3.1.5 DVR Related

>NIL: · **Posted:** Wed Sep 25, 2002 12:03 am

3.1.5.1 - What is the story regarding 2x burning for all DVD-R media?

Unlike CD-R burning, DVD-R burning is still a very recent technology.

When Pioneer introduced 2x burning for DVD-R, no specifications for multiple speed recording had then been decided by the DVD-Forum (the organization that discusses the various DVD formats), so that Pioneer had to design their own technology.

As 2x DVD-R burning was Pioneer's thing, when they introduced their first 2x DVD-R burner (the DVR-A03), they decided to put a table in the firmware that told which DVD-R media were to be burnt at 2x and which were not.

This table had 2 purposes:

1/ At the time when the DVR-A03 was introduced, some DVD-R media were barely 1x compatible, and could never have sustained 2x burning (this has been confirmed by our own testing). Thus rather than face a mob of angry customers cursing their hardware where the medium was the only culprit, Pioneer decided that they would allow 2x burning only for media that they had certified themselves.

2/ As 2x burning was their thing, Pioneer saw the 2x certification process as a way for them to retreive royalties. Not only had a DVD-R manufacturers that wanted 2x certification to pass Pioneer's labs tests, but they also had to pay royalties to Pioneer for every medium they would produce with the "2x certified" logo. This actually angered a lot of media manufacturers, who, despite of having a medium of good quality, refused to pay Pioneer for the 2x privilege, and never made it into the table.

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 5:20 pm

3.1.5.2 - So how can I find if my medium will officially burn at 2x?

First of all, you need a tool to identify the actual manufacturer of the media. This information is written in the Lead-In of every DVD-R medium, and is the only trusted way to know who is the real manufacturer of a DVD-R disc (The brand written on your medium does not mean much of anything, as many brands simply relabel media that they bought in large quantity for one of the few big recordable media manufacturers).

One of the tools you can use to know this information is ADVDInfo.
For more information, please have a look at section 1.3.2.4 of this FAQ.

Once you have the manufacturer's ID, you need to find out if it exists in the table of the firmware you use.

The 2x authorized media table for the DVR-A03 firmwares can be found here and the same table for DVR-A04 firmwares here

If you are using an official Pioneer firmware and that your DVD-R is not in this table, then you will only be able to burn at 2x

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 5:37 pm

3.1.5.3 - What is Pioneer's official position regarding 2x burning restrictions?

From http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00003r_e.html

Quote:

Announcement for 2X DVD-R media

With the launch of the DVR-103 DVD-R/RW drive, Pioneer has included a feature allowing 2X recording of DVD-R. This feature has been brought about by Pioneer's own engineering endeavor. Within each drive is media specific optimizations called 'write strategies'. These write strategies are tailor made for specific media, making 2X DVD-R recording possible.
Currently the DVD forum's specification for DVD-R is 1X DVD-R recording. Pioneer was able to base its 2X DVD-R recording feature on the DVD forum's specification, making it possible to include this benefit to its customers. To make 2X DVD-R record compatible 'For General' media, the following steps must be completed before consideration. First, the media must pass the DVD forum's verification for 1X DVD-R. Once cleared, with the media maker's cooperation, Pioneer fine tunes the media for 2X recording, then confirms the mass production DVD-R media. Only after passing these tests media is considered 2X DVD-R compatible media.
Due to the use of this development system, depending on the media's release date, 2X DVD-R recording may not be possible. Unlike high speed CD-R recording, 2X DVD-R recording requires optimization. Without optimization, the possibility exists that the recorded media will lack the desired playback quality. This system has been implemented in order to avoid customer confusion over DVD-R media that is deemed not compatible with 2X recording.
Pioneer will make its best effort to make it more understandable to the end user by making this information available in our instruction manual, product packaging, and other methods of communication. We will continue to contact various media manufacturers to increase the number of 2X record compatible DVD-R media. Pioneer suggests use of the following DVD-R media for 2X recording. This list shall be updated as more 2X DVD-R media become available.

