Pioneer DVR-111D Features

• 16X DVD-R/+R Write Speed
• 8X DVD-R/+R Dual Layer
• Available in black, beige, and silver
• Improved Quiet Drive Technology
• Liquid Crystal Tilt/Blur Compensator
• Layer Jump Recording
• 5X reading for DVD-RAM

If you've ever purchased Pioneer DVD drives over a period of a few years, you'll notice the external appearance rarely changes. Pioneer's DVD drives are under $40, which is something to be said for a proven design. About every 6-8 months, Pioneer updates their DVR series with improvements, however so subtle they might be.

Double Layer Is Now Affordable

As of the publish date of this review, you can purchase a 25-pack of DVD+R DL media for $1.39 per disc at Shop[4]Tech, which is one of a small handful of online stores I trust and have been using for many years. Shop[4]Tech offers regular 10% coupons (and recently announced a 15% coupon), and this nice little bonus brings down the price per disc of DVD+R DL media to only $1.25. Now, some viewers may still think this is too expensive because hey, the average price of a single 4.7GB DVD disc is about $.25. What we have is a cost ratio of 5:1. Still, DL media is about convenience and less storage space at a reasonable price.

Only 3 years ago, the complaints of having too many single 4.7GB DVD discs and running out of storage space would have hardly been believable. But today, it's a reality. Single-sided DVD discs are simply not the most efficient way to handle the amount media storage the average computer user accumulates.

Dual Layer Is More Affordable But Still Expensive

Dual Layer is still much more expensive than the "plus" media DL. Currently, the "minus" DL media is $2.25 per disc, and a cost ratio of 9:1. This is almost twice the amount of plus media. In addition, there is the lack of bitsetting (i.e., booktype) in minus drives. Unfortunately, the Pioneer DVR-111D does not support bitsetting. However, it does burn +R DL media just fine. Many test DVD videos were created and there were no apparent issues.