back to article Pioneer DVR-116D multi-format DVD rewriter

The current maximum write speed on a DVD±R is 16x, so Pioneer’s 20x drive has to be doing something special. Using 16x media, you should be able to see up to 25 per cent extra read and write speed. When recordable CD was introduced, it moved quickly from single-speed to 54x and beyond, but recordable DVDs haven’t accelerated …

COMMENTS

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  1. Richard
    Thumb Down

    Full disc speed?

    Any reason why you didn't test doing a full-disc DVD write? It's very rare I write a DVD that isn't going to be pretty much full - it would be nice to know whether the Pioneer's claimed performance means anything useful.

  2. Tony Barnes
    Thumb Down

    Why just 1 gig?

    Given that Pioneer gave claim to a heightened transfer speed once you got further to the edge of the disc, why did you not test this??

    I can practically count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times I've put less than 4gig onto a DVD, so for me, testing 1gig is a bit odd....

  3. James Ashton
    Coat

    Misleading speed difference

    The article is misleading. A 1xDVD spins just three times faster than a 1xCD. The higher data density of DVDs accounts for the factor of ten figure quoted.

    So, a 16xDVD spins at the same speed as a 48xCD. Pushing out to 20xDVD is much like the CD people pushing out to 60x. The limiting factor is the physical strength of the media. The faster you spin, the bigger the chance that the whole disc will just fly apart. Polycarbonate shards are not nice; are you feeling lucky! Pioneer's proprietary technology to spin faster could be stronger discs or better public liability lawyers. I'll take the safety clothing either way.

  4. Joe Blogs
    Stop

    OMG!!!

    Sorry, I can't believe a Tech hardware reporter doesn't understand CAV on DVD writing and really believed that a 20x DVD writter would be 25% faster than a 16X speed writer!!!

    FAIL!

  5. alyn

    native DVD-RAM support

    Has anyone ever got DVD-RAMs to work with Windows without third party software? I always use Nero in-CD

  6. Andrew Fraser
    Unhappy

    Misleading article and a poorly formed conclusion

    As others have noted, this article is a little misleading.

    Firstly the limit in speed is due to the physical limits of the spinning discs; it's not going to be any different to CD given the manufacturing processes, materials and dimensions are near identical. As James says, a 16x DVD = 48x CD (in terms of spindle speed) and a 20x DVD = 60x CD - nowhere near the claimed 180x which would be impossible with standard discs.

    Secondly, and far more importantly, less than 25% of the disc was written to - Pioneer even commented on this result and yet you failed to re-test with 4GB or so to fill the disc.

    The result of this is that you cannot form a proper conclusion until proper empirical testing has been carried out.

    El Reg normally have such consistently good reviews and news, I feel somewhat let-down in this instance - perhaps you can (and should) re-test with 4GB of data to the disc?

  7. Anonymous Coward
    IT Angle

    Can anybody confirm...

    ... after I got my fingers burned with a (not quite) all singing and dancing drive from another manufacturer - that this drive returns the Index when playing audio CD's?

  8. Arnold Lieberman
    Stop

    What about write quality?

    Far more important than speed is the number of errors that are on disc after writing. Error concealing mechanisms do a good job of hiding most problems but once a disc decays or gets mucky, if the correction code is already working hard, then it's going to fail with a hard error.

  9. Nick Mallard

    IDE?

    And why on gods earth are these things still being made with IDE connectivity? I've not built a system for an age with anything IDE in it :/

  10. This post has been deleted by its author

  11. OpenSauce

    Some SATA optical drive benchmarks

    would be good, especially as SATA burners have come down to near equivalent IDE burner prices.

    Comparison of SATA vs IDE drives with otherwise identical specs and SATA vs SATA etc.

    Thanks.

  12. Anton Ivanov
    Coat

    Comment:: single-speed to 54x and beyond

    And shortly dropped back to 48. A CD disintegrating at 54x is like a hand grenade. It totally demolishes the drive and sometimes the machine. A 20x single read/write head speed on DVD should use similar rotational speeds. Hand-grenade in my case redux?

    Disclaimer - I am old enough to have witnessed what happens when an idiot operator tries to pull the spindle on one of those ancient Vax 5MB drives with changeable disks without stopping the disk first. The holes in the door of the computer rooms and the shards sticking out of the wall on the side of the corridor were not a pretty sight...

  13. Steven H Taylor
    Dead Vulture

    DVD-RAM RIP (almost)

    Why DVD-RAM never caught on? Easy -- the format has nothing else in common with DVD other than those three letters. DVD-RAM is recorded totally different at all levels and a disc does not resemble a DVD-ROM disc at all. That may be fine for archiving but not for sharing.

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