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Pioneer BDR-101 Preview @ heise online

PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 9:02 am
by Ian
heise online has a short look at the Pioneer BDR-101. AACS wasn't implemented yet but it sounds like the drive was otherwise fully functional.

http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/69396

Since the read head of the Pioneer BDR-101 works with only one lens, one did without the support of CDs. In the test we could for the first time burn a once recordable Bd-r of TDK. The BD-R blank has a capacity of 22,56 GByte, somewhat more than a again-recordable BD-RE, which comes on 22,23 GByte. The remaining storage location needs the BD-RE for spare substitution of the defect management.

In order to burn an BD-R with 2X (CLV, corresponds to 9 MByte/s) completely, the BDR-101 needed 45:05 min. In addition Pioneer supplied a test computer, on which a special version was installed by Nero 7,0,5,2. The Disc could be read also problem-free with 2X. The average access time to a coincidentally selected sector amounted to 300 ms.

The equipment could likewise describe an DVD-R with 8X (ZCLV) in 10:27 min. The write quality with a TDK blank was throughout good with a small error rate. During the reading of an DVD-R the BDR-101 reached a transfer rate of 8,2 MByte/s with a middle access time of 272 ms. A two-part Dvd-9 was selected with 7,5 MByte/s and 252 ms.


At $975, Pioneer is going to have a hard time convincing people to buy the BDR-101, especially considering it does not support CD's at all. Not to mention, the Samsung SH-B022 is supposed to be only $500.

I should also point out that while the article says that they don't know whether or not the BDR-101 will support dual layer (50GB) discs, Primera mentioned this week that it will. Via a firmware update of course.

PostPosted: Fri Feb 10, 2006 1:15 pm
by 21st Hermit
Those prices are relatively meaningless, intended for early adopters. The media cost will in large part determine the winner for the -RW crowd.

For me personally, a $100-200 burner and media cost per GB lower than existing DVD solutions will be what causes me to purchase a nex-gen burner. High capacity disks, in and of themselves, are not a big draw.

Hermit