Our first experiences with the combo drive as a DVD recorder have been surprisingly good. I say surprisingly as we kinda expected the DVD recording to be a secondary feature for this drive, but apparently it has done a damn good job so far. As mentioned earlier, the recording speed is limited to 12x using the Z-CLV method (Zone Constant Linear Velocity). So far we have thrown half a dozen types of DVD recordable media in to this drive, and so far it has done a great job. In every case the quality has been comparable to Pioneer’s recent DVD recorder models (DVR-215, DVR-115) and in some cases the BDC-202 has produced extremely good reference quality results.

We will be burning more discs in the days to come, and we will also come back to this great drive with a proper review. Meanwhile you can track our progress by looking at our Nero Disc Speed (previously known as Nero CD-DVD Speed) quality scan results at the MediaBase: CLICK HERE

We are also more than interested in hearing if you already have some experiences with this drive. Use the comment feature below to share your thoughts about it.

The Maxell DVD-R media carries a RITEK F1 media identifier. Opinions on the quality of RITEK F1 seem to vary a bit, but for us it has been a solid performer. In our tests this media gave nice results using the Pioneer DVR-115D and LiteOn DH20A3P drives. The Pioneer delivered an excellent results with very low error rates all the way. Using the LiteOn a few more errors were introduced, the PIE graphs going up and down and some slight PIF spikes as well. Overall their DVD-R media seems to be a high quality product, and definitely better than their DVD+R media.

However, Maxell’s DVR+R by RICOH is a different story. The results are far from impressive using both of these drives. First of all the recording speeds on both drives were less than certified 16x speed. The Pioneer uses a 12x approach for this media, but LiteOn delivers only a miserable 8x recording speed. Error rates using Pioneer are increased at the end of the disc, when the drive applies 12x recording speed. Using the LiteOn’s 8x approach the result would be quite nice, but is has some odd PIF spikes along the way.

So definitely, if you are shopping for Maxell media, go for their DVD-R offer instead of the DVD+R. The quality is simply better, at least in these test batches. On the other hand, Maxell is often similarily priced than premium media brands, like Verbatim, so be sure to check out the other alternatives as well.

As usual, the MediaBase is your source of media quality information, and the place where you can submit your own test results!

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.”

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