Pioneer USA was kind enough to send us their new BDR-205BK Blu-ray disc writer. This is an internal SATA drive capable of writing both Single and Dual layer Blu-ray media at up to 12x, DVD media at 16x and CD-R writing at 40x respectively.

In this review we will show the performance of the Pioneer BDR-205BK by running the drive through many tests on a considerable amount of various CD/DVD/BD media.

Corporate Information:

Pioneer was founded in 1938 in Tokyo, Japan by Nozomu Matsumoto – a man with a passion for music that he hoped to share with the world through high quality audio speakers. That passion began with a small operation to repair and manufacture speakers in Matsumoto’s garage. It has since grown to international stature as a manufacturer of audio and video products for use at home, in the car and in business environments.

If you are interested in reading more about Pioneer USA, please visit: http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/

Drive Specifications:

Let us take a look at the detailed specifications of the Pioneer BDR-205BK Blu-ray disc writer:

What’s inside the box?

Let’s take a look at the Drive:

Pioneer USA has sent us the OEM Drive.

The Pioneer BDR-205BK Blu-ray disc writer
Quick Setup Guide and Limited Warranty booklet (not shown)

BD Advisor showing Blu-Ray compatibility

BD Advisor showing Advanced Playback

Now let’s take look at some screen shots of the drive itself:

Front

Back

Top

Drive Sticker

On the top of the drive we found a sticker that shows the drive was "Made in Japan" and has a production date of September 2009.

Bottom

Drive Right

Drive Left

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features, program bundle and writing technology on the next page…

Drive Features and Technology

Do you want or have this product?

I have it!: 34 people have this product

I want it!: 22 people want this product

48 Comments

KTL: Posts: 3141; Posted on: 29 Nov 09 19:26

Thanks for the review, seems like a great drive! May be next time I travel to Asia, I'll get the BDR-S05J version just to have the fancy faceplate for an extra $100.

Just an insignificant typo I saw.

Quote:

The ScanDisc will be performed using our Light-On DH401S and the Transfer Rate tests will be performed using our LH BH08LS20 drive to check if there is any issue with the burned disc.

ricoman: Posts: 1252; Posted on: 29 Nov 09 19:29

I bought his burner 3-4 weeks ago and love it. Pioneer is really making a name for itself, after buying their 115D dvd burner I was sold, so purchased the BDR-205. If you're looking for a bluray burner, this is where you have to start.

MegaDETH: Posts: 4873; Posted on: 29 Nov 09 19:37

Thanks KTL, got it

BurningFish: Posts: 370; Posted on: 03 Dec 09 20:04

One question you use the LiteON BD ROM for testing the "burnquality". This drive is able to do BluRay qualityscans comparable to PIE/PIF DVD scans of LiteOn drives. Why don't you use that?

MegaDETH: Posts: 4873; Posted on: 03 Dec 09 22:56

Yes the Lite-on is capable of quality scans but it seems my drive anyway is not a good quality scanner.

No matter what disc I through in it end up showing every color of the rainbow if you know what I mean. This is for discs burned on any drive I have ever owned.

My next Blu-ray review however will have Quality Blu-ray scans as I have now gotten a Lite-on iHES208 and through testing so far it seems very reliable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BurningFish

One question you use the LiteON BD ROM for testing the "burnquality". This drive is able to do BluRay qualityscans comparable to PIE/PIF DVD scans of LiteOn drives. Why don't you use that?

H3rB3i: Posts: 4026; Posted on: 04 Dec 09 07:50

Great review on a great drive, contgrats.

Here is something you might want to correct.
(Special thank to nikoneko Ya! for supplying use with this media) ----> you wirte use instead of us everywhere were you copyied to nikoneko sentence

MegaDETH: Posts: 4873; Posted on: 04 Dec 09 13:31

Thanks H3rB3i for the comments (and corrections) always appreciated

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3rB3i

nekrosoft13: Posts: 1760; Posted on: 18 Dec 09 06:20

burst rate seems a bit low, 32mb/s?

my LG, BH08 gets 55mb/s
http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9697/capturexng.jpg

i mean 8x bd is about 36mb/s, how can burst be lower then that? especially from burner that write at 12x

