The DVR-116D we received from Pioneer was the bulk, or OEM, version. While they were able to provide a copy of the operating instructions, the drive did not come with anything else.
Physical Features:
The drive Pioneer sent us for this review was manufactured in May of 2008 and had firmware 1.03. For this review the drive's firmware has been updated to version 1.06.
Pioneer's new DVD writer definitely doesn't get any bonus points for looks. Like their previous drives, they've kept the look of the DVR-116D very simple. There are no large Pioneer logos or anything advertising the drive's reading and writing speeds. If you look closely though, you can see logos advertising support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.
Below the tray you can see the DVR-116D's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the DVR-116D looks very similar to Pioneer's other DVD writers. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and analog audio output connector.
Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the drive's jumper comes set to master. To the left of the jumper block is the analog audio connector.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from Pioneer's website and the manual that came with the drive.
| Pioneer DVR-116D 20x DVD±RW | |
| CD Write Speeds | 40x (CAV) 32x, 24x (P-CAV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 32x, 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 20x, 18x, 16x, 8x (CAV) 12x (P-CAV) 12x, 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 3.3x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 20x, 18x, 16x, 8x (CAV) 12x (P-CAV) 12x, 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 12x, 10x, 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 12x, 10x, 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 16x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 12x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 16x Max (DVD±R) 13x Max (DVD±RW) 12x Max (DVD±R DL) 5x Max (DVD-RAM) |
| CD Read Speeds | 40x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 32x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speed | 40x Max |
| Buffer Size | 2 MB |
| Random Access Times |
120 ms (CD) 130 ms (DVD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-R CD-RW CD-Extra (CD PLUS) Photo CD Video CD CD Text |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-R/RW DVD+R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL DVD-RAM |
Optimal Write Speed:
The DVR-116D is one of the first drives to feature Pioneer's new Optimal Write Speed technology. According to Pioneer, this function automatically adjusts the writing speed to deliver the best writing quality possible.
Optimal Write Speed is disabled by default on the DVR-116D. However, it can be enabled using the utility shown below. Using this utility, you can also check the status of the drive and save the optimal writing speed to the drive.
With Optimal Write Speed enabled, the DVR-116D wrote to Verbatim's 16x DVD+R media at about 6x, taking more than 10 minutes to burn an entire disc. While this is more than double the time it would take to burn a disc at 20x, the writing quality was considerably better than what we saw in our performance tests.
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More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that Pioneer's new DVD writer is identified as a "PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-116D."
Nero shows that the DVR-116D has a maximum CD writing speed of 40x and a 2000KB buffer, which is backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the drive can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 94:27 with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.
Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility I was able to determine that the DVR-116D is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Pioneer's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.
Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the DVR-116D's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the DVR-116D is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.
While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DVR-116D's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Pioneer's new drive can read and write to most DVD formats, it does not support technologies like LightScribe or Labelflash.
The DVR-116D doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, the drive automatically sets the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.
Like Pioneer's previous DVD writers, the DVR-116D isn't short on features. The drive supports most CD and DVD formats and offers some pretty impressive specs. The DVR-116D is capable of 20x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The DVR-116D also includes features like a 2MB buffer, noise reducing mechanisms and support for Pioneer's new Optimal Write Speed technology. Unfortunately, it lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the Pioneer DVR-116D scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.
