Pioneer DVR-103 / DVR-A03 DVD Writer


Help us keep the list up to date and Submit new DVD and Blu-ray Writers here.

What is the DVD Write speeds? CAV, CLV, PCAV, ZCLV. Read our DVD Writer colum explanation.

Search DVD Writer:   (Leave empty to search for all)  with these features:
+ List all features
Order by: Hits:
test
1 DVD Writer hits, Showing 1 to 1 DVD Writers
 - 
DVD WriterOrder by Name
Write support
CDR, DVDR, BDR, HDDVDR
Read
speed
Connection
Buffer, Bit
PriceOrder by Price
Best
RatingOrder by Rating
CommentsOrder by Comments
Pioneer DVR-103 / DVR-A03


OEM:
Pioneer
Chipset:N/A
8xCDR CLV
4xCDRW CLV
2xDVD-R CLV
1xDVD-RW CLV
DVD-RDL
DVD+R
DVD+RW
DVD+RDL
DVD-RAM
BD-R
BD-RE
BD-R DL
BD-RE DL
HDDVD-R
HDDVD-RW
HDDVD-RDL
HDDVD-RWDL
HDDVD-RAM
24xCD
4xDVD
BDROM
HDDVD
EIDE, 2MB
More info
$200 0.0/10
65 votes
Read 72
comments

(48090 views)

Post comment
DVD Media comments for this DVD Writer (click on the link to read the comments):
1 3t PRO 1xDVD-R (MCC 00RG200) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Apple 2xDVD-R (MCC 00RG200) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Apple 2xDVD-R (MXL RG01....) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Apple 4xDVD-R (MXL RG02....) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
5 BeAll 1xDVD-R (BeAll G00001) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Bulkpaq 1xDVD-R (PRINCO......) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Creation 1xDVD-R (............) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 DataTrack 1xDVD-R (EuroDig-Disc) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Datawrite Classic 2xDVD-R (PRODISCG02..) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Discrite 2xDVD-R (TDKG02000000) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Fortis 4xDVD-R (Dvsn........) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Fujifilm 8xDVD-R (ProdiscF01..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Generic/Unbranded 2xDVD-R (MXL RG01....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 1xDVD-R (CMC00RG200..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Imation 1xDVD-R (RITEKG03....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 KHypermedia 2xDVD-R (CMC MAG.....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 KHypermedia 1xDVD-R (CMC00RG200..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 LG 4xDVD-R (ProdiscS03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Lynx Digital Platinum 1xDVD-R (RITEKG03....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 1xDVD-R (CMC00RG200..) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Mitsumi 4xDVD-R (AN31........) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Optimum 1xDVD-R (CMC00RG300..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Optodisc 1xDVD-R (OPTODISC....) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 PowerDisc 1xDVD-R (GSC001) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 PrimeDisc 1xDVD-R (RITEKG03....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 PrimeDisc 1xDVD-R (RITEKG03....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Princo 1xDVD-R (PRINCO......) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Princo 1xDVD-RW (PRINCO......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Princo 4xDVD-R (PRINCO......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Princo 2xDVD-R (TDKG02000000) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 RiData 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Ritek 1xDVD-R (RITEKG03....) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Ritek 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Samsung (Pleomax) 8xDVD-R (OPTODISCR008) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sonic 2xDVD-R (LONGTEN 001.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 1xDVD-R (SONY........) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 1xDVD-RW (SONY000000U9) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 SW Technology 1xDVD-R (OPTODISCK001) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 2xDVD-R (MXL RG01....) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 2xDVD-R (TDKG010000d9) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 16xDVD-R (TTH02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK ScratchProof 2xDVD-R (TDKG02000000) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 That's Write! 1xDVD-R (Lead Data) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 That's Write! 2xDVD-R (PVC001001) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Traxdata 2xDVD-RW (RITEKW01....) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Universal 1xDVD-RW (RITEK000V11A) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim (DataLife) 2xDVD-R (CMC MAG.....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 2 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLife) 1xDVD-R (RITEKG03....) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
6 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2xDVD-R (MCC 00RG200) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 4xDVD-R (MCC 01RG20) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) / Pastel Disc 4xDVD-R (TYG01.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim DigitalMovie 4xDVD-R (MCC 01RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Vivastar 1xDVD-R (VIVASTAR....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 White Label 1xDVD-RW (OPTODISCK001) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 White Label 2xDVD-R (TDKG02000000) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 XDisc 1xDVD-R (GSC001......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
Post your DVD Media comments here
Comments
72 comments, Showing 1 to 25 comments
 -  Next ->

I just got my A03, picked it out of a Compaq computer and now I have a Question. Is there a way to convert this burner from Compaq to Pioneer like I can do with the A04 so I can use the Pioneer Firmware updates?! Another Q. do I need a cracked Firmware or something to be able to record DVD-r at 2X?!
Would be gratefull if some kind soul could send me a mail bout this...


