Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray Disc Writer

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For Blu-ray Disc writers, the performance tests are normally broken down into six sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write, BD read and BD write. Since the BDR-101A does not support CD's, the first two sections have been omitted from this review.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.51 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then InCD is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

BD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the BD benchmarks, CD Speed v4.51 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

BD Write Tests: To test the BD write speeds, Roxio DigitalMedia SE is used to write 23GB of random files and directories to our test media. Times are recorded.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The DVD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Pioneer BDR-101A	6.22x	3.44x	8.32x	136ms	169ms	313ms	6%	10%	18%	33%

The BDR-101A performed as expected when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.44x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.32x. Unfortunately, its seek times were higher than we'd like to see.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-R and DVD-RW:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disk using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Pioneer BDR-101A	6.24x	3.46x	8.33x	147ms	178ms	328ms	6%	11%	19%	35%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Pioneer BDR-101A	4.72x	2.61x	6.31x	148ms	183ms	331ms	6%	11%	19%	n/a

Verbatim DVD-R DL

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Pioneer BDR-101A	4.72x	2.63x	6.28x	156ms	182ms	336ms	6%	11%	n/a	n/a

Pioneer's new drive had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, it was able to read DVD-R discs at 8.3x, but slowed to about 6.3x when reading DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disk using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Pioneer BDR-101A	6.23x	3.46x	8.34x	147ms	178ms	331ms	6%	10%	18%	33%

Verbatim DVD+RW

Verbatim DVD+R DL

The BDR-101A's performance with DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media.The drive read DVD+R discs at 8.3x and both DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media at 6.3x.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

	Transfer Speed			Seek Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full	1x	2x	4x	8x
Pioneer BDR-101A	3.88x	2.15x	5.20x	137ms	167ms	314ms	6%	12%	26%	n/a

The BDR-101A wasn't as fast when reading single layer DVD-Videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of only 5.2x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well Pioneer's new drive worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The BDR-101A had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.