Sorry completely confused on the 109 flash/patch for 10.3.x

[rotuts]

Hello
Ive done some searched for the pioneer 109 and am now compleely comfused.
this is for OS 10.3.9 not 10.4

there is patchburn

http://www.patchburn.de/index.html

this makes the 109 region free and can be recognized by 10.3.9??

this is a french site I used on the 107, but has no info in flashing 109:

http://www.macetvideo.com/flashitkit2/flashitkit2.html

Im trying to help a friend with a g4dual and a new 109. I still have the 107

the firmware upgrade is so the 109 will work with newer/faster media?

is patchburn all I need ( my friend) to get 10.3.x to see the 109?

he has vitualPC so he might be able to flash with a PC .exe?

sorry for my dumbness, but the 10.4 discussion has me confused re 10.3.x

thanks rotut

[SERBIAN]

PatchBurn is all you need to get 10.3.x to see the 109...

[rorschach]

I'm on Jaguar, I believe I "flashed" my Pioneer 105 with PatchBurn and all is well, but I'm going up to Panther 10.3.9 and later I may change the burner to 109.

Question: If I go up to Panther with the 105, do I need to use PatchBurn 3 to maintain functionality? Thanks

[willrob]

Thre is no region free firmware for the 109. There is a Mac flasher you can use to upgrade to the current 1.50 firmware. Tiger will recognize the drive without Patchburn.

For the flasher go here:

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/software/DVR109_FW150EU2.zip

[rorschach]

I've forgotten now what was it that I "flashed"? It gave my burner which only had 1x DVD-R burning and now at 4x burning which was an improvement.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

I'm on Jaguar, I believe I "flashed" my Pioneer 105 with PatchBurn and all is well, but I'm going up to Panther 10.3.9 and later I may change the burner to 109.

Question: If I go up to Panther with the 105, do I need to use PatchBurn 3 to maintain functionality? Thanks

_________________
I'm on Panther 10.3.9 and I just flashed my 109 with Patchburn 3. Worked fine. Thanks willrob for the tip. Now Panther recognizes the 109 and I can burn disks directly from iDVD5 without making a disk image first. I don't see much to gain from flashing the 109 up to the 1.5 firmware. I doubt I'd be able to burn DVD-/+Rs at 16x speed unless I got a PowerMac G5 with the 800 mb firewire ports and the 2.7 gb processor. Of course, it comes with the 16x drive installed anyway.

Does the "improved readability/writeability" of the 1.5 firmware refer to speed or just quality/consistency of burns and functionality with different types of media. And, are there features of the 1.4 firmware that I would lose if I moved up?

[SERBIAN]

After patching my OEM Pioneer 109 in FireWire case with latest patch, drive works with MUCH less noise...Regarding other things Im not sure..It burns like it used to before...Everything looks the same but I did not make any special tests...

[willrob]

Strictly speaking Patchburn isn't really flashing the drive. It creates an identifier file called Disc Burning, which resides in your Library. The systen consults this file to identify the properties of the drive (speeds, dual layer, etc). A firmware patch, such as upgrading to the current 1.50 firmware actually writes something to the drive's rom; thus physiclaly changing its operation. I can never figure out what Pioneer means when they refer to improved functionality. I know there is upport for media that has recently come on the market; but its not clear how it affects the performance of the drive with media we've already had access to.

[SERBIAN]

Agreed with willrob...Pioneer explanation is confusing to me too...As I said after patching to 1.50 all I can see for now is that my drive works quiet during read and write...

[gspanos@comcast.net]

Thanks for the clarification, willrob, on the difference between flashing and creating an identifier file. I'm learning more every day.

What bothers me about iDVD is that if I go beyond the file size limit, I can't simply delete some assets, but I have to start all over again with a new iDVD project. That is, I think I do. Anybody go any experience in this area?

Also, if I'm over the limit, shouldn't I be able to burn to a dual-layer disk if I want? iDVD doesn't seem to give me that option even though it now recognizes the 109 burner.

[willrob]

ARe you checking 8G in the Project menu/ Command-I will bring up the project Info window, where you should see a new button under the Video Standard called Media Type. You need to select 8G (double layer).

