Test machine

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 (Intel X48 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
• RAM: 8 GB Crucial Balistix Tracer (red) dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: ATI HD 4870 (512 Megabytes GDDR5 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC889 HD audio controller
• Hard disk OS: OCZ Vertex series 120GB SSD
• Hard disk storage: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2) – 1x 1TB WD green.
• Case: Antec 900
• 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 BDR-203BK was connected to one of the main-board’s SATA ports and reports as a PIONEER BD-RW BDR-203.

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Pioneer BDR-203BK supports BD-R, BD-RE and BD-ROM reading. According to Nero InfoTool, it also reports that the drive is capable of writing BD-R and BD-RE media. The drive came shipped with firmware version 1.10 and no updates were available at the time of writing this review.

Installed software:

• Nero Burning Rom 9
• 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

Internal layout

Now let’s take a look at the internals of the Pioneer BDR-203BK

In the above screenshot we can see the Pioneer BDR-203BK PCB and drive mechanism.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK is powered by a Renesas chipset, but we were unable to identify the chipset model number.

Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a brief look at the supplied software bundle. Please note, we may not use any of this software in this review.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK is supplied with CyberLink’s BD Solution software and includes the following applications.

• Power Producer
• Power Director
• PowerDVD 8
• Instant Burn
• Power2Go
• BD Advisor

Blu-ray disc Suite main menu

Power Producer main menu

Power DVD

Power2Go

Power2Go, make Blu-ray

Blu-ray Disc advisor

BookType (BitSetting):

The Pioneer BDR-203BK supports automatic BitSetting, and is capable of writing DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM book type. However, BitSetting of DVD+R/RW is not supported.

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 book type 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 BDR-203BK:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and Nero Disc Speed and wrote a full disc at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.86x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 58 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-203BK was about average when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 22.60x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 58 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Pioneer BDR-203BK was about average when compared to our other drives when writing CD-RW media.

16x DVD+R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 16x.

DVD+R

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 16X. This gives an average speed of 11.68x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 57 seconds.

16x DVD-R writing speed:

DVD-R

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 16X. This gives an average speed of 11.67x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 47 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our tables, the Pioneer BDR-203BK was above average when writing DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.73x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 55 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was about average regarding speed when writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 6.00x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 16 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was about average when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.38x and a total writing time of 15 minutes and 56 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.37x and a total writing time of 16 minutes and 29 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was the fastest when writing DVD+R DL media.

5x DVD-RAM writing speed

According to the specifications of the Pioneer BDR-203BK, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 5x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 5X. This gives an average speed of 4.97x and a total writing time of 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

Below, we made a comparison table:

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was the fastest drive when writing our DVD-RAM media.

8x BD-R (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications, the Pioneer BDR-203BK drive should be able to write BD-R 25GB Single Layer media at 8x. For this test we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc. To test the drive’s maximum write speed, we enabled “Streaming.”

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.75x and a total writing time of 14 minutes and 49 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was the fastest drive when writing BD-R media.

2x BD-RE (Single Layer) writing speed:

According to the specifications, the Pioneer BDR-203BK drive should be able to write BD-RE 25GB Single Layer media at 2x.

The Pioneer BDR-203BK uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 2X. This gives an average speed of 2.00x and a total writing time of 45 minutes and 34 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:  

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was about average when writing our BD-RE media.

Summary:

The Pioneer BDR-203BK was quite slow when writing to CD-R media, but since this is a Blu-ray drive, it’s not something we should worry about. The Pioneer BDR-203BK was fast when writing DVD+R media. The Pioneer BDR-203BK was the fastest drive when writing DVD+R DL media and more important, the fastest drive when writing BD-R media.