Pioneer BDR-2203 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer

Model: Pioneer BDR-2203 8x Blu-ray Disc Writer
Manufacturer: Pioneer Electronics

Pioneer has been at the forefront of the consumer electronics industry for more than five decades. While best known for their audio and video products for the home and car, they're no stranger to the world of optical storage. In fact, the optical storage industry probably wouldn't be where it is today without them. From the development of the DVD-R and DVD-RW formats to the introduction of the world's first DVD recorder, Pioneer has been a major influence upon much of the technology used today.

With the format war coming to an end, Pioneer has set its sights on the Blu-ray Disc market. Over the last few years, the company has introduced a number of drives, including one of the industry's first 8x Blu-ray Disc writers, the BDR-2203. Featuring some of the fastest BD reading and writing speeds available, this retail version of the BDR-203 is capable of 8x BD-R, 8x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds and a maximum BD-ROM read speed of 8x. The BDR-2203 is also backwards compatible with all major CD and DVD formats and includes features like a 4MB buffer and a software bundle from CyberLink.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take an in-depth look at the BDR-2203's features and then see how it compares to the 8x Blu-ray Disc writers from LG and Sony. Does the BDR-2203 have what it takes? Is it the fastest Blu-ray Disc writer around? Keep reading to find out.

What's in the box?:

• Pioneer BDR-2203 Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc ReWriter
• BD Rewriter Drive Solution CD
• Operating Instructions
• Warranty Information
• Mounting Screws

Physical Features:

The drive Pioneer sent us for this review was manufactured in February of 2009 and had firmware version 1.09. For this review we used firmware version 1.10.

Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer definitely doesn't get any bonus points for looks. Like their previous drives, they've kept the look of the BDR-2203 very simple. There are no large Pioneer logos or anything advertising the drive's reading and writing speeds. If you look closely though, you can see logos showing support for the DVD-R/RW, DVD+ReWritable and Blu-ray Disc specifications.

Below the tray you can see the BDR-2203's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green when the drive is reading or writing.

The rear of the BDR-2203 is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture above you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector. The odd looking connector on the far left is used for factory configuration and diagnostics.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Pioneer's website and the manual that came with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as a "PIONEER BD-RW BDR-203."

The Nero screenshot also shows that the BDR-2203 has a maximum CD writing speed of 40x and a 4000KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the BDR-2203 can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 94:27 with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media. 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the BDR-2203 is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Pioneer's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are.  InfoTool had no problems detecting the BDR-2203's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 4MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the BDR-2203 is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the BDR-2203's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that Pioneer's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.

The BDR-2203 doesn't let you set the book type of single layer DVD+R or DVD+RW media. However, the drive automatically sets the book type for DVD+R DL discs to "DVD-ROM". This greatly reduces compatibility problems, especially with older DVD players.

For the BDR-2203's software bundle, Pioneer has turned to CyberLink. The CD that comes with the drive contains a slimmed down version of the CyberLink Blu-ray Disc Suite which includes PowerProducer, Power2Go and PowerDVD.

CyberLink PowerDirector 7 - The BDR-2203 comes with CyberLink's video editing software, PowerDirector. To create your own custom movies, simply drag and drop video footage onto the editing timeline and then add scene transitions, background music, or title effects.

You can also use PowerDirector's "Magic" editing tools to clean up video clips and images, condense long video segments and apply pre-designed style templates. When you're done editing your video, you have the option to save it to your hard drive, create a streaming file or write it back to DV tape.

CyberLink Power2Go 6 - Power2Go is the main disc burning program included with the BDR-2203. With this software, users can create various types of CD's, DVD's and BD's or make backups of existing discs. Power2Go also offers enhanced security features, allowing you to password protect and encrypt the names of files on your discs.

CyberLink PowerDVD 8 - CyberLink's PowerDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market right now. Along with support for DVD's, it can be used to play back Blu-ray Discs and other high-def formats including H.264, HD MPEG-2, and WMV-HD. With its support for BD-Live, PowerDVD also gives you the ability to access additional content via the Internet.

The version of PowerDVD bundled with the BDR-2203 also supports 6 speaker (5.1) output. While this isn't enough to take full advantage of uncompressed audio formats like Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD Master Audio, its a big step up from the 2 channel version that most manufacturers include with their drives. 

