Pioneer A06 Problems

[frankma]

Have had A06 (retail) for about 2 weeks, everything fine for 8-10days. Now all blank DVD media when inserted is recognized as audio CD with "Track01.cda" apparently on disk. Blank CD media is OK. When I burn to DVD disk the burn seems to be successful and data (no Track01.cda) is seen in Windows Explorer but attempts to read cause WinExplorer to lock and and any actions lead to BSOD (disks also cause problems when read in DVDROM drive). I would appreciate any insights. Thanks, Frankma

AMD 1.4 GH
Win98SE

[Remco]

Sounds like a problem in the ASPI layer...
Can you remember if you installed new burning software around that time??

[frankma]

Thanks for input, ran aspichk-sez all OK. I did update videocard (GF3 Ti200) drivers. Talked to Pioneer tech support and they said this was/is common problem with earlier Windows(?). Per Pioneer updated MB drivers & Win98se, but same problem. Thanks, Frankma

[simonko]

Have had A06 (retail) for about 2 weeks, everything fine for 8-10days. Now all blank DVD media when inserted is recognized as audio CD with "Track01.cda"

Track01.cda is normal, it is the lead-in info on all DVD-R media. "tells the software/drive what the hell media it is"

You will see that track in any explorer in windows. You will not see it though in a burning app. And it should burn properly.

[garryheather]

Wrong - track01.cda is Windows mistaking the whole data track as a CDDA audio track. ATIP or Pre-Lead in data isn't read by windows as standard, your recorder is interested in that since it dictates write strategy and capacity.

Excuse me while I point the finger at ASPI layer incompatibilities... check out Adaptec's website for the latest freebie download.

[simonko]

garryheather,

Wrong - track01.cda is Windows mistaking the whole data track as a CDDA audio track. Lead in data isn't read by windows as standard, your recorder is interested in that since it dictates write strategy and capacity.

So then what is that track.....? how does your software know what media it is, or better yet how does your drive know what media it is? Your drive sure doesnt scan for what the disc is made out of and decides from there.
Hmm... isnt the lead-in info the only thing written/pressed to a virgin blank disc... ?

Im running Win98 also and every blank DVD-R I put in the drive has this track01.cda when viewing it though a windows explorer. When I look at the disc in a burning app. ie RecordNow Max, or Alcohol 120% that track is not there.

So yes it is normal for frankma cause its the same story on my machine.

[garryheather]

OK, lets sort a few methods of terminology out.

Your recorder knows what media is by performing a media check. In a recorder, it looks at the ATIP (Absolute Time In Pregroove, IIRC) to see what the media's capacity is and type. You will often see people talking about DVDInfo when discussing media, which is an application that reads this information off of the disc / writer and displays it in a manner you can read. This information contains a media descriptor which the drive decodes to know what write strategy it needs to conform to in order to ensure a reliable burn, maximum write speed, capacity etc. This is stamped onto the disc along with the timing spiral and can not be changed.

This information is then passed on to your authoring program where you get given the choice of write speeds and so on. Hacked firmware ignores this code and either returns the same code for each disc regardless of manufacture, or lies about the speed. More often than not it just lies about the disc entirely, so you may not always be burning the disc correctly but the recorder won't know that any more. Your drive DOES look at the disc and decide on a write strategy.

The lead in is a different story entirely. The lead in contains a number of pre-determined sectors for calibrating the laser during the write cycle, a number of timing references, and then, depending on the file system, creation dates, authoring ID's, recorder references, TOC etc in order to syncronise the disc and player and let the player know where all the data is on the disc. These are recorded onto the disc at the time of burning. Do not confuse the ATIP and lead in - they are two very different beasts.

You then get the data area(s), then a lead out - which you sacrifice when overburning a CD-R (and before you ask, no you can't overburn a DVD-/+R), which lets the playback device know the disc is over, and in the DVD world to maintain compatibilty at least 1Gb should be written onto a disc, and thus the lead out can include padding, which is why sometimes lead outs take longer than others to complete.

