Construction

We had an OEM drive in our hands, and the bezel was a plain beige color with nothing fancy to look at. However, the retail models of the Pioneer DVR-108, which are code-named DVR-A08XL, do come with either a black or beige bezel and have specialized round, silver eject buttons.




Click to enlarge.


The DVR-108 utilizes the NEC brand chipset.




Click to enlarge.




Click to enlarge.


It will be interesting to see what the NEC 3500A has to offer compared to this Pioneer drive.

Index Features
Comments Locked

36 Comments

View All Comments

  • DarthRanger - Saturday, September 4, 2004 - link

    Hi Kristopher -
    Saw your post to my question; so you're saying Plextor has a d/l DVD RW? I checked Plextor-America's site and didn't see a D/L model there. Can you point me to a link?

    Thanks,

    Darth Ranger
  • Bozo Galora - Saturday, September 4, 2004 - link

    Well well, quite a hodge podge of opinions and corrections.

    First of all the "retail" version with "honeycombed" casing to lower noise is not out yet. Its PART number is DVR-A08XL.
    DVR-108 is the name of the drive and DVR-108D is the bare drive OEM bulk PART number.

    I got that info from the cdrinfo article touted above, which does seem to be a lot more informative, and paints a lot less rosy picture of the drive.
    http://cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews/Specific.aspx?...

    After reading AT review, I had actually written a check to edazz.com for 5 of them ($89 shipped). Thanks to comments here, I ripped up the check and am now on hold again.

    As far as the Plextor being $30 more expensive, pricegrabber.com has it for ~$122 at several vendors with 2 dif $30 rebate coupons noted, good until Oct.

    So then I went to cdrlabs.com and saw one of the the new Liteon 16X will have a USB port version...
    "Also available in an external version around October, the SOHW-1633SX offers an integrated USB 2.0 port for easy, flexible connectivity, and is ideal for users ‘on the go’."

    "Fewer mistakes than usual" comment by belzer - heh heh. Quite an indictment.

    I really need some DVD burners badly, but I guess I have to wait this stuff out.

    And will have to take future AT optical reviews with a grain of salt - so to speak.

  • kcma - Friday, September 3, 2004 - link

    I never read Anandtech's optical storage reviews, why? Because any burner reviews without tests on protected media is not worth my time reading. I browsed through the article quickly and once again, no tests are done on ripping and burning protected titles. If I was wrong because I browsed too quickly, I apologize. I would love to see this changed though, Maybe future articles can include these tests?
  • bendixG15 - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link

    Okay;;Is there a diference between the model
    DVR-108 asnd the DVR-108D ????

  • KristopherKubicki - Thursday, September 2, 2004 - link

    Questar: The ridata media is pretty terrible. I havent seen another burner that burns it well either.

    Then again, look at some of our other dual layer tests that cant even burn the good MKM stuff.

    Kristopher
  • mud - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link

    "but since dual layer media still costs several dollars a disc"

    Can someone tell me where I can find dual layer media at that price!?
  • Questar - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link

    A drive that FAILED half of the +R9 tests is considered the best drive you have ever tested?!?

    WTF was an average drive then??

  • KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link

    Belzer youre correct, ill have that changed.

    Kristopher
  • Belzer - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link

    Congratulations, fewer mistakes in this reveiw than usual. Here is a major one though:
    "CMC MAG F01
    This is an Imation disc rated at 8x write speeds."

    If this was rated 8x, which I doubt, it must be a mistake in production. CMC MAG F01 is the MID for CMC Magnetics 4x certified discs. If you had really tried a CMC Magnetics 8x disc, MID CMC MAG E01, you would actually have been able to try the burner @16x speed as it allows overspeeding on this media.
  • KristopherKubicki - Wednesday, September 1, 2004 - link

    DarthRanger: I am guessing you didnt read the review.

    Kristopher

Log in

Don't have an account? Sign up now