Review: Pioneer Drive Marks Dawn Of Blu-ray DVD Burning

The Test Center tested the BDR-101A in a state-of-the-art PC powered by a 2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 processor with 1 Gbyte of Kingston memory installed on an Intel D975XBX motherboard. The computer also contained a 750-Gbyte Seagate Barracuda hard drive.

Test Center engineers first burned 4,502.8 Mbytes (about 4.37 Gbytes, contained in two folders and 107 files) to a DVD-R disc, which the BDR-101A is rated to record on at 8x, or 10.8 MBps. The job started at 4.25x but finished at 8x, taking a total of 10 minutes 36 seconds to complete. The drive, therefore, averaged a DVD-R record speed of 7.08 MBps, which is less than 6x but still fast enough not to cause complaints.

Next, the Test Center burned the same set of files to a BD-RE disc, which the Roxio DigitalMedia software recognized as having a total capacity of 23.1 Gbytes. The drive did the complete burn at 2x and finished in 9 minutes 15 seconds, resulting in an average BD-RE record speed of 8.11 MBps--again, slower than its rating of 9 MBps, but still sufficiently fast.

The BDR-101A records faster on Blu-ray media than on standard DVD media. That's a plus because Blu-ray discs hold at least five times as much data as DVD discs. Still, BD-RE media isn't cheap, costing roughly $20 for a single-layer disc.

For now, Pioneer's BDR-101A drive is the only Blu-ray recorder in town, but the Test Center found it a solid performer. Sony's first Blu-ray recorder, the BWU-100A, is expected to become available soon and will supposedly support dual-layer, 50-Gbyte Blu-ray discs and CDs, and also cost less. Anyone not in an immediate rush to author Blu-ray discs might want to wait and see how the Sony drive performs before purchasing a Blu-ray burner.

Blu-ray's archrival, HD DVD, is currently available in a few play-only units, and no PC recorders are on the market at this time. Blu-ray and HD DVD pre-recorded movies are already for sale, yet the two standards are totally different formats. So video professionals will need both types of drives, as a combo unit is likely years away--that is, if anyone decides to make one.