If your OS does not interpret the blank correctly, it makes a stab at it. Find an audio CD and put it in the drive, and hey presto, there are a load of .cda tracks on it. Depending on what applications you have, you may be able to double click on one and play it. Some OS's will determine a non standard or unknown disc as audio, and how the system interrogates the disc (via ASPI) determines what is displayed. In an ideal world it should show a blank (or unformatted) disc, but quite often you will see it come up as an audio disc with only one track on it.

HTH.

[simonko]

garryheather,

thanks for explaning it

[frankma]

Thanks to all for your comments, at least I now know that this is common. garryheather, I checked Adaptec site, only download that seemed appropriate was ASPI upgrade, did this but no change. Again, thanks. Frankma

[garryheather]

Try the Nero ASPI, then - it's used by quite a few third parties as well as Ahead. You won't lose anything in giving it a try.

Oh yeah, one thing which seems circumstantial on my machine when I had this problem... you're not rebooting the machine with the disc in the drive, are you ?

Try rebooting without the disc and then inserting it with Explorer open and see if that wakes the damn thing up.

[frankma]

Disk in or out made no difference, however changed to NERO ASPI and blank dvds are now recognized as that. No more audio cd stuff. Have not done any tests to see if all is OK. Again thanks to all, Frankma

[Dodgy Bob]

Hi,

After reading this post I thought I'd tag a previous post of mine (from another board) here, in the hope of getting some answers!

I've recently purchased a Pioneer A06 DVD Rewriter and am having problems. Let me first explain what I CAN do.

I can write out DVDs. I've successfully backed-up Blade II using Xcopy Express under Win2000 server. I did 2 copies. One to DVD-R and one to DVD+R. Both copies played OK on the A06 but my player downstairs only likes DVD-R so I've only checked that version out on another machine.

Now to the problems.

Using Nero 6 under Win98 and Win2000 server (dual boot) the A06 doesn't recognise CDRW media.

Also, if I insert the DVDRW media that came with the drive it shows it as being an audio CD with a single track of 1.99GB. If I use the application that came with the drive (Pinnacle Systems Instant CD/DVD) I can format the DVDRW but at 60% it ejects it then brings it back it. Then finishes the format and says all OK but the media then shows as an empty drive. If I try to access it, it says insert media. Can't write to it at all.

Nero 6 doesn't recognise the DVDRW either.

Writing to CDR give me an error almost immediately.

I read somewhere else it was due to the ASPI driver and the latest Nero driver sorts it. So, I downloaded and installed it. From within windows (w98) the DVDRW showed correctly (i.e. without the single audio track). But when I started Nero, it balked at the driver and asked me to re-install Windows driver.
Instant CD/DVD doesn't like the Nero driver either.

I flashed the firmware to 1.07 region free.

Any ideas? If you need anymore information I'm happy to supply it. Thanks in advance.

[MeTaLgEaRsOoTy]

to dodgy bob...

first off,uninstall nero,and any burning software you have.
then remove the drive from the pc.
reboot pc.
switch off,and replce drive.
reboot pc,drive will be recognised.
update your aspi,and anything else that needs it.
reinstall nero6,and update to version 6.0.0.19.
anything lower than 6.0.0.15 and on the pcs ive seen,they all have problems.
now the drive should work ok.
well it does on the 4 pcs i had to do it on,2x98SE pcs,1xserver2000,1xXPpro.
they all had the same problems.programmes hijacking dlls,files,etc.
especially the shite that people place in there pcs,like software that comes with the drive.
but after carrying out these steps,like i say,all teh pcs i did it on work fine now.
oh and you might want to use a decent dvd copier like copytodvd.thats probably the best on the market.

[Dodgy Bob]

Thanks for that. I'll try it in the morning and post result here.

[Dodgy Bob]

Got a free moment and tried it now. Made no difference.

After the change stuck in me DVD-RW and still saw it as 1.99GB music CD.
Started Nero - it saw it as 4.3GB RW but with 1.99GB of data on it.

Tried to write to it, said there was data on it so went to format it. Format seemed ok, then failed on write straight away.

DVD-RW still shows as 1.99GB.

I can't write DVD-RWs, CD-RWs, CD-Rs. But can write DVD-Rs and read normal DVDs and CDs.

Knackered drive?