Digital Trends

Pioneer DVR-S606

November 2nd, 2003 | by Ian Bell

Introduction

Let's face it, the phrase “good things come to those that wait” isn't often true in consumer electronics. Cutting edge products coupled with a ridiculously fast 6 month product cycle keep us on our toes and force us to look far into the future to see what new stuff is coming down the pipe before we make our purchase. We usually have to look forward to incremental upgrades and minor improvements between new models and their older siblings. Wouldn't it just feel good to know you made a good purchase on a reliable product without having to wonder if something better will replace it in a few months? Enter the Pioneer DVR-S606 +/- DVD writer. Priced at $299, those looking for a stylish and reliable DVD writer will find the Pioneer DVR-S606 extremely appealing and long lasting.

Features and Design

While Pioneer might have been late bringing the DVR-S606 to market, we can honestly say it has been worth the wait. Sure, Sony and Plextor are introducing 8X DVD writers at the same time Pioneer introduced their DVR-S606 4X DVD writer, but there is little difference between 4X and 8X speeds. We are talking a mere minute in writing times for most instances between the two speeds.

The DVR-S606 features the following writing speeds: 4X DVD+R, 2.4X DVD+RW, 4X DVD-R, 2X DVD-RW, 16X CD-R, 10X CD-RW. The DVR-S606 has a 2MB buffer. Included in the DVR-S606 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 either.

The PX-708UF compared to Pioneers DVR-S606

The DVR-S606 is quite a stylish drive. The casing is painted a shiny silver and the drive itself is black with a neon blue LED. Located on the front of the drive is the eject button; there are no volume controls or audio inputs. On the rear of the drive is where you will find one USB 2.0 port, two FireWire ports (one used as a pass through for daisy chaining devices) and the power switch. We were glad to see that no toggle switch was needed to change between the USB and FireWire inputs. The Plextor PlexWriter 708UF drive made you toggle a flip to switch between the two interfaces, and we thought that was kind of odd. We liked seeing the FireWire pass through so you can add other FireWire through the DVR-S606. Audio and video editors that often carry a lot of external devices will be especially pleased by this.

We would have liked to have seen support for Apple's operating systems and Roxio's TOAST included with the package; this hurt the DVR-S606's overall score.

If you are looking for the ultimate portable DVD writer, we would recommend having a look at Pioneer's new DVR-SK12D DVD writer. It supports both +/- DVD formats, USB and FireWire, but writes at slower speeds than the DVR-S606 drive. But the drive itself is no thicker than maybe 5 CD's, it uses a laptop DVD writer for the internal drive.