Heres a really good tip for updating the firmware in your Pioneer DVD-R Drive.
I have a Pioneer DVR-109 that I installed in my Powermac G4 Dual 1Ghz & had been having some problems burning a dual layer disk of a friends wedding video that I did for them. There was so much video & photo slideshow data in the iDVD project that a dual layer burn was the only solution. I ended up sorting out that the main problem was I was trying to use Imation DVD+R DL disks when Pioneer recommends using Verbatim DVD+R DL disks.
However before reaching that conclusion I found a way of updating the firmware on a mac, which is not easy as all the firmware installers that Pioneer release are for Windows.
There is a little program called DVRFlashX which does the job. DVRFlashX is a GUI Utility for Mac OS X to simplify the use of DVRFlash. This version is only compatible with Pioneer drives up to DVR-109 series and PPC Macs.
All you have to do is:
1 – Download DVRFlashX version 2.1 here:
( scroll halfway down the page to find DVRFlashX version 2.1 )
http://lasvegas.rpc1.org/
Then unzip it & you will have a folder on your desktop called DVRFlashX 2.1. Inside that will be the DVDFlashX application & another folder called Firmware.
2 – Download the original Pioneer firmware for your DVD drive model from here:
http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html
3 – Then use stuffit expander to open the .EXE file & you will find 3 files inside.
an .exe file, & two black files with funny names like RA100010.141 & RA100110.141.
4 – Put these two black files in the folder named Firmware.
5 – Then double click on the DVDFlashX application & you will be guided through the process of updating your firmware. DO NOT quit the app or do anything else on the mac while it is doing the firmware update.
After it’s finished you will have the latest firmware available for your Pioneer DVD-R drive.
Those people with newer drives like DVR-110 and above will have to use the terminal based DVRFlash Version 2.2. available here:
Then follow the instructions posted on this forum page:
http://nowonder.com/forums/howto-faqs/263749-howto-flash-new-pioneer-drive-mac-2.html
I must warn you that niether Apple or Pioneer endorse this sort of firmware update, so proceed at your own risk!
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