Pioneer A05 (fw 1.21) and probs"true 2X" media by

[VEFF]

I just upgraded my DVR-105 (A05) to firmware 1.21

I had been playing "True 2X" Princos burned with firmware 1.00 (granted not the best media) on my Toshiba SD-4109SX 6 DVD changer and my Panasonic CP67S 5 disc DVD changer.

The Princo 2X worked well (no blockiness or halts like with some batches of KHypermedia).

Then right after upgrading to firmware 1.21, I burned another Princo 2X.
The disc ONLY plays one in every five tries on my CP67S
but always plays on my Toshiba.

The disc was burned to the very edge: 4.36 GB out of a possible 4.37 GB
That may have had something to do with it.

I burned a subsequent Princo 2X disc (also A05 with friwmare 1.21) and it is only 3.92 GB; it has no problems being detected...

Unfortunately that was my last Princo 2X, so no more tests - I wanted to try the 4.36 GB again to see if it was a bad disc or...)


Is there anyone here who has an A05 with firmware 1.21 (not 1.00) and is successfully using (Princo) "True 2X" (i.e. those sold at qtccdr and allmediaoutlet for example)?

I want to order some more, but if my burner's new firmware is going to cause problems, I may get 4X media instead...

I am leaning toward the full disc theory, since the 3.92 GB disc plays fine; thank goodness since I can't downgrade to fw 1.00

[boblx2]

So what are you telling us? Is it that the 1.21 firmware is causing this to happen? I tried to upgrade my drive and it would not take the upgrade. The utility kept saying it had the latest firmware on it. Even though it clearly did not since I had the 1.21 file right there in the same folder with the utility.
I can't remember what it was supposed to fix. But usually Pioneer drives do not take well to down grading, is that correct? I remember users on another forum sweating to down grade their A06 readers for some reason. I think it had to do with regions free or something.
Anyway do you recommend not upgrading. I have not had too much trouble with my A05 other then it will not burn hardly any media except RItek 4X media. I guess things could be worse though, as long as I don't run out of Ritek media I am okay.

.........

[VEFF]

Bob,

Since upgrading to 1.21, I have burned Maxell 2X and Verbatim 2X
DVD-Rs at 2X without a single problem. They play fine on my DVD players.
Also, the last Princo 2X I did was fine.

Maybe the other disc was simply not in the greatest conditiojn to begin with (edges possibly damaged etc.), or something didn't get burned quite right.

However, I won't recommend against or for upgrading, since I don't know enough about it.

In my opinion, unless you want to use cheap 1X media, I wouldn't hesitate to upgrade, since it is supposed to improve the drive.
I am not sure why your upgrade didn't work...

I am off to the stores now to return a DVD player (getting a slightly better model) and exchange a CD-RW drive.

[boblx2]

The only media I have gotten to work successfully with my A05 is any of the Ritek 4X G04 media and some blue Princo -R/W media that I have had for a long time. NOTHING else has worked. All of the ones you mentioned have been tried and either the drive rejects them out of hand and says "please insert disc", or something to that effect. Or it accepts it and burns a coaster that nothing can read including itself. So I have just relegated it to burning Ritek 4X and nothing else. The Sony on the other hand seems to burn any media that I try to use. I have not really worried about it too much since it performs so well at 4X but it is something I need to address sooner or later.

Thanks for your response, maybe I will try once again to upgrade to 1.21.

............

[VEFF]

The only media I have gotten to work successfully with my A05 is any of the Ritek 4X G04 media and some blue Princo -R/W media that I have had for a long time. NOTHING else has worked. All of the ones you mentioned have been tried and either the drive rejects them out of hand and says "please insert disc", or something to that effect. Or it accepts it and burns a coaster that nothing can read including itself. So I have just relegated it to burning Ritek 4X and nothing else. The Sony on the other hand seems to burn any media that I try to use. I have not really worried about it too much since it performs so well at 4X but it is something I need to address sooner or later.

Thanks for your response, maybe I will try once again to upgrade to 1.21.

............

Very strange!

For what it is worth, I always burn with Stomp RecordNow Max 4.5.
Which burning software are you using?

I tried some of the media with fw 1.00 before upgrading and it also worked:
Princo, Verbatim, even KHypermedia (before I got the bad batch last week).
I didn't try the Maxell while it still had the 1.00 firmware; it works fine with 1.21 though.

Not sure why you have so much trouble, other than software?
I know you also mentioned that you have trouble with some 4X media with the Sony on one PC, whereas the same media burns fine on another PC with the same burner model and firmware.
Maybe it is a PC or drive (DMA, controller etc.) setup issue?

[boblx2]

Well it appears that everything is working okay now on the Sony. I had earlier reported that I could not burn 4X with DVD Decrypter but now it is working. I have no idea why that one burned at 1X but it has repeadedly burned at 4X with DVD D since I told everyone it did not work. I have not tried any other media on the A05 since that time when I was trying lots of other media. But it has always burned any 4X media. Since I took the Sony off of that Maxtor extra IDE bus it has worked fine. It is now located as a slave on the primary bus and it works the way it is supposed to work. The A05 is at home though and I still need to verify if it will burn other media besides Ritek. I think that was the rap on the A05 from many others too, using the 1.00 firmware. Maybe the 1.21 will clear that up. I think Pioneer wanted it to be the slave on the secondary bus. Where ever they said it should be is where it is. It has been awhile since I tried to upgrade the firmware. It sounds like it is more compatible then it was so I may make another attempt to upgrade it.

Thanks for your help...........

[blackmax2k1]

Why did you upgrade the firmware to 1.21? I use the same Princo discs on 1.00 and haven't had a problem. I also bought them from Allmediaoutlet.

[boblx2]

My guess is that 1.21 makes the A05 more compatible. That is the only problem that I know of. but as long as I can burn the 4X Ritek media flawlessly I am not too worried about the compatability issue since I also have two A04's for other media. I tried once to upgrade it but it would not upgrade. I was not too fussy about it because it was doing everything I wanted it to do. It would be nice to be able to use other vendor's media but that is not mandatory.

.........