The Firmware Page

I have seen a bunch of posts on the DVR-109 and Mac etc, but there are some conflicting methods and advice.

Simply: What is the best method now of preparing my new DVR-109 for installation on a Mac dual G4 running 10.3.8 ?

Will I need PatchBurn ?

(Note: I also have a Windows XP pc)

Regards,
William Donelson

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You will need to use PatchBurn:

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109:

Manufacturer: PIONEER
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109
Revision: 1.01
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Vendor Supported
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal

If you have a PC, then be sure to flash the 109 to the latest firmware, which is now at 1.40.

Las Vegas is working diligently to get the Mac version of DVRFLash up and running to accommodate the 109.

Be sure that you have the 109 on it's own Bus and you have it set to "Master".

You also might want to make sure that you have the proper cable for the 109. To take advantage of it's speed and other features you need to use a ATA UDMA133, 80C 40 Pin cable.

Good luck & enjoy!

This is of utmost importance! Without an 80 conductor cable, the 109 will not be able to burn any faster than 8X. Fortunately, all Macs since the Blue & White G3 have used 80 conductor cables. If you have an older Mac, you should use a 3rd party, fast ATA card and the cable that was included with your DVR-109.

Ayee! I did not realise that having it on its own bus was important, thanks! I have a chain with my 104 & 106D drives right now. I was going to pull one of them and put in the 109.... ???

So, it's important to have an only-drive on the ribbon connector in my system? (dual 1.25 GHz G4, 1GB RAM, Mac OSX 10.3.8)

I like to ask whether having a DVR-190 inside an external casing with both USB 2.0 and Firewire will enable it's full capacity?

My 109 is inside a Sarotech MyBox casing but the firmware is still 1.01 as I have not upgraded it without a PC. It is recognised by my Mac G4 dual mirrors when using both firewire and USB 2.0

Please advise.

Running on the external case is fine. My 109 is on a Sarotech box (well, the controller is, anyway) and it works fine on my Mac mini.

However, you better get that firmware updated fast. That 1.01 version was way too buggy.

Your DVR-109 will not burn effectively or even play DVDs well using USB 1.1. Use Firewire or USB 2.0 only with that drive.

Sorry, is it important to have the 109 be the ONLY drive on the cable/bus? Please confirm yea or nay, thanks.

Best thing for you Is if you have a friend who has a PC that you can use. Put your dvd 109 In to It and upgrade the firmware to the latest and then put It back In to your mac. I did that and I have no problem with compatibility with iTunes, iLife 05 and so on.

lajo

Thanks. Yes, this is probably what I will do.

Do you know about the Bus issue? Should the DVR-109 be the only device on the bus? Thanks.

sorry to be an idiot for i think i have seen it posted here but can not find it now. where can i get the PC upgradeable 1.40 firmare for this 109 pioneer? thanks

i think i found the place. are these top 2 correct depending on your drive model?

http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/support_ ... fdvdwriter

well since G4's seeem to use 0 and 1 instead of master and slave settings, and since I have found NO difference with hard disks in the 0 or the 1 position I think for us MDD owners both bays are about the same
saxman

It's important, if you have a Pioneer drive that it be on its own bus as Master. It's okay to have another CD drive (even another Pioneer) or removable media (like a Zip drive) on the same bus as Slave, but you should avoid having a hard drive on that bus.



0 and 1 are the hardware's result of the Master/Slave query. 0=Master and 1=Slave. On the MDD (and later), the hardware allows Cable Select mode, where the ATA chip assigns the Master/Slave settings. It's okay to use Cable Select on your hard drives, but don't use it on your Pioneer drive(s). Set the Pioneer to Master (or Slave if it's the second CD drive).

So what's the deal with the 1.40 firmware for the 109? The link farenhite has

http://www.pioneer-eur.com/eur/support_ ... fdvdwriter

sems to be on a European site. Is the 1.40 firmware specifically for units sold into the European market; or can we flash US drives with it....assuming we have access to a PC?

Firmware is not region specific. It will work on any compatible drive.

hey Las Vegas Thx very much that does clear up things, so basically it doesn't matter which bay ( upper or m
lower) of myy MDD I put my 109 in as long as it's set to master and the combi is set to slave right?
Great info ..;keep it up!!
thx again saxman

FINAL REPORT - DVR-109 for Mac OSX 10.3.8

I chose to use Buffalo v8.40 to get bitsetting so that I could burn DVD+Rs which would play on my home DVD player. I will unlock fast ripping on my old DVR-106D (if I can) and use it to fast-read ("rip") the DVD videos etc.

Since there is not currently an app to do all of this on the Mac, I had to upadate the DVR-109 firmware on my PC first.