Comments posted by Nelzon from Other, October 21, 2003. Rated this writer 5 of 10.





Just to add to my previous post there is a downside to the ver 2.0 firmware, all the light col dye discs improve a great deal but with the more expensive darker dye discs playback is actualy worse than firmware 1.8 on the players that i have tried.
also i have now tried cheap purple top bulkpaq with ver 2.0 firmware and and i am stunned that the discs play in all i have tried including my denon 2800. (burned using recordnow)..


Comments posted by paul.drag from Other, January 26, 2003. Rated this writer No rating.





I have just upgraded to firmware 2.0 from the pioneer web site and have tested a film on aladin media disk (55p)in a denon 2800 player
which would not recognise the disk it just said "error" or "no play"
It now plays perfect and is scanning at 8X as i write this post.
i am just amazed at this as previously it would only play ritek or
dvd master discs. There is no RPC-1 hack for this version yet but i
guess it will not be long. downgrading is a pain but can be done.
I have tried different firmware versions but this one has my vote!


Comments posted by paul drag from Other, January 23, 2003. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





karl, did you update to the latest firmware?
Look here:
http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/support_update.jsp?category=support/update

Martin/


Comments posted by Martin from Other, January 15, 2003. Rated this writer 7 of 10.





I bourght the burner for app 1 year ago and have made 80 dvd-r on it 5 2x speed and now it says power calibration error when i try 2x works still at 1x
If this is how longg it will last i never bye pioneer again


Comments posted by karl from Other, January 14, 2003. Rated this writer No rating.





Excellent drive, the software that ships with it could be better but that is not the drive's fault. I use only Pioneer media and have never had a problem with anything related to the drive. I highly recommend this drive to anyone looking for a nice burner.


Comments posted by Allan Hall from Other, December 28, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





I but my unit in dec 2001( about year ago)So far So good.
Work great. It was capable to copy any dvd with old firmware 1.31 , but than I load 1.9 ver Pioneer firmware got stock with some DVD.
Any way it is not bover me, becouse I buy it for transfer my miniDV to DVD.
Plus some of my DVDr media not support 2x with new 1.9 firmware.
Like Ritek 2x DVD-r media not go in to 2x. Over that I like it.
Best to use PrimoDVD for writing. DVDit or MYDVD is sacks for writing.
Have not bad result with Ulead DVD factory writing.


Comments posted by svs from Other, November 26, 2002. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





I have had the A03 for a few months now been using Princo DVD R (£1.20 each) no problems play ok on my Pioneer 727, pioneer 525, and kids Dansia 1010. Also ok on friends Playstation 2. I use Smart ripper, re-mpeg2, spruce up, burn with nero. Use Tmpegenc & spruceup for video files (Divx, etc). Just got some cheap 80pence Datasafe discs but not tried them yet. Can't fault this as a burner no problems with it yet.


Comments posted by Andy from Other, August 15, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





just got htis drives seems to be ok should i upograde the firmware and can anyone recomend a good software so i can backup some of my fims that i own due to my daughter who like to play with my originals. any advice would be greatfull.


Comments posted by russell burgess from Other, June 02, 2002. Rated this writer 7 of 10.





I have had the drive ( DVR-A03 ) about a week and have written DVD-R / DVD-RW data without any issues. I have managed to duplicate a DVD on both media types ( Traxdata DVD-R , Princo DVD-RW ) which plays on my PC DVD-ROm drive , however my Sony DVP-S725D refuses to play either. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I have used Clad DVD to strip the files from the DVD , then burn the exact file structure to the DVD media using DVDit Personal.

Regards

NT


Comments posted by NT from Other, May 26, 2002. Rated this writer No rating.





When I burn a DVD-R/RW with Express DVD Pinnacle soft it works on a stand-alone BlueSky DVD-player without any problem The Pioneer A03/A04 are recognized with that software and even when your DVD-RW is used it will be formatted for you. This is nice...also drivers in other software packages.

