Newbie Please Help Pioneer 1X Only

[jackhorner]

Can anybody enlighten me as to why my pioneer 104 will only write at 1 speed. Nero only gives me a one speed option. Passi Primo DVD lets me select 2 Speed but takes about 40-45 Mins To complete the job.Any Ideas Please.

Many Thanks:(

[padre]

Jack (or is that 'Little Jack Horner'?) :)

What brand of DVD-R are you trying to use? Not too many are certified to burn at 2x speed. Pioneer, Apple, some TDK, some others. The generic media generally isn't 2x compatible, unless it says so (and sometimes not even then).

Since you have a 104, do you have DMA enabled on the drive? Instead of PIO mode. The 104 (versus the 103) supports DMA, which results in a better/faster transfer of info to the drive.

Padre

[alexnoe]

The A03 supports DMA, but only MW-DMA, not UDMA.

Note that A03/A04 have an firmware issue which sometimes causes "communication failures" and write abortions if you set it to DMA.
I myself have to run my DVR-A03 in PIO4-mode because of this.

2x compatible media are
A03: Mitsubishi, Mitsui, Maxell, Pioneer, TDK (Firmware 1.65+ required)
A04: additionally Taiyo Yuden and Matsushita.

[jackhorner]

Many Thanks Padre & Alexnoe

I have the following configuration on my PC Mainboard iWill Xp333 Raid with 512mb of Crucial DDR Memory a AMD XP1800 Processor The harddrives connected via the highpoint controllers are Maxtor 40gb 7200rpm & 80gb IBM deskstar 7200rpm Crucially The other drive are Primary Master Yamaha CRW F1 UDMA Mode 2 No Primary Slave. Secondary Master Pioneer DVR-104 UDMA Mode 2. Secondary Slave Asus DVD Rom E616 UDMA Mode 5. when i tried to change the IDE transfer to PIO on the secondary Master when i rebooted the PC hung at the black Windows XP Screen.

Any further help would be greatly appreciated.

[padre]

Suggestions: Leave the Pioneer as the Secondary IDE Master and disconnect the Secondary Slave (the Asus DVD Rom) and set the Secondary IDE as PIO mode only. Maybe it's the DVD-Rom that's throwing it off? By the way, where did you change it to NOT use DMA? In XP or in the BIOS of your motherboard? If you can, do it in the BIOS of your motherboard.

In my layout, I have 2 UDMA 100/133 controllers connecting to (4) UDMA Hard disks (75gb, 75gb, 100gb and 120gb), and then 2 additional UDMA 66/33 controllers, with my Pioneer as the Master on one channel, and my DVD-ROM as a Master on the other channel. The channel that the Pioneer 103/A03 is on is configured for PIO, all the others us UDMA.

[jackhorner]

Thanks Padre

I changed the DMA in Xp. Padre gonna try what you have suggested. I will let you know the outcome in a short while.

Cheers :)

[jackhorner]

Hi padre

I did as you suggested i disconected the Asus DVD. Set PIO Mode 4 in the motherboards bios for the Pioneer. Burnt 3.8gb set to 2x in prassi primo DVD it as just taken 50 mins ?

:(

[padre]

Did you ever say what the media you are trying was? Pioneer? Apple? TDK 2x?

[alexnoe]

I don't use Prassi. Maybe it doesn't ask the writer what speeds it can do.

If Nero only shows 1x speed option, then your media is only 1x compatible, and the writer will simply ignore any "write at 2x speed" command sent by obviously buggy programs as Prassi.

[slk001]

Prassi is lying to you. The DVR-A04/104 will only burn at 2X with a disk that can handle 2X (the disk has the max burn speed embedded in the disk info section of the LEAD-IN). If you want to see your burner burn at 2X, go buy yourself a name branded DVD-R (Apple, Verbatim, Pioneer, TDK, etc) and watch NERO bring up that "2X" button. A 2X burn will complete in about 25-27 minutes, and a 1X burn completes in 50-55 minutes.

[alexnoe]

No, the disc has no speed embedded anywhere. And if it is, then the A03/A04 ignores it!

The A03/A04 have a table in their firmware with all media they can write at 2x speed.

[jackhorner]

Thanks Guys

The Discs are the latest printable Generation 4 DVD-Masters these have come strongly recommended from Phil at www.disctech.co.uk have used him for a couple of years now for cdr-media. Alexnoe nero does only give me a 1x option. I think my next move should be to obtain some branded 2x media perhaps Verbs or TDK and give them a try.

Many Many Thanks for all your Endeavours.;)

[padre]

Yes, I'd say if it's not on the certified list of 2x compatible DVD-R's, then you're probably talking 1x.

Get a Pioneer, Apple ,TDK or other 2x disc and see how long it takes to burn a full DVD. If it burns at 2x, then that other stuff you're buying isn't true 2x. If it still doesn't burn at 2x, you've got system issues to troubleshoot.