Pioneer is one of the companies that were able to get a significant market share, when the industry rapidly evolved from CD-R technology to DVD recording. They are also one of the founding members of The DVD Forum and a member of the Blu-ray Disc Association. It is safe to say that Pioneer has recently lived up to it's name and pioneered in the optical recording industry

This is also the first review where we utilize our MediaBase database platfrom, so if you are after recording quality analysis and error rate scans, then click here for the MediaBase Pioneer DVR-112 report.

In DVD recording, Pioneer has achieved a reputable name by being one of the better vendors on the market. We have had the chance to use and test their products since the model A09 and their recorders have always been very robust and reliable. DVR-112 is their most recent addition to the product line, just a notch above the previous DVR-111 model. Here is what they have to say about it:

The writers set new performance benchmarks by writing at 18X speed to write once DVD media (DVD-R and +R) and 10X speed to write once Dual Layer / Double Layer (DL) media (DVD-R DL and +R DL).

The DVR-112 range retains our Disc-Resonance Stabiliser technology, which controls the airflow generated by disc-rotation in order to minimise disc warping that can occur when media rotates at high speed.

As well as Buffer Under Run protection technology, writing performance is further advanced by key innovations including:

• A Multi-Effect Liquid Crystal Tilt Compensator; it operates at high-speed - even on Dual Layer/Double Layer media types - to ensure precise writing to the disc by automatically compensating for discs that are warped or of uneven thickness.
• An Ultra Dynamic Resonance Absorber; this reduces the instability and vibrations caused by imbalanced or damaged media, maintaining the integrity of the recording and playback performance.
• Performance Adjusting Firmware; this optimises the disc’s rotation speed depending on the user’s application – for example, if watching a movie or listening to music, the disc velocity is reduced keeping background noise to a minimum.

First impression out of the box is that the DVR-112 seems identical to the previous DVR-111 and 110 models. The front of the drive looks very ordinary featuring only an eject button and a LED. The disc tray has a nice robust feel to it.

One thing we noticed is that one better install this high speed recorder very tightly to the PC's case. Our test bench PC has a quick "no-tools-required" snap-on installation of 5,25" devices and after first installation of DVR-112 we noticed that we were not getting the 18x recording speed that we expected to. Quick inspection revealed that the 5,25" slot was not very tight and the drive had a chance to vibrate. We secured the installation with screws and immediately our recoding speeds were improved and we were able to reach the promised 18x.

Essentially the DVR-112 in comparison to the DVR-111 is a speed upgrade. It has the top speed of 18x for DVD+/-R media, it can record Double Layers up to 10X speed and DVD-RAM at the maximum of 12X. The +2x in single layer DVD recording is not a huge change in terms of recording time saved, but the increased recording speed of Dual Layer and RAM discs is a very welcomed addition.

For the recording quality analysis we focus on the DVD-/+R recordable media. To summarize, the recording quality of the Pioneer DVR-112 is very good, but very similar to DVR-111. Highest speed recordings of 16-18x are performed with CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) and the mid-range (8-12x) at Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity). The drive does live up to it's promise and can deliver 18x using high quality 16x media. However, in general Pioneer favors quality over recording speed, and certain types of media are burned slower that their maximum recording speeds, but maintaining a good recording quality.

See the complete recording quality test results for Pioneer DVR-112 at the BitBurner's MediaBase

While the recording using high or medium quality discs is very good, we would still like to see more adaptive online calibration, as in our experience the Pioneer is not the best recorder when low quality or so called fake MID media is used. On the other hand, it makes very little sense to use such media anyway, but you never know when you may get a bad batch of your trusted media and in such cases you'll wish that the drive can co-op even with less than perfect media quality.

Conclusions and final verdict

The latest from Pioneer comes with a very few surprises, but continues their strong trend of high quality DVD recorders. The price point in Europe is around or below €40, so the difference to the cheapest competitor is minimal, and by buying Pioneer you'll that you are getting a quality product with good after sales support. The recording speeds are improved from previous products, making DVR-112 one of the faster drives on the market, but the recording quality is pretty close to the DVR-111 - the quality and compatibility will naturally improve as Pioneer releases more firmware updates. The used firmware revision v1.09 seems to be very close to the most recent DVR-111 firmware in terms of supported media.

A quality device from a reputable brand that continues the line of Pioneer's rock solid DVD recorders. On the other hand the DVR-112 does not bring much new or anything spectaculer to the market and therefore we give this recorder 4/5 stars and our recommendations.

"A quality device that continues the line of Pioneer's rock solid DVD recorders."