Pioneer DVR-108 DVD Recordable Drive

You get what you pay for

Strengths: Fast speed, almost no burning errors

Weakness: Stops working after a year and a half

I remember buying this burner through some website back in November of 2004. It was a fast burner, for a decent price. It had the dual-layer capability, which in the end didn't matter to me, cause most places I shopped didn't carry dual-layer discs, and the places online that did was selling them for prices that were way too steep (up to 3-5 times the price per disc for a DVD+R). It's ran pretty...
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I remember buying this burner through some website back in November of 2004. It was a fast burner, for a decent price. It had the dual-layer capability, which in the end didn't matter to me, cause most places I shopped didn't carry dual-layer discs, and the places online that did was selling them for prices that were way too steep (up to 3-5 times the price per disc for a DVD+R). It's ran pretty well, I was able to burn enough DVD movies for my family of a project I made for my nephew who passed away.

It recently became completely unreliable. It wouldn't read discs, I had to either continue to try to click inside the drive on My Computer before I could get a read out of it. It eventually wouldn't read at all, and starts clicking anytime I put a disc in. I got a bad burn of another family movie project I made for my brother - I got the bad burn 3 times in a row. Now the drive freezes up my computer when I put anything in it.

I definitely got the use out of it I wanted, but am not pleased that a year and a half later I'm going to have to buy a new one. Especially with a name like Pioneer that you expect to be dependable for a long time. It makes me not want to test the waters with other products they put out that are not computer related.

If you can get this product for a good deal brand new, I'd say go for it - if you're looking at this item used on eBay or anything, I'd pass. But expect to have to swap this baby out in around 18 months.

By oceanx - Jun 1, 2006

I decided to purchase the pioneer...

Strengths: Supports many writing formats Regular firmware updates Quiet operation Very high compatablity with media Duel Layer Great Value

Weakness: Nothing

I decided to purchase the pioneer dvr108 oem version mainly because I heard and read of it's high compatablity in burning and that was the most important factor in my purchase. I ordered some ritek g04/g05 for there well known good price and high compatablity. I used the 1.14 firmware the software that I used was nero burning rom 6 that came with my old cdrw drive. Using ritek brand g04 I was...
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I decided to purchase the pioneer dvr108 oem version mainly because I heard and read of it's high compatablity in burning and that was the most important factor in my purchase.

I ordered some ritek g04/g05 for there well known good price and high compatablity.

I used the 1.14 firmware the software that I used was nero burning rom 6 that came with my old cdrw drive. Using ritek brand g04 I was able to burn them at 8x speed for 4x discs and they read fine. Also the g05s rated at 8x were able to burn at 12x! this is very quick (4x is around 15mins)

To make all the burning speed available you can also flash it with a optional firmware. This is of course done at ur own risk. Mine works fine still months later

The drive can burn to many formats like dvd r+ dvd r- rw etc and many others it supports duel layer but I have yet to try duel layer media with it. The drive also supports normal cdr/w media.

regular firmware updates are avilible for the drive which improve things like writing time and accuracy.

In terms of realiblity I've been able to backup 2 of my movies so far (using dvd shrink) and backup a hardrive partition to 5 dvds. All of the dvds played back ok and nero speed test showed the disk been fine. The movies played back fine on our home dvd players to. I've yet to have a bad disk come out of this drive.

It also has to be noted to that the drive is very quiet in operation even when running at high speed. I was very happy with this as I hate drives that are noisy in operation but this one didn't have the high whine that some drives do it was much more pleasant low hum sound.

What it slightly lacks in speed it makes up for in compatablity. Sometimes it will even adjust and slow down the burn to make it more compatible.

Overall I am really impressed with this dvd recorder it is my first and I would not hesitate buying another one. If you need high compatablity and not raw speed then look no further.

By Anemotion - Oct 1, 2004

This burner is very good. this is...

Strengths: Was very inexpensive. Burns to every type of Media except DVD-RAM.

Weakness: OEM Version does not come with Software or cables or sample media. Retail comes with all the above but costs alot more.

This burner is very good. this is my second burner and I can tell you that this is the best one I have ever used. I wasn't too sure about this drive and was swinging more towards the Plextor -712a but found out that it didn't burn to DL dvds. Even though the pioneer drive isn't the fastest in its class, It makes it up in the quality of the burn and it burns to many differnt types of media...
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This burner is very good. this is my second burner and I can tell you that this is the best one I have ever used. I wasn't too sure about this drive and was swinging more towards the Plextor -712a but found out that it didn't burn to DL dvds. Even though the pioneer drive isn't the fastest in its class, It makes it up in the quality of the burn and it burns to many differnt types of media (DVD-DL, DVD-R/-RW, DVD+R/RW,CD-R,CD-RW). If your looking for a drive that does everything and is inexpensive and very reliable .. THIS IS THE DRIVE FOR YOU

By Zuckuss483 - Oct 15, 2004

This is the latest-generation DVD...

Strengths: Fast, dual-layer, great price.

This is the latest-generation DVD recorder from Pioneer. Installation was a breeze and I was able to write my first DVD in minutes. I had no problems writing a movie on a no-brand DVD-R media.

While 12x and dual-layer media is still quite expensive, at the price of this drive you can't go wrong. It will serve you well for years to come.

By vee08 - Sep 3, 2004

This is my first optical drive...

Strengths: Burn speed, double layer

Weakness: CD read/write

This is my first optical drive from pioneer and bought it by company's name value. Strangely mine from newegg has the front color little bit darker than usual beige and its shape is also different found in pioneer website even for the same oem drives. So if good looking is also one of concerns retail box version is an alternative although more expensive. No coasters so far and it is little bit...
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This is my first optical drive from pioneer and bought it by company's name value. Strangely mine from newegg has the front color little bit darker than usual beige and its shape is also different found in pioneer website even for the same oem drives. So if good looking is also one of concerns retail box version is an alternative although more expensive. No coasters so far and it is little bit louder than NEC 2510A when burning.
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Pioneer removed dvr-108 product page from their website except its support page. It seems that another oem version which is basically the same as the boxed version showed on their website was incorrect or they just decided not to produce them (only difference was no pioneer logo on the front panel)
Another interesting thing is drives made after september 04(shipped with firmware 114) perform better than earlier ones with the the same firmware. Nero CD/DVD speed also shows that.

By jhkang - Oct 4, 2004