In House Review - Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray Disc Writer

[Ian]

CDRLabs has taken an in depth look at Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer, the BDR-101A. Designed with professional users in mind, the BDR-101A can store up to 25GB of data or more than two hours of HD video onto single layer BD-R and BD-RE media. Pioneer's new drive can also be used to play Blu-ray Disc movie titles and is backwards compatible with standard DVD media, offering 8x DVD±R, 4x DVD±RW, 2.4x DVD+R DL and 2x DVD-R DL writing speeds.

In this review we take a look at some of the features found on the BDR-101A and then see how it performs. Is Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer in your future? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=289]
Pioneer BDR-101A Blu-ray Disc Writer[/url]

As usual, if you have any comments or questions about this review or the Pioneer BDR-101A, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

[Ian]

Okay.. shameless plug time...

If you enjoyed the review, please take the time to "digg it" using the link below. This not only helps out CDRLabs, it attracts new readers/members.

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[[buck]]

Wow... I wasn't expecting a review this early!

But about the drive, I think it's pretty dissapointing. No CD support, not-so-great DVD burn quality, no dual layer BD-R(E) support, and no BD-R(E) WOPC type algorithm; I think it's safe to say they rushed this thing out the door.

I would definately wait for a drive from somebody who put some real effort into it.

[Ian]

The Panasonic based drive I'm testing right now is promising. It won't replace your DVD writer either but overall, its more well rounded.

Also, please let me know if there are things you'd like to see in future Blu-ray writer reviews. Aside from write quality testing, I'll do what I can to include them. Time willing of course.

[ChunkyBarf]

I was surprised to see the manufacture date of March and then still see how "rushed" the drive felt feature-wise. That is 4 months of potential tweaking. Ian, the review was very thorough, well done. I look forward to seeing how the 'next-gen' recording formats shape up in the coming year.

Thanks,
ChunkyBarf

[Ian]

I don't look at it being rushed. I see a drive that was designed more than a year ago and has been delayed due to things like AACS. Remember, we saw pictures of an engineering sample and a list of specs as far back as August of 2005. Pioneer Japan announced back in (I think) December that it would ship in January. It didn't ship until what, late May?

[[buck]]

I don't look at it being rushed. I see a drive that was designed more than a year ago and has been delayed due to things like AACS.

And as a result, it's uncompetitive with drives that may have been designed later, like the Panasonic. Regardless of any AACS delays, it's still a 6+ month old drive trying to compete with newer drives.