Installing a dvd burner / drive

Thanks both of you, that gets me on track, I've never done much in the way of adding hardware to a computer. Still don't understand if there's a lick of difference between those 3 Pioneer drives. From Pioneer's site, it actually appears like the DVR-R100 is a more recent model than the DVR-110D or 111D, but they all seem to have exactly the same features. Maybe just some marketing thing?

Tell me if I'm understanding this right:
To get the drive to play nice with my OSX functions, I'll need to use the patchburn3, and to get the drive to have all the functionality that it's capable of -- all cd and dvd formats work, dual layered burning works, full-speeds as advertised and etc. -- I'll probably have to "flash" the drive with a firmware update. Am I understanding it right?

I ordered a 111D from Newegg, sounds like there really isn't any difference, thanks for the rundown on that. When you say a different case, I hope that doesn't mean there's any issue with how it fits into the bay of different computers. I'm guessing the mounting should be easier with the quicksilver than with the sawtooth.

From what I'm reading, it sounds like the safe way to go is to NOT update the firmware -- since it is a permanent change and there is a small possibility of creating a problem -- UNLESS the drive won't perform a function you need. Then do it, because the chances of creating a problem instead of solving one are small. (On the bright side, we're only talking about a $40 item here! It's amazing how cheap DVD drives and players have gotten.)

thanks all around, can't wait for the sucker to get here.

Got the DVR-111D installed, used patchburn 3 and everything seems fine. I downloaded DVRFlash and the latest firmware version for the 111D that's posted on the website. Extracted the single file from that download which is called UPR111D.exe
Info that comes with DVRFlash suggests putting that file and DVRFlash in a folder together, then opening the terminal and running a command that will do the flash.
But I"m finding the read me with DVRFlash entirely confusing in it's explanation of exactly how to type out my command. It gives an example, and then explains some but not all parts of the command line, so I'm not sure how to construct mine. Here's copy of the relevant part of the read me:


[Mac OS X Flashing]

You don't have to install anything special. Just open a Terminal (Located
in your Utilities folder) window and set the directory to your DVRFlash
folder. Be sure that your firmware file(s) are in the same folder. The
simplest way to do this is to place DVRFlash and your firmware file(s) into
a folder called "DVRFlash" on your Desktop. Now enter the following into a
Terminal window:

cd Desktop/DVRFlash

Now run a command like:

./DVRFlash -vf PIONEER R5100004.133 R5100104.133

If you have more than one Pioneer Drive, run DVRFlash without any parameters to discover the driver identifier (Like A:, B:, etc.) and add that just before the word PIONEER (IE: A:PIONEER). Alternatively, if your drives are of different models, you may use the full name if the drive enclosed in quotes. IE (Note the two spaces before the drive model):

./DVRFlash -vf "PIONEER DVD/RW DVR-105" R5100004.133 R5100104.133

The command above will force flash a 105 compatible drive with the Pioneer DVR-105 v1.33 firmware The command above also works with USB and Firewire drives.

Note: The word 'PIONEER' refers to the Vendor Name of the drive. This may appear differently on some OEM drives. Verify the name by entering './DVRFlash' without any parameters.

If flashing a drive to an official update that includes only a single firmware file, the 'f' (force) parameter is not necessary. Neither is the 'v' (verbose) parameter ever necessary. For example:

./DVRFlash PIONEER R5100104.133

…will update a Pioneer DVR-105 to version 1.33 without the kernel file. It is most important that both firmware and kernel files be used when downgrading a drive or cross-flashing OEM models


---I get it other than the string of numbers in the command: R5100004.133 R5100104.133 It doesn't explain how/where they come up with that number, so I have no idea how to write my command.

Also, does my new drive already likely have the newest version of the firmware on it already anyway? Is there a way I can see what firmware version is already on the drive?

Part of what was confusing me: in my case there is only 1 file downloaded. the info with DVRFlash explains that sometimes this the case, but I missed it.

So I stuck my single firmware file along with DVRFlash in a folder on the desktop, I sent the command using the terminal and I got this msg:

'The PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-111D is not supported by this utility - Aborting'

So I check the firmware page forums and sure enough, DVRFlash does not yet support the 111D, but they are working on it. Phhhht! Oh well, at least once they get a new version out, I know what to do. My firmware's current version is 1.02, the update from Pioneer is 1.06; possibly nothing of consequence for my computer anyway.

I guess the real question: is there some alternative firmware update that will improve the performance of the drive. I'm guessing it's too new and nobody's got that figured out yet, I'll have to keep an eye on that Fimware forum for a while.

Thanks for steering me through, this is a whole new area for me.