Warning supposedly from Pioneer

[fravel]

The following article was posted at a site called "fukrulez":

"Well over a million computer users around the world who have Pioneer DVD recorders, or PCs
and Macs with Pioneer's drives inside them, will destroy them in five minutes if they try
to use new high-speed blank disks just going on sale. Users of Pioneer's stand-alone
DVD recorder/players, about 100,000 people, are also affected.

Pioneer is urging all owners of its drives to contact the company for a firmware upgrade
to prevent self-destruction. But as most computer manufacturers do not say who makes their
component parts, many owners will not know they are at risk until it is too late.

Japanese company Pioneer developed the DVD-RW and DVD-R formats for eraseable and write-once
DVD recording, and the DVD Forum made them standards. Pioneer also supplies DVD drives to
other manufacturers including Sony, Sharp, Compaq and Apple for re-branding.

The first DVD recorders recorded disks in real time (1X). Recently the DVD Forum approved
Pioneer's standard for 2X eraseable DVD-RW blanks and 4X write-once DVD-Rs.


Burn power
The new disks are now ready to sell but Pioneer has found a bug in its drive software.
Pioneer's soothing official line is that "a number of drives and recorders will require
a firmware update to avoid potential damage when attempting to record to blank new
high-speed media". The reality is not so soothing. The laser in all DVD drives always
tests a blank disk before recording, to set the correct burn power. But Pioneer's laser
does not recognise the new blanks, so keeps on trying, gets hot and burns out in around
five minutes.

Andy Parsons, at Pioneer in the US says: "We didn't want to whitewash this. It is a
serious problem and affects the whole installed base of more than million drives."
The firmware upgrade required is a 1 MB file. Computer users can download it, but
owners of recorders will need a ROM disc or service call.

An Apple spokesman voiced what many consumers are surely thinking: "You would have thought
someone would have thought of that".

For obvious reasons, I'm not including the site's URL. The article gives little or no explanation about this new high speed media and what Pioneer DVD recorders are affected. If anybody knows more about this, please post here.

[Bob W]

What new high speed media? I burn at 4x on my Pioneer 105 all the time.

[txpharoah]

This is months-old news. The older 103 and 104 Pioneer (and OEM/3rd party version) drives may act up with 4x discs. I've not seen any reports of fires, but there was serious concern from Pioneer. Upgrade to 1.90 for the 103 or 1.4 (or something) for the 104. The 105 drives are not affected. They are made for 4x discs.

Read about it at the Pioneer website. (I'd include a link, but I don't care to look for it right now.)

[fravel]

It sounds like the old A04 warning. I don't know, the article was posted today. Better check with Pioneer.

[Karate Media]

Go to http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/hs/ for more info

Also check the April 2003 issue of Computer Power User, pg 56, sidebar: "Pioneer's 4X Embarrassment."

You can search for it at www.computerpoweruser.com, but you gotta pony up some dough to read the full article. Your local newsstand may still have the issue available...

The article pretty much states the same as you have printed, and the Pioneer website does say that a firmware upgrade wll fix the problem in the affected burners.

Gonna check my first attempt at using DVDShrink, then goin' to bed...

[Karate Media]

DAGNABBIT!

I go check my sources, and get beaten to the punch by everybody but my grandmother!

G'nite

[vric]

What new high speed media? I burn at 4x on my Pioneer 105 all the time.

CD-RW 4X to 12X or 4X to 24X (ultra Speed)

it's not suported by any DVD-RW i think (should see the logo on it High Speed or Ultra SPeed) My Liteon CD-RW is High Speed and one of my friend (52X) is Ultra Speed..

[kas187]

as txpharoah said, this is old news, fravel you need to be with the times these days, but nonetheless someone may still need to be aware of this info...

kas187

[Karate Media]

To be fair, I don't own a Pioneer burner, and I just bought the April issue of CPU on Friday (and just read the Pioneer sidebar on Sunday), so this WAS news to me.

Of course, it wasn't USEFUL news to me...

and I hope vric was making some kinda joke that went over my head, otherwise....

[VinnySem]

What new high speed media? I burn at 4x on my Pioneer 105 all the time.

CD-RW 4X to 12X or 4X to 24X (ultra Speed)

it's not suported by any DVD-RW i think (should see the logo on it High Speed or Ultra SPeed) My Liteon CD-RW is High Speed and one of my friend (52X) is Ultra Speed..

DVDs, man, DVDs, not CD-RW. 4X DVD-R just came out, and I thought I saw 2x DVD-RW somewhere.