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CONCLUSION
Pros
- Supports
writing 99min CDs
- 4 Speed
DVD-R Support
- 2 Speed
DVD-RW Support
- Supports
DAO-RAW mode
- Higher
DVD read speeds for DVD-ROM &
HS media
- Lower
access times
- Can read
and write 96 bytes sub-channels
- Fast &
perfect audio ripping
- Can produce
X-Box & Playstation compatible
disks
- Can read
& write CD-Text
- DVD "-"
offers better compatibility with
older players
- Low cost
of ownership
Cons
- Has problems
reading 99min CDRs (can write them
OK)
- CD-RW
write support is only 8x speed
- Slow x2
speed CSS ripping (1.8x)
- Still
No C2 error read mode
- Can not
write Safedisk 2.51+ (incorrect
EFM encoder)
- Slow reading
Safedisk CDs
- Very poor
CD-R read performance
- Poor quality
media
- No defect
management for DVD-RWs
Pioneer has finally delivered on
what we and most others wanted most
in a DVD writer and that was an increase
in DVD recording speeds. There is
no disputing that the speed at which
new DVD writers record to DVD-Rs at
is light years ahead of the 1st generation
drives - the A05 only needs 15mins
to writes a whole 4.7GB of data.
We were slightly disappointed with
the A05's CD writing ability, mainly
its CD-R maximum writing speed of
16 X and its relatively slow re-write
speed. It's interesting to note that
the preliminary product specifications
show that Pioneer had faster CD recordable
features and higher DVD-ROM read speeds
in mind but decided against implementing
them.
We were pleased that Pioneer added
support for writing in DAO-RAW mode
- a useful feature used by Clone-CD
for backing up games (in countries
that permit it). This addition isn't
all that it appears to be as its performance
was so bad that it's pretty ineffective
- it failed to backup any of our games
and took long time to read them!
The A04 was particularly good at
reading and writing 99min CD-Rs and
was one of the best performers for
that specific test - the DVR A05 does
not follow its lead unfortunately.
It can write to 99mins fine but when
it came to reading what it had written
it had severe problems (this was verified
with disks that the A04 had produced).
One of the major improvements that
we noticed with this drive was its
random access times for DVDs - they
are so much faster than the A04 and
you wont be disappointed if you'r
used to handling many small files.
The 4X DVD recording is an incredibly
nice feature to have but unfortunately
we didn't get to test it as 4 speed
DVD-R and 2 speed DVD-RW disks are
not out here in the UK and this is
a PRE-RELEASE unit we have reviewed,
but we hope to re-test the DVR-A05
with a full retail version if/when
the opportunity arises.
The drive had major problems when
reading CDs, whether it was a CD-ROM
or CD-R it was incredibly fussy and
slow. The access times for CDs was
good but the transfer rate was slow
for everyday use. This is an area
where even the older A04 is better
at.
With a price tag of £249.00
we feel that Pioneer may have been
beaten at its own game by the likes
of Sony, Philips, Panasonic and Sanyo
who are all due to release 4 speed
DVD writers (Sony have already released
the DRU-500A in America) with faster
recording speeds and more features.
The A05 has its work cut out and our
advice is wait and see what the competition
offers.
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7- Last Updated: 18 October 2002
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