DVD Speed - Pressed DVD
Next up are the Nero DVD Speed tests. As you might have guessed, DVD Speed is to DVD benchmarking what CD Speed is to CD benchmarking.

Pioneer drive reading pressed DVD

Pioneer's specs list the DVR-A03 as having a DVD read speed of 2X-4X. While the other speed ranges we've seen have shown a gradually increasing curve, the Pioneer ramps up to 4X by about the 2GB mark and stays there for the remainder of the test.

Philips drive reading pressed DVD

Philips gives no lower rating for their read speed, specifying only the maximum of 8X. The benchmark shows the Philips starting at 3.3X and then surpassing the Pioneer's 4X speed before the 0.5GB mark. From there, it climbs to 7.62X by the end of our test disc. Based on the shape of the curve, it's reasonable to assume that it would hit 8X by the end of a full disc.

DVD Speed - DVD-R

Pioneer drive reading DVD-R

As with the CD tests, once the Pioneer gets off pressed media, its speed drops. In this case, it appears that the drive locks to a 2X read speed when DVD-R media is being read. While the rotation rate of the disc falls as the drive works toward the outer edge, the read speed remains constant.

Philips drive reading DVD-R

We're sort of working into uncharted territory here, but I thought it would be interesting to see how each drive deals with the other's media. The Philips drive failed to read the DVD-R properly, though the curve seems to indicate that it was doing fairly well before the failure. Nonetheless, through several trials with two pieces of DVD-R media, the result was always the same.

Curiously, the Philips drive seems to misidentify the length of the DVD-R disc. While the Pioneer reports it as 3.93GB, the Philips drive claims it 4.38GB. As we will see, this is the reported length of the DVD+RW, so it appears that the Philips drive might be misidentifying the DVD-R as a DVD+RW.

DVD Speed - DVD-RW

Pioneer drive reading DVD-RW

It seems 2X is the Pioneer's story, and it's sticking to it. As with the DVD-R, the drive seems to lock in at 2X when reading the DVD-RW.

Philips drive reading DVD-RW

Once again the Philips drive misreports the length of the disc, and once again it fails at the same spot. An interesting point is that, before the failure, the transfer rate graph seems steadier for the DVD-RW than it was for the DVD-R.

DVD Speed - DVD+RW

Pioneer drive reading DVD+RW

The Pioneer drive succeeded in reading the DVD+RW, though from the look of the graph, it wasn't happy about it. I should point out that this result was one of two trials, and the drive failed partway through this test in the other trial. Given the Pioneer's tendency to lock to 2X when reading recordable media that it recognizes, my guess is that it didn't know what to make of the DVD+RW, started to read it like a pressed disc, then dropped to 2X when it encountered problems.

Philips drive reading DVD+RW

The Philips drive gives us another picture perfect read curve, which isn't surprising, since this is its native media type. The DVD+RW disc's longer length lets the Philips drive stretch its legs and hit its rated 8X speed.