DVD-R media ... 1x vs 2x vs ..? Help!

[mrhua]

Hello,

I have a A04 DVDR drive. I thinking of doing the firmware upgrade to allow me to write 2x .. (I thought it was 2x to begin with?)

Anyway, when I am DVDR media shopping, I sometimes see the description of 4x media, but I almost never see 2x as a description.

My question is this: is there media that is 1x and not 2x? I just bought some DVDPro media at $0.79/dvdr (100pak) and it says "general use." Will these work for 2x?

If you burn a DVDR disk at a higher speed that it is rated, then, will it perhaps get a successful burn but go bad in a month? That's what I'm afraid of: archive off my 120gb hard disk to DVDR media that goes bad in a few months ..?

Any comments?

Thx!

Mr Hua

[Craig Tucker]

If it is 2 speed media it will say so on the packaging. 1 speed media cannot be burnt at 2 speed, the drive actually checks the media for 2 speed compatability, if it isn't 2 speed compatible you can only write at 1 speed. The a04 cannot write at 4 speed.

[Thorn]

The a04/104 will only burn at 2x with media that Pioneer has approved for that speed. All other media burns at 1x. The cheapo media you bought are almost certainly 1x (and your burning program should only give you that option... you only see 2x if you insert 2x approved media).

Typically the more expensive media is more likely to be 2x, and 2x media usually says as much.

The firmware patch is to prevent your a04 from burning up if you insert a 4x media. Obviously, you won't see many of those since they're more expensive and there's no reason to buy them if you can't take advantage of the speed.

There IS supposedly a hack to allow you to burn any media at 2x, but I wouldn't recommend that if you value your data. Other than that, I don't really know how long it should last. I haven't had any discs for more than a few months so I don't know how long they should last. The general rule of thumb is if it it burns ok, it should be good for a few years. Unless it's exceptionally poor media... but since DVD encases the reflective layer it's better protected than low quality cdrs.

[gf]

Did anyone try the bios's from this site?

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/sccs.ltd/pioneer2x4all/

They say 2x speed on all dvd's?

Steve

[MOVIEMASTERING]

yes it works i have burned 50 disc some ritek and some dvdpro rated at 1x burned them at 2x no coasters no problems

[solarfox]

moviemastering -- frankly, the fact that you can burn the discs at 2X with that hacked BIOS and read them the next day, or even the next week, doesn't mean much... The important thing is, will they still be readable a year after they were written? How about two years? Five? Ten?

In other words, how does "speed-burning" a DVD-R which isn't rated for that write speed affect the long-term archival storage of the disc? I don't know about you, but I would certainly not be a happy camper if all of the rare and near-irreplacable videos I'd transferred to DVD-R turned out to be unreadable after a few short years just because I'd tried to pinch a few pennies on the blank discs...

mrhua -- As others have posted already, the Pioneer A-04 does indeed write at 2X speed already -- but only with certain types of DVD-R blanks which Pioneer has certified for this use, and for which the drive has an appropriate write strategy. The "2X BIOS Upgrade" being referred to is a hacked version which basically fools the drive into writing everything with one of the 2X strategies whether it recognizes the media type or not. (Whether it actually bypasses the media check entirely, or just hacks the media-type table so that everything not explicitly recognized as a valid 2X disc is considered "Mitsui 2X" by default instead of "generic 1X", I'm not entirely sure.) You don't need it to write to 2X-certified media and, in my opinion, it's not worth the long-term risk.

craigtucker -- Unfortunately, my experience has been exactly the opposite -- most of the media brands you find on the store shelves usually does not say on the package what speed it can be burned at. In fact, TDK is the only one I've seen that is labeled as such; Apple and Que! media don't mention this at all on their packaging, despite the fact that they are recognized as 2X media by the A-04. (I don't know whether the Sony or Memorex discs are recognized as 2X, but if they are then these brands don't mention this fact on their packages either.)

Considering how eager the blank-disc makers usually are to proclaim the high-speed ratings for their CD-R/CD-RW media, I find it curious that they seem so reluctant to tell you what speed their DVD-R's are rated for... (Then again, maybe they don't want to admit they're selling 1X media for the same price TDK sells 2X. )

[Wetmonkey]

For everyone to beaf up there knowledge on the Firmware issues and greatly alleviate many of these question go the www.firmware-flash.com and check out the forums. Hey buddy Mrhua DONT update to 1.32 UPDATE to 1.31. The 1.32 update removes the ability to burn CDM manufactured media as well as Ritek. Why you might ask, royalities $$ and the all powerfull chedder. If you already got suckered like i did and took pioneers mighty shaft and updated to 1.32 there is a 1.33 update out that will allow you to burn CDM media. The 1.30 firmware allows 1x burning on ritek, 1.31 allows 2x on ritek and cdm, 1.32 your S.O.L for both, the 1.33 allows cdm once again and ritek as well but iam not sure of 2x for ritek. Quality is not as much of an issue on the 2x media now with many of the second gen medias but if the company is willing to pay the man the $$ bling bling to get 2x. Hey check out the link above and see how far the rabbit whole really is...
Wetmonkey
beats the hell out of being a Drymonkey

[Wetmonkey]

oh great site to get great media prices if your in the U.S. www.cdrdvdrmedia.com

[Wetmonkey]

sorry for all the D*mn posts but yes your a04 104 uses general media, it will not be able to use media for authoring, the lasers of authoring drive burn at a different nm size they are used form making master dvd's. As for the 4x media burn up kill your drive problem i would not believe what the man Pio says, read my above post and figure it out our search around the net and see.
How is 2x media burning possible???
All i have to say is 10 monkeys go into a room and only 9 come out.
Not everything is as it seems
Wetmonkey