Pioneer 108 vs. 109

[820am]

Okay, since Tiger's got support, I'm finally taking the DL plunge....

But, which one?

I've read the 109 is terrible with Ritek media and the latest firmware hasn't helped...

I've got VPC and a USB/FW case on the way, so I guess flashing isn't a problem (though I'm confused, I thought flashing didn't work with external drives?).

What do you guys think?

[willrob]

[quote="820am"]Okay, since Tiger's got support, I'm finally taking the DL plunge....

But, which one?

I've read the 109 is terrible with Ritek media and the latest firmware hasn't helped...

I've got VPC and a USB/FW case on the way, so I guess flashing isn't a problem (though I'm confused, I thought flashing didn't work with external drives?).{/quote]

I have the 109 and have been a bit dissapointed with its performance. The 108 has a series of MacFlasher firmwares. So far the 109 has none. Now sure if VPC firmware updating works with external cases. Ritek media has dropped in quality lately due to sourcing problems.

[goat]

I have the A09 & used VPC to flash it. I actually get better burn times with Ritex 8x media than Verbatim 16x.
I'm trying to figure out how to get the burning up to 16x speed, once I get the problem fixed I'll post it.

[chikanakan]

109 supports DVD-R DL also, 108 does not.

[galactica]

who says the 108 does not? I have dual layer support with it!

[HatchetMan]

who says the 108 does not? I have dual layer support with it!

you cannot write to DVD-R DL, only to DVD+R DL

[galactica]

Ah, I did not know that. Suppose that since all I bought was the +R pack and had them work I was uninformed.

[willrob]

Ah, I did not know that. Suppose that since all I bought was the +R pack and had them work I was uninformed.

Can you comment on whether iDVD 5 can write to DL media—with 8G of data. Apple's saying the new G5's (announced today) can use iDVD to write to DL. It might be a feature of Tiger, or a new update to iDVD. But I'm wondering if it can do it now, and I just wasn't aware of it.

[sjk]

willrob, you may want to enable BBCode for your posts that include quoted text so it's properly formatted and easier to read.

[chikanakan]

Well, iDVD didn't support DL in 5.0. My guess is they will have a 5.0.2 that will support it. Maybe it will be released tomorrow with Tiger. iDVD won't even write an image of 4.4GB currently.

[galactica]

I cant comment on iDVD 5 DL support simply because I have not tried it. But it seems to have been answered

My drive came with 1 DL disk so I used toast to burn to it and that worked fine.

[willrob]

Looks like Tiger will support the 108, but not the 109.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/tiger/DeviceSupport.drprofile.htm

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/tiger/VendorSupport.drprofile.htm

[willrob]

I stand corrected (possibly). Over on the rpcforum site early adopters of Tiger report that their 109s are fully supported in Tiger, without Patchburn. Also someone checked the drives that Apple is shipping in the new line of G5s and discovered, via System Profile, that they are Pioneer 109s.

Now if only Pioneer wold support the Mac community with a firmware updater. Apple probably wont provide a firmware updater, even if the shipping units are not at the 1.4 firmware.