The Firmware Page

I quoted you and clarified the statement because it stated "a regular Pioneer DVR-108 without bitsetting." Because this could lead to confusion (as it did!) by owners of the DVR108XL. The 108XL cannot be flashed to a 108DX. Neither may other, yet to be discovered or released variants of the DVR-108 work with the DX firmware. I felt it was important to clarify that.

There really should be no confusion on this. XL drives should not be flashed with the regular (108, A08, 108DX) firmwares. Best case is you will loose the XL features. Worst case you loose your drive. There is no Piodata XL drive.

Will we get "8x, 12x and 16x for MANY DVDs medias" for the 1.18 patched firmware. It can't be hard now that NIL has already written the basic machine code for it.

It would allow me to write my 4x DVD media at 16x

This is not 16x for all firmware, you will have to wait to nil releases in january sometime, however the official firmware and this will allow ritek G05 To burn 12x

And Nil's releases will be with the official pioneer firmware not the piodata one. We are very lucky Gradius even touched the piodata firmware as no one else would with a 10 foot pole.

I think you are wrong. Looks like the official Pioneer firmware doesn't contain any code for bitsetting. Gradius reported that many addresses in the FW are very different compared to Piodata. If >NIL: will do anything then also based on the Piodata and just enhance that one with the speed patches. Anything else has been done by Gradius already. But media is so cheap these days and 1 or 2 minutes burning time by overclocking the media does not seem to be priority number 1.

It's just unfortunate that there is no XL version and no patch for the owners of this drive type.

Vid

What it comes down to is that if you require bitsetting because you need to use DVD+R media for whatever reason, then do not buy a Pioneer drive.

If you buy a Pioneer drive, then use DVD-R media instead of complaining about not having bitsetting. When you give Pioneer your money, you support them for not giving you bitsetting.

I don't need bitsetting, or acording to the dangerous brothers, because both my standalone players seem to play any kind of media.


No, but it would be nice Otherwise there was no point in buying a 16 speed burner

Piodata IS identical to Pioneer. There is no difference at all between the 2 drives but the F/W.
My conclusion is somehow different from yours:
Pioneer supports bitsetting for DL media(for compatibility reasons) but they wouldn't admit there is a need for bitsetting otherwise, still they are afraid peeps only will buy NEC or LIteon drives. That's why they sell "Piodata" drives to another company and they make a bios supporting bitsetting for all DVD+R/+RW.
Although I respect all points of view, I wellcome, as user, the possibility of choosing the F/W peeps need. If some patchers feel they never will support bitsetting for whatever a reason, there will be others able to supply different solutions (like Gradius).
My personal opinion when it comes to users is that users pay for what they buy and any restriction (restrictions of ANY KIND) should be removed if possible. I salute CSS and Macrovision removal wellcome, I salute RPC removal wellcome, I salute burning speed control removal wellcome(and in this case users must take responsability of what they do burning at higher speed than recommended by dvd manufacturers) and, finally, I salute bitsetting possibility wellcome.
Although I may agree with the theoretical thoughts behind peeps position,
users "wellfare" is stronger weighting in my own mind.
The other argument about pressing companies to respect users wishes is true too but I doubt companies ever will satisfy users requests if this is going to cost money one way or another. In the meantime, removal of restrictions is the only solution available for users.
This is, of course, my own opinion and I expect peeps respect it as I respect others

very well said. I couldn't have agreed more. I am very happy that I now have the option of bitsetting sl +r media as well as all the other goodies we have come to appreciate from the pioneer drives. What I wonder is this.. if and when the 109 comes out... will pioneer allow bitsetting on all +r media with this drive and if not will piodata or some other manufacturer offer a different firmware that does allow this? I sure hope so. I can't see much else being improved on the 109 that will want me to rid of my 108 but we will see. If bitsetting is not an option on the 109 I may just stick with my 108 now that we have a firmware that does it.