[gspanos@comcast.net]

I checked for this new button, but it wasn't there. Seems odd because I've already burned directly to the 109 burner, thus iDVD does "see" it.

[willrob]

Did you download the "patch" from the french site?

http://www.hardmac.com/niouzcontenu.php?date=2005-05-26#4090

Follow the directions there and you will have a version of iSDVD 5.01 that will have this button in the Project menu.

iDVD always saw the 109, at least under Tiger, but would not acknowledge that it was a dual layer burner.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

I tried to download the patch from the French site, but when stuffit expands the file, it's one of those white files, not the dark terminal files like the ones in the Mac Os folder. Plus, I now am unable to create an iDVD project from iMovieHD.

Any suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[willrob]

There are two files one can download from the French site. The larger download is a Terminal iconed replacement for the file that sits inside the MacOS folder within the Package Contents of iDVD 5.01. It should unstuff with the icon of Terminal and can replace or co-exists with the original, if you give the older file a new name (I used IDVD2).

If you unstuffed the file and it did not have the Terminal icon, perhaps it was corrupted during the download.

The other file is a very small Console file which will makes changes to the original file to get it to the same state as the larger download. At least I think that is what it would do. If one runs it after installing the larger file, one gets a message stating that something could not be found—presumably the line of code that has already been changed.

At some point I'm thinking I might compare the two versions of the iDVD "Terminal" files with HexEdit to see exactly what they changed. I had hunted through the app myself, but couldn't find any key place to effect the change. I suspect programing skills would be involved, which I lack.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

For some reason, I can't download those two files on my iMac at home, but I can on a Mac laptop I have at work. I have no way of transferring the files between the two machines, so now I'm stuck. I can't seem to open iDVD from iMovie even though the two original iDVD files are in the iDVD contents folder. I got rid of Patchburn 3, but still no dice.

Any ideas?

[willrob]

Can you bring the laptop home and connect it to your iMac via ethernet cable?

I don't understand why you can't download them to your iMac at home. What happens when you try? Do the files donwload but in some corrupted state?

[gspanos@comcast.net]

I brought the laptop home, but will need to get an ethernet cable to connect it as the one connected now is inaccessible. Will that work, though? Can I simply transfer data from the laptop to the iMac?

When I try to download the pathces, all I get is a whie ico after it unstuffs, not the dark terminal icon that I want.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

Sorry for the lousy typing. I meant "white icon".

[willrob]

You will need to turn on file sharing (In System Prefrences) and then connect the two computers. Set sharing up so share folders, applicaions, etc. Then connect to the Network (from either machine will work) and drag the iDVD file from the laptop to the iMac.

I don't undersand why you're getting he white icon. In a whie window it must simply be invisable except for its name.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

Good news! I went back and reinstalled iMovieHD5 and iDVD5. When I downloaded the file from the French site, it came up fine. Hopefully all will go well now.

Question 1: Is the smaller file (the patch) better? And, if so, does that go into the contents file with the other one?

Question 2: Am I right to assume that I shouldn't be using Patchburn 3 anymore? I dumped that when I reinstalled iMovie/iDVD. I wonder if that was the problem in the first place.

Thanks for your help!

[willrob]

If you are running Tiger you don't need Patchburn. There is a new Tiger Patchburn (updated yesterday) that will add support for any application you use that won't recognize the drive or some special feature it has. Chances are you don't need this new version either. And yes, I belive Patchburn was preventing some folks from getting the patched iDVD to work.

As for the smaller file on the french site, I believe it makes the changes in your copy of iDVD that the larger download has already incorporated. I downloaded the larger file, mostly because the smaller one wasn't there when I first visited the site. Looking back, however, it seems wise to keep a version of the unpatched one around. For example, when iDVD 5.02 update comes along, it may not update the patched version (I don't know that for sure). In which case one would update the original and then apply the smaller patch file to get back the iDVD 8G feature... unless Apple decides to make it difficult for us.

[gspanos@comcast.net]

Willrob: Thanks for all your help. I think everything is pretty well straightened out now. One thing I have to remember is to turn off my dual-layer burner when authoring a disk. If I don't, iDVD allows me to encode more than I would for single-layer and I end up with a disk image that has to be burned to DL, a much more expensive option.