pioneer, sony, or nec for duplicator?

[seanc]

I've built a few dvd duplicators for projects in the past and am building another one. My drive choices are down to:

Pioneer 111 or 112
Sony 7170

Do you know if any of them provide a bin file that I can get my duplicator controller to push out for firmware updates? The last duplicator I built used Benq 1655 at the customer's request...and although I've found the drives to work great in individual pc's, they didn't work so well in the duplicator for some reason. On top of that, to update the firmware, I had to remove all the drives and attach them to a usb converter since I couldn't get a bin file from benq.

so...do you know if either the pioneer 111, 112 or sony 7170 will update firmware from media being inserted...or can you usually find the bin file for the most recent firmware for either drive? Once you buy 5-10 drives for these duplicators, they pretty much stay in the unit for years; updating firmware easily becomes important.

Thanks much.
Sean

[seanc]

while I'm searching for that answer (bin file)

can anyone comment on which burner is the better overall burner? I won't be able to control what media the client tosses in the duplicator, so which one will burn better most of the time?

Pioneer 111 or 112

Sony Q170A

NEC 7170a



thanks! Sean

[Ian]

I believe the Sony is a rebadged NEC AD-5170A.

I'm not really sure how duplicators update the drives. Do they have a built in patcher or does it launch say a batch file on a CD that will let you patch them that way?

[seanc]

thanks Ian. The controller I've used most is the acard

http://www.copystars.com/duplicator_con ... 10_ctg.htm

On most of their models, there's a menu option that lets you load a bin file to all the drives, effectively updating all the drives firmwares from the source disk at the top. That sure makes life easier than taking all the drives out or trying to unhook them one by one.


Sean

[Ian]

Looking at the Acard website, the controllers can only update the firmware on certain drives. In this case, its limited to ASUS and Plextor drives.

http://www.acard.com/english/fb01-produ ... OEM%20only)&type1_title=OEM%20Solutions&idno_no=191

[Ian]

I poked around a bit more and you can get extended compatibility lists for Acards controllers. Here's one for the ARS-2033S.

http://dl.acard.com/download/compitibil ... 20List.pdf

It looks like that one supports more than just ASUS and Plextor drives. I think the hard part is going to be finding the binary firmware updates.

[seanc]

I know it works with a bunch of drives...some better than others. (I've used plextor, nec, benq, ...)

so if none are easy with the bin file and it doesn't matter on the firmware, which burner would you buy 9 of?


Sean

[Ian]

I haven't tested the Pioneer 112 or the NEC yet, but the Pioneer 111 is a solid drive. Its taken the top spot in our month polls for awhile now.

[ala42]

Updating the firmware is not a matter of binary firmware files, it is matter of supporting the flash command protocol of the installed drive. So you can only flash a drive if the controller software knows how to flash this drive with a given firmware file or if the controller offers a pass through mode so it can be flashed from outside.
I have seen text in some firmwares indicating that the firmware data could be injected from a disk, but never saw such a disk for a DVD burner.

[Wesociety]

Updating the firmware is not a matter of binary firmware files, it is matter of supporting the flash command protocol of the installed drive. So you can only flash a drive if the controller software knows how to flash this drive with a given firmware file or if the controller offers a pass through mode so it can be flashed from outside.

That definitely makes sense. Thanks for the info.

[seanc]

I haven't tested the Pioneer 112 or the NEC yet, but the Pioneer 111 is a solid drive. Its taken the top spot in our month polls for awhile now.

Thanks Ian. Newegg seems out of the 111 for the past week. Think they'll get more in or is the 111 now discontinued?

Thanks! Sean

[Ian]

It's probably being phased out in favor of the 112 but I wouldn't be surprised if Newegg got some more in.

[seanc]

That pdf doc you linked to is interesting...it provides a link to some bin files but the link is dead. That pdf makes note of various readers you could use...I've always just stuck an extra writer in the top spot to use as a reader...is there a good argument to be made for better performance for using a dvd-rom only drive for the 'reading'?

Thanks! Sean