8x Pioneer SuperDrive only burns 2x - firmware update?

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Level 4

1,119 points

8x Pioneer SuperDrive only burns 2x - firmware update?

I purchased two iMac 20" 2.0GHz models a couple months ago. One has the Pioneer DVR-K04L SuperDrive, the other a Matshita UJ-845.

The Pioneer drive burns most 16x, 8x, or 4x DVD+-R media I have tried at only 2x. In fact, the ONLY media I have gotten to burn at 8x is Verbatim 8x DVD-R media. 16x Verbatim DVD-R media only burns at 2x. The same 16x media, and many other brands of 8x media, all burn at 8x in the Matshita UJ-845 drive.

Is anyone aware of a firmware updater for the Pioneer drive to enable it to burn 8x rated media at 8x? Burning 8x media at 2x is unacceptable. The fact that the same 8x media burns at 8x in the Matshita UJ-845 drive points to a problem with the drive.

In my research, I have found that Apple is responsible for the firmware on this Pioneer OEM drive, not Pioneer. Now a Pioneer fireware updater may work and enable faster burn speeds, but basically, this is a problem Apple needs to address and fix by releasing a drive updater for Pioneer equipped iMac G5's.

Posted on Aug 23, 2005 11:24 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 31, 2005 9:13 PM in response to iSmile

Good luck. I've gone through multiple Superdrives and two iMac G5's and have the same issues. I now have a Matshita and it's slow too. As a matter of fact, in my first iMac G5 I had the Matshita then the Pioneer. The Pioneer read much faster, but burned slower. Ironically, both iMac G5's and both drive types are significantly slower than the Pioneer drive in my iMac G4 (floating head). It outburns and outreads the G5. I talked to Pioneer who essentially said the same as you - Apple has their own firmware version for the drives in their machines. Pioneer did tell me the drive in the G5 should be faster than the one in my G4 based on the model numbers. Personally, I think Apple is dumbing down the drives to minimize the heat generated in the iMac G5. I'm glad I spent $2000 for a machine that should do everything faster than a two year old G4, but ends up taking me longer to actually burn something. Good luck in your endeavour!

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Answer 2

Oct 24, 2005 5:06 PM in response to Scott Loeffler

Yeah, my dad has also encountered this problem with his G5 iMac 2.0 (Rev. C I believe). His superdrive - PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-K04L (firmware revision D441) - has difficulty burning at high speeds using Popcorn. Very often the burn process would conk out right near the end with an error message "Hardware Error" or something like that. We've tried different media: Sony, TDK, no-name...no dice. It's doubly embarrassing when I was the one who (finally) persuaded him to make the 'switch' and he can't even do the one thing he really wants to do: burn DVDs.

Apple: any solutions or fixes??

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Answer 3

Oct 24, 2005 5:27 PM in response to Funky Chicken

I had NO LUCK burning DVD's with the Internal Imac G5's Superdrive - my External FW with a DVR-109 burns everytime no matter what the brand DVD's - at the advice of a few Imac G5 owners I bought VERBATIM 8X DVD's (the real Verbatim Branded ones) and now my Imac burns fine everytime - try Verbatim or Apple Branded DVD's you may find your troubles disappear.... Apparently Apple DVD Burners are real finicky about media - I just burned about 8 DVD's with my Internal and no problems!..

Mine is the Revision A with the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-825

I'm using these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817130955

and they burn at the full speed too (4X) where before 2X was all I got and then 90% had problems finishing the burn 🙂

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Answer 4

Oct 25, 2005 7:26 AM in response to Pat-italiano-Valella

I'm going to try Verbatim and Apple disks and report back. FYI, this is the error message my dad gets whenever he burns a DVD (Popcorn or Disk Utility):

Sense Key = HARDWARE ERROR
Sense Code: 0X44, 0X4B
INTERNAL TARGET FAILURE
The disc failed to be written

He was successful in burning a DVD at 2X speed, but when he tried to burn a second disc, up comes the error message again.

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Answer 5

Gilford

Level 1

85 points

Oct 26, 2005 12:30 PM in response to Funky Chicken

This is a very annoying issue! I can burn all 4x discs at 4x but they are getting harder to come by. Anything faster, ie 8x, 16x etc, will only burn at 2x! I to have considered getting an external 109, I know for a fact that this will resolve the issue but why should WE pay out an extra £100 to burn at 4x when Apple state that my iMac WILL do it?

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Answer 6

Robodisko

Level 3

731 points

Oct 28, 2005 4:35 AM in response to Gilford

I have the original iMac G5 1.8Ghz 20" model. same thing only disks that ever burnt at 4x were verbatim 4x disks. however i now buy 8x verbatim and these burn successfully at 4x also. any other media burns at a poor 1x.

So ive always paid a premium (although now not that more expensive) for verbatim disks that allow me to burn at my full 4x speed.
I think a 16x external dvd burner will be a worthwhile upgrade for me in the future

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Answer 7

Dec 27, 2005 1:41 PM in response to iSmile

Add me to the list. My HL-DT-ST DVD-RW GWA-4082B (catchy name isn't it?) revision C03D is burning the Taiyo Yuden 16X Silver Laquer DVD-Rs at 2x as well. Here's a link to the discs on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00081USSA/sr=1-2/qid=1135719494/ref=sr12/103-4897245-9730253?%5Fencoding=UTF8

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