anything. Definitely do not buy one with TLA 000.
digit010
Posts: 35
Posted on: 08 Nov 06 05:20
You have to use a Plextor! Download and use Exact Audio Copy.
sys-eng
Posts: 11
Posted on: 23 May 08 21:11
I have a PlexWriter 1610 and running XP SP3. The installation seems to go smooth but the application hangs when I try to run it. It opens clean and seems to be OK then just stops. I cannot even stop it in Task Manager. Powering the computer off is the only way to free it. Here is the description of the error message in Event Viewer: "Hanging application PTPLE.exe, version 3.13.0.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000."
sys-eng
Posts: 11
Posted on: 23 May 08 21:11
I have a PlexWriter 1610 and running XP SP3. The installation seems to go smooth but the application hangs when I try to run it. It opens clean and seems to be OK then just stops. I cannot even stop it in Task Manager. Powering the computer off is the only way to free it. Here is the description of the error message in Event Viewer: "Hanging application PTPLE.exe, version 3.13.0.0, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000."
guest
Posts: 15288
Posted on: 10 Jul 08 19:39
The software is named "free". When I install & run it, it leads me to the Plextor internet site to enter a POP code!!! free or not free, that's the question!

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