PAT


Comments posted by Pat from Other, May 14, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





reporting on pioneer dvr-104 which is OEM version of the A03. most websites say the DVR-104 will eventually relpace the A03. in any case i have burned DVD video on DVD-R that plays in an old Sony standalone DVD player, with memorex DVD-R. however cheap brand $2.00 DVD-R will not play in my Sony player but will play in my Apex 1100W. am using Dazzle DVC II to capture mpg2, then authoring with Ulead Movie Factory, then burning with Nero. very smooth operation, excellent video quality if you fit 3 hours worth on on DVD-R, of course you can fit more but quality gets lower. would say i have excellent copies of backed up DVD when capturing mpg2 VBR 4 million bitrate. other options are to capture in avi format and use Tmpg3Enc to generate mpg2 files for authoring. works just as well either way. i give rating 10 out of 10 with the premise that you should be using the right software, encoding in the right format, and burning to name brand qualty DVD-R if you want very good to excellent DVD-R to play in standalone units.


Comments posted by drmpadilla from Other, May 13, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





The Pioneer DVR-A03 is quite a machine. After about a week of experimenting I finally got a superior finished playable DVD-RW. Practice with DVD-RW until you get it figured out ! My test player is an Apex 1100w. I'm using my Sony TRV-330 with a pyro firewire card to capture. Unlead Media Studio Pro VE for retrievinging DV video to the hard drive, TMPGen 2.53 to encode to DVD (mpeg-2) compression, And Unlead DVD Movie factory to create menus and burn to DVD-R and DVD-RW. Unlead DVD Movie factory also works nicely for burning to CD-R in the form of SVCD format. My main setback was encoding with Unlead DVD Movie factory, It was very jumpy during playback on my computer and stand alone machine. TMPGen 2.53 made for a perfect flawless video. I stuck to all the great advice on this page and didn't even bother to install the included software. I'm running a Pentium III 500 MHZ, 512 mb SDRAM, 40 gb drive for video and Windows XP Pro. I'm getting a 3:1 ratio for encoding (3 minutes encoding time for 1 minute of uncompressed video) I'm curious what those of you with faster machines are able to encode in a given amount of time.


Comments posted by Ted from Other, May 13, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





This is an excellent drive, a little slow with most discs writing at only 1x. But otherwise I've have no problems with the drive itself. The software.... well that's another matter!

Cheers


Comments posted by Howard from Other, May 08, 2002. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





Very good machine Panasonic DVR A03


Comments posted by audie from Other, May 02, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





This writer is great not one coaster so far just some mid to hi end dvd players don't like dvd-r but all cheap players i have tried work
fine. played on every ones players except my own. dvd-r/w seems to be more of a problem including my samsung dvd reader on my pc.
I have flashed the drive with firmware ver 1.8 that has been patched
RPC1. you can find it at kickme.to/dvd105s but do read the instructions its a little confusing. this makes the drive all region
with unlimited changes, but you still need DVD GENIE to change your
software player.
If you are converting hi8 tapes etc to dvd you need a fast machine
ist not writing the disk thats the problem its the conversion to mpg2
or better still a capture card that that encodes direct to mpeg files


Comments posted by Paul Drag from Other, April 23, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





Who want's to buy a HP that is promissing a lot but doesn't do the things you want.....like DVD-R. Philips will implement the DVD-R mode...PIONEER is GOOD and will win. Have that gadget for a few month's and I'm a very happy person.


Comments posted by Pat from Other, April 22, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





I have burned more than 80 DVD-Rs of ALL brands and quality! This is an AWESOME burner, and I HIGHLY recomend it! Witht hte new firmware 1.80 i have yet to find a Standalone unable to play the disk! FYI: CD/DVD labels can mess up your discs!


Comments posted by Mnemonic from Other, April 19, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





This drive RULES!! I got this drive about a month ago. Have copied 25 PS2 games with NO problems. Have also copied 5 DVD movies. Setup was very easy. If you do your homework, so is all the copying. Buying this drive and thinking you can just disk to disk copy, you haven't done any research. Search on this site and play around with the guides. Getting this drive won't make you a copy expert, unless you DO YOUR HOMEWORK!! I recomend spruceup for DVD authoring, and PrimoDVD for the burning software. The softeware MyDVD is pretty useless I think, but that is just me.


Comments posted by Jason S. from Other, April 18, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





I've had my drive for 4 months now. I'm extremely happy with it. I've burned about 15 DVD movies so far, and with instantVOB's software I've used a dvd-rw drive as a floppy disk for backing up files and stuff on a regular basis.

I can't imagine why people would buy the HP drive...dvd+rw sucks...the discs are twice or three times the cost of dvd-rw disks! what stupidity.



