A05 Flash Question

[F1Pilot]

Out of curiousity, why is it that the new firmware for the A05 is downloadable from Pioneers overseas site (Japan?), and not directly from their USA site? Also, why can't I find any info about it on the USA site? If all of the 411 IS on the USA site, my apologies. I personally can't seem to find it. Just write me off as smoking crack, or something.

Thanks for taking the time!

[boblx2]

I am just guessing here but when I run the utility that reads the A05's firmware it says it is version 1.000 (or something like that) and it adds that it is the latest version available. Further it refuses to upgrade the firmware to the versions on the website. Now what I gather from all of this is that the Pioneer drive, for whatever reason, is very fussy about upgrades. Unlike the Sony drive which readily upgrades and downgrades as often as you would like. I think once you upgrade a Pioneer drive it cannot be down graded without some kind of (dare I say the word?) hack. To summerize all of this I guess the the American drives are already at the latest version even though it is not the version that you read on the website. Anyway that is what I am guessing. I have tried everything to upgrade my A05 and it insistes that I already have the latest version.
I have no other explanation for that.......

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[F1Pilot]

I am just guessing here but when I run the utility that reads the A05's firmware it says it is version 1.000 (or something like that) and it adds that it is the latest version available. Further it refuses to upgrade the firmware to the versions on the website. Now what I gather from all of this is that the Pioneer drive, for whatever reason, is very fussy about upgrades. Unlike the Sony drive which readily upgrades and downgrades as often as you would like. I think once you upgrade a Pioneer drive it cannot be down graded without some kind of (dare I say the word?) hack. To summerize all of this I guess the the American drives are already at the latest version even though it is not the version that you read on the website. Anyway that is what I am guessing. I have tried everything to upgrade my A05 and it insistes that I already have the latest version.
I have no other explanation for that.......

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I successfully upgraded mine to 1.21(?). I didn't have any problems whatsover, granted my A05 was the only drive that I had on the IDE. Think that might help ya? *shrug* I did it because I'm paranoid about jacking the wrong drive. Heh!

[boblx2]

What did 1.21 do for you?
I put the A05 as a slave on the secondary bus and it did find the drive and read the firmware version but then said it did not need to be upgraded. I am a bit puzzeled since the firmware was definately later then what appeared to be on the drive.
The only thing I see it needs is more media compatability. It burns 4X discs just fine but will not accept most other media. Which is okay for now because I have a A04 also that accepts almost anything.

Maybe I will work with it some more because I am sure it could be upgraded.

Thanks for the information..........

[F1Pilot]

"What did 1.21 do for you?"

Apparently, not a damn thing.

I don't think it should make a difference, but I had mine on my secondary master when I flashed it.

I was hoping that the flash would give more to the 2x capabilities. Maybe it has, just not with the brands that I've messed with. I'm just pissy about the A05 burning blanks at 1x what the A04 does at 2x. I'm considering selling the piece of crap to get a Sony or something.

[boblx2]

FiPilot, what I am doing is relegating the A05 to only 4X burns and I have an A04 in another home system for burning anything else. Like you I got tired of making coasters with my A05. About all it will do is burn any Ritek 4X media at 4X. I think that is a win so i will hang on to it since my A04 is quite reliable. Here at work I have a Sony which seems to burn almost anything reliably but it will not burn at 4X. I bought some Ritek 4X media from DVD-ON and it will burn those at 4X but none of the others and those cost too much for a regular diet so I manily use it for +R media at 2.4X.
But if I only had the A05 I would be quite upset because it can make a lot of coasters! The great thing about the Sony is it will burn both + and - media. I would recommend buying it over the A05 even though the A05 doesn't seem to mind burning at 4X. That is all it will do! I guess the argument could be made "What else does it need to do"? And I guess the answer to that argument is "nothing, as long as you want to feed it that expensive media"! But I can buy - and + media locally much cheaper then the 4X media so that is where the value of the Sony comes in.

Good luck with it...........


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[F1Pilot]

Heya boblx2...

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, I'm not exactly ready to buy a load of 4x just yet. Technically, I haven't made any coasters so far. The only issue so far has been with Khypermedia compatability. It's plays fine in my 163, but not in my Toshiba/Pioneer/Apex standalones. Even with the batch of Riteks, no coasters as of yet. But ya know...1x on the A05 sucks when the A04 does it at 2x. What'd be nice is if there was a mass complaint filed against/to Pioneer for the BS media table crap.

I'll give it a few months and see what Pioneer does. If they still skimp with the media, I know someone that's always looking to buy hardware off of me. I'll probably dump my Pioneer standalone just because.

Okay, that's my bitch session.