CD Freaks Presents: The Pioneer DVR-112 DVD Burner Review

CD Freaks Presents: The Pioneer DVR-112 Review

You can read the review here
Please feel free to comment on the review in this thread

Excellent! Everybody has been waiting for this. Thank you Dee!

Hiro

Makes me wonder if shoud go for the Pio112 or the Samsung182.

Hi
Dee-27
Excellent stuff.
Glad no mention of Mt.Rainer. (as it's obsolete anyway).
(Just drop the comment on single led as most are that way, if not all).

@vroom Samsung vs Pioneer = Pioneer always

Thanks for the review Dee and the well-earned "Editors Choice". I've been burning happilly away with my 112D@ 112L for over a month now with no complaints.

Thanks for the nice review, Dee!

Would it be safe to assume that this is an UDMA 4 drive? Have you tried how it performs in an external enclosure?

Yes, I think this is a lost cause by now. Only the Plextor drives have two-colour LEDs by now, and they're not developing their own DVD drives anymore.

Thank god! It looks just as good or better than the 111
I took a huge gamble buying this a month ago on a new system build. I can put my worries to rest

Thanks Dee. I've gone through 3 112D's Nov 2006 builds and they were crappy DL burners. Might wait and try a different build date when they get some in the store here.

Very good & interesting review.

Thanks Dee.

Thanks everyone for the comments so far.
@DrageMester
Yep UDMA mode 4 drive.
I haven't had a chance to play with the drive in an external enclosure yet, which reminds me. I need to get a new enclosure as the only one i have free has a broken PSU.

@rolling56
I hope you have more luck with your next one.

the firmware is only a month old (end of Jan). this drive is going to be even better once we have mature firmware, a lot of wacky results in the scans thread. i was worried about the reading results with cd-speed, but the review reminded me of the specs of this drive/media and confirmed my results. only a few rare cases where it will be reading at 16x

Thanks Dee for the time and effort you put into this, I have had no problems with both of my 112's, I am very satisfied with my choice of burners
Jim

Tempting burner, but any burner that won't bitset DVD+R media gets a failing grade from me. I want the flexibility to burn both + and - media and too many modern DVD players intentionally will not play DVD+R media unless it's bitset. (Alas, my otherwise excellent Panasonic DVD changer fits this category.)

You might have missed it, but the Buffalo firmware solves the bitsetting problem. I have used it on 3 111s and have been very satisfied.

then that players must be crappy. See, how long is the PLUS DVD format around? Should a "new" standalone DVD player nowadays not support DVD±R and DVD±RW from the start and for PLUS even without bitsetting?
I think it surely should.

And like chas0039 has pointed out, the BUFFALO firmwares also AUTObitset on DVD+R media.
http://tdb.rpc1.org/#DVR112L

PhotoJim: It also depends on what burning software you use also, The one I use will bitset for you even if the burner won't. Also agree with Chef about the player

To be honest, how should that work?
Bitsetting is enabled or disabled with the firmware. With autobitsetting the firmware controls all that, regardless which software you use...

There is a 112 and a 112D. As far as I understand, the latter doesn't burn DVD-RAM. Is there a different chipset or can I go for the (slightly) cheaper 112D if I don't need this feature? How about the quality scans with this drive? Are they any good (or reliable)? Is there a difference in q-scan if the chipset is diffent?

Same drive, same hardware, slightly different firmware.

DVDFAB Platinum will let you do this if your burner doesn't have auto bitsetting

Awesome burner & review

I agree that my DVD player is weird - I think it's stupid that it won't play un-bitset DVD+R. However, it plays DVD Audio and does a lot of other things I really like so I'm quite happy with it.

As for bitsetting, alternative firmware is a good option (I use it on my notebook's NEC ND6500 burner to get bitsetting) but it's harder to have the most recent firmware this way. Still, it's an option worth considering.

I agree that I shouldn't *need* to bitset, but I also think that I should *be able* to bitset. Obviously the hardware can do it or else the firmware hack wouldn't exist.

I burn with Nero, which lets me turn bitsetting on and off on burners that support it. I always turn it on with + media.

Honestly, it has nothing to do with bitsetting or autobitsetting... if it is not in the firmware then any software cannot just enable that.

Thanks Dee. Have DVR-112D@112L and DVR-212d Great drives

Excellent review. Thanks Dee.