Comments posted by Paul Atreides from Other, April 08, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





Just got mine yesterday, so far its been working very well with one exception... SpriceUP screwed up a DVDRW while burning it. Dont know what the problem was. The thing just hung at 100% for about 6 minutes, I could not do anything, had to power the machine off and that killed the DVDRW (as I could not format it any more from nero)

As for the rest, so far its great, I shall not be using SpriceUp again thou


Comments posted by Shish k3bab from Other, April 06, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





very good dvd Re-Writer.
your recommended


Comments posted by cyberace from Other, April 05, 2002. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





My first A03 was a lemon. Fortunately, I didn't waste a lot of time trying to get it to work - I simply took it back to where I bought it and exchanged it for a new one, which I'm very happy with. I've had it for about 6 months at this point.

I've flashed the firmware to ver 1.65 with no problems. Haven't run into any issues that would force me to flash to ver 1.68.

Burns DVD-RW very well. The Prassi software is simple and it works. MyDVD is rather obtuse and extremely annoying. I upgraded to DVD-It SE which adds some extra functionality but I've not been able to burn DVD with it. I use it just to create the DVD directories and then use Prassi to burn the DVD.

My advice would be to purchase a DVD-RW to experiment with, as it will save you $$$ in the long run. Practise with it until you've got it right then burn a DVD-R if you like.



Comments posted by John Carswell from Other, March 31, 2002. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





I have an additional comment on this device: i have just burnt my latest hollyday movie to DVD-R with Ulead DVD Movie Factory. The disk reads correctly in a Sony PS2 that is UNMODIFIED!


Comments posted by elpedro from Other, March 28, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





Works great, no media problems. Used DVD-R generics and DVD-RW Generics with no prob. This is the only EIDE drive in an all SCSI system. Still works well, excluding a few software bugs that only scan one bus and can't find the EIDE. Work arounds still allow everything to run.


Comments posted by BJ MacDonald from Other, March 25, 2002. Rated this writer 10 of 10.




72 comments, Showing 1 to 25 comments
 -  Next ->

1 DVD Writer hits, Showing 1 to 1 DVD Writers
 - 
Column Explanation:

Click on this for more technical information.

New comments= New comments since your last visit.
New Writer = New DVD Writer since your last vist.

OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer.


Chipset

The manufacturer of the main chipset the DVD writer/recorder is based on.


Write support / Read support
DVD-R
= Works
DVD-R = Is not supported
DVD-R? = Not tested


Single Layer(4.7GB) write speeds
1x (CLV) = about 58 minutes
2x (CLV) = about 29 minutes
2.4x (CLV) = about 24 minutes
4x (CLV) = about 14.5 minutes
6x (CLV/ZCLV) = about 10-12 minutes
8x (PCAV/ZCLV) = about 8-10 minutes
12x (PCAV/ZCLV) = about 6.5-7.5 minutes
16x (CAV/ZCLV) = about 6-7 minutes

Dual/Double Layer(8.5GB) write speeds
1x CLV = about 105 minutes
2.4x CLV = about 44 minutes
4x CLV = about 27 minutes

Single Layer (4.7GB) read speeds
1x read speed is 1.321MB/s = ~56 minutes
6x CAV (avg. ~4x) read speed is max 7.93MB/s = ~14 minutes
8x CAV (avg. ~6x) read speed is max 10.57MB/s = ~10 minutes
12x CAV (avg. ~8x) read speed is max 15.85MB/s = ~7 minutes
16x CAV (avg. ~12x) read speed is max 21.13MB/s = ~5 minutes


DVD Write types
CAV = Constant Angular Velocity, the DVD is written at a constantly increasing speed.
CLV = Constant Linear Velocity, the DVD is written at a constant speed.
ZCLV = Zone Constant Linear Velocity, the DVD is divided into zones. After each zone the write speed is increased.
PCAV = Partial Constant Angular Velocity, the DVD is being written at an increasing speed until a certain speed. After this speed it will not increase anymore.


Connection
Desktop = Standalone desktop DVD Recorder
EIDE = Computer DVD Writer with EIDE/IDE connection
SCSI = Computer DVD Writer with SCSI connection
USB = Computer desktop DVD Writer with USB 2.0 or/and 1.1 connection
FireWire = Computer desktop DVD Writer with IEEE 1394/FireWire/i.Link connection (some standalone desktop dvd recorder supports this also but then it is usually to connect your DV camera to the recorder)


Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.


Visit our sponsors! Try DVDFab and backup Blu-rays!
Search   Contact us   Privacy Policy   About   Advertise   Forum   RSS Feeds   Statistics   Software   

Site layout: Default Classic Blue

Affiliates: free-codecs.com

©1999-2024 videohelp.com