Replacing my old Pioneer DVD\R-106D A06 Writer, which one could replace it?

[Juako]

I saw a similar post back in december 2005, but it's been months now so new writers are available. I've been using the Pioneer A06 since it came out and I don't have any complaints about it. It still works quite well, but I know it doesnt last forever and its only 4X, so I'm planning to buy a new writer this week.

I would like to know any recommendations for any good realiable dvd writers around. Wich Pioneer is the one to buy?? Or any other brand

thanks

[falberni]

Recently, I have purchased a pioneer 110D, BenQ 1650, and a Pioneer 111D. I like Pioneer 111D the best for hastle free burning. The BenQ is okay too if you want to spend a lot of time exerimenting with the different setings it allows users to tweek.

[budz]

Recently, I have purchased a pioneer 110D, BenQ 1650, and a Pioneer 111D. I like Pioneer 111D the best for hastle free burning. The BenQ is okay too if you want to spend a lot of time exerimenting with the different setings it allows users to tweek.

Experimenting settings for the BENQ 1650 is only if you are going to use cheap dvd media. Use good quality dvd media with BENQ 1650 and you'll have no problems. It's not difficult to use QSUITE 2.1 which is a tool that will remember write strategies for different brands of dvd media. In QSUITE 2.1 set SOLID BURN & WOPC to ENABLED & OVERSPEED DISABLED for known dvd media such as TAIYO YUDEN & VERBATIM. Some members at CdFreaks.com constantly do quality scans which isn't a exact scientific fact okay. For me if the dvd disc doesn't playback correctly for some odd reason that is the only time I will do a quailty scan with CD/DVD SPEED.

BENQ 1650 is a good reader/burner and so is the PIONEER 111D drive. Difference between the 2 brands is BENQ has bitsetting automatically for DVD+R & PIONEER doesn't unless you crossflash the drive to a PIONEER 111L drive by using the DANGEROUS BROTHER's firmwares. The PIONEER 111D drive supposedly burns DUAL LAYER MEDIA better than BENQ according to members who have both drives. I have no experience of that since I don't burn DL media.

[bevills1]

I just order the Pioneer 111D to upgrade my 107D after reading full reviews at CDFreaks. The Pioneer did better on the reading tests in the reviews than others and has excellent burn test results too which was my reason for this choice plus the good performance with the 107D was a factor too. My second choice would be LG due to above average reading test results with Benq a close third, but I definitely wouldn't recommend NEC which perofrmed below average on the reading tests plus some problems reading with my current NEC 3520A was a factor in eliminating NEC as a choice.

[budz]

I don't necessarily let a review sway me one way or another when I decide to purchase a dvd burner. I read forum members experiences with the drives to help me decide which dvd burner will suit my needs. NEC drives have never been good readers unless they had a 3rd party hacked firmware.

[bevills1]

I too consider forum members experiences with the drives to help me decide which dvd burner will suit my needs as budz advises. I've read several NEC members' experiences of read problems with NEC drives as well as some Benq users not having good results with -R/RW media, but I found very few Pioneer 111D users with burn/read problems. All these factors in addition to reviews were considered before my choice was made.

[Juako]

Well I finally got myself a Pioneer DVR-111D. The firmware version is 1.06. Do you recommended to update this firmware? Or does that firmware works ok with all the current media? I checked this site http://tdb.rpc1.org/#DVR110D and theres this info: PIONEER DVR-111D
Currently RPC1 firmwares based on 1.06, 1.19, 8.19 INT, 8.19 EXT, 1.23, 8.25 INT, and 8.25 EXT.

I also heard that it could be updated to change the version from DVR-111D to DVR-111L . But I'm not sure what decision to make. If anyone could recommend me anything.

Thanks guys

[falberni]

The official Pioneer fw for 111D does not do bitsetting. It won't burn DVD-RAM either.

The official Pioneer 111 does not do bitsetting. But it burns DVD-RAM

The best solution is the 111L version from Buffalo. It does bitsetting and it does burn DVD-RAM. To make it even better, use the RPC1 version from The Dangerous Brothers. To make it even better yet, run the aforementioned FW through a proggy developed by the great ala42. It allows to remove the rip lock. That means it well let you at rip at 16X speed instead of 12X.

To flash to 111L from Buffalo, follow this procedure.

Please start over as follows:

1. Flash with 111 fw 1.06. (Not to be confused with 111D fw 1.06) get it from here:

http://tdb.rpc1.org/#DVR111

2. Flash with Buffalo 111L fw 8.19 Internal or External. Get it from here:

http://tdb.rpc1.org/#DVR111L


3. Flash with 111L fw 8.26 Internal or External. Get it from the same place as No. 2 above.

No other sequense would work. Good luck and enjoy your new burner.

[Juako]

Thanks falberni, that seems pretty easy to do. From what I understand , that means that I have to change from 111D to 111 in order to change it lastly to 111L wich supports bitsetting and DVD-RAM writes.

Here are the 3 things I would like to know:

1. whats the differece between the Internal and External firmwares, can I use any of those?

2. I went to the pioneer official website and they have the firmware version 1.23, I would like to know if that firmware would make my drive be able to write dvd-ram and do bitsetting.

