Pioneer DVR 111D

[samijubal]

Anyone own this burner? Supermediastore supposedly has it for $29.99 after rebate with free shipping today only. I'm not sure about that though, when I click the link in the e-mail it comes up $39.45 and a $7 rebate, then they want to charge $7 shipping. But anyway, is it a good burner? Is it riplocked and if so can it be removed?

[budz]

check out the PIONEER FORUM at CDfreaks.com.

[samijubal]

Update, I called them, the 1 day is Sunday. They have a limited number of them and it's first come first serve. I can't find anything on the 111 at CD freaks, only the 110.

[budz]

Update, I called them, the 1 day is Sunday. They have a limited number of them and it's first come first serve. I can't find anything on the 111 at CD freaks, only the 110.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=166764

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=175669

The 111 review: http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/270

[samijubal]

Thanks, looks like it's not riplocked. Be nice to have for a backup drive.

[Grain]

I have a 111D, no riplock. Does an excellent job on TYG02's, really low Pi's and Pif's, somewhat loudish, but a great burner and ripper.

[samijubal]

It went up to $50 for the one day sale with a $20 rebate. I bought one, hopefully the Pioneer burners are as good at reading discs as I've seen people say they are. I've got some early RAM discs that were crapola that play fine on the Panasonic recorder, but I haven't found a burner that will read them without problems yet. Even the Toshiba 5112 that will read almost any disc stumbles with them.

[budz]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7727258&productCategoryId=cat01041&type=...=1140392418231

Anyone know for sure if that drive at Best Buy for $39.99 is a Pioneer 111d? There's a instant rebate of $40.00 on the drive. I did a google on it and cdfreaks.com said it's a Pioneer 111. If it is I'll pick one up since it's cheaper than getting it from newegg.com or any other online retailer. Any comments will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!!!

[samijubal]

Does that burner do RAM? It doesn't list it on the box or the website.

[budz]

The sticker on the drive does indeed say DVR-111D.

[samijubal]

I'd love to hear any input on how good it is at reading/burning, especially reading. I'll probably just use it to read, since I've never had any problems with my NEC, even after a few thousand discs. I know for sure I can always trust the NEC for burning.

[OneSickPup]

Does that burner do RAM? It doesn't list it on the box or the website.

The Pioneer 111d will read RAM but not write RAM. You can always crossflash to the 111 or A11XL for RAM writing ability as the hardware is the same. I have not done this as I use my LG for RAM - don't do a lot of that anyway. I've been impressed with the burn quality of the 111d with quality media. What little testing I did - the reading/ripping was very good on this drive, but again; I have not done a lot of that with this drive. Not sure what stock firmware came on yours but the 1.19 has a lot of improvements over 1.06. The 111d is also very good with DL media if that is of interest to you. Good luck.

[samijubal]

According to the CD freaks review, it reads and writes RAM. Unless there's a difference between the Europe version, what they used, and the U.S. version.

[OneSickPup]

According to the CD freaks review, it reads and writes RAM. Unless there's a difference between the Europe version, what they used, and the U.S. version.

Are you referring to this review?

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/270

That is a review of the Pioneer 111 - not the 111D. The 111D is about all you can get in the US to the best of my knowledge. As I stated before, you can crossflash to the 111 model if RAM writing is a necessity.

[budz]

I successfully crossflashed my 111D to TDB firmware 111L_ 8.19. I got better scans with TDB firmware 111_1.19. Like the BENQ drives this PIONEER can be flashed back and forth from TDB firmware to stock firmware. BEST BUY also has a 12% off coupon for this drive.
http://www.dealcatcher.com/Bestbuy-coupons

The coupon ends today.

[samijubal]

According to the CD freaks review, it reads and writes RAM. Unless there's a difference between the Europe version, what they used, and the U.S. version.

Are you referring to this review?

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/270

That is a review of the Pioneer 111 - not the 111D. The 111D is about all you can get in the US to the best of my knowledge. As I stated before, you can crossflash to the 111 model if RAM writing is a necessity.

Yea, that's the review. I don't need RAM writing, just reading. I need a burner that will read RAM as good as the Panasonic standalones. LG was terrible, Toshiba is definitely better, but nowhere near as good as the Panasonic standalone. Hopefully the Pioneer burners are as good as people say they are. I guess I'll find out soon. That's basically the reason I bought it. I already have 2 burners, but I've got a couple of hundred RAM discs a fair percentage of which can't be read with the Toshiba. They're early cheap Optocrap discs that can only be read without bad spots in the Panasonic recorders. I can put the disc on the HD, but after making menus and all in TMPGEnc, when it goes to put it on the HD to burn, it hits one of the problem spots and skips to finalizing VOB file and the end file is way too small. The discs will play flawlessly in the Panasonic recorder though.

[samijubal]

Unfortunately, the Pioneer isn't the reader people say it is, at least not this one. The old 4x Toshiba 5112 is better. Wasted my money on this one.

[budz]

Unfortunately, the Pioneer isn't the reader people say it is, at least not this one. The old 4x Toshiba 5112 is better. Wasted my money on this one.

Have you considered the BENQ 1670 drive that reads & writes to DVD-RAM?
Here's the review for it:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/257/1

[samijubal]

Will that read better than the Toshiba 5112? I haven't seen anything that does yet.

[chas0039]

Unfortunately, the Pioneer isn't the reader people say it is, at least not this one. The old 4x Toshiba 5112 is better. Wasted my money on this one.

Sorry you have problems with the reading. Don't abandon the drive yet. I have not been a real fan of Pioneer as their prior drives were just average. I find this one does a top quality job with MCC 004 (all three US variations). It also is one onf the few good burners with TYG03 (8X).

You might consider the Asus 616: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827135087

I have read a number of threads where people are very pleased with the read ability.

[samijubal]

Does that read RAM? All my problem discs are early defective Optodisc RAMs. They work fine in a Panasonic standalone. I haven't seen a burner that reads anywhere near as good as the Panasonic.

[chas0039]

I think not. Sorry about your Optodiscs.

[samijubal]

I was able to copy a season of a TV series from heavily edited RAM discs that the Toshiba choked on every time I tried. I wanted those on DVD-R pretty bad, so for the $30 I spent on the Pioneer, I guess it wasn't a bad deal.