Just Called Pioneer..Here's What They Said About UDMA Mode..

[IremainAMisterE]

Okay, i wanted to find out how come i couldn't get my Pioneer drive to be set in UDMA mode, so i gave Pioneer a call. The service rep. told me that they have ran many tests on the A04/104 drive and it is not compatibile to run in UDMA mode. I told him that i've been having problems with it in this mode. That when i go to burn, i get connection failed and i've ruined numerous disks because of this. He said well this is the reason, it is not meant to run in UDMA's speed which is 100mhz. I then told him that when i set my IDE controller for the drive, to PIO mode, i have no problems whatsoever when burning. He then said of course, because this is the mode that the drive was set to be in. I proceeded to tell him, that some people have success with running their Pioneer burners in UDMA mode, and he said well, i don't know how they're doing that and i highly do not recommend it.

So as far as im concerned, im going to listen to what this man said. I've ruined like 5 disks for nothing and i knew that UDMA mode was the problem.

P.S. I also asked about firmware. He said as far as he knows, the latest firmware is 1.20 and for further firmware updates to only download them directly from Pioneer's website.

Also, sorry about not putting in my quotes and stuff , but im shot and about to hit the bed. Later-M

[EnemyWithin]

The specifications for the A04 clearly state "Ultra DMA Mode2 33.3 Mbytes/sec". The A03 does not support UDMA mode, but according to the specifications, the A04 does (and it works fine for me). It doesn't run at 100 MB/s (which is UDMA mode 5), but it does run at 33 MB/s (UDMA mode 2).

Take from their website:

Pioneer's DVR-A04 also provides wider compatibility, higher speeds, lower noise, UDMA33 support and buffer under-run protection for both CD and DVD recording.

Firmware v1.20 IS the latest firmware listed on their website.

[Nelson37]

Interesting info, however a necessary clarification would be whether he was referring to UDMA 33, 66, 100, or 133. These various modes may account for some having success and not others.

[spooki]

The A03 works fine in UDMA mode as i've been running it for months. also the latest Firmware for the A04 is 1.31 available from here

http://www.firmware.fr.st/

[EnemyWithin]

Spooki,

I was referring to the latest firmware listed on the Pioneer website. They list v1.20 as the latest.

[spooki]

Enemy,

Sorry missed that bit, might be worth going to 1.31 though as it adds more manufacturers to the 2x compatibility table.

Pioneer Video Co.
PVC 10-01
Mitsubishi Chem Co
TDK101
PVC001001
MCIG01
TDKG010000d9
MCC 00RG200
MXL RG01
TDKG02000000
MEI 00V001
TAIYOYUDEN
CMC00RG200
RITEKG03
TDK301sakue3
TDK302saku=3
TDK401saku=3
JVC/VictorT7
PVCW000001Q9
PVCW000002A9

[IremainAMisterE]

Whoa! Aiight calm down people. Don't kill the messanger.
Im just merely telling you what this man told me on the phone. When i told him that when i installed my drive and it came in UDMA mode set, he freaked out and was like oh no that's wrong, and i don't know why you got it that way.

Sorry, but from my experience, burning in UDMA mode=fucked up and in PIO mode=success every time. So what he says makes sense to me. I mean, how could a certain percentage of people be burning in UDMA mode and others can't? All the drives are the same as far as i can tell.

Whatever though, im not gonna sweat it anymore. Im not gonna try and make you guys change your settings. But i think im gonna go with an employee of Pioneer on this one, rather than people on the net.(no offense) PEACE-M

[EnemyWithin]

We weren't getting upset We were merely pointing out that the Pioneer employee that you were talking to was misinformed (which is all too common these days). Remember, I was also having problems using it in UDMA mode, but uninstalling the AMD EIDE driver and installing XP SP1 fixed my problem. I didn't touch/change any hardware, just the software.

There is a reason people use UDMA mode instead of PIO mode. Try playing a game while your DVD is verifying after the burn (in PIO mode). My FPS were dropping from 100 to 15-20. Then try the same thing in UDMA mode. You should get much better results. UDMA requires a lot less CPU time.

[ahfairley]

I wonder if you can set your bios so the IDE channel your burner is on is at ADMA-33 or -66, or lower than whatever you have now. That might give you better performance than PIO without the coasters. Do some tests on a DVD-RW (you should have one of those anyway to do test burns of your projects - big money saver in the long run.

[IremainAMisterE]

I have checked my BIOS before, as far as master and slave drives go and primary and secondary channels. From what i can tell, everything is set to auto detection. I have read on other forums about people who have 2 and 3 drives hooked up on the same IDE channel should disable chain DMA in BIOS. Now im running my DVD burner as master and my cd-writer as slave. Now when i check out BIOS, i wouldn't have the slightest idea on what to change.

