Plextor is to CD(R/W) as Pioneer is to DVD(ROM/R)

While Plextor taken the CD format to the highest level, Pioneer is doing the same to DVD. Plextor created what is arguably the best CD-ROM and CD-R/W drives ever. However, with DVD drives that can read both formats, Plextor quits the CD-ROM biz for the more popular CD-R/W crowd.

Pioneer created what is arguably the best DVD-ROM drive ever. So what makes these two companies so great? Consistency. From consistent sustained read and write speeds. It's not just consistency only. It's to be able to consistent at high speeds. And that is what these two deliver.

So I'm not here to talk about Plextor. Though the same can be applied to them.

The Pioneer DVD-115, a 16X DVD-ROM drive, is a very solid reader. Although I could not test it with DVD-ROM discs, I was able to use it for what most people use it for: rip DVDs (for personal use, of course!).

Speed Test (DVD video rips)
So why not use it just to watch DVD movies? Because any DVD-ROM drive can do it. It's exactly like comparing to the old days of CD-ROM drives... no one needed anything faster than 2x because most multimedia CD-ROM discs contain media that only needed the 2x speed. The only time we need anything faster was when we use it to access data or copy files.

This is true with DVDs. All DVD movies are streaming at about 1 MB a second. This is the new "x" rating (1x). So a 16x DVD reader should do 16 MB/sec.

Without a DVD-ROM, I could not do such tests. However, I can tell you that with a 2x DVD-ROM drive (a Panasonic), I was able to rip DVDs at...well... 2x (about 2 MB/sec).

For some reason, the DVD-115 rips at 4x at max (though pretty consistent). Perhaps it is like ripping audio,where when you rip audio, just because a CD-ROM drive says it can read at 40x, it can only rip audio at 12x. Hopefully that is the case. I can only attribute this behavior with the code searching (since DVD video is encrypted), which may slow down the actual read thruput.

All tests were used with SmartRipper.


Speed Test (Audio CD rips)
Okay, so it is rated at 40x CD-ROM read speed (which actually holds true... tested it with a full silver pressed CD and both a fresh and old CD-R burn). What about audio rips?

Using AudioCatylst (rip to WAV, not encoding to MP3 on the fly), read speeds starts at 6x, while moving at a max of 14x. This is NOT BAD for audio ripping. The Plextor's 40 ax/Wide CD-ROM drives rip at 12x.

However, audio quality from the Pioneer is questionable, as many have had problems with artifacts like poping and clicks. The best way to see if you exhibit this problem is to use Nero Burning ROM (CD authoring program), since it comes with a utility, to test out audio rip quality. The utility burns a test CD with audio signals, and tries to rip it. Since the program knows what it is suppose to sound like (or at least what the signal is suppose to be), it can read and compare to detect any difference in the signals.

So far for me? A perfect score. Your mileage may vary.


What Else?
Just a reminder that you can find firmware replacements for this unit, so you can turn it into a region-free DVD drive. If you don't know what this is, then you don't need to crack it...since you won't use this feature! Of course, I won't put you in the dark, either: basically, it means that you can't play other DVD movies from a different country (piracy reasons...like the same reason why you can't play Japanese Playstation games on your USA Playstation machine).

Also, keep in mind that this DVD drive have a nice Digital Audio Out so you can use this output for the cleanest most puriest digital sound signal in your compatible sound card. Most of us already have a modern soundcard that accepts digital inputs (for example, the Sound Blaster Live! series). Use this whenever possible! For those who already have a CD-R drive, this is perfect, because you can use the analog audio out for that drive so both can play audio CDs (so you don't have to choose which one you have to sacrafice music CDs from).

The slot is a weird design. Some programs (like CD-R authoring software) may need to eject and then retract a tray to complete a burn. However, since this drive is slot-based, it can eject, but cannot retract. This causes some software to either crash or error out when it gives the drive the command to retract (and the drive basically sends a signal back that says "dang it, I can't!".


Recomendations
While most of us don't even need a DVD-ROM drive at all, for those who are into the anime cult (and you know who you are!), these drives are indispensable...so why skimp? These drives are already cheap!

For the rest of you, a you are better off with a single CD-R/W drive in your computer. If you do lots of CD to CD copies, then you will need another reader (of course), so mind as well make THIS DVD-ROM drive. You'll be able to read CDs and DVD-ROMs, and the price of admission is not much more than a quality CD-ROM drive.