Wrong!!! To be correct, this needs to be qualified with, "The PioData DVR-108DX is hardware identical to the Pioneer DVR-108D/A08."

You may consider this arguing semantics, but Pioneer had a reputation of naming different and hardware differing drives very similar names. Currently, the Pioneer DVR-108XL/A08XL are not hardware compatible with any of the other 108 series. Also the Pioneer DVR-117D/108AA (Apple's OEM) seems to be.

Yes, it's very good to point that out exactly, otherwise the questions would come up again.

ok I have just read this whole tread.

My only question is, if I were to flash my 108 to the PIO 108DX can it then be flashed back to a standard 108 if need be ???

Yes!

You can back and forth as long there is a kernel part for a specific firmware available. There is one for both the Pioneer and the Piodata firmware.

To do so you have to flash the normal and the kernel part of the Pioneer firmware. Same drill as flashing it to Piodata. Normal and kernel part.

DVRFlash -vf X: (kernel file) (normal file)

Vid

C:\>dvrflash -vf E: R8150008.110 R8150108.118
(kernal flie ) (normal file ) = Right?

I have Gradius Pioneer 1.18 on mines.

It wouldnt do damage if I convert my Pioneer 108 to the Piodata?

And to flash back I would need this kernal file (R8100108.118) Pioneer's

1.18

So after converting my drive will be named a Piodata?

I've flashed my DVR-108D with this piodata firmware and everyting is OK.
Now I can watch burned DVD+RW on my stand alone dvd player.
Yes after converting my drive is named Piodata.

I have just one question:
Is bitsetting automaticaly set and can't be changed on Piodata?
I've tried to change it in nero CD-DVD Speed--> Extra-->Bitsetting and it is not available.
Does this mean that every DVD+R/RW DL/SL that I burn will have changed booktype to DVD-ROM automaticaly?

Yes

I ugpraded from nil's 1.14 to gradius 1.18, but not now my rip speeds are slow. Any ideas? I checked all the common stuff, DMA, etc..

THanks.
Kizer

Hmm, I'll do some test, but I'm pretty sure I patched the single byte (yup, rip lock is just a single byte).

Gradius

It's working perfectly.

Remember the unlock ripping speed is ONLY for pressed media.

I used an old and scrached DVD R2 DL (7.71GB) on this test:

At 45% I got the maximum possible on DL media:


Ending @ 5.1x because the OTP (not bad at all!):


Gradius

Gradius, thanks for the reply. I will try again.

Thanks,
Kizer

PIODATA DVD-RW DVR-108DX 1.18 (ATA)
Current Profile: DVD+R

Disc Information:
Status: Complete
Erasable: No
Sessions: 1
Sectors: 2,276,960
Size: 4,663,214,080 bytes
Time: 506:01:35 (MM:SS:FF)

Physical Format Information (ADIP):
Disc ID: MCC-003-00
Book Type: DVD+R
Part Version: 1
Disc Size: 120mm
Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified
Number of Layers: 1
Track Path: Parallel Track Path (PTP)
Linear Density: 0.267 um/bit
Track Density: 0.74 um/track
First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608
Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 2,491,711
Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 0

Physical Format Information (Last Recorded):
Disc ID: MCC-003-00
Book Type: DVD-ROM
Part Version: 1
Disc Size: 120mm
Maximum Read Rate: Not Specified
Number of Layers: 1
Track Path: Parallel Track Path (PTP)
Linear Density: 0.267 um/bit
Track Density: 0.74 um/track
First Physical Sector of Data Area: 196,608
Last Physical Sector of Data Area: 2,473,567
Last Physical Sector in Layer 0: 0


Why is there DVD+R as profile and Book Type in the first two? But the third one its DVD-Rom? But it worked? Now I have DVD+R as DVD-Rom ?

Can this be done safely and how/where to get the firmware?

At least READ the first post.

Read it again, carefully. It's clearly stated.