Louis35: Posts: 1; Posted on: 24 Feb 10 19:59

I have Canon HG 21 hd camcorder with AVCHD. Will this burner read and write AVCHD video? Will I be able to burn AVCHD video to a DVD disk? Will I be able to view the DVD/blu ray video on my pc? I can view AVCHD DVDs on my blu ray player on our HD tv.

ricoman: Posts: 1252; Posted on: 25 Feb 10 00:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Louis35

The burner is capable of reading and writing anything. But, the burner isn't your problem, you need the proper media player. PowerDVD9 works, and I believe Media Player Classic and a few others.

carlyjustin: Posts: 1; Posted on: 24 Mar 10 05:45

i've just been reading some of your reviews on the pioneer bdr-205 bluray burner,
i have always used pioneer products in the past and found them to be of exellent
quality,however i just cant understand when looking at a photo of the pioneer bdr-205
bluray burner why the facia panel is so plain and drab looking,its as if pioneer cant
afford the paint to write the name of their product on it,if the name pioneer is not
displayed on the on the front of theyr product i will definitly not be buying this product
it is quite obvious to me that pioneer takes no pride in theyr in product anymore.
yours sincerly carlyjustin

ricoman: Posts: 1252; Posted on: 24 Mar 10 10:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlyjustin

That has to be one of the dumbest reasons I ever heard not to buy a product: Because it doesn't have a company logo! Well, it's your loss. Go buy some lesser drive with a pretty logo. The 205 is an excellent drive that performs very well. That's all I'm concerned with when I buy electronics.

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 25 Mar 10 10:57

Yeah, true.
ricoman, your thoughts are absolutely correct. IMHO.

setha2z: Posts: 1; Posted on: 08 Apr 10 10:03

Is the BDR-205 compatible with Windows XP SP3? Even the Pioneer website doesn't ID operating system compatibilities. My mobo is an ASUS P6T, if relevant. Thanks.

gremlin190: Posts: 2; Posted on: 09 Apr 10 16:53

Megadeth,

You state on your authors page that this drive does not have a riplock. I think it does now with firmware 1.04. I have used makemkv for backups and cannot get anything higher then a 2.5x rip speed. I went looking for the 1.02 firmware to flash it back and Pioneer's web site says "Once updated to version 1.04, this drive will not revert to older firmware versions"

So, can someone verify that this drive is riplocked and if so, how can or is it possible to get the riplock taken off by either mediacodeedit or hacking the 1.04 firmwware?

gremlin190: Posts: 2; Posted on: 11 Apr 10 04:51

NM to the above. Using DVD fab I do get way faster speeds. Must be an issue with makemkv

DaRuffsta: Posts: 8; Posted on: 14 Apr 10 05:09

Got this one,and it is excellent. Don't know why a person would balk over the faceplate. You got it to do kick ass Blu Ray burning,not stand off and admire it like a pair of expensive rims...sheesh !!! And to the poster that's wondering if he can watch Blu Ray ,he either has to do one of two things,get AnyDVD HD which sidesteps a compliant system and enables playback of High Definition video ,or get the appropriate monitor and graphics card....check NewEgg,they got 'em all.....

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 14 Apr 10 10:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by setha2z

Is the BDR-205 compatible with Windows XP SP3? Even the Pioneer website doesn't ID operating system compatibilities. My mobo is an ASUS P6T, if relevant. Thanks.

Is this a serious question??

Optical drives are not OS limited.

Dougofthenorth: Posts: 27; Posted on: 01 May 10 17:51

Is that true, that firmware V 1.04 has riplock??

MAXIMUS95GST: Posts: 63; Posted on: 24 May 10 20:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dougofthenorth

Is that true, that firmware V 1.04 has riplock??

My pioneer has no rip lock with 1.04 and now with 1.08.

t0m4t0: Posts: 37; Posted on: 09 Jun 10 23:49

hows the 1.08 firmware?

ricoman: Posts: 1252; Posted on: 09 Jun 10 23:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by t0m4t0

hows the 1.08 firmware?

I flashed a couple of weeks ago with no problems. I think it's just a media compatibility upgrade.

jalyst: Posts: 88; Posted on: 01 Sep 10 08:59

Nice, subscribing to thread!