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 5:41 pm

3.1.5.4 - How can I burn every media at 2x then/ What is the 2x4all patch?

A 2x4all firmware is a non official DVR firmware that has been patched to allow the writing of any medium at 2x.

As DVD-R media quality improved drastically since the introduction of the DVR drives, Gradius eventually proved what a lot of people had been suspecting: Some "cheap media" that were not in Pioneer's table could be burnt at 2x.
Soon afterwards he released a 2x4all version of the DVR firmware.

With such a version, you can burn any disc at 2x provided that:
1/ The medium supports it.
2/ The write strategy required to burn this disc is not too different from the default 2x burning write strategy of Pioneer's firmware

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 5:47 pm

3.1.5.5 - That's just great! Where can I find these 2x4all patches then?

The 2x4all patches can be downloaded from Gradius's FTP site (Uses port 9000 - might not work if you're behing a firewall)

Alternatively, I try to maintain a mirror on my page (non firewalled)

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 7:37 pm

3.1.5.6 - How do I install the 2x4all patch?

You have to flash your drive with the relevant 2x4all firmware.

This can be a bit of a hassle due to the fact that Pioneer introduced anti-downgrade technique in their firmwares (see [TO_DO: 3.1.5.x])

To know more about flashing, read section 2 of this FAQ

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 8:08 pm

3.1.5.7 - What media can be burnt at 2x with the 2x4all firmware?

As explained above, having the 2x4all firmware is not a guarantee that your medium will burn at 2x, even if the manufacturer says it's 2x compatible.

The only way to get 2x certification is to go through Pioneer's labs (and pay royalties), in which case the media will be listed in the 2x table of the firmware. So theoratically, no other media than the ones authorized by Pioneer is 2x certified

For all these other media, the only 2x certification you can make is your own. And if a burn at 2x didn't work for one medium, it's no use complaining coz you've been warned.

Hopefully, as the quality of the DVD-R media improves, those who fail at 2x will become more and more scarce (especially if media manufacturers use the 2x4all firmware to test their media at 2x

)

Now, here's a lits of the media, not listed in the official 2x table, that have been reported to work at 2x. The firts value is null terminated manufacturer ID string as reported by ADVDInfo and between brackets the "occicial" brand name of the medium

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 8:52 pm

3.1.5.8 - How do I get 2x burning with the 2x4all patch?

First of all, to be able to select 2x speed in your burning application, you have to insert a DVD-R in the drive.
Without a DVD-R, the drive will default to reporting 1x speed only.

Also, it seems that under some conditions, you might have to turn DMA off and fall back to PIO mode to be able to select 2x

Apart from that, 2x burning shouldn't be much of a problem, provided that your media supports it.

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 9:03 pm

3.1.5.9 - I have a question about a Pioneer DVR drive. Can you help me?

Well, while I do provide links to DVR firmwares, as I don't have a Pioneer DVR drive, it's pretty difficult from me to help you guys with your DVR problems out there.
Besides, I don't really have much 'spare' time left to spend on DVR, while I'm already taking care of a lot of other stuff that does not appear on my page.

However, you should be able to find extensive information in the DVD-R/RAM/+RW section

If you have a question, better post it there than send it to me, as you will find people who do own DVR drives to answer you.

>NIL: · **Posted:** Sun Oct 13, 2002 9:22 pm

3.1.5.10 - What is this anti-downgrade thing I keep hearing about?

With the introduction of firmware rev. 1.80 of the DVR-103 and rev. 1.31 of the DVR-104, Pioneer introduced an anti downgrade technique that not only prevents you from downgrading to an earlier firmware revision, but it also prevents you from flashing the same revision twice.

This spells trouble for users having flashed Pioneer's official revision and now willing to flash the RPC-1 or 2x4all patch.

Currently, there exist various attempts to defeat this [TO BE COMPLETED]

[Added by dhc014: DVRFlash was introduced as an alternative flash tool to Pioneer's UPGDVD. DVRFlash allows downgrading firmware for Pioneer DVR drives.

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3.1.5 DVR Related

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