Pionneer DVR-A06D problem (?)

[grtt]

I've recently purchased a Pioneer DVR-A06D (retail) DVD writer.
It seems to work fine, however I've noticed that it takes a lot of time to record a DVD, that's about 30 minutes, while it is supposed to write in 4x speed.
I do not really know what could be the problem, but here is what I've tried and it didn't solve the problem:

* I made sure that I had the latest firmware (well 1.07 RPC 1 actually, which is region free)

* I've changed the data cable

* I've tried empty discs of various brands

* I've tried both Nero and other dvd burning software

* I've made sure that ASPI drivers are installed

*. I've tried both DVD-R and DVD+R discs (DVD+R were written slightly faster, just 2-3 minutes faster)

However I should note that the as I've got a rather old PC (PIII 500MHz) I have installed a separate IDE controller (Ultra ATA TX2) and the DVD Recorder is installed to the IDE 2 of the controller. IDE 1 has an 80 GB hard disk, while my motherboard's IDE has a couple of hard drives ( 6 and 10 GB hard drive and a DVD ROM drive). Windows, however, see the controller as a RAID/SCSI controller, but I don't think that's a bug,as it works fine, however I cannot change DMA setting (although I am sure that DMA is enabled).

What I haven't tried though is to change IDE position to the drive.

Some other facts:

A couple of times I had problems with Nero. Once, while I was trying to copy on the fly a movie (it wasn't copy protected and it was written on a DVD-5 disc), while Nero reached at 91%, I got a "Read failed, Burning Failed" message, but the movie played fine both to my PC and my home DVD player!!

Apart from these DVD +/-R's are recorded fine.

Any ideas of what might be the problem?

[Katie]

Very strange that we have exactly the same problem. I've tried everyting that has been proposed up till now, but it won't work. When I recieve a reply with yet a possible solution I wil post in on to your question also.

[Hardcoreruss]

You say different discs ?, which ones. Do you use nero, and if so can you select 4X but it still burns at 2X (around 30 mins)

[AngusMacGyver]

I don't know, but maybe your problem is low CPU power. DVD recorders, like CD recorders, have buffer underrun protection. So, if it notices that data stream is slow, due to low speed of cpu or HD, it slows down record speed.

[imeasystreet]

DMA turned on?

[lpt_pf]

I have the same problem with my Pioneer 104 and a PCI Ide controller. It says write speed 2x but it takes 1 hour.
The problem must come from the Ide controller.
When connected to the ide channel of the motherboard or with an external Usb2 enclosure the burning time is only 30 minutes.

[Lithean]

Hello!

Try to update your motherboard bios...

[Katie]

Hi,
Remember me... we had the same problem concerning the write speed.
I found the problem. I have a Plextor CD-writer connected on the secondary IDE-channel. This device is so old that it only worked when the current request mode was DMA. It only works on PIO4, so this slowed down my DVD-writer.
I disconnected my CD-writer and now the Pioneer DVD-writer writes DVD-R at 4x in stead of 2x, so now it takes the normal time of 15 minutes to write a DVD.