Pioneer DVR-2920Q Qflix 20x DVD±RW/RAM

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

To test the DVD writing performance of Pioneer'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-2020Q uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Pioneer's new drive starts writing at about 7.7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The DVR-2020Q 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-2020Q performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the 22x DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some impressive times with DVD±R 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-2020Q 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-2920Q's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. The only real exception was Memorex's 16x DVD+R media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the PI rate was pretty high near the end of the disc.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part.

To test the DVR-2020Q's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. RiDATA 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The DVR-2920Q's packet writing performance was pretty mixed. While it turned in some very good times when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media, it wasn't as fast as the other drives when reading back our test data or when writing to DVD-RAM discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DVR-2920Q, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and Memorex. 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-2920Q is capable of writing at 12x, its speed was limited to 10x with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Nevertheless, the drive performed pretty well, taking 14:31 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 15:47 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs.

Performance Revisited:

Like Pioneer's previous DVD writers, the DVR-2920Q performed as expected throughout most of our tests. The drive had no problems holding its own in our DVD writing tests, turning some respectable times with DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for Pioneer's new Qflix-enabled drive either. The DVR-2920Q was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R media at 16x and DVD±RW media at a respectable 13x.

The DVR-2020Q 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-2020Q'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-2920Q gets a solid 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.