A little history of what I have done...

I have had my A05 for about 3 months and have yet to be able to create a disc that is playable on any set top DVD player, all my discs do however seem to play on the two DVD-ROM drives I have.

I have read many posts about media being the result of my skipping and pausing problems, but I have tried Ritek G04s, branded 4x Memorex, and TDKs with no luck. I have also tried using DVD X Copy 1.5.2, DVD Shrink Beta 3 version 5, and DVD Decrypter with BurnatOnce. All produce the same result: A DVD that pauses or skips either from the very beginning or randomly throughout the disc. I have recently formatted and reinstalled Windows as well to try to resolve the issue.

I have tried these discs on my LiteOn LVD-2001 and my Magnavox MDV450. I have also tried them on my PS2 and some friend's Sony (don't have the model number) with the same result. However, I have played with no problem DVD-R or DVD+Rs on all of these players from other burners (even the same media) with no issues.

**Questions**

I have my A05 on the secondary IDE controler as a master. I have a HP CD12 (12x CDRW) on the same controller as a slave. In Windows XP (SP1) device manager it says that it is set to "DMA if Available" and it states it is currently running DMA Mode 2 for the Pioneer, and just DMA for the HP. BUT, here is the wierd part. In the BIOS, when I detect the drives, it has DMA disabled for the HP.

1. Does this all sound like a hardware issue with the two drives on the same IDE channel? I have read posts about this, but normally there are other symptoms such as errors while burning.

2. Also, I have read mixed reviews about upgrading the firmware in my A05, should I try to upgrade to 1.33 (I am currently using 1.30 which is what came with the drive)?

3. On my good media (Ritek g04 and Memorex 4x) I am able to burn at 4x, should I try to lower this to 2 or 1x? or Should this matter with good media?

I know this post is long and I appreciate any help you could give. I tried my best to search all forums prior to posting.

Thanks again!

System Specs: Athlon 1.5 GHz, Asus A7V133, WD 120 GB Drive, Pioneer A05, Hp CD 12 CDRW, Win XP SP1