Pioneer DVR-109 firmware

[JJOD]

I have a Pioneer DVR-109 drive. The firmware has been updated x2 since I bought it. The updater is PC only. Any suggestions for flashing other than removing the drive and attaching it to a PC?

Thanks in advance.

[terryj]

nope, not yet.

[Ronin1]

Can the DVR-109 firmware be updated in a firewire case attached to a PC?

Thanks

[willrob]

I know it can be done with a USB case, not sure about firewire.

There is a Mac firmware updater for the 109, but it's put out by Logetec, an OEM vendor in Japan, for their external version of the 109 (device name OEM_EXT). That installer can be modified to work with internal GENERAL drives —a DVR-109 in all of its "color" schemes (beige, silver, black—which are cosmetic case differences only).

While it's not certain yet if one can cross flash to the A09 properties (faster 12X ripping and quietdrive) using it, it does work for upgrading to more current firmware within devices.

Read this thread (the 12th message into it has a downloadable updater with the 1.40 firmware for the 109 already "fixed"

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=34446

[babgolis]

I've updated to 1.50 with my roomies' pc. It honestly doesn't seem to make a difference. I'm still getting 6x max burn speeds on dvd-r (slower if I select a higher burn speed).

[macsys]

Virtual PC

[JoachimS]

Yes I have a Mac flasher for internal drives, ver. 1.50. I patched the Logitec driver (the one for their firewire drive with a built-in 109). It now works with internal drives and patches the official Beta (?) 1.50B. The patcher itself is copyright Pioneer. I am wondering why they don't support Macs then.

Cheers,

Joachim

P.S.: I don't know where to make it available for download.

[willrob]

JoachimS

Did you flash to the 1.50 for the A09 or for the regular OEM 109?

[JoachimS]

I have the 109 and did not crossflash it. I used the standard 109 firmware for the 109 drive.

I also do not see any reason for it. What is the advantage? Increase ripping speed? But that requires the silent drive utility to be run on a PC with the drive built in.

I think it is not worth the effort and I don't take the risk.

[willrob]

I ended up having a local shop use a PC to crossflash my 109 into an A09. The quiet drive is installed as part of the flash, with a default setting to on. When the drive is put into my Mac, it is now much quieter when listening to Audio CDs or watching DVDs. It also rips DVDs faster; although that depends on the level of encryption the disk has.

Apparently the flasher you used, which I have, won't update the firmware on an A09. I downloaded the 1.50 A09 firmware, unstuffed it into two files, and tried (changing the names of the two files to match what the flahser would expect) but I got an "invalid field in parameter list" notice.

I probably could flash with the 1.50 for the 109 firmware, but I think I would then lose the A09 features.

Perhaps Logitec will release a 1.50 flasher for their OEM-EXT units, which would more adapatable.

[JoachimS]

Did you patch the flasher executable inside the program package? The string OEM-EXT must be replaced with GENERAL.

Logitec drives carry OEM-EXT as a parameter, original Pioneer drives have GENERAL there.

Cheers,

JoachimS

[willrob]

I did patch it, but I want the A09 features, so I changed OEM_EXT to PIO_ADV. But this flasher can't do a cross flash—it won't accept PIO_ADV. If I set it to GENERAL, I could flash to 1.50, but wouldn't't have an A09 again.

I poked around in the application's innards, looking for a way to set it up to flash to PIO_ADV, but can't find a clue. If I could, I think I could also change it to produce an APPPLE firmware ID for iDVD to recognize and then get 8G projects.

[JJOD]

I just wanted to thank JoachimS for making the flasher available through xlr8yourmac. It's a real service to the Mac community.

Vielen Dank und viel Glück!

[JoachimS]

I was just collecting information that is around also in other forums like:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=137761
http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php

and of course the forum here!

As well as information available at:
http://www.hardmac.com
http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/

and others.

It is rather the mac community that makes things possible. Using HEXEdit is just a minor part of the whole.

Cheers,

Joachim