Advantages: Good burner, quick and quite cheap
Disadvantages: Ripping speed for duel layer dvds slightly slow

...the drives firmware before you start burning. Firmware is bascially software that is held inside the chips on the drive. Like an internal driver, once updated once thats it done for good, even if you swap computers etc. To update the firware you simply download them from pioneers website http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/ double click on the file and it just does it. Onto the functioning drive. This maybe a slightly trivial point but the opening and closing of the drive is very quiet and smooth. Also whilst burning the drive is quiet, so anyone trying to obtain a low dB pc will be happy. Burning is also easy. I personally use Nero which has never given me any problems. A good flexable program that does what it says. I have successfully burned up to 4x with the drive which will burn a single layer dvd is 13 minutes and 40 seconds (a bit... Read review

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Advantages: High DVD/CD compatibility after firmware update, it's Pioneer need another reason?
Disadvantages: Before flash update the drive sucks, 4 speed is dated now

..., the cycle of piracy starts all over. But this time the geniuses had a trick up their sleeves, they made sure this drive only wrote on one side of the disc and only to one layer, meaning we only got 4.7GB out of the whole thing. Ah well, nothing a bit of perserverance and moaning can't get you, the first of the double layer drives and media has already been released but that's another story. Hey before you get the wrong idea I do not condone software piracy. If you use hardware to copy whatever you like then that's up to you, but to be honest when you're caught the Police will have very little sympathy for you. So remember, crime doesn't pay and when it does it'll be you paying. This was the first DVD Re-Writer I ever had and basically it has served me well. Pioneer is a well known and respected name in the world of electronic entertainment... Read review

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

...On a never ending quest to improve my computer set up I decided I needed to purchase a DVD recorder drive of some sort. Backing up my important data using my CD-R drive was a time consuming operation which used four CD-R`s every time. I had been put off by the high price of DVD recorder drives while they remained fairly new but over the past few months prices have dropped to such an extent that a DVD recorder drive can now be bought for under £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... Read review

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Advantages: Very fast
Disadvantages: Not compatible with Kodak media... reliability issues

...Having a few problems with this drive. It doesn't want to burn my Kodak 16x -R media at more than 12x... and it keeps failing when burning the DVD unless I drop the speed. It seems to burn OK at 4x, 6x and 8x. Funny thing is that it does consistently burn the disk OK at 12x with some files. With other files it consistently doesn't. When the problem occurs the cache seems to empty and then the disk ejects before the error message comes up. Pioneer came up with a whole heap of suggestions... none of which seem to apply to my situation... I'm pretty sure it just needs a firmware update as Kodak is not listed in the approved media list. I guess I can try some other media just to check if the problem exists with all media or only with the Kodak media. Unfortunately I don't have any other media at the moment... and specifically use Kodak... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, reasonably quiet, cheap
Disadvantages: No DVD-RAM

...I bought a black version of the Pioneer DVR111-DBK to replace my aging ASUS CD-RW drive, which couldn't even read DVDs. The Pioneer looked a bargain at just £25 and so I picked it up, not really expecting that much. Looks The drive looks great, and fits in perfectly with my black case. Its very simple, with just a green LED to show the usage, the tray itself, a button and an emergency eject hole. This makes the drive look sophisticated and worth a lot more than £25! Installation The drive itself does not come with anything - it is simply the drive in with a extremely short manual in a see-through bag. The manual, despite being very thin, is very handy with a detailed guide on how to install the drive and also the pins, so it is very hard to do something wrong - full marks to Pioneer on this! Performance The drive is an extremely... Read review

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Advantages: Fast, Reliable, Cheap (Could you want anymore)
Disadvantages: None

