Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: burns good

Weakness: take too long to read...Very slow

i just got this burner a few days ago and i am not liking it too much. it says that it is a 12x read drive but it's taking me 48-53 min to rip a dvd. my brother has a TDK 440n and it is a 12x also but his rips in about 20 min a dvd. i'm gonna return this Pioneer and get the same one that my brother have.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: Burn DVD fast and no problem what so ever.

Weakness: Reading and writing CD are really slow and takes forever to regonize most CDs. Reading speed is terrible also.

If you just using this for DVD buring only then it is a good unit but wouldn't recommend anyone if they burn a lot of CDs. So far I have had a lot of problem with CD reading and burning with this unit.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

I bought the drive and software bundle for $299. So far no problems using cheap generic 2X DVD-R's I bought at allmediaoutlet.com for $1.12 each (50 pack). The 4X speed disks are about $4.00 each and I have not tested them yet. I was somewhat disappointed with the software. Easy CD Creator 5 did not copy video DVD's and copied data at 1X speed only. So I bought the latest version of Nero and it worked at 2X and also copied the video DVD's. The software bundle also included Sonic's MYDVD 4.0 that just locked up when I tried to run it, so I removed it and installed version 3.0 and it worked fine. I rate this drive a 9/10 with a 1 point deduction for the software.

100% of readers found this review helpful. Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: quiet, fast, &, dependable for dvds & cds

Weakness: the supplied software could use an update

I would have preferred Nero Burning software instead of the Roxio that came with the drive.
For the price, it is fast & the other bundled software is a treat.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: Very quiet, fast, and easy to work with. Sonic MyDVD

Weakness: Price, as with all DVD-RWs

So far, I have had nothing but a positive experience with this drive. It is quieter burning than my DVD ROM is when reading, and it created a perfect quality DVD Copy with DVDxCopy on the first try. I would highly recommend this drive.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: FASTER THAN THE PLEXTOR 4XDVDRW QUIET COMPATIBLE

Weakness: TRAY - I LOVED THE SLOTIN THAT THE READER HAD

I USE IT WITH NERO AND ULEAD MOVIEFACTORY AND IT ROCKS
I ALSO OWN THE PLEXTOR 4DVDRW AND ITS MUCH SLOWER THAN THE PIONEER AND MORE EXPENSIVE WHICH AINT JUSTIFIED
I GIVE IT A 10 CAUSE ITS REALLY THE BEST DVDRW OUT THERE
GO PIONEER !

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: Plug and play, works

Weakness: No Macintosh-specific documentation.

I put my drive in a Blue&White G3 Macintosh. Installation was easy, and it was, of course, plug and play: the O.S. recognized it without me having to find drivers on the net. I recommend the freeware VLC from videolan.org for watching DVDs, and I use Toast Titanium for burning DVDs of miscellaneous data files. The only downside is that a 350Mhz Blue&White G3 is a little slow for watching DVDs: It drops the occasional video frame. However, the drive is great for making backups.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: Extremely fast write times, 15min to burn a DVD-R, and very quiet, can't even hear it run when burning a DVD.

Weakness: The software, EasyCD isn't my favorite software. I use Nero instead and it works great.

The drive was packed very well in the box and it came with the software bundle (Ez Cd 5.0 Pinnacle, and Sonic) screws, Manual opener and user manuals for the drive and software.

Installing the drive was straight forward, it's already set to master by default. The screws are good for mounting the drive and are big enough that they will grab the slots in most cases easy.

After mounting the drive and attaching the IDE and power cable I turned on the computer and WinXP Pro saw the drive and installed it with no problem.

I updated Nero and test burned a 4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, and a CDR with no issues at all.

Burned a DVD-RW without having to pre format the disk because Nero does it for you durning the process. Burned the whole DVD-RW in 30min. Then did a full erase.

I didn't use the software that came with the drive because I like to use Nero.

All in all this is an awesome drive to say the least. If you want a great DVD-RW buy this drive.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: Fast, ULTRA quiet, true Plug n' Play installation! Great Pioneer technical support!

Weakness: None so far

Prior to purchasing this drive, I had some questions, as it was going in my Mac G3, a computer that is not new, but neither a relic. I had three separate questions for Pioneer's technical support both before and after the purchase, and all questions were answered within ONE DAY, and the answers were actually informative. This drive works great for me even under Mac OS 8.6 with Roxio Toast, as well as OS 9.2.2, Haven't tried OS X yet. Yes, the owner's manual is a bit thin, but it seems like the online technical support at Pioneer makes up for this. Actually, most of what one would DO with the drive is dependent upon the software used, not the drive itself. BUY IT!!!!

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: Drive Speed, SonicDVD

Weakness: No problems with the drive.

This drive is pretty nice, runs very quietly, and burns 4x DVD's in 15 mins. Easy CD Creator that comes with it is terrible so I use Sonic DVD. I paid $290 for the drive which isn't too bad.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?

Pioneer DVR-A05 Internal DVD-Writer

Strengths: MyDVD 4.0, price

Weakness: Little documentation, terrible web site

I have used Pinnacle Studio8 for a while...what a nightmare that is. Their web site is great and the software interface is great, but there are too many bugs to get your job done in your spare time. I was able to use MyDVD 4 on the first try to burn the MPEG video created with Pinnacle.

The drive didn't come with any decent documentation. I still have questions like:

When do I need to format?
When do I format with UDF?
Why can't MyDVD can’t see a disk formatted with InstantWrite? (it says "no medium")
Is there any way to reformat a disk to a different file system?
How do I close a DVD-RW?
How do I reopen a DVD-RW?

The Pioneer web site is nearly worthless. In this department I'd go with HP. You're browsing here now right? So it must be important to you too.

Did you find it helpful or unhelpful?