No Tiger Support for Pioneer DVR-108??

profvonsok · #1 July 28th, 2005, 10:55 AM

Is it true that Tiger does not have support for the Pioneer 108 DVD burner
but does support the 109?? I bought one from new egg awhile back that I'm just now installing but it seems extremely odd to me that Apple would
support the 104, 105, 106, 107, and 109 but completely skip over the 108. Can anyone answer this definitively??

TIA,
Prof

ElDiabloConCaca · #2 July 28th, 2005, 11:20 AM

http://forums.xlr8yourmac.com/drived....drivedb.lasso

Do a search for "Pioneer" drives using "OS X 10.4" and you'll see that there are many success stories of using a DVR-108 with OS X 10.4 without any extra drivers.

Where did you hear specifically that the DVR-108 was not supported in OSX 10.4?

profvonsok · #3 July 28th, 2005, 11:44 AM

I read that in another forum after I installed the 108 into a DP 1.25 G4
running 10.3.9 and was surprised to see "disc burning not supported" in
System Profiler. Meaning it works but there's no iApp support. I asked if Tiger added 108 support and was told that Tiger only added support for the 109.
I'm hoping that installing Tiger will restore iApp support.

TIA,
Prof

bobw · #4 July 28th, 2005, 01:12 PM

You could use PatchBurn

profvonsok · #5 July 28th, 2005, 02:03 PM

Yes, using Patchburn is my fallback position.
It just seems extremely odd to me that Tiger would natively support
every other Pioneer DVD burner except the 108.
I find that hard to believe and I'm hoping someone can answer
that definitively before I go ahead and install Tiger.

Thanks,
Prof

ElDiabloConCaca · #6 July 28th, 2005, 02:08 PM

Did you visit that site I posted a link to? There are many success stories:

Quote:

Support xlr8yourmac.com - advertise here

The Source for Mac Performance News and Reviews
Click here to return to the Main Drive Database Page

Accelerate Your Mac! Drive Database - Search Results
Report Date: Thursday, July 28, 2005
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Interface Type: All Interface Types
Mac Model: All Mac Models
Survey Results: (5 reports total, now showing records 1 to 5):

Reviewer's Name: Lou Shain
Date Submitted: 6/21/2005
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: IDE
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-108 (was a DVR-117D OEM)
Driver Used: Patchburn 4
Mac Model: Apple G5 Tower
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: Mike
Just to let you know I successfully updated my Hacked DVR-108 Drive (was a DVR-117D) to Firmware Version 1.20 with the FlashIt utility. I used the same procedure described today to flash the DVR-109 to Firmware Version 1.55. (using an actual DVR-109 drive I assume, not the reflashed 108-Mike) I renamed the Pioneer Firmware 1.20 Files1.18, and all went well. Thanks Again for this great resource.
ASP Reads:
Firmware Revision: 1.20
Interconnect: ATAPI
Burn Support: Yes (Vendor Supported)
Profile Path: VendorSupport.drprofile
Cache: 2000 KB
Reads DVD: Yes
CD-Write: -R, -RW
DVD-Write: -R, -RW, +R, +RW, +R DL
Burn Underrun Protection CD: Yes
Burn Underrun Protection DVD: Yes
Write Strategies: CD-TAO, CD-SAO, CD-Raw, DVD-DAO
-Lou
Mike Comments: Thanks Lou. You didn't originally select a mac model but I assume from the 117D it was a G5 tower so I selected that.

(reader FYI - the main site has a past Guide to Flashing OEM DVR-117 to DVR-108 (DL) Firmware.

although Tiger has basic iApps burn support for the DVR-108 without needing it, he noted using Patchburn 4 for tiger. See the FAQ's DVD section for Pioneer drive flashers and a hack for enabling 8GB/Dual Layer project support in Tiger/iDVD 5.0.1 for DL drives not reported as "Apple supported/shipped". However reportedly a patchburn profile must be removed for that.)