...<<>> |> Writes and reads DVD-R/RW, +R/RW and CD-R/RW formats |> Buffer under-run protection for CD/DVD, |> Performance Adjusting Firmware |> Max. 16x writing speed for DVD-R/+R* |> Max. 8x writing speed for DVD-R DL (Dual Layer) and +R DL (Double Layer) Discs |> Max. 6x writing speed for DVD-RW |> Max. 8x writing speed for +RW I bought this item as my cd-rw was quickly becoming obsolete, i did have many choices to go for, all where pretty similar in specification and in also in price, so I thought that any of the following manufactures: LG, Sony, Pioneer would provide almost identical products. After all they are all the same aren't they? Well the answer to the question is that they are and they aren't oddly enough, if you are a rare user, then it shouldn't really matter too much, disk writing errors are rather low... Read review

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Advantages: Good drive, very cheap now
Disadvantages: Quite slow

...else but 1x dvds to burn on. When the new 4x ones came out...the drive did not like them AT ALL. In fact it would sit and burn forever (doing nothing) and overheat, according to pioneers webpage this was because of differences in the disk and if left the drive would burn out. Not a problem as there is a firmware update available. This is where the hastle began. As I bought my drive OEM, it is not guaranteed that pioneer built it, even though it was sold as a pioneer 104. When I tried to update the firware with pioneers software it said that it was not one of their drives. It gave me a code with which to search (for a long time) for who actually made mine. It turned out to be compaq. Firware update over and it ran perfectly on the new disks. Whilst this is probably nolonger the case, as any of these drives bought now will be updated... Read review

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Advantages: Very simple to set up and operate, tons of space.
Disadvantages: No screen cover, converting various video file formats can be tedious.

...Bought new from Shop Harmony in Dec 2003 for 530 Euros. What comes in the box? The AV340 Player DVR Module for recording Remote Control operates via the DVR AC Adapter 110/240V AC to DC USB 2 Cable for connecting to a PC Various audio and video leads Headphones SCART Module for connecting to an AV source CD with software 2 Manuals, one covering the Player and the other covering the DVR Module What they could add but didn't: Suitable carrying case Protective film for the front screen Scart cable that has all the pins connected Other: The AC Adapter has two pins, so an appropriate plug is also required outside the US. What is it? The Archos AV340 is all of these rolled into one: 40Gb storage device MP3 player with playlist and bookmark facility AVI Video Player Voice Recorder Picture/Photo Viewer Video... Read review

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Advantages: Superb compatibility; fast reading and writing; competitively priced
Disadvantages: DVD ripping is slowed due to compatibility issues

...I've owned a fair few DVD recorders over the last few years. - the first being the Pioneer DVR-A03. This early DVD writer burned DVD-R at 2x (30 mins per disc) and DVD-RW at 1x (60 mins). While these speeds weren’t exactly super fast, they were certainly adequate for backing up the images taken from my digital camera. Sony then entered into the DVD writer market with its remarkable DRU-500A drive, which was capable of recording 4x with DVD+R, 2.4x with DVD+RW AND could do 2x DVD-R and DVD-RW (a later firmware update upgraded the -R writing speed to 4x). While I had a lot of successful disc burns with the DRU-500A, it was - to say the least - choosy with the discs it liked to write successfully. If the discs were not of the highest quality, I was only able to burn at a slower speeds. Some of the cheapest media such as the "Princo... Read review

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Advantages: Everything about it is great
Disadvantages: No CD Audio controls

...The a03, also known as the 103, is the DVD drive that came with my computer. When I was buying my computer the sales representative described the drive as “It’s a slot loading drive, it’s cool”. I thought nothing of it until I actually got my hands on it, I have to say – the guy was right! Now whenever I use a drive that isn’t slot loading I get incredibly impatient waiting for the tray to open and close. But the Pioneer isn’t a one trick drive, it also provides flawless and fast CD, CD-R, CD-RW and DVD reading, quite happily reading disc’s that other devices fail to read. One thing it doesn’t have is audio CD controls, but that doesn’t bother me personally as I’m less than one metre away from my hi-fi. The only reason not to get this six speed drive, is to get the ten... Read review

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