-- Here's what I had to do on the PC and the Mac --

PC First:

1) get the master file and extract the runtime .exe and data files:

. http://flashman.rpc1.org/Firmware/PIONEER/DVR-109/Buffalo/Buffalo109.840.zip

2) get the DVRupdate .exe application

. http://flashman.rpc1.org/Firmware/PIONEER/DVR-109/DVRupdate_v0.9.zip

3) Once you've extracted everything, put the "DVRupdate 0.9.exe" application into the "FW840" folder you got from step (1).

4) Run the "DVRupdate 0.9.exe" and Select the Small File "R9154009.840" as the Kernel, and the Large File "R9154109.840" as the Firmware.

5) The tray of the DVR-109 should open, and the DVRupdate should show some messages. Then you're done on the PC.

6) Remove the drive from the PC. Be sure to set up the PC again for the next guy...

Second, on the Mac:

7) Open your Mac and get ready. Set the MASTER (jumper pair 1) on the 109, and the SLAVE (Jumper pair 2) on any other CD/DVD drive on the chain. REMOVE the Fat Faceplate on the front of the drive drawer, if you have an MDD Mac or other tight-fit Mac bezel. Install it in the Mac and boot up.

8) Run PatchBurn to install the drivers for the Mac

. http://www.patchburn.de/

10) On your system profiler, ATA bus, your DVR-109 should now show "Vendor Supported" drivers.

Good luck !

If I made a mistake anywhere, PLEASE let me know.

Update>>> Initially, my Mac would not go completely to Sleep. After 2-3 power-downs (one overnight), everything works fine now. Sleep shuts down all drives and fans, and the Mac goes quiet now.

William Donelson

With Tiger 10.4 DVR109 is supported 16X and DL without PatchBurn.

I do not see it on the list.

http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/OSX/tiger/Ve ... rofile.htm

It would be nice though. I'm getting slow rips and burns with my Pioneer A09. Toast says a certain time and if your clock it it is much slower!!! I'm tempted to go out and get the Plextor 716 from BestBuy for $100 after rebate.

I checked System Profile on latest G5's at Apple store and DVR-109 was listed. I don't recall Apple's firmware version.

I am thinking of purchasing a Pioneer DVR-109 to replace a DVR-105. I have a G4 Sawtooth (OS X 10.3.7) with an OWC 1Ghz processor; 1GB RAM. I have 3 internal hard drives. One is in the bay previously occupied by the zip drive. Everything works fine (except for trouble burning in iDVD, but that's a whole other discussion).

Based on what I am reading in this thread (and others) it looks like I should be able to install the 109 if I use PatchBurn. Correct? Or will I have trouble because it's on the same bus?

Thanks for any help!

Daryn

Patchburn will enable the iApps. Applications like Toast don't require it.

The optical ATA bus speed of your system might limit the speed of burning. My 109 has not been able to reach the 16X speed

I have the Pioneer A09 with 1.4 firmware. I do not get 16x burning speeds. I wanted to know how you check your ATA bus speed for your optical drive.

Hardware Overview:

Machine Model: Power Mac G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.2)
Number Of CPUs: 2
CPU Speed: 1.25 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.5.7f1
Serial Number: XB3050WAN1X


ATA-3 Bus:

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109:

Manufacturer: PIONEER
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-109
Revision: 1.40
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Vendor Supported
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 0
Socket Type: Internal

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105:

Manufacturer: PIONEER
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105
Revision: 1.33
Serial Number: BKDL027414WL
Drive Type: CD-RW/DVD-RW
Disc Burning: Apple Supported/Shipped
Removable Media: Yes
Detachable Drive: No
Protocol: ATAPI
Unit Number: 1
Socket Type: Internal

I am running OSX 10.3.9

Thanks in advance!

I first came upon this bus info at the xcelerateyourmac web sit. Here's a reply Mike made to someone with a dual G4 (like mine and yours) who couldn't reach the 16X speeds:

"Also the MDD onboard optical bus is listed by apple as ATA/3 which is only good for about 12x max DVD rates (appx 16.6MB/sec). Some MDD owners have used the 2nd (ATA/66) HD bus for a burner."

My other drive bays are all full, two with a RAID which I don't want to disturb (on the ATA-60 bus). I could unplug a back up drive I have on the second ATA-100 bus, but off hand I'm not sure the cables will reach to the optical bay. But then, how will I ever use that back-up drive?

I looked at the Apple spec sheet pdf I have for my machine (same as your except I have the dual 1G). There is no mention of the optical bus type, so I'm not sure where Mike found that it's an ATA-3. I suppose an ATA-100 PCI card would do the trick...but is it worth the extra money just to shave off 5 minutes of burn time?

There is a free utility called MMBench which simulates a DVD (or Cd) burn with a particular media in the drive. Whether I run it with an 8X disc or with a 16X disk, the fastest writing speed is reported at a little over 12 MB/sec. When using it, you can select which hard disk is delivering the data