Pioneer DVR-115D not reading proper time on blank CD-R media

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers Asus / Pioneer Writer
#1

I have a new Pioneer DVR-115D that I flashed to v1.22. I also used MCSE to make the firmware non-region. My PC is running WinXP SP3.

The drive has been acting really wierd with blank CD-Rs. I use IMGBURN 2.4.2.0 (and 2.4.0.0) to normally do writing and that program seems to sporadically think that my 80minute blanks are only 55 minutes long and warns me when I go to do my CD-DA burns that the audio won’t fit. If I tell it to go ahead anyway (thanks to some advice on the IMGBURN forum) I have found that the disc seems OK. But I’d still like to know why the drive is doing this wierdness.

When the drive is “stuck” in this confusing state I can put in different blanks and IMGBURN thinks they are all only 55 minute blanks. I can take the same discs and put them in my new Lite-On DH20A4H in the same PC and it sees them correctly as 80 min blanks. Put them back in the Pioneer and it sees them as 55minutes.

Usually if I reboot or turn off/on the PC and come back the drive will be back to normal. Sometimes it just goes back to “normal” by itself if I check it a couple hours later. So whatever it is that is causing this is not that reproducable and I haven’t been able to figure out what the problem is (a software application conflict? a hardware issue of some kind? what?).

Also if I check the disc times in NeroCDspeed or Infotool, or EAC, in the Pioneer, they think the discs are 80minutes, yet when I then switch to IMGBURN, if it is having this wierdness it thinks they are only 55 minutes long.

I’ve noticed this with both fujifilm branded Taiyo-Yuden blanks (EX quality media) and also with Verbatim branded CMC Magnetics crap.

I’ve posted about this on the IMGBURN forum but haven’t gotten a definite answer as to what the problem is. The author of the software thinks it is a bug in the drive firmware.

Somebody else up there said I should try deleting one of my “low level filters” called “pfc” but I haven’t tried that yet since I don’t want to possibly screw up one of my other applications like ConvertXtoDVD or Adobe Audition (which may have been the program that installed the pfc filter thing), plus I wonder if that filter is a problem then why isn’t my Lite-On drive also affected? I confess to not understanding the whole filter business but don’t want to get too into that until I understand it better.

I was told to post some debug info from the program at the IMGBURN forum which I did but no one ever followed up on it. Here is an excerpt of some of that and I think it is showing that something is wrong, but I have no idea how to interpret what this means:

I 01:53:17 [1:0:0] PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-115D 1.22 (Z:) (ATA)
I 01:53:17 CDB: 43 00 00 00 00 00 00 10 00 00
I 01:53:17 CDB Interpretation: Read TOC/PMA/ATIP - Formatted TOC
E 01:53:17 SENSE: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0E 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
E 01:53:17 SENSE Interpretation: Invalid Field in CDB
I 01:53:17 [1:0:0] PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-115D 1.22 (Z:) (ATA)
I 01:53:17 CDB: 43 00 00 00 00 00 01 10 00 00
I 01:53:17 CDB Interpretation: Read TOC/PMA/ATIP - Formatted TOC
E 01:53:17 SENSE: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0E 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
E 01:53:17 SENSE Interpretation: Invalid Field in CDB
I 01:53:17 [1:0:0] PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-115D 1.22 (Z:) (ATA)
I 01:53:17 CDB: 43 00 02 00 00 00 00 10 00 00
I 01:53:17 CDB Interpretation: Read TOC/PMA/ATIP - Raw TOC
E 01:53:17 SENSE: 70 00 05 00 00 00 00 0E 00 00 00 00 24 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
E 01:53:17 SENSE Interpretation: Invalid Field in CDB

Does anyone have any experience with this kind of issue??? I would really