A few years ago DVD-ROM drives in computers were few and far between in the real world, and they were only just starting to catch on in the consumer market. A couple of years have changed all that with the significant drop in prices and the increase in computing power have made playing DVD movies on a computer a cheap and viable solution. There is no need for a SCSI interface or a dedicated hardware decoder to play DVDs properly. This article will look at one of the more recent DVD-ROM drives for PCs from popular multimedia company, Pioneer in the form of the Pioneer DVD-106S. The 106S is a low cost 16x DVD/40x CD drive bundled with Cyberlink PowerDVD, costing AU$180 and since it utilises the EIDE interface, it is easily installed in any modern PC. This review will look at the performance of the drive but more importantly, how well it handles DVD playback.
| Pioneer DVD-106S Specifications | |
| Interface: | ATAPI EIDE Ultra ATA/66 |
| Buffer: | 256KB |
| Max Transfer Rate (CD-ROM): | 6,000KB/SEC |
| Max Transfer Rate (DVD-ROM): | 21,600KB/SEC |
| Access Time (CD-ROM): | 80ms |
| Access Time (DVD-ROM): | 95ms |
| Supported Disk Formats: | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD-R DVD-RW CD-ROM Mode 1 CD-ROM XA Mode 2 CD-DA CD-R CD-RW CD Extra Video CD CD-Text |
| Special Features: | Slot in loading |
| Operating System Support: | Windows 95/98/ME Windows 2000/XP |
| Bundled Software | Cyberlink PowerDVD 3.0 |
Performance
While testing this drive I found there was virtually no visible difference performance wise between the 106S and my old 40x TEAC CD-ROM. To test this drives performance I tested it with both Nero CDSpeed and SiSoft Sandra 2001 for CD-ROM tests and SiSoft Sandra 2001 for DVD-ROM tests. Nero CDSpeed would not complete with a DVD in the drive.
| System Configuration | |
| CPU: | Intel Pentium III EB 733MHz |
| RAM: | 256MB PC133 CAS3 SDRAM |
| Motherboard: | MSI MS-6309 (VIA Apollo Pro 133A) |
| Video: | 32MB AOpen PA3020 Pro AGP (nVidia RIVA TNT2 Pro) |
| Sound: | Creative Sound Blaster VIBRA128 PCI |
| EIDE Setup: | VIA VT82C686A EIDE Integrated Pimary Master - Fujitsu HDD (UDMA4) Primary Slave - Seagate HDD (UDMA4) Secondary Master - Pioneer DVD-106S (UDMA4) Secondary Slave - Acer 8x4x32 (MultiWord DMA2) |
| Operating Systems: | Windows 98 SE |
| Drivers: | VIA 4in1 4.37v nVidia Detonator 12.41 Direct X 8.0a |
Nero CDSpeed - CD-ROM Performance
SiSoft Sandra 2001 - CD-ROM Performance
SiSoft Sandra 2001 - DVD-ROM Performance
DVD Video Playback
DVD video playback for this drive with the bundled Cyberlink Power DVD software is very good. I have tested a total of nine DVD movies and after setting the drive up properly, you will have no trouble at all. Below are screen shots of two DVD movies. Please note that the screen shots have been reduced to 512x384 so they can't be used to judge quality
The Hunt For Red October DVD
The Pioneer drive has an optional utility that allows you to update the drive's firmware, change the region codes up to five time with the 5th becoming permanent, and adjust the speed of the DVD drive so it will run slower and quieter for movie playback, or faster and louder for normal usage.
Overall this drive is perfect for DVD video playback and features more than any DVD set top box could offer functionality wise. There were no visual or audio problems during the duration of testing.
Compatibility Issue
There is one major issue that cause me some grief but can be easily fixed. If this drive shares a EIDE channel with another ATAPI device, the other ATAPI device must fully support DMA. The problem is that many CD-RW drives including mine don't and with DMA enabled on the DVD-ROM, it freezes randomly or fails to read a disk altogether. The only way to fix this is to separate the DVD drive from other devices that don't fully support DMA. As soon as I disconnected the EIDE cable from my CD-RW, the DVD-ROM worked fine.
Conclusion
This is a top notch DVD-ROM drive that performs well with normal CD/DVD reading tasks with flawless DVD video playback provided you make sure you don't have the above problem. This drive has replaced my old 40x TEAC CD-ROM in my main computer which now doubles as a home theater as well.