Like Pioneer's previous Blu-ray Disc writers, the BDR-2203 isn't short on features. This Serial ATA equipped drive offers some of the fastest Blu-ray reading and writing speeds available and is backwards compatible with all major CD and DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. The BDR-2203 also sports a 4MB buffer and includes a software bundle from CyberLink, but lacks bitsetting support for single layer DVD+R and DVD+RW media. Even then, the Pioneer BDR-2203 scores a solid 8 out of 10 for its features.

Along with smaller cable size, one of the biggest benefits of Serial ATA is its ease of installation. Because it uses a point to point connection, setting jumpers has become a thing of the past. In most cases, installation is as simple as plugging in the SATA and power cables and turning the computer on. Needless to say, it took only a couple of minutes to install Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer in our test computer. After making sure that the BDR-2203 was recognized by Windows, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the BDR-2203 comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink. If you have autorun enabled, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

You can view information on the various applications in the software bundle by clicking on their names. Otherwise, you can start the setup process by clicking the "Install Now" button. After selecting your preferred language and entering your customer information, you'll be presented with a list of components to choose from.

From here you can choose to install Power2Go, PowerDirector and PowerDVD. To complete the installation, select the components you want and click next a few more times. Once the files are copied over, you can start burning your own discs.

Documentation:

The BDR-2203 comes with a set of  "Operating Instructions." While not very large, this manual is well laid out and contains a fair amount of useful information. It starts out by going over the features of the BDR-2203. This includes an extensive list of specs as well as a few diagrams showing all of the buttons and connectors on the front and back of the drive. Pioneer has done a great job here as everything is labeled clearly and the functions of each are explained very well. From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the drive. This section is very brief and consists mainly of some written instructions and a single diagram showing how the power and SATA cables should be connected.

Like the other Pioneer drives we've reviewed, the BDR-2203 was very easy to install. Even though Blu-ray is still a relatively new technology, there were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. The documentation Pioneer has included with the drive is brief, but should be enough to get it up and running. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have seen some better installation instructions. With this in mind, the BDR-2203 gets an 8 out of a possible 10 for this section of the review.

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. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.7.16 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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

BD Write Tests: To test the BD write speeds, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature is used to burn an entire BD-R/RE disc. Times are recorded.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at 14x (2100 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 38x (5710 / 150) on the outside. While this is fairly good for a drive with a maximum read speed of 40x, the BDR-2203's access time and overall score were not as good as some of the other Blu-ray drives we've looked at. 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	30.94x 17.80x 40.63x	36.43x 21.08x 48.18x	35.19x 20.35x 46.52x	31.11x 17.72x 41.13x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	114ms 129ms 186ms	127ms 146ms 214ms	145ms 152ms 280ms	133ms 150ms 201ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 8% 9%	1% 1% 2% 5%	0% 1% 5% 2%	0% 1% 2% 4%

The BDR-2203 performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. While still not as fast as the other drives, it had no problems reaching a maximum speed of 40.63x. Unfortunately, its seek times were a little higher than we'd like to see.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	25.32x 14.58x 33.57x	36.95x 21.17x 48.93x	35.96x 20.51x 47.65x	31.79x 17.97x 42.18x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	161ms 187ms 335ms	122ms 145ms 225ms	161ms 169ms 304ms	136ms 154ms 204ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	2% 8% 6% n/a	1% 1% 2% 5%	0% 1% 6% 2%	0% 1% 2% 4%

The BDR-2203 wasn't nearly as fast when reading CD-R media. Looking at the scores above, you can see that the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of only 33x.

Unfortunately, Pioneer's new Blu-ray drive had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. While the BDR-2203 was able to recognize the disc correctly, it would not read beyond the 95 minute mark. 

 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests. 

 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	18.72x 10.99x 24.74x	30.00x 17.48x 39.69x	24.85x 14.37x 32.82x	31.22x 17.92x 41.21x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	155ms 179ms 319ms	119ms 142ms 215ms	153ms 163ms 303ms	134ms 150ms 202ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 8% 6% n/a	1% 1% 2% 5%	0% 1% 2% 2%	0% 1% 2% 4%

The BDR-2203 reached a maximum transfer speed of 24x when reading CD-RW media. This is pretty slow considering most of the Blu-ray Disc writers we've tested have been able to read CD-RW media at 32x or higher.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that the LG BH08LS20 supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.     

