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In the Forums... |
Posted: April 18, 2001 Written by: Dustin "TimmyC" Jones Introduction This past century has been filled with more bright, flashy, brain numbing things than any time before us. People seem to like eye stimulating things more than ever. Along with the introduction of these flashy things, our attention spans seem to have dwindled, but oh well. Video-wise, TV has improved a lot, going from black and white, to colour, to richer picture and bigger size, right until today with HDTV and other features that enhance the viewing experience. But what about home video? There hasn't been much of a change. Other than dumping Beta and VHS taking over, nothing has improved (with the exception of giant sized CD's called laserdiscs; which were kind of stupid and expensive, the same size as a record but optical). Not too long ago, a wonderful new product was unveiled, with the name DVD, for Digital Video/Versatile Disc. According to a person from Creative Labs hocking their DVD package to me while at Future Shop, DVD is the revolution of video and will change the way we use our home theatre. I didn't believe him at the time, but I do today… Today, I was lucky enough to get my hands on a Pioneer 16/40x slot loading DVD drive. How does it stack up as both a DVD drive and a CD-ROM? Read on to find out.  Installation Installing the DVD drive was very simple. For those that may not have experience installing, check out our How To guides. This drive presented nothing challenging during the physical installation. What about software installation? There was none necessary. My Windows 2000 system installed the drive without any need for drivers from another source. Just plug it in and you're ready to go. I should also make a note that the drive defaulted to PIO when I installed it and I forgot to set it to DMA. Ouch! Don't make the mistake I did, because PIO is painfully slow. Appearance  In my opinion, a product should look nice, even if it's not visible. DVD drives are no exception; they should look nice. With that being said, this drive looks awesome. Not only is it a slot loading drive, the front face looks clean and stylish. Much nicer than my Creative 52x CD-ROM drive. The slot is also a very (very) good feature, and something I think that all drives should have. Specifications Here are some specs from the Pioneer site: 16X Max Internal DVD / 40X CD High Speed access times - 95ms DVD-ROM & 80ms CD-ROM Read single & dual layer DVD-ROM, DVD-R and DVD-RW discs Horizontal or Vertical Installations |
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