Pioneer DVR-110 vs. DVR-110D

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Level 2

225 points

Pioneer DVR-110 vs. DVR-110D

okay, I want to help my dad upgrade his PowerMac G4 (FW800) for the holidays. I know for a fact that the old man wants a DVR-110 but I'm a little confused on the whole optical drive upgrade thing.

First off, is there a difference between the DVR-100 and DVR-110D? Will only one work for us Mac folks?

Second: what's all this drive flashing business? Do I need to flash the drive before it works? I have a peecee available - do I have to flash it on the peecee for it to work?

Lastly: what's all this firmware business? is the firmware that comes with the drive no good? is the firmware upgraded with the flashing?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

And for those who think I'm spoiling the holiday for my old man, I'm betting he won't read this - and if you're reading this, Pop, then just pretend you didn't see it! 🙂

Dual 1gig G4 (Mirror Door) Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Posted on Nov 28, 2005 5:01 PM

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Answer 1

Noah Apodaca Author

Level 2

225 points

Nov 28, 2005 7:07 PM in response to Noah Apodaca

The second paragraph should read, "First off, is there a difference between the DVR-110 and DVR-110D? Will only one work for us Mac folks?"

Dual 1gig G4 (Mirror Door) Mac OS X (10.4.1)

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Answer 2

Nov 28, 2005 7:11 PM in response to Noah Apodaca

DVR-110D is the version sold in the US - it does not allow DVD-RAM write capabilities.

If you have a PC available, it is always a good idea to update the drive firmware of Pioneer drives; early version firmware tends to be flaky. You can do this on a Mac, but requires more steps.

You could also just get a NEC ND-3540A and not worry about any of that.

Either way, Newegg.com has either drive for under $40....

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Answer 3

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Dec 13, 2005 8:53 AM in response to Hussein-New-York

I just purchased the Pioneer DVR-110D for my G4 733 Digital Audio which currently has a Pineer 107 s-drive. I'm planning to test the newest 110D Pioneer Drive within a FW enclosure first. If it works there, then I'll also try it out internally on the G4.

Any feedback from anyone who has already successfully installed this newest pioneer burner would be sincerely appreciated. Ohterwise, I'll post back later with my results.

---------------------
My system profiler on the current S-Drive reads as follows:

PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-107D:

Firmware Revision: 1.13
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Apple Shipped/Supported)
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
Media: No

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Answer 4

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Dec 14, 2005 10:01 AM in response to SDMacuser

Good News! It works! Tested the Pioneer DVR-110D Externally 12/14/05 via FW on a G4 733 DA and Toast 6 saw it no problem. Also worked flawlessly via FW on a pismo g3 500 mhz laptop. Disk is burning as i write and in record time...

SDMacuser

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Answer 5

Salda

Level 2

255 points

Mar 3, 2006 3:33 PM in response to Noah Apodaca

I just installed a DVR-110D in my Sawtooth G4 with 10.4.5. Everything seems great, was able to burn an image file of the Tiger install to DVD, no problem. iDVD & iTunes recognize it fine, haven't tried burning out of iDVD just yet.

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Answer 6

WWJD

Level 6

15,830 points

Mar 4, 2006 4:57 AM in response to SDMacuser

The 110D works fine in my MDD. No problems installing or having the system and iApps seeing the drive.

Regards,

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Answer 7

SDMacuser

Level 6

13,585 points

Mar 5, 2006 1:52 PM in response to WWJD

This Pioneer DVR-110D is fairly impressive. Just burned my first dual layer DVD-R. Very fast burn times. I actually still have mine in an ext. FW enclosure. No need really to mount it internally. Works just as well in the external FW enclosure as it does internally. Plus I am now able to use both pioneer S-drives at the same time this way.

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