Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Pioneer A06 Dual Layer DVD Burning Demonstrated

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Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-13-2004, 08:40 AM:

Apparently it was demonstrated at the CES. Only a firmware upgrade would be needed to burn dual layer discs. Not sure if a special DVD+R disc will be required (probably). I am amazed nobody has mentioned this yet! Personally I think this ability has been there the whole time, but held back on by manufacturers because of the studios. But now they need something to compete with Sony's Blue Ray announcement.

http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/8861

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 01-13-2004, 08:55 AM:

This wouldn't surprise me one little bit - as it is the industry has an effective means of preventing quick and easy DVD duping simply by making them dual layer. As it is the only single-layer commercially pressed discs I've seen are either given away promos or obscure archive titles for which there wouldn't be any market for pirate copies.

Presumably Mr. Valenti won't be too keen for these firmware updates or blank media to see the light of day...

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-13-2004, 10:24 AM:

Not surprising since the A06 has always been able to do more than it was capable of doing when it was shipped. For instance, it has always supported 2.4x +/-RW, you just needed an eeprom burned to make it happen.

I believe they're on something like the 23rd factory firmware on the A06.

Luckily there isn't a damn thing Uncle Jack can do about it Leo. Dual layer discs will back nightly system backups so much less painless.

Now if I only had some dual layer discs...

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-13-2004, 11:55 AM:

I wonder if that firmware upgrade will transfer over to Pioneer's DVR-S606 external DVD-/+RW burner. That drive is essentially an A06 drive in external packaging. I haven't bought one yet, but am leaning in favor of that model instead of getting the 8X one sold by Plextor.

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-13-2004, 01:59 PM:

I wouldn't doubt it. In all likelihood it's probably just an A06 in a box. Pioneer is almost as notorious as IBM for shipping the same piece of equipment as a dozen different products.

How close do the non-interface related specs match up?

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 01-15-2004, 11:49 PM:

Anyone get the A06 working on a Mac under Panther? Mine reads CDs and DVDs okay and will write CD-Rs, but I can't get it to write CD-RW's or DVD-R or DVD-RW. It copies all the files for the image, but the second I click on "BURN", I get "unknown error" and the file window disappears, even though the blanks are properly recognized when I put them in the drive.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-16-2004, 12:05 AM:

Are you using Toast to do the buning? You should. There is no better software burner than Toast. And unlike the Finder it doesn't take forever and a day just to "copy" (for whatever reason is beyond me) before it burns.

I'd stay away from 10.3 "Panther" altogether. I have it at work and while I enjoy the exposé stuff, the networking is horrible and it just seems unfinished to me.

Posted by William Hooper (Member # 71) on 01-16-2004, 01:57 AM:

I'm pretty sure I can burn DVDs & CDs in the lamphouse, but I really fail to see the point.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 01-16-2004, 05:36 AM:

Agreed. Especially when it's so much more fun to burn them in a microwave oven.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-19-2004, 02:50 PM:

Well, I caved in yesterday an bought an internal ATAPI model of the Pioneer DVR-A06U DVD+/-RW drive at Best Buy in Norman, OK. They were asking $139 for the drive (price after a $30 rebate). That price seemed quite a bit more attractive than the roughly $300 cost of the latest external models from Plextor and Pioneer.

But I have a bit of a choice to make on how I should install this drive. My home PC has a DVD-ROM drive in the first bay and a Teac CD-RW drive in the second bay. Which drive is better to swap out, the CD-RW drive or DVD-ROM? My main concern is avoiding any possible system conflicts.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 01-19-2004, 03:08 PM:

$139!!! Wow, suddenly I feel I got screwed for paying almost $400 for the A05. [Frown]

Does it really matter which drive you pull? I've had my Plextor cd burner (magnificent drive, by the way) installed alongside the A05 with no issues. I have also had the A05 installed alongside a TDK cd burner with no issues. Furthermore, I have had the A05 installed along a generic dvd-rom drive with no issues.

Posted by Martin Brooks (Member # 1269) on 01-19-2004, 05:04 PM:

quote:
I'd stay away from 10.3 "Panther" altogether.

Too late. I wish I did stay away from it, even though I love Expose also. My Mac operated perfectly under 10.2.x (Jaguar). The upgrade to Panther was a disaster. This is the first time I've ever had a single problem upgrading a Mac OS. Every other single upgrade worked flawlessly.

After a bunch of "install and archives", I've got the machine fairly stable again, except that now I-Chat AV doesn't work. After always failing to sign-on the first time, it works the second, but takes out Keychain and anything relating to accounts until I restart. Plus I've got those problems using the finder to copy to the A-06, except for CD-R, which works fine.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-19-2004, 08:03 PM:

For those of you who have the A05 or A06 DVD burners, what do you think of the software that comes bundled with it? My drive came with Nero Express and Ulead DVD Movie Factory (which is just a bunch of SE versions of their stuff.

I had a couple little hurdles when installing the drive. The jumper was set by default to "master" so I had to change it to the "cable select" setting so it wouldn't fight with my DVD-ROM drive. And then I had to uninstall Adaptec EZ-CD Creator 4 and their version of DirectCD before I could install any of the Nero/Ulead stuff.

To get to the point, will I be wasting my time trying to make use of those bundled apps? What advantages do Nero6 or Roxio EZ CD/DVD Creator 6 have?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-19-2004, 08:49 PM:

Depending on what you want to do with it, the bundled version of Nero is just fine. I've used it for backing up files and burning a few DVD images created by the bundled ULead software.

By the way, IMHO, Cable Select is the root of all evil.

Posted by Ron Lacheur (Member # 1126) on 01-19-2004, 09:57 PM:

I'm thinking about picking up the Pioneer 106, the OEM version of the A06. If I had the software already, would I be better off just getting the OEM version?

Posted by Daryl C. W. O'Shea (Member # 1303) on 01-19-2004, 10:00 PM:

Last I recall, the OEM version comes with the bundled software, just no pretty cardboard box.

Clearly, if you already have the software and it supports the A06, or can be upgraded to do so, you might as well not pay more than you need to.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-20-2004, 08:47 AM:

But WHY is cable select the root of all evil? Wouldn't it be best just to remove all the jumpers from each hard drive and/or optical drive and throw them away?

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 01-20-2004, 01:13 PM:

I think you may still need to use the jumpers for CS setting.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 01-20-2004, 08:02 PM:

Throw the drives away, not the jumpers.