530xda: Posts: 1; Posted on: 28 Sep 10 15:46

when can we expect a new blu-ray burner from Pioneer?

they've just recently cut the price with $40 so it may seem like they're coming with a new one........

thanx

Romo: Posts: 6; Posted on: 15 Oct 10 00:16

In regards to blu-ray playback, does the BDR-205 support 3D playback ?

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 18 Oct 10 11:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romo

In regards to blu-ray playback, does the BDR-205 support 3D playback ?

ANY BD drive can do that!

Romo: Posts: 6; Posted on: 18 Oct 10 19:09

Ah ok, I wasnt sure, as the BDR-206 states it can, but no mention of it in the spec for the BDR-205.

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 18 Oct 10 21:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by Romo

Ah ok, I wasnt sure, as the BDR-206 states it can, but no mention of it in the spec for the BDR-205.

I think they try to collect one more "hip" feature for their drive.

If 3D support works or not and how, just the used drivers/software is relevant, I think.

Viper187: Posts: 16; Posted on: 19 Dec 10 18:54

When can we expect a thorough review of the BDR-206? I'm debating between that and the LG. $50 price difference at the moment, so I'd like to be sure the Pioneer is actually worth it.

BradyP67: Posts: 1; Posted on: 23 Dec 10 21:38

What are the key differences between BDR-205 and BDR-206? I have an opportunity to get the 205 at a reduced price now that 206 is available. Is there any reason to pay more for the newer model?

CharlesEtheridge: Posts: 1; Posted on: 16 Jan 11 06:03

I'm running W7 with an i7 and ASUS P6T and the drive keeps disapppearing from my Device Manager and the only way I can get it back is to restore the system to a prior time. This has been happening at least once a week and is a great bother. Pioneer says that they don't have a driver available because Windows is supposed to recognise the unit and apparently did once, but still I have to keep the regular restoring to have it stay for a while.Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can have it stay available? It never dies when playing a disc but often it will vanish during other activities.

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 16 Jan 11 11:43

Hi and Welcome!

please check the event log of your operating system if there are any errors when your drive vanishes.
I personally would blame the motherboard and/or the cables at the moment.

Michael

electriceye: Posts: 3; Posted on: 01 Feb 11 05:32

Hello All-

Firstly, much thanks for the excellent review on the BDR-205, very in-depth and awesome information to have! The great results you receive on a number of different media confirm to me that the BDR-205 is a great piece of hardware...just not on my system, apparently. I can post ImgBurn logs, DVDFAb logs and others, but am truly puzzled *why* I can only get 2.x burn speeds on a RiData BD-R 25 GB disc when you achived speeds of 4x-10x! My hardware is no screaming demon, but no slouch either:

Case: Antec 1200
MB: ASUS Rampage Extreme
8GB Corsair Dominator DDR3 1600MHz
Pioneer BDR-205BKS (full retail bundle package)
ASUS DRW-2014L1T
ATI Radeon 4870 series 1GB Video
WD WD1001FALS-00J7B1 Hard drives (x3)
Intel Quad Core Q9550@2.83GHz
Windows 7 Pro x64 (brand new install)
DVDFAb All in one 8.0.7.3 (brand new also)
ImgBurn 2.5.5.0 (freshly installed)
Windows 7 Product experience rating: 7.5 for *everything* (but Disk Data Transferrate- 5.9)

Basically, Im trying to figure out *where* this bottleneck is! I *know* this system and hardware should be able to burn at *least* 4x but only scrapes along at 2.x???
Since this is a fresh install of Win7 Pro (no other apps even installed other than DVDFab, ImgBurn (and now PowerDVD Suite), I'm open to any help or suggestions. Forgive my ignorance, but this whole BluRay burning thing makes me feel like a total newbie again. Ack!

Some Random Guy: Posts: 633; Posted on: 01 Feb 11 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by electriceye

I can post ImgBurn logs, DVDFAb logs and others, but am truly puzzled *why* I can only get 2.x burn speeds on a RiData BD-R 25 GB disc when you achived speeds of 4x-10x!

Open ImgBurn, go to Tools, then Settings, then the Write Tab. If the "BD-R Verify Not Required" box is unchecked, check it and try burning again.