 

CD Speed	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	31.27x 18.84x 41.36x 10 Yes	30.25x 17.91x 39.96x 10 Yes	18.66x 10.96x 24.65x 10 Yes	31.41x 18.00x 41.55x 10 Yes

The BH08LS20 did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not as fast as the Lite-On DH-4B1S, it was able to rip pressed audio CD's at at respectable 41.36x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

 

CD Speed	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	24.83x 15.09x 32.76x 10 Yes	29.90x 17.99x 39.43x 10 Yes	18.42x 10.88x 24.37x 10 Yes	31.12x 17.95x 41.03x 10 Yes

Pioneer's new Blu-ray drive wasn't as fast when ripping audio CD-R discs. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of only 32.76x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

The BDR-2203 completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 23.05x. While the drive went through all of the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the BDR-2203 was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead-in and lead-out sections of the CD.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 5.20:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. 

The BDR-2203 has a maximum CD writing speed of 32x. To reach this speed, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV technology. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive starts writing 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 13 minute mark. The BDR-2203 writes at this speed until about the 44 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x. 

Moser Baer 52x

Taiyo Yuden 52x

Verbatim 52x

The BDR-2203's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The BDR-2203 also uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 14 minute mark.

Pioneer's new drive didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the BDR-2203 took 2:36 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:43 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc.

The BDR-2203 also erases at 24x. At this speed, it took the drive 18 seconds to do a quick erase and 3:41 to fully erase the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	11.93 6.64x 15.96x	12.34x 6.84x 16.51x	12.27x 6.80x 16.40x	9.33x 5.12x 12.49x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	153ms 186ms 338ms	111ms 115ms 191ms	153ms 158ms 291ms	138ms 158ms 209ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	12% 13% 23% 44%	4% 8% 15% 27%	4% 6% 9% 18%	5% 9% 17% 32%

Pioneer's new drive wasn't as fast as some of the others when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. While it came very close, the BDR-2203 had a hard time reaching its rated speed in our tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 16x DVD-R and 4x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R
 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	11.95x 6.64x 15.98x	12.36x 6.88x 16.52x	12.28x 6.80x 16.42x	9.35x 5.14x 12.49x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	165ms 198ms 352ms	116ms 125ms 191ms	166ms 170ms 317ms	139ms 158ms 212ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	16% 13% 23% n/a	4% 8% 15% 28%	4% 6% 10% 18%	5% 9% 17% 32%

Verbatim DVD-RW
 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	9.36x 5.20x 12.52x	7.72x 4.28x 10.32x	6.15x 3.41x 8.23x	9.37x 5.13x 12.54x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	167ms 394ms 385ms	106ms 124ms 199ms	156ms 228ms 352ms	138ms 159ms 212ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	14% 13% 24% n/a	4% 8% 15% 28%	4% 6% 10% 18%	5% 10% 17% 32%

The BDR-2203 had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at speeds near 16x, and both DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media at a respectable 12x.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	4.97x 4.73x 5.00x	4.65x 3.01x 5.02x	4.99x 4.96x 5.00x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	193ms 3ms 1ms	185ms 201ms 276ms	327ms 472ms 1135ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x:	18% 30% 45%	21% 34% 53%	18% 14% 74%

The BDR-2203 has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that it reads at this speed from start to finish.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 16x DVD+R and 4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R
 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	11.95x 6.67x 16.00x	12.37x 6.87x 16.53x	12.29x 6.78x 16.43x	9.35x 5.13x 12.51x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	170ms 204ms 357ms	120ms 127ms 198ms	165ms 171ms 303ms	137ms 162ms 213ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	16% 13% 23% n/a	4% 8% 15% 28%	4% 6% 10% 18%	5% 9% 17% 32%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	9.39x 5.23x 12.56x	7.73x 4.30x 10.33x	6.15x 3.41x 8.22x	9.36x 5.13x 12.50x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	166ms 199ms 353ms	108ms 122ms 190ms	156ms 169ms 330ms	138ms 161ms 213ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	14% 13% 23% n/a	4% 7% 15% 28%	4% 6% 10% 18%	5% 10% 17% 32%