3. when I finish flashing my drive to the 111L, is the bitsetting option automatic with every burn I do? meaning that all my burns would be readable as DVD-ROM, Or theres an option to choose if you want to turn bitsetting on in each burn? Theres an option at Nero CD-DVD Speed of bitsetting I guess that should work and DVD Decrypter can change the bitsetting but it doesnt support Pioneer from the list I see

[falberni]

1. The internal fw is obviously for internal drives. The external fw I believe adds a special USB driver that makes the communication better between the drive in an external enclosure and the computer. I have mine in an external enclosure with Firewire rather than USB. I have tried both the internal and external versions. It does not make any difference for me. If you have yours in an external enclosure, try them both. Test the "Burst Rate" using CD-DVD Speed prggy from Nero. I am getting around 27,000 for the burst rate for internal installation, as well as external in an external enclosure with firewire. The Pionner 111 works very well in an external enclosure because it runs on DMA mode 4.

2. The official Pioneer 1.23 would not do bitsetting. That is why we have to use Buffalo. Pioneer has been against the DVD+R format from the beginning and it would probably be painful for them to endorse that format by allowing bitsetting. The Buffalo 8.26 is the equivalent to the Pioneer 1.23. It has the same write strategies.

3. After you finish flashing to 111L, you will get automatic bitsetting. You do not have to use any setting in the burning software to get it. I use Nero 6 and it is automatic. I also use CD-DVD Speed to make test burns and it is automatic there too.

[Juako]

thanks again falberni , you've been very helpful. I hope other people benefits too after reading this topic, I know it's been discussed before, but there's always a new firmware update around, so it's better to stay alerted.

[Gildor57]

I currently have a 111D flashed from 1.19 to 1.23. I don't care about bit setting (I only use DVD-R discs), but would be interested in riplock removal. Would I still have to follow the procedure outlined above by falberni using the TDB 8.xx fw or could I use the TDB 1.xx fw?

[budz]

for riplock removal you need to use MEDIACODESPEEDEDIT (MCSE).

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=153213

[Gildor57]

Thanks! Looks like MCSE will do the trick. Unfortunately, since I've already flashed to 1.23, I have to go off and figure out how use the TDB flasher for updating the same level fw. I know its probably easy, but I just haven't looked into it yet.

[ark]

I have tried a quite a few DVD writers.
My most satisfactory writer till date is Pioneer DVR-107, unless one wishes to write very expensive Double Layer media. I am quite happy with single layer and can fit all my data on these very reasonably priced disks. DVR-107 would give 100% error free writes on any media make / quality

[budz]

I have tried a quite a few DVD writers.
My most satisfactory writer till date is Pioneer DVR-107, unless one wishes to write very expensive Double Layer media. I am quite happy with single layer and can fit all my data on these very reasonably priced disks. DVR-107 would give 100% error free writes on any media make / quality

I had a PIONEER 107D drive and it had a early death from burning way too many dvds. It sits on the shelf collecting dust. Only used if I need to rip a disc if all my other dvdroms and dvd burners fail to read a disc which is very seldom. My good old PLEXTOR 708a drive never fails to read a disc!

[Gildor57]

I have had good luck with both the 107 and the 111. The only issue I have is with burning CD's and its may be more of a s/w issue. I can't burn audio CD's with Exact Audio Copy. It fails early on when just initializing. Same files work fine on my Lite-On CD burner. I updated the 111 from 1.19 to 1.23 which was supposed to help in CD-R burning, but it had no effect on the problem. Can't use Nero since I am using cue files. Finally got it to work using Burrrn.

For DVD ripping and burning however, I have had no issues whatsoever. Nice drives.

[bevills1]

Gildor57, just reflash with TDB 1.06 and continue to follow the falberni instruction in his 7/20 post. His instructions are right on and helped me solve problems I had that were caused by too many suggested routes from other sources of which some weren't specific whether to use D or L firmware on the critical step, i.e. flash from 1.06 to 8.19. Once firmwares are downloaded the whole process doesn't take 10 minutes.

I had equally good luck and service for the DVR-107 which is still burning all media tried without fail. It's also excellent reader of burned disks and has read all the Ritek G05 burned disks that my NEC 3520A will not read. I recently got the 111D and cross flashed to 111L because I wanted bit setting capability, but the DVR-107 fulfills all my need except for bit setting.

[Gildor57]

Thanks bevills1, but I was more interested in just removing riplock as opposed to reflashing my drive all the way to a 111L. I don't use DVD+R's and so don't have an issue with bit setting. I was just wondering about the differences between the 8.xx fw and the 1.xx fw. My drives use the latter. It looks like I need to use the 8.xx fw only if I want to reflash to 111L.

Thanks to budz' reference, I discovered that MCSE will patch the official Pioneer 1.xx fw for riplock removal (among other things). But I also discovered that the Pioneer drives won't let you 'downgrade' your fw to an earlier version or even let you reflash the same version. Since I am already running the highest level 1.xx fw (1.23), I will have to use the DB flasher if I want to further mess with the fw in my drive.

Thats my understanding of the situation.

[Juako]

The riplock seems like a good idea , I don't know if its possible to cause more errors since it's ripping faster than normal , but that post from cdfreaks is from last year, did they test it with the newer fw and drives?? In order to do the riplock removal , do you need an specific fw like the 1.23 or can you do it once you upgrade to 111L too?

[falberni]

MediaCodeSpeedEdit is revised very frequently to add support for the new firmwares that are put out. The current version of it is version 1.0.8.17. It supports all the Pioneer 111 firmwares that are out there to date, including the 111L's 8.26. If you have this firmware and you want to remove the riplock, then do as follows:

1. Load the flash file "A0412541.826" into MCSE.

2. Check the box "increase read speed"

3. Before you save the changes, change the name of the original flash file from "A0412541.826" to "A0412541.000".

4. Save the changes in MCSP. Name the file "A0412541.826" , the same name as the original file.

5. Close MCSP.

6. Double click on the flasher executable file "R11FOIN.EXE". Let it complete the flashing process. Then reboot the computer.