Pioneer DVR 106

Advantages: Backs up 4.7GB of your important data
Disadvantages: None as yet

...£100. When I saw the Pioneer DVR – 106 drive available for £88 at Dabs.com I did not hesitate in ordering the drive which duly arrived just two days later. Now a problem that faces consumers when they decide to buy a DVD recorder drive is that there is more than one type of blank DVD media that can be recorded upon, these are DVD-R and DVD+R. Many people have argued long and hard extolling the merits of each different type, but never the less I ...
...completely safe though with the Pioneer DVR – 106 because the drive is multi format. This means that DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD+RW can all be used and written to with ease so compatibility worries disappear. Also worthy of note is that the DVR – 106 is a CD-R and CD-RW recorder as well, this was particularly beneficial as far as I was concerned as my old CD-R drive was starting to show its age and one or two mistakes had started occurring during ... Read review

Advantages: Ease of use, reliability, speed and stability.
Disadvantages: OEM - maybe awkward for some users.

...confirmed that this was correct, Pioneer did not send the OEM product out with a box, just bubblewrap and a manual. Fine, next step - installation was pretty straightforward (I am an experienced computer user and built my own computer anyway - this might not be the case for you). Simply plugged in the IDE cable to the motherboard, set the plugs to "Master" and ran the computer. It was immediately detected and I was away straight away (Windows 2000). ...
...DVDs, including Movies, Data and PS2 backups (kids and PS2 games don't mix argh!). And as of yet it has not created one single coaster (useless disc). Thats pretty impressive. It burns to both the "-" and "+" formats, although I have had more success on my hardware with "-" (and it appears to burn "-" faster - that might just be me though), but have burnt about 25 of the 80 "+" and had no problems. In conclusion, if you are comfortable opening up ... Read review

Advantages: Reliable, Quiet, Easy to use
Disadvantages: Not good with poor quality CD media, slow by todays standards

...great. Unfortunately there are no Pioneer firmware upgrades for dual layer or faster writing speeds. The write performance is fine for a 4x drive I am very happy with the unit. I used this drive with Nero 6 and after some minor tweaking managed to get it to overburn normal CD's. 4 stars overall, 5 stars for better media compatibility and new firmware. For an early drive its a great piece of kit. ... Read review

Advantages: Cheap, Highly compatable, easy to install, Firmware upgradeable.
Disadvantages: OEM version does not come in a a box

...answer to that :- Pioneer DVR 106 True the unit does not have a 8MB buffer compared to the Optorite 3203 but there again where can you get a burner for less that £90. Although it isn't a high speed burner you really shouldn't be burning higher than single speed if you want your pictures and videos to play in great aunt ethels DVD player. You only require a high buffer if you were going to burn from DVD-reader to Burner and to be honest the need ... Read review