Pioneer DVR-116D 20x DVD±RW

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and DLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of Lite-On's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, Verbatim 16x DVD-R, RiDATA 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 20x, the DVR-116D uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Pioneer's new drive starts writing at 7.46x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DVR-116D also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

The DVR-116D performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the drives from Optiarc and Samsung when writing to DVD-R discs, it turned in some very impressive times with DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

While Pioneer has a list of supported media on its website, I wanted to see for myself how well the DVR-116D worked with some of the DVD+R and DVD-R discs available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below. For these tests, Optimum Write Speed was left disabled.

So what about writing quality? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The DVR-116D's writing quality was pretty good with the DVD+R media from Memorex and Sony. In both cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the discs from Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim. When scanned with BenQ DW1640, the error rates were very high near the end of the disc.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media.  Looking at the graphs above, you can see that the discs from Sony, Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim yielded some pretty good results with KProbe. Unfortunately, when scanned with the BenQ DW1640, there were a number of cases where the error rates were quite high.

To test the DVR-116D's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. RiDATA 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

Pioneer's new drive performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. The DVR-116D turned in some impressive times when writing to DVD-RW and DVD+RW media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when reading the data back.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DVR-116D, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Memorex and Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While the DVR-116D is capable of writing at 12x, its speed was limited to 10x with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. Nevertheless, the drive performed very well, taking 14 and a half minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Memorex's 8x DVD+R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Verbatim's DVD+R DL media. With their 2.4x rated discs, there was a large PI/PIF spike at the error change.  Their 8x rated media yielded some fairly decent results with KProbe. However, when scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the error rates were fairly high throughout the second layer of the disc. The worst results were with MAM-A's 8x DVD+R DL media. Looking at the CD Speed screenshot, you can see that the error rates were not only high, there was a small number of PO Failures.

The DVR-116D's writing speeds was also limited to 10x with Verbatim's 8x DVD-R DL media. This time around, the drive took a little more than 15 minutes to burn 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was very good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, their 8x rated discs yielded some mixed results. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI and jitter rates were higher than we'd like to see. 

Performance Revisited:

While the Pioneer DVR-116D has a few rough spots, it performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. The drive flew through our DVD writing tests, turning in some impressive times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. Unfortunately, there were a few cases where the writing quality could have been better. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the DVR-116D either. The drive was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R media at 16x, but slowed to only 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs.

The DVR-116D also did relatively well in our CD read tests. While not as fast as the other drives, it had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds. When it came to writing CD's, the DVR-116D's 40x CD-R writing speed put it at a slight disadvantage. Nevertheless, its writing quality was very good. With all things considered, the Pioneer DVR-116D gets a solid 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.