DVD recording technology has not taken any quantum leaps recently. The recording speeds are pretty close to the velocities physically possible, and overall the technology is quite mature. Nevertheless it is nice to see the vendors still releasing new and improved models. Pioneer DVR-115D continues the famous product line of Pioneer Electronics and while it doesn’t anything dramatically new or different, it has some improvements over the previous models.Pioneer has definitely been one of the better manufacturers of DVD recorders and from the out side the Pioneer DVR-115D seems very similar to the previous model that we tested (DVR-112). It has a pretty rigid feel to it, which makes it positively stand out from the cheapest recorders out there. But the interesting question is of course how does it burn?

The specs: The full list of technical specifications is probably longer than this whole review, so we will not go through in detail, but you can check it out at the Pioneer website and here are the key features:

• 20X CAV (27.70 Mbytes/sec) writing speed for DVD-R/+R
• Write Speed DVD+RW 8X Z-CLV (11.08 Mbytes/sec) and DVD-RW 6X CAV (8.31 Mbytes/sec)
• 10X Z-CLV (13.85 Mbytes/sec) writing speed for DVD-R DL / +R DL (Dual / Double Layer media)
• Multi-effect LCD Tilt Servo Compensator Mechanism
• Ultra-DRA (Dynamic Resonance Absorber) low vibration mechanism
• Performance adusting firmware
• Disc-Resonance Stabiliser
• Supports “Buffer Under Run” protection (CD and DVD)

Ever since the DVR-110 the Pioneer models have been incremental upgrades of the previous models, and the DVR-115D is no exception. This strategy has the benefit that the product is pretty mature from the first day. If we compare the recording quality of DVR-115D and DVR-112, we can notice that they are highly similar, but DVR-115 in some occasions can improve over the older model. It offers 20x over speed recording for certain top quality 16x media, and 18x for some as well. It also looks like that the firmware has been tuned to handle certain media better – at least we found speed and quality improvements with Prodisc made discs.

Test results

As of today (3-Jan-2008) we have tested 12 different medias with this drive and the results have been submitted to MediaBase, but we will continue testing and using the drive in our tech bench and every media test we make in the future with the DVR-115D will be added to the database as well. The tests so far focus on single layer DVD-R and +R media and we have now a pretty good idea what the drive can deliver. Read the full test results here, and on the right there are three examples.

First example shows how Pioneer DVR-115 records a Verbatim Advanced AZO+ DVD-R (16x) at 20x speed with great results. The second example shows 18x recording with a Datawrite (Prodisc) DVD+R – usually DVD recorders offer only 12x speed for this media. The last example shows 10x recording with Verbatim DVD-R DL media. So if the media is good, the Pioneer will deliver great quality and top notch recording speeds. Pioneer also has a pretty good after sales support typically delivering a few firmware updates for added media support and quality improvements later in the product life cycle.

Despite the excellent results with quality media, the Pioneer is not the best drive for low quality and/or faked MID media. Pioneer drives in general do not seem to be as flexible for adjusting themselves for low or varying quality or faked MID medias. Pioneer doesn’t have a feature like Lite-Ons HyperTuning which allows generation of write strategy on the fly, nor it is currently supported by DVD media testing software for making quality scans.

Conclusions

The Pioneer DVR-115D continues Pioneer’s tradition of delivering rock solid and durable recorders, but with nothing especially new or surprising. The firmware has been fine tuned since DVR-112 and the write speeds accelerated. The DVR-115 offers 18-20x over speeding possibilities for more 16x media than it’s predecessor. It does not offer any geeky extra features to play around with, but if decent or premium quality media is used, the DVR-115 will deliver very good results. Pioneer’s traditionally good firmware support combined to good built quality will give it a good and long life cycle. If you simply want a recorder that just works, then we consider Pioneer DVR-115D as one best choices on the market and give it 4 out of 5 stars

“…if the media is good, the Pioneer will deliver great quality and top notch recording speeds.”