As far as when i go to the properties of my computer....Under IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, this is what i have set on mine:
1. Intel Bus Master IDE controller
2. Primary IDE channel (under the advanced settings tab)
Transfer mode-DMA if available but the current tranfer mode is PIO mode
3. Secondary IDE channel (under the advanced settings tab)
Transfer mode-PIO only and current transfer mode is PIO mode
--------------------------------------------------------
Now, when i installed my DVD burner, my secondary IDE channel is the one that was changed to UDMA mode 2. But when i burn with it in this mode, i get problems. When i switch it to PIO mode, i have no problems.

So what do you guys suggest? Im running Windows XP Pro.

[IremainAMisterE]

Alrighty then. I'll just take for granted that no one knows what i'm talking about and can't help me.

[BodyMaker]

I have a pioneer A04 and it is running fine in UDMA mode 2 which is 66mhz, I have it on the primary ide channel with a liteon CDRW which is also mode 2 UDMA. I'm also using firmware 1.31 Which has added 2X to the Infinity (Ritek) disks that i use, the pioneer is slave to the rewriter, So i dont think it makes any difference what channel u use as they recomend secondary slave, I'm not sure if its working good for me because i have 2 Udma 66 devices together ? Are u using a 80 pin Ide cable ?

[IremainAMisterE]

I guess this is my problem Smurfpacker. I have no clue how to change any of this stuff. All i know is in my BIOS, all my channels and primary and secondary, master and slave etc. is all set to AUTO.
When i go to My Computer properties and go to advanced settings of my primary and secondary channels, what i said above is what im seeing. I know that before i got the Pioneer drive, my primary and secondary channels were set to DMA if available. I put the Pioneer in and my secondary automatically changes to Ultra DMA Mode 2. I went to try and burn with Nero and DVD Decrypter and i get connection failed. Only time my Pioneer will burn is when it's in PIO mode on the secondary channel.

I have no clue how to change any of this stuff. All i know is when i was installing my DVD burner drive i set it to master and when i installed my CD-writer, i set it to slave.

If you could explain to me what im supposed to change as far as settings or BIOS go, i would greatly appreciate it.

[EnemyWithin]

I have a pioneer A04 and it is running fine in UDMA mode 2 which is 66mhz

Actually, UDMA mode 2 runs at 33 MB/s.

MisterE...you have done all that you can. You don't need to change anything in the BIOS (leave everything at auto). The only place you should be changing the setting is in the Device Manager under the channel that has the Pioneer installed. Your choice is either PIO mode or UDMA mode (with auto sets to mode 2). That's it.

Once again, initially UDMA didn't work for me either. A combination of these things allowed me to switch away from PIO mode: 1). uninstalled the AMD EIDE driver, 2). installed XP SP1, 3). removed the CDR from the channel so that the A04 is Master by itself.

As far as I can remember, those are the only things I have done.

[EnemyWithin]

I just tried reading/writing an ISO using DVD Decrypter (DVD-R to DVD-R copy). Reading worked fine, but when trying to write, DVD Decrypter couldn't communicate with the drive. I change mode to PIO and it worked fine.

So, for me:

1). Nero works fine in UDMA mode for DVD and CD burning
2). PrimoDVD works fine in UDMA mode for DVD burning
3). DVD Decrypter requires PIO mode to write an ISO.

Odd.

[IremainAMisterE]

Im starting to think that my motherboard/processor just doesn't support the UDMA mode. I forgot to mention that i have an old computer. It's only an Intel 700mhz with 40Gig HD and 320mb of SDRAM.
Next month im switching to an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with a new motherboard. Oh yea and 512mb of DDR.
I'll throw the new stuff into the comp i have now, but in the near future im going to be starting a new comp. from scratch.

Sorry for all the hastle over this crap...It's not even a big deal to be stressin over anyways. Later -M

[Nelson37]

Your BIOS recognizes the drive as DMA capable, that's why it turns that on. Is there a mode-select jumper on the drive itself?

[wkc]

My 104 works fine my UDMA 100Mhz for all media that I tested from varies sample packs except the DVD-Pro. On DVD-Pro, any video over 2 hours would either get pauses or totally unplayable. Once I set it back to PIO, everything works fine.

[PhilipL]

Withdrawn

[WiteWulf]

Morning all....just thought I'd a little something to the mix here.

I got BenQ rebadged Pioneer 104 last week and it was running perfectly on my XP system (SP1) on an Epox 8K7A+ mobo. The BIOS picked it up as an ATA33 device and XP happily identified it as UDMA2 device and Nero would burn at 2x with little CPU usage and the record buffer never dipping below 90%.