Verbatim DVD+R DL
 

The BDR-2203's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and both DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media at 12x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	11.81x 6.58x 15.79x	3.66x 2.03x 4.89x	4.55x 2.52x 6.09x	9.24x 5.05x 12.35x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	149ms 176ms 327ms	134ms 167ms 228ms	149ms 163ms 311ms	138ms 160ms 208ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	12% 13% 23% 43%	4% 7% 13% 31%	4% 6% 10% n/a	5% 9% 17% 32%

The BDR-2203 didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.58x and reached a maximum read speed of 15.79x. Pioneer's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 12x.

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 the bundled version of PowerDVD. The BDR-2203 had no problems playing back either movie and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of Pioneer's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the BDR-2203 uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Pioneer's new drive starts writing at about 6.7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The BDR-2203 also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

The BDR-2203 performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the 22x and 24x DVD writers we've looked at recently, it turned in some impressive times with DVD±R and DVD±RW media.

While Pioneer has a list of supported media on its website, I wanted to see for myself how well the BDR-2203 worked with some of the DVD+R and DVD-R discs available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The BDR-2203's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

To test the BDR-2203's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The BDR-2203 performed fairly well in our packet writing tests. While not the fastest drive we've tested, it turned in some respectable times when reading and writing to DVD+RW, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the BDR-2203, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, Moser Baer and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The BDR-2203 had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took 15:51 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 16:38 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits and, aside from a dip at the layer change, there weren't any readability problems. Unfortunately, Memorex's DVD+R DL media didn't fair quite as well. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that there was a large PI/PIF spike at the layer change. The worst results were with Moser Baer's DVD+R DL media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the error rate was very high throughout the second layer of the disc.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-ROM:

To test the BDR-2203's BD-ROM reading performance, I used the Blu-ray Disc version of The Fifth Element. This single layer disc is about 23GB in size.

 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	5.93x 3.33x 7.85x	3.62x 2.02x 4.83x	6.99x 4.14x 7.99x	3.02x 1.67x 3.99x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	68ms 198ms 346ms	93ms 4ms 3ms	91ms 171ms 479ms	108ms 4ms 3ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 5% 3%	0% 0% 1% 2%	0% 0% 1% 2%	2% 1% 3% 4%

The BDR-2203 performed reasonably well when reading BD-ROM discs. In our tests, the drive started reading at 3.33x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 7.85x.

Pioneer's Blu-ray Disc writer had no problems playing back The Fifth Element and The Simpsons Movie using the bundled version of PowerDVD. Just keep in mind that if your monitor is connected to your video card using DVI or HDMI, both need to be HDCP compliant to play AACS protected titles. If not, you can still play them by switching the connection to VGA or using software like Slysoft's AnyDVD HD.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - BD-R and BD-RE:

Next we'll look at the drive's BD-R and BD-RE reading performance. For this I created a few data discs using single layer BD-R and BD-RE media from Memorex and Panasonic and then ran our BD read tests with CD Speed.

Memorex BD-R
 

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	5.94x 3.41x 7.78x	6.09x 3.47x 8.08x	7.02x 4.25x 7.98x	3.02x 1.71x 4.03x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	84ms 223ms 368ms	104ms 4ms 3ms	95ms 165ms 464ms	109ms 4ms 3ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 6% 4%	0% 0% 1% 2%	0% 1% 1% 2%	2% 1% 3% 5%

Memorex BD-RE

	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20	Sony BWU-300S	Lite-On DH-4B1S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	5.91x 3.41x 7.41x	3.64x 2.07x 4.84x	2.00x 1.99x 2.00x	1.99x 1.96x 1.99x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	81ms 221ms 361ms	116ms 4ms 3ms	101ms 219ms 391ms	111ms 10ms 10ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 6% 4%	0% 0% 1% 2%	0% 1% 2% 4%	8% 9% 14% 24%

Panasonic BD-R DL

LG's new drive had no problems reading BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL media. In our tests, the BH08LS20 was able to read both BD-R and BD-R DL media at about 8x and BD-RE discs at 4.8x. For whatever reason, the 1/3 and full seek times were much lower than they should have been.

