Firmware Craze DVD drives-Is it worth it?

[chako]

Is Firmware really the answer when there are no guarantees and it can toast your drive? Pioneer drives seem to be an offender in this area in that has many upgrades to their drives.

My first DVD writer was a Cendyne 4X which is really the Pioneer A05 model. I upgraded the firmware and it worked for a while and now although Windows XP Pro, SP1 recognizes the drive, it doesn?t read any disk. So I bought an I/O Magic writer and it has a generic driver-no firmware that I?m aware off and it?s working like a horse. I do want to buy a dual layer drive and was leaning towards a Pioneer drive but I hear that the A08 model already has new firmware. The I/O magic has a similar drive but may not be as popular.

So again my question is, what is the best DVD writer out of the box that does what it promises it can do?

[jtommyj]

ALL DVD burners have firmware. It seems you have confused "drivers" with "firmware" is a place or two.

Firmware updates are importatnt if new kinds of media become available so a "write descriptor" can be programmed into the bios of the burner to allow it to take maximum advantage of the media.

It can also help with older media that may have had problems with burn quality.

So the way i see it ,the more firmware a company releases for their drives, the more it "seems" they care about the functionality for the majority of users.


t

[chako]

That's a good perspective. I always believed that a company that's always putting out releases never had their S_ _ t together in the first place (like MicroSof_ _). But there's also other products like Nero, that release many upgrades, but in the best interest of the user. So, I'll probably still look at the Pioneer.

[jtommyj]

I'm getting ready to order the 108 also. It came down to the 108 and the NEC 3500. Both have alot of "unofficial" firmware hacks you can look at info on over at club.cdfreaks.com

Both look really good. But just a gut feeling is making me feel Pioneer since i have a 104 and it's been fine to this point.



t

[chicola]

Yep, it can be read both ways.

But, I'll stick with the one that says: a company that releases firmware updates is a company worried with their customers.

[iooi]

Well you dont have to update the firmware if you dont want to. I have a 105 and have never upgraded the firmware, as it was bought long after it first appeared and as such was well tested. Now i also have a 108. Since this is new and only just released its still in the first phase of real world testing and as such there will be a rash of updates proberly in responce to user issues and new media comming online. My 108 has moved from 1.06 to 1.10 and now 1.14. Have i noticed any diffrence NO....