New Pioneer 120s SLOT DVD ROM!

[tuan209]

http://castle.pricewatch.com/search/sea ... 14&l=10968

Any upcoming review on this baby???

[cfitz]

Hmm... Looks like nothing's changed from the 106S, at least in terms of specifications.

120S:
http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia ... d-120s.htm

106S:
http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/Pione ... D-A06S.pdf
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=38

Still 16x for DVD reading. That's not unexpected - there really isn't much room to go beyond. But it is disappointing that CD reading is still limited to 40x and CD-DA DAE to only 16x.

It looks like nothing to get excited about. Too bad.

cfitz

[BuddhaTB]

YAY! A new slot loading drive.
I guess I'm one of the few people who would be actually happy to hear the news. Might be a nice replacement for my 105S in the future. Too bad they don't make slot loading burners or atleast not yet.

I Love My Pioneer

[thongie]

according to my experience with dvd technology, i think the 120s is going to be a major success. For one, its predecessor the 106s had 10/10 reviews, and therefore with the 120s it can only get better.

another note that i may add is that with a slot drive like that of the 120s and all the other slot drives, i think that dust or as i shall call it "UFO", unidentifiable objects (not necessarily flying) may sneak in the open slot and ruin it over time.

In conclusion, and to numerous test runs, i think that this drive's life span may not last as opposed to its ancestors "NON slot" drives, that provides a covering from the dust that tends to be a nuisance to todays technology.

[cfitz]

For one, its predecessor the 106s had 10/10 reviews, and therefore with the 120s it can only get better.

Actually, it can only get worse (or stay the same) from 10/10, since 10/10 is the best.

I can see it now: "But our review ratings go up to 11!"

cfitz

[Han]

I'm confident Ian wouldn't give another perfect 10 for such Pioneer drive. Competition has been busy, you know...

[thongie]

[Ian]

I'm confident Ian wouldn't give another perfect 10 for such Pioneer drive. Competition has been busy, you know...

Probably not. I've seen some pretty good DVD-ROM drives since then. It takes a lot more to impress me these days.

I'll wait for Newegg to get the 120S in stock and then pick one up.

[Ian]

Speak of the devil.. Newegg has the DVD-120S for $49 shipped

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.a ... 128&depa=1

It's all mine..

They also have the DVD-120 for $43 shipped:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.a ... 125&depa=1

[Ian]

Still no digital audio outs...

[thongie]

I was thinking about getting the pioneer 120s, but since you said there are no digital audio outs, what am i missing out on?

So what is your suggestion for a perfect dvd rom, so i can fully utilize my dolby digital?

[Inertia]

I was thinking about getting the pioneer 120s, but since you said there are no digital audio outs, what am i missing out on?

Digital audio output (SPDIF) on a CD/DVD-ROM is not necessary for digital playback, and probably very few people even use this capability (if present). This is not used for DVD playback, as the audio is already played back digitally using the IDE cable as the connector. All recent Windows operating systems support digital playback through the IDE cable, so a SPDIF output on the rear of a CD/DVD-ROM or burner is a rarely used option for playing CD's.

So what is your suggestion for a perfect dvd rom, so i can fully utilize my dolby digital?

Dolby digital can be used with any DVD-ROM, but your sound card must support Dolby Digital 5.1 coax or optical SPDIF output to a compatible amplfier that supports the Dolby 5.1 (2 front, 2 rear, 1 center, 1 subwoofer) digital playback.

[Halc]

One of the great benefits of a digital out on your drive is that with the modern overworked, lagged and saturated PCI bus you can send the audio data via this tiny cable from your drive to your sound card and bypass PCI completely.

You will hear lot less crackles, pops and stutters, while saving your PCI bus bandwidth for hard drives and your video card.

This is especially useful if you have a Creative based sound card, which are notorious for not playing nice on the PCI bus and stuttering quite a lot (regardless of chipset used).

regards,
Halcyon