Then this darn 1.31 firmware update came out and I thought 'ook...better put that on quick'. The update ran fine with no errors. Then the problems began. Whenever I try to write a CD or DVD I get the dreaded 'communication error' message in Nero. Setting the drive to PIO in hardware manager lets me write but at 2x the buffer keeps dipping to 20% and then back up to 90% and it max'sthe CPU. Upgrading to 1.32 which came out the following day had no visible effect.

I'm really pi$$ed with this as I had a perfectly good writer before I put this recomended update on...does anyone know how to downgrade to a previous fimware revision? I've read in some places that it's impossible and other ppl reckon they've managed it...

Cheers in advance for any advice

Gary

[Burner27]

My 104 works fine my UDMA 100Mhz for all media that I tested from varies sample packs except the DVD-Pro.

First, get your facts straight before you reply. Switching modes doesn't mean you will be increasing the MHz! You are only increasing the transfer rate from UDMA=16MB/s, UDMA2=33.3MB/s, UDMA4=66.6MB/s, UDMA5=99.9MB/s(ok, 100MB/s), and UDMA6=133MB/s. Do not confuse people. Thank you.

Im starting to think that my motherboard/processor just doesn't support the UDMA mode. I forgot to mention that i have an old computer. It's only an Intel 700mhz with 40Gig HD and 320mb of SDRAM.
Next month im switching to an AMD Athlon XP 2000+ with a new motherboard. Oh yea and 512mb of DDR.
I'll throw the new stuff into the comp i have now, but in the near future im going to be starting a new comp. from scratch.

Sorry for all the hastle over this crap...It's not even a big deal to be stressin over anyways. Later -M

I had this same problem and I fixed it with a Bios upgrade for my mobo. But a friend of mine who has the exact same hardware except for motherboard also tried a BIOS upgrade and it didn't fix his problem. So, he went out and bought a new MObo and that fixed his problem. It probably has something to do with the age of the onboard controller and todays newer devices not properly negotiating a transfer rate.

[mickboss]

8) Hi!

How can you increase transfer rate without increasing MHz? (from the bus of course!)

UDMA modes switch off (almost) cpu intervention for IDE - Memory transfers. That is why these modes are preferable to PIO.

Most of you are confusing MB (Megabyte!) and MHz!!!

UDMA 33 allow a maximum in the bus of 33 MEGABYTEs / s!

UDMA 66 allow a maximum in the bus of 66 MEGABYTEs / s, ...

I don´t know exactly the specifications of UDMA mode but I thing UDMA 33 runs at 16 bit at +- 16 MHz = +- 33 Mb/second (BUT I DON´T have confirmation on this!)

It seems that it runs a little faster than this because there are some parts of signal (initial one) that has to be ignored by the device because it has some errors. After the "filter", almost 33 Mb/s can be transfered from IDE - Memory in this mode

For UDMA 66 is the same but at double. With UDMA 100/133, not all the Mb/s can be used. In UDMA 100 only +-90 Mb/s can be transfered and in UDMA 133 +- 110 Mb/s.

UDMA (100) IS NOT 100 MHz! but 100 Mbytes/s! 8)

In my opinion Pioneer had some problems with UDMA certification. Also LG hasn´t UDMA in their CD recorders, just a Multiword DMA.

[FooManChu]

I'm also having major problems with my Pioneer-104 DVD-R/RW drive! I've about ******* had it with this piece of shit drive after shittcanning damn near 20 dvd-r's now and only burning 10 successfully! I'm also having major problems with nero just trying to burn cd-r's! Always getting communication failure errors....And with prassi primodvd I"m losing more than 50% of my dvd-r's! Switching between PIO mode and UDMA mode 2 has not done a damn thing!

I also seen another post on here about using a 40-pin IDE cable instead of a UDMA cable and that didn't fix the problem either! Hopefully I just have the 1 bad apple in the bunch but I'm beginning to wonder if Pioneer just put out a bad batch of these POS's! I've been hearing from many people that are having major problems concerning the DVR-A04/DVR-104 sure is making me think Pioneer should be issuing a recall or a firmware upgrade rather than that 1.32 firmware that was just released. And concerning the 4x media only being able to be written at 1x speed?! WTH PIONEER!!! SUPPLY each and EVERYONE of us with current media that is at least 2x compatible since your dumbasses think the general public is gonna revert to 1x burning with 4x media!

It must be something with the AMD/VIA chipset that conflicts with the DVR-104. All I know is I'm calling Pioneer in the morning to get in their ass about this piece of shit drive! And I damn well hope I don't have to wait 10 days or more to get a replacement drive.


Why can't PLEXTOR produce DVD-R writers?!



FooManChu

[WiteWulf]

Well....my Pioneer 104 is writing disks ok now since I switched it to PIO mode, but I can't do a damn thing with the PC while writing at 2x as it needs all the horsepower it can get to keep the buffer full. I'd dearly love to get back to the previous firmware revision I was on and be able to use UDMA again.

Gary