Pioneer DVR-107?

[gr8fl4295]

anyone in the mac community get their hands on one of these yet?
I was thinking of selling my 106 to my roommate and upgrading to the 107.
But I noticed that people in the PC world have to flash the firmware in order to burn 4x discs @ 8x. I guess no one makes 8x discs yet.
But I also noticed that there is not a MAC firmware file yet.
???
i guess i could use Virtual PC to flash the drive, but will it still use the new firmware in OS X???

anyone shed some light?
thanks

[Frobozz]

Don't have any answers for you. But there are some reports starting to show up at xlr8yourmac.com regarding using virtual PC to flash the firmware with the drive connected via USB.

[aersloat]

I bought the 107 from LaCie (in their external d2 firewire case) last Friday. It shipped with firmware version 1.0.5. I asked them about upgrading it to the current 1.10 and they said that I would probably have to attach it to a windows machine to do so but that they thought it would upgrade over firewire just fine and that I was free to give it a shot without voiding my warranty. I didn't ask them about the patched firmwares going around. The drive itself is great-- very quiet.

[timt]

Last weekend I flashed my DVR-107 with the 1.05 hacked firmware and although I was already impressed by the drives performance, the flash put a big smile on my face. I had purchased a couple of the cheap TDK 2X DVD-R 10 packs on sale at Staples for $7.94 the weekend before. I fired up Toast 6 and burn speeds of 4X 6X and 8X were listed. Burning at 8X resulted in a Media Error and a coaster, but 6X resulted in a perfectly burned, verified and playable disc! Rip speeds seem to a little faster also.

I used DVR Flash 1.1 in DOS booted from floppy on my Pentium 100 (hehehe) to acomplish the task.

[alkaline]

The new RPC1 firmware v.1.10 is out.

You'll find it here :

http://pioneerdvd.rpc1.org/

Enjoy!


"""""
Drive: Pioneer DVR-107 (Dual format 8x speed DVD+/- Burner)
Also known as: DVR-A07, DVR-107D, DVR-A07D, etc.
Firmware Rev.: v1.10
Author: >NIL:
Date: 2004.02.29 - 20:33 GMT
Patched: o RPC-1 (Region Free):
Remember, patching your drive to region free is only half
the job. A region free drive will not turn your system
region free by itself. For more info, please read
http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=239
o 12xRip (Unlimited ripping speed):
The official firmware from Pioneer limits the ripping
speed on video discs. This limitation has been removed.
12x is only the maximum THEORETICAL speed that the drive
can achieve, but not the sustained speed you are likely to
get when ripping. Most DVD's will start ripping around 2x
to 4x and end up around 8x or 10x. THIS is normal.
o 8x4all DVD-R (8x burning for all DVD-R media):
This firmware allows you to select 6x and 8x burning speed
on all DVD-R media. The official firmware from Pioneer
only allows a limited set of Pioneer approved media to use
these specific speeds but this patch removes that
limitation. It does NOT alter the write strategies for
approved media however.
PROPER BURN OF NON APPROVED MEDIA IS NOT GUARANTEED!
NOT patched: o 6x and 8x speed for all +R media
o 4x speed for all -RW/+RW media
Release Notes: This firmware was used succesfully to burn PRINCO (4x) and
RITEKG04 (4x) DVD-R media at 6x and 8x speed. If you are not
sure whether the media you are using will burn properly at
high speed, please look for other users experience at
http://forum.rpc1.org
AGAIN, HIGH SPEED BURN OF LOW GRADE MEDIA IS NOT GUARANTEED
Flashing Instructions: 1/ Download the latest version of DVRFlash from
http://pioneerdvd.rpc1.org and extract the executable you
need (Windows, DOS or Linux) in the directory where you
extracted the patched firmwares
2/ READ THE DVRFLASH INSTRUCTIONS!!!
3/ If you are flashing from windows, and I: is your DVR-107
drive, open a DOS window and type a command like:
DVRFlash -v I: R7100107.110
or, *IF* you need to flash the kernel (OEM -> Pioneer):
DVRFlash -vf I: R7100007.110 R7100107.110
Useful Links: http://forum.rpc1.org/ (DVD-R/RAM/+RW section)
http://pioneerdvd.rpc1.org/

"""""

[timt]

Thanks for the followup alkaline! I'm about to flash it tonight!