sheesh...what happened to Pioneer?

[Red96TA]

I've been shopping around for a new writer because my A05 is nearing two years old now.

What's happened to Pioneer? They used to be sooo far ahead of the competition and now it seems that Sony is pretty much punishing them with the new 700a.

[freestyler]

I dunno if Pioneer was so far ahead of the competition, in the early days Pioneer was all there was (from the S-101 to the A04).

What data are you basing this "punishing" on? Sales figures?

[Red96TA]

The fact that the DRU700 has +DL support...

I just took another look into things and found the A08...Pioneer is back on top! 8)

[garryheather]

It's not only that of course, Pioneer seem to have one of the best media compatibility lookup tables out there. You might not be able to record at full speed on some discs, but I have yet to find a media descriptor that can't be interpreted by the Pioneer drives and written to.

You still hear horror stories about drives entirely rejecting discs just because the media table in the firmware doesn't account for it. If you change your media a lot (or are an early adopter of new media), Pioneer still seems to be the way to go. I exclusively use and recommend Pioneer, partly because I can't be arsed with being forced to update my firmware every time a new disc comes along... plus I've retired a few drives, but never had a Pioneer die on me yet.

[lordsmurf]

The Sony is a LiteOn from what I've heard.
Pioneer A09 should have -R DL, I hope.
I'm holding out for it.