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 02 Feb 11 23:08

Good advice, auto verify is enabled with BD by standard.

electriceye: Posts: 3; Posted on: 02 Feb 11 23:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Some Random Guy

Open ImgBurn, go to Tools, then Settings, then the Write Tab. If the "BD-R Verify Not Required" box is unchecked, check it and try burning again.

Thanks for the suggestion, tried that already and it still won't do over 2.x for burn on BD-R. I even toggled it, rebooted and tried again with no joy. Any other ideas?

I realize that my disk data transfer rate didn't rate too well according to MSoft, but with 3 SATA drives (one per OS I have installed) thought it might be ok. I will host the ISO or temp data on one of the other drives and see if that helps. The BDR-205 is also connected via SATA.

hclarkjr: Posts: 179; Posted on: 04 Feb 11 00:09

mine just showed up in the mail, what is good software for watching blu-ray on computer?

Kerry56: Posts: 12736; Posted on: 04 Feb 11 00:40

^Your drive should have come with appropriate software. Normally the blu ray playback software included with drives is PowerDVD.

There aren't that many good choices for software. WinDVD and Arcsoft TotalMedia Theater are two other commercial programs. I use the Arcsoft program.

You can watch the main movie m2ts file with free programs like Media Player Classic HomeCinema or VLC.

electriceye: Posts: 3; Posted on: 04 Feb 11 03:44

I can vouch for both ArcSoft and PowerDVD. PowerDVD came bundled with my Pioneer and it's better than I expected. Much better since it actually BURNED a Ritek BD-R at 8.x from an ISO without issues! I am going to try 10x next. Still very puzzled why DVDFab and ImgBurn WON'T burn any faster though.

hclarkjr: Posts: 179; Posted on: 19 Feb 11 14:04

trick i do with DVDfab is make ISO image then burn it with nero 10, it burned my verbatim 4x at 10x with no problem.

sathish2k8: Posts: 3; Posted on: 24 Nov 11 15:53

I read your post its awesome & useful.

I am from India, my friend bought pioneer bdr 205 from USA, he bring only the drive not the driver dvd/cd.

i connected using SATA data cable and power cable but its not working - i can see it in cmos/bios or driver manager but whenever i insert a disc wither bluray or dvd it is showing as "NO Disc" everytime. please provide me a solution for this.

sathish2k8: Posts: 3; Posted on: 24 Nov 11 15:55

I am from India, My friend bought Pioneer Bluray Disc Drive BDR 205. I installed in my system i already have LG DVD RW so i am using both in SATA.

i don't know why still i am not able to see my poineer in my comp , is there any driver cd needed for this. my frd only gave this bluray drive.

any 1 please help me to resolve this.

In Bios it is detecting in device manager also it is showing.

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 787x562.

i upgraded firmware to latest from pioneer website. i don't have BD so i inserted DVD but it is showing as no disc???

please help me out. (screenshot of my pc http://i54.tinypic.com/2ut27is.jpg)

Kerry56: Posts: 12736; Posted on: 24 Nov 11 16:03

^sathish2k8
Try the Microsoft Fix It tool for optical drives, found here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314060 Just click on the button that says Fix It and follow instructions.

If that doesn't help, try removing the upper and lower filters manually: http://pcsupport.about.com/od/driver...werfilters.htm

The driver for your optical drives is included in the operating system, though with SATA, you might try updating the motherboard chipset drivers.

sathish2k8: Posts: 3; Posted on: 25 Nov 11 05:20

Thanks for your reply. in my computer it is detecting and also i can see thro driver manager... my problem is what ever disc i insert it is showing "No Disc" or please insert a disc error....

please provide me solution for this....

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kerry56

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 30 Nov 11 11:33

Connect the drive properly and set it up in the BIOS!

The driver comes with the OS, there is no driver manager, only a device manager.

sabo1: Posts: 4; Posted on: 01 Dec 11 20:13

does anyone know if the 206D can do disc quality scans? and what about compatibility with stand alone players? (i.e. ps3 etc.) these two things are the biggest deal for me. it's also a plus that the drive is not riplocked

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 03 Dec 11 12:10

It can, but they are worthless.

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 27 Feb 12 08:38

BTW, at least the Made in Japan drives can quality scan DVD media with usable results.

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