BD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16:

To test the BD writing performance of Pioneer's new drive I used BD-R, BD-R DL and BD-RE media from Moser Baer, Ritek, TDK and Verbatim. To get the writing times, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature was used. I also ran the discs through CD Speed's transfer rate test to make sure that the BDR-2203 could read them back. .

The BDR-2203 is the first drive from Pioneer that can write to both BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the drive uses Z-CLV to reach this speed.

The BDR-2203 performed fairly well when writing to BD-R media. While not as fast as the drives from LG and Sony, it took less than 15 minutes to burn a 25GB disc. Pioneer's new drive didn't disappoint when writing to BD-R DL media either. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the BDR-2203 took a little more than 30 minutes to burn an entire 50GB disc.

The BDR-2203 completed our Blu-ray writing tests without any problems. The drive wrote to all of our test media at its rated speeds or better and, looking at the transfer rates, you can see that it had no problems reading the discs back.

Performance Revisited:

While Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer has a few rough spots, it performed relatively well throughout most of our tests. The BDR-2203 turned in some impressive times when writing to BD media and was able to read single layer BD-ROM's as well as BD-R and BD-RE media at speeds near 8x. The BDR-2203 was also fairly quick when reading DVD's and had no problems holding its own when writing CD's and DVD's. Unfortunately, the drive did not fair quite as well in our CD read tests as it slowed considerably when reading both CD-R and CD-RW media.  With all things considered, the Pioneer BDR-2203 gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

Over the last few years, we've had a number of Pioneer's DVD and Blu-ray Disc writers drives in the 'Labs. Offering a good mix of performance and features, these drives have become the choice of enthusiasts as well as some of our favorites. The BDR-2203 continues this trend by delivering a number of useful features as well as some of the fastest BD reading and writing speeds available. However, there were also a few performance aspects that kept the drive from getting top marks in our review.

The BDR-2203 is the first drive from Pioneer with the ability to write to both BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x. At this speed, the drive took a little less than 15 minutes to burn an entire 25GB BD-R disc. This wasn't enough to top the 8x Blu-ray Disc writers from Sony and LG. However, the drive gave them both a serious run for their money. The BDR-2203 also performed very well when writing to BD-R DL media, burning a full 50GB BD-R DL disc in about 30 minutes.

Using the bundled software, the BDR-2203 played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including those protected by BD+ and with BD-Live enabled features. The drive also performed fairly well in our transfer rate tests, reading BD-ROM's and BD-R and BD-RE media at speeds near 8x and BD-R DL discs at 6x.

Pioneer's new drive also has the ability to read and write to all standard DVD formats, including DVD-RAM. The BDR-2203 performed very well when writing to DVD±R discs, taking about 6 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. The drive also had no problems holding its own when writing to other types of media. However, the writing quality could have been better with some DVD+R DL discs. Nevertheless, the BDR-2203 was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at speeds near 16x and both DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 12x.

When it came to reading CD's, the BDR-2203's performance was a mixed bag. While the drive read pressed discs at 40x, it had to slow to read both CD-R and CD-RW media. This was a little disappointing considering most drives read pressed and CD-R media at the same speed. As a writer, the BDR-2203 performed as expected. The drive turned in some very good times with CD-R media and its writing quality was quite good. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests.

Pioneer's new Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the BDR-2203 is equipped with a 4MB buffer that is backed up by some sort of buffer underrun technology. The drive also has a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from as well as the ability to set the book type of DVD+R DL media. To top it off, Pioneer has included a great software bundle from CyberLink.

The BDR-2203 is available now and can be purchased through major retailers or directly from Pioneer for about $250. Otherwise, if you can do without the retail box and bundled software, the BDR-203 can be picked up for less than $210 through some of the vendors listed on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Writes to BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x
• Writes to BD-RE and BD-RE DL media at 2x
• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads single layer BD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads BD-R and BD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads BD-RE and BD-RE DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±R DL and DVD±RW media at 12x
• Features 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• 4MB buffer
• Good CD-R and DVD±R writing quality
• Includes software from CyberLink
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R DL media

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R DL media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated BD and DVD read speeds
• Reads CD-RW media at only 24x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+R and DVD+RW media
• Overburns to only 95:10