Pioneer DVR-104 / A04/ Asus-104

[clockman]

I just bought a Sony RZ series computer. The hardware profile tells me it is a Pioneer DVR-104. However, I am seeing DVR-104's referred to as A04, Asus DVR-104 and Pioneer DVR-104. Now, what do I really have? Are all three the same DVD burner? Burners are a new item with me so its a honest question. Thanks

[bumblebe]

I think the answer is YES, didn't know about the Asus-104 though

[musher70]

dont forget the cyn-dyne line,they sell the pioneer
104/105 at office max,cheap too got one for 219+
rebate....105 that is

[clockman]

I found the Asus-104 on this web site. Don't know exactly where right now. I wish they would just stick to one model number. That way people would know what they had or are getting................maybe they want us to stay confused? Everyone have a nice day!!

[Chips144]

I had a Pioneer 103. It is ALMOST an A03. The same holds true for the 104/A04. Several different manufacturers commissioned Pioneer to supply dvd-writers for their PC (Sony was at least one of them).

These 103/104's are essentially the same as their counterpart A03/A04's with one important exception. As part of the rebadging, the firmware that is burned onto the writer's hardware is slightly different. In almost all cases, this is not an issue. But in one case it IS and that one case is in upgrading the firmware.

Recently Pioneer issued a warning to users of their A03/A04's relative to the soon to be released 4X capable DVD-R's. A fatal problem exists with the writers when these new disks (soon to be released) are used in the writers. Pioneer issued a firmware update (you download it and burn it to the writer). This fix will NOT work with rebadged writers. In my case, I had to wait until Sony released a patch for their rebadged 103 version of the A03. The same for all others rebadged by other companies.

Do yourself a favor, buy only a true Pioneer version to avoid future problems like this. Also the home brewed 2X4All firmware (allows you to write at 2X speed on all disks - even cheap 1X disks) does not work on a 103/104, only on an A03/A04.