As Pioneer is quick to point out, the BDR-101A is targeted primarily at professional users. With its $1000 price tag and lack of CD support, you probably won't see too many of these drives in the hands of consumers, let alone enthusiasts. Nevertheless, the extra capacity afforded the Blu-ray Disc format will make the BDR-101A an attractive choice among those looking to record high-definition video or back up large amounts of data.
Like most other first generation Blu-ray Disc drives, the BDR-101A can write to BD-R and BD-RE media at 2x. At this speed, it took the drive more than 45 minutes to burn an entire disc. While this sounds like a lot, you have to remember that these discs have a capacity of 25GB, more than five times that of a single layer DVD. Reading Blu-ray Disc media wasn't a problem for the BDR-101A either. However, as with writing, it can take a considerable amount of time to read your data back.
While lacking support for CD's, Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc does have the ability to read and write to DVD's. With a maximum DVD±R writing speed of 8x, the BDR-101A is no match for the current crop of DVD±RW drives. Nevertheless, it performed as expected, writing an entire 4.7GB DVD in about ten and a half minutes. The drive's writing quality could have been better though, as there was a high number of PI Failures on many of the discs. When it came to reading DVD's, the BDR-101A was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R discs at 8x but slowed to 6x when reading DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media.
Beyond its support for Blu-ray, the BDR-101A doesn't really offer much in the way of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the drivehas an 8MB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. For whatever reason, Pioneer decided to utilize only 2MB of this buffer when writing to DVD's. The BDR-101A also includes a software bundle consisting of Roxio's DigitalMedia 7 SE. While DigitalMedia is capable of basic tasks like copying discs and backing up data, you will need to pick up additional software if you plan to playback or burn your own Blu-ray movies.
As with any new technology, the BDR-101A isn't exactly cheap. In fact, with prices on Pricegrabber starting at $995, the drive is downright expensive. Nevertheless, if you need the greater capacity afforded by the Blu-ray Disc format, it might be the way to go. As usual, I'll leave that choice up to you.
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| Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray Disc Writer |
|
| Features: Installation: Performance: |
7 8 7 |
| Overall: | 7 |
Highs:
- Writes to BD-R and BD-RE media at 2x
- Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 8x
- Writes to DVD-RW and DVD+RW media at 4x
- Writes to DVD+R DL media at 2.4x
- Writes to DVD-R DL media at 2x
- Reads Blu-ray Disc media at 2x
- Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
- Reads DVD±R media at 8x
- Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 6x
- Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
- 8MB buffer (BD only)
- Includes Roxio DigitalMedia 7 SE
- Automatically sets book type to DVD-ROM for DVD+R DL media
Lows:
- Expensive
- Does not support CD media
- Cannot write to dual layer BD-R/RE media
- Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R and DVD+R DL media
- Cannot set the book type of DVD+R or DVD+RW media
- Does not include any BD/DVD playback or video editing software
- Buffer limited to 2MB when writing DVD's
