Pioneer questions

[Nazaroth]

I have 2 Pioneer drives in different computers. And 2 problems. 1 with each. The 105 burns data and video fine, but when you play a video disk on a DVD player, the last 10 mins or so skips horribly. I can read all of the data off of a data disc fine, but when I try to make an image of a video disc, it dies towards the end. I have tried oodles of different media. The drive has been used a LOT, so maybe it's just done? Second issue: the 107. Ever since the drive was new, I start off a burn, it burns 10-15% at 6x, then goes to idle, then picks back up to 8X and finishes the burn.... about 75% of the time. The other time it just dies and tells me I have a Power Calibration Area Error. I have tried several firmwares and several types of media... Any ideas?

[theReal]

You say you tried several types of media - does that include high quality media like Verbatim (not from a cakebox, only the ones in single jewel cases)?

The video discs that skip towards the end, do they run fine in other DVD players? If they do, the drive is probably done. Maybe the lens is dirty, but I wouldn't try to clean it myself (you can do that with old CD players, but I guess you'd easily destroy a DVD burner if you clean the lens with Isopropanol and a Qtip...