Reviewer's Name: Paul
Date Submitted: 6/4/2005
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: IDE
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-108 (8x single layer, 4x dual layer DVD, 32x CDR) Firmware v1.20
Drive Size: 8.5GB (dual layer)
Driver Used: Patchburn 4
Mac Model: Apple G4 Dual CPU DDR
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: OS X 10.4 saw the drive (tiger ASP reports Burn support w/o patchburn profile) without patchburn (Patchburn 4-Mike) but I installed the profile anyway after updating the firmware. Drive has always been bootable (from CD).
Mike Comments: Have you done any DL burning in Tiger? (just curious - I'm using my 108 in tiger w/o patchburn 4 profile but never bought any DL discs due to high cost of them)
Since you mentioned this is a DDR G4 (i.e. MDD model) did you remove the drive's front tray bezel? (usually required in MDD macs to prevent hanging on the MDD case openings on tray eject)

Reviewer's Name: Gerald Homeyer
Date Submitted: 4/30/2005
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: IDE
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-108 (firmware 1.19) 8x DVD single layer, 4x DVD+R Dual Layer, 32x CDR
Driver Used: Apple Standard
Mac Model: Apple G4 Dual CPU DDR
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: Pioneer DVR-108 with firmware 1.19, OS-X 10.4, working out of the box.
Mike Comments: Since you selected a DDR G4 (Mirror drive door model, as previous G4/AGP towers don't use DDR memory) - did you have to remove the drive's front tray bezel to clear the MDD case openings? (almost always a must with the MDD case - otherwise the tray bezel hangs on the MDD's rounded edge case openings on eject)

Reviewer's Name: Brian Young
Date Submitted: 4/30/2005
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: IDE
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-108 (8x single layer DVD, 4x Dual Layer DVD+R, 32x CDR)
Driver Used: Apple Standard
Mac Model: Apple G5 Tower
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: Just letting you know the dvr-108 (firmware v.1.14) is supported under Tiger including DVD+R DL no drivers are required. Email me if you want me to do any test or if you have any questions.
-B
Mike Comments: I see the same thing here. Tiger seems to support most drives for iApps burning based on reports so far. (last week's news page had links to a list of drives in tiger's burn support profiles - but even those not on those 2 lists seem to work ok - even when reported by ASP as "Burn Support: Yes (unsupported)" with no profile path.)

BTW - assuming you removed the drive's tray bezel to clear the G5's case on eject. (just a FYI to readers it's often required to prevent hangs on the case on tray eject)

Reviewer's Name: Tedd Girouard
Date Submitted: 10/17/2004
Drive Type: DVD+R/RW + DVD-R/RW Drives
Drive Interface: Firewire
Drive Brand: Pioneer
Drive Model Number: DVR-108 (4x Dual Layer DVD+R, 16x DVD+R/-R, 4x DVD+RW/-RW, 32x CDR, 24x CDRW)
Driver Used: Patchburn 3
Mac Model: PowerBook G4
Mac OS Version: OS X 10.4
Reader Comments: Flashed drive to 1.14 with Flash Kit 2.0 the flash went fine and everything still works have not noticed any speed increases and can still only burn 8x media at 12x, One problem I am seeing is that I am still ripping very slow. I takes me 20+ minutes to rip a 4gig DVD with mactheripper, however, I can burn a DVD in under 5 minutes, something does not seem right here.
Tedd
Mike Comments: most all std firmware has slow dvd movie rip speeds (at 2x usually) unless tweaked firmware is used. some drives like my px-708a plextor have a feature where you can incase the rip speed (on that drive it's holding in the eject button for 3 sec as i remember). I'd check the rpc1 site I linked to in thursday's news page post on tweaked dvr-107 firmware to see if they had a 108 tweaked version yet.
(reader FYI - Patchburn 3 required for iapps burn support for the 108 drive to date. flashit 2.0 download link included in friday's (oct. 15th, 2004) www.xlr8yourmac.com news page - and now added to the FAQ's DVD section.)

profvonsok · #7 July 28th, 2005, 02:48 PM

Yes, I did visit that link. Thank you for posting it.
Unfortunately those four reports aren't terribly definitive
as far as native iApp support goes. (ie one says System Profiler
recognized the drive but then he installed Patchburn. WHY???????)
I guess I'll just have to install Tiger myself to find out.

Thanks Again,
Prof

Uncle David · #8 July 29th, 2005, 11:08 AM

I'm having a real problem with the 108 and Panther. Ever since I started trying to burn dual layer media I've been getting all kinds of errors with Popcorn and Toast Ti. Pioneer says I need to upgrade the firmware to 1.2.

I tried upgrading the firmware to 1.18 and was successful using FlashIt, but now none of the media (blank or burned) is recognized. System Profiler, the keyboard and the menu bar show and give access to the drive, but the media isn't seen.

I'm waiting for a PC friend to open the 1.2 firmware updater .exe file for me so I can try the upgrade to 1.2, but I'm losing hope. Looks like I may have to buy a new drive.

Epilogue...

Well, I found a v 1.2 firmware file and ran it via FlashIt, but to no avail. It updated the firmware, but the drive still won't recognize any media. I guess it's off to BestBuy to purchase a 109 and hope all works well.