Pioneer AO5 DVD Review - Make  Your Own DVD Movies 

by Richard Marks

(also see DVD Burning Tips)

The new Pioneer DVD Burner, for both Mac and Windows computers, combines the latest 4X DVD-R/DVD-RW and DVD+R/DVD+RW burning technology as well as a very useful software package.  You can burn all types of DVDs with this drive.

Pioneer's DVD drive doubles writing performance across the board with 4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 16X CD-R and 8X CD-RW capabilities. (In order to achieve this 4X DVD speed you must use 4x recording media). The write speed of CD-R has been increased from 8x to 16x and CD-RW has been increased from 4x to 8x.  The new 4X DVD-R recording speed translates into approximately 15 minutes to fully record a high-speed 4.7 GB DVD-R disc.

NEW - the new version, the AO6, now adds support for both DVD+R and DVD+RW. 

  Save money . to Buy it from  BH PhotoVideo! 

Using data writing software bundled with the drive, the DVR-A05/DVD-Ao6 also offers two-minute quick formatting for DVD-RW and DVD+RW data discs, and allows finished  discs to be "unfinalized" for writing additional data files. A DVD authoring tool and DVD/CD data recording application are also included with the drive. .

By the way, some DVD players do not play these DVD formats. To make sure, visit DVDR-Help and check out the specs for your DVD players. I found that my older Panasonic DVD player could handle these disks and my new one (Norcent) couldn't. 

The drive features a new high-speed writing pickup, implemented by new laser driver technology that ensures stable writing performance at high speeds. A new liquid crystal tilt mechanism has also been included, providing accurate and reliable operation with discs that have uneven curvature or thickness. The DVR-A05  can be used as a DVD-ROM and CD-ROM drive as well.

The bundled software includes  Roxio Easy CD Creator 5 Basic, ArcSoft(r) Showbiz(r) 1.1, Sonic(r) My DVD Version 4.0 with CinePlayer(r) 1.5 and Pinnacle Instantwrite.

Roxio's Easy CD Creator is a very basic pre-mastering application for audio, data, mixed mode, enhanced, and bootable CDs and DVDs. ArcSoft ShowBiz is an easy to use movie making that makes creating home movies from existing videos and still images as simple as dragging and dropping files. The application includes several transitions and animated text effects as well as multiple soundtracks let you add background music and narration simultaneously.

Sonic MyDVD combines two video applications to provide users with basic digital video editing and DVD authoring capabilities. From wedding videos to family vacations, MyDVD and ArcSoft's ShowBiz let you capture analog or digital video clips, add titles, transition scenes, include background music and special effects resulting in DVD titles complete with buttons, menus and
backgrounds.  

Pinnacle InstantWrite enables the Pioneer DVR-A06 drive to be used like a hard disk or floppy disk. The drive appears on your desktop. You can drag and drop files, create new directories right on your media and even save files from your applications.  Pinnacle's InstantWrite is a complete Universal Disc Format (UDF) packet writing application that supports CD-R/RW, DVD-R, and all UDF levels up to 2.01.  Because InstantWrite writes the data in small packets no buffer under-runs can occur. 

These programs are OK for beginners but you might want to upgrade to more powerful authoring tools if you really want to impress. For example,  I used MyDVD to create a DVD from a series of existing DV-AVI files I already had captured on my computer. In addition, I created a slide show from a series of high resolution digital stills and also included that on the DVD. On my P4 Pentium running at 1.4 GHz, it took over an hour for MyDVD to just convert the video clips from AVI to MPEG2 and then to create the various menus and graphics. However, once the actual  DVD burn process started, it moved along at a very good clip. The DVD build process would have been a lot faster if I had been working with MPEG2 files.

 By the way, the bundled programs are all for Microsoft Windows only. According to Pioneer, if you have a Mac, you might want to check out DVD Studio Pro or DVD Studio Express for DVD burning.  Toast 5.2 would be the Mac equivalent for Roxio CD Creator. 

The installation instructions are easy to follow. Open up your computer, connect the power and IDE cables, and set the jumper. If you need to, also connect the internal audio cable from the DVD unit to your audio card. and then install the software. Voila, you are ready to go.

We tested it using an outboard box - the $99 ADS Dual Link Drive Kit. By using this unit, we able to convert the DVD burner into a portable burner that I could share with both my Mac and Windows machines and could transfer data via either USB 2.0 or 1394. Worked great.

The Pioneer AO6 is very highly regarded, easy to install and works as promised. It provides powerful DVD burning/authoring capabilities at a very reasonable price.

• With enhanced algorithms and re-sequenced record and overwrite characteristics, the DVR-A06 achieves up to 10 times better overwrite performance than previous PIONEER products
• Uses industry-first DRT-DM ( Distributed Real Time Defect Management) which conforms to DVD format without sacrificing write performance
• Ultra DRA ( Dynamic Resonance Absorber ) reduces vibrations from imbalanced discs, allowing the high precision servo system to remain stable during high speed recording and playback
• Max. Read Speeds - DVD (12X CAV); DVD-R/RW (6X); DVD+R/RW (6X); CD-R/RW (32X)
• Supports Buffer Under Run protection

* DVD Burning Tips