Digital Trends

Pioneer DVR-SK12D

November 5th, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Introduction

Ever wanted to upgrade your laptop's CD/DVD player but didn't want to have to buy a whole new system in order to do so? Now you do not have to. Pioneer's new DVR-SK12D external slim drive is shorter than two CD's stacked on top of each other and weighs just over one pound. Add to that CD-R/RW and both DVD+-R/RW support and you now have more options available to you. But don't buy this DVD writer just for its speed; buy it for its great looks and ultra-portability. The DVR-SK12D can be found online for just under $330 dollars.

Features and Design

What makes the DVR-SK12D so interesting is that is seems to be one of the first of its kind to market. From what we can tell the DVR-SK12D is one of the only slim Dual Format DVD Writers available with no offerings available from Sony, Plextor, or TDK's camps. LiteOn manufacturers a slim external dual format DVD writer, but features slower writing speeds and costs about $100 dollars more than Pioneer's drive. Interestingly, the big brother to the DVR-SK12D, Pioneer's DVR-S606 external DVD writer appeared to be somewhat late to market featuring 4X DVD write speeds when models from competitor's Sony and Plextor feature 8X writing capabilities.

The DVR-SK12D supports the following formats and speeds: 2X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 2.4X DVD+R/RW, 16X CD-R, 10X CD-RW, 8X DVD-ROM read, 4X DVD+-/RW read, 24X CD-ROM/R/RW read. Included in the DVR-SK12D's package is: the user manual, eject pin, FireWire cables (6-6pin, 6-4pin), USB cable (A-miniB), Video Studio 7, DVD Movie Factory 2se and Nero Express. Unfortunately Pioneer has not included any Apple software in the package, and there is no claim for Apple support at this time.

If you were to take a laptop's internal CD/DVD writer and put it into an external case, the Pioneer DVR-SK12D is what you would have. The DVR-SK12D comes in a deep metallic blue case with a shiny blue LED located on the right hand side of the top. Located on the back of the drive are both USB 2.0 and FireWire ports, with each using a mini-plug. The DVR-SK12D will automatically detect which interface you are using and will switch accordingly. The DVR-SK12D also features a 2MB data buffer.

The slim design of the DVR-SK12D will make this drive particularly attractive to laptop users or those that want ultra-portability on the go. If you currently have a laptop computer with no internal CD/DVD drive, the DVR-SK12D is even more attractive because you can manually turn it off or put it away; saving your laptops precious battery life.

One other cool feature on the DVR-SK12D is that you can flip the power switch to the “auto” position. This will automatically power the drive off when your computer system is turned off. We would love to see this feature available on the larger external DVD writers, not to mention external hard drives.