Pioneer have today officially upgraded their recent firmware updates for the A03/103 and AO4/104 DVD recorders. This update request is launched because Pioneer found that the firmware of some of its DVD-R/RW Recorder / Writer drives contains a "bug" (malfunctioning code). This will cause the drives to overheat if any of the new (yet to be released) high speed media (4x & above) is used with the old firmware. The firmware affected is below 1.90 on the A03/103 and below 2.30 on the A04/104. The new firmware is 1.90 for the A03/103 and 1.32 for the A04/104. This firmware will not allow increased recording speeds above the maximum of 2X on these drives and in fact Pioneer claim they will only write at 1X on the new high speed media which is designed to be used in the new A05 drive.

Pioneer initially released the firmware 1.31 which enabled 2X write on certain Ritek media like Traxdata but after a dispute between Ritek & Pioneer it was removed with the 1.32 firmware.

Anyone applying this firmware which only affects the drives if the new high speed media (4x & above) is used should be aware that it is not downgradable.

You can download the new firmware here.

This is the first picture of the new FWS 2 speed DVD-R. The strange thing is the disc has no 2 speed markings?





Click here to see the new disc.

"A recent explosion at a US plant of Ineos Phenol, a unit of British chemical supplier Ineos Group, will have limited impact on the raw material supply for Taiwan’s CD-R disc makers, according to some disc makers in Taiwan.

A quick roundup of DVD-R media news:
The much talked about FWS 2 speed DVD-R disc should be released in the next 10 days.

As the price of DVD players continues dropping, demand for the less-costly DVD player single-chips has become much stronger, drawing more chip suppliers into the sector. Following Mediatek, ALi Corporation (formerly Acer Laboratories) and ESS Technology will soon start mass-producing single-chip products in the fourth quarter.

Our Taiwanese sources have shed new light on the story about Datasafe Media’s new interest in the +R/+RW format. Recently we revealed that Datasafe have arranged to distribute the new Sony DRU500A which will work with both +R and –R media.

The industry is today awash with rumours that Datasafe Media have struck a deal with Sony to distribute a new model of DVD writer - the DRU500A - which will support both the '+R' and the '-R' standards of blank DVD media.

Since installing the new firmware on both A03 & A04 some users have had bad burns on previously good media, thanks to our contributor Flash we have a link to a firmware flash utility that would flash any version up or down over any version.

Maxell Corporation of America, an engineering and marketing leader in recordable media products, posted top scores among media vendors in comprehensive DVD compatibility testing conducted by DV Magazine.

TOKYO--An expanding list of Japanese electronics makers are finalizing plans to start making set top DVD recorders, aiming to stake out territory in one of the industry's most promising growth markets, company officials said Monday.

An Industry insider revealed that Datasafe media have clawed back a huge share of the market with the launch of the Datasafe classic DVD-R disc. This disc is based on a dye formulation last used by Datasafe in June and according to our friends at media forums who beta tested the disc this was the most compatible 1 speed DVD-R on the market.

Philips today announced an alliance with Intersil to jointly develop a reference design based on a Philips chip set and Intersil laser driver for DVD+RW/+R (DVD+ReWriteable/+Recordable) drives. The reference design for both PC and standalone DVD recorders will support 4X record speeds, and has the potential to support record speeds up to 12X.

Pioneer have launched a new website exclusively devoted to DVD-R/RW. The site is called Pioneer :: All about DVD-R/RW and contains information and advice on Pioneer's products including info on the types of writable DVD and tips for video recording and data storage.

Click here to visit the site.

Sony Electronics today introduced its Dual RW drives, the first combination
drives for the PC to support the DVD+RW, DVD+R, DVD-RW and DVD-R formats.

Toshiba Europe GmbH Storage Device Division today announced the SD-R5002 DVD-R/RW, a high quality optical disk drive that comes complete with everything needed to create a comprehensive and effective home movie-making kit. The SD-R5002 is one of the fastest combination rewriteable DVD drives available. It can also read DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R and DVD-RW as well as CDs. It can write at 16x speeds for CD-R, 10x for high-speed CD-RW and 2x for DVD-R, as well as being able to write to regular CD-RW and DVD-RW disks.

Pioneer have released a couple of new firmware updates for the A04 and A03 DVD writers. The changes add 2X DVD burning on CMC and Ritek medias

Click here to download them.

Hongkong customs officers have for the first time seized DVD replicators used by a syndicate to produce pirated DVD games for the PS2 and Xbox games systems, a spokesman said yesterday.

Taiwan’s major CD-R disc makers all reported sharp declines in first-half net profit from a year ago, hurt by slumping disc prices. Meanwhile, the future direction of CD-R prices remains unclear, as manufacturers take a wait-and-see attitude before rivals make pricing moves.

Verbatim Corporation and Peripherals Group, Inc., the exclusive licensor of Verbatim(R) optical hardware products and subsidiary of CenDyne, Inc., today together announced the Verbatim "Producer" DVD+R/RW internal drive, the next generation in storage technology for businesses and consumers.

Choice consumables Have launched a 1x generation 3 dvd-r which they claim is one of the most compatible in the market. The disc which is priced at 89p is available from most good retailers.