Reviews for Pioneer DVR-105 DVD-RW Writer

Pioneer DVR-105 DVD-RW Writer

I bought a Pioneer DVR-105 burner a year ago. It worked fine for nine months, then started developing problems with re-writeable DVDs. I blew canned air on the recording head and that helped things for a couple of months. Then towards the end of the one-year Pioneer warranty, the burner went haywire. It wouldn’t record or erase DVD-RWs and gave me all sorts of error messages. I flashed the software but that did no good. So I called Pioneer and was told to send it in for repair. I did so. Twenty days later, I got the burner back. Its problems were now worse. (Before I send the burner to Pioneer, I could erase about two out of ten DVD-RWS; now I couldn’t erase a single one.)

Since Pioneer sent me no explanation of how it was repaired, I phoned them. Pioneer told me that the problem wasn’t corrected since it wasn’t covered by the warranty, explaining that the problem was due to an environmental corrosion of the recording head (something that for some reason isn’t covered under warranty). Since I live in Los Angeles but not near the beach, I found this an un-satisfactory explanation. I've had IBM, Sony, Dell and Panasonic equipment for over ten years and have never had any such problems with those electronic devices. Plus the CD-R, CD-RW and DVD-R recording heads on the DVR-105 work fine. It’s evidently only the DVD-RW recording head which Pioneer claims is corroded.

Pioneer ended our phone call by saying that they can do nothing for me. So please be advised of this possible problem with the DVR-105 burner and what kind of repair — or lack thereof — you will get from Pioneer. If this problem had developed after using the burner day and night for a year, I wouldn’t be complaining. But, as I burnt only a couple of hundred DVDs during the past year, I find the product and Pioneer’s attitude very disappointing. Anyone living and working in the Hollywood/ Los Angeles area should be aware of these problems with the 105 — and possibly 106 and 107 burners — since Pioneer DVD burners clearly aren’t made for our environment. NOTE: I sent Pioneer a copy of this complaint and gave them five days to reply. But I never received a reply from Pioneer.

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Pioneer DVR-105 DVD-RW Writer

Strengths: everything

Weakness: didn't find yet

I have had this drive for about 2 weeks, and am very satisifed with it. I have burned about 10 DVD-R discs, not a single coaster yet. All discs have played in my Xbox without problems. I have been using BeAll media, since 4x is still hard to find/expensive. Burning at 1x takes about 45 minutes, never over 50 minutes. This is an outstanding deal, as this drive is the same as the DVR-A05. If you keep your eyes open, you can find good DVD-R prices This Drive is also very quiet (tho what you would expect burning at 2x), and also spins-up very quickly.

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Pioneer DVR-105 DVD-RW Writer

Strengths: This drive has been very reliable. Over the past 10 days I have burned appoximately 30 disks. I made 1 coaster, and that is to blame on cheap media.

Weakness: I wish the rewrite speed was 2.4x like the +R/W drives, but seeing that I wont be using many RW discs that wont be a problem.

I would definitely recommend this drive to my friends. It is very very solid. The only down side I can see to this drive is that it comes with no software since it is OEM. If you are looking for free software you should look for the A05, which is the same drive with free burning software. The upside to having no software is that you get an excellent deal. 4x burning is very nice because you can get 4.7GB on a DVD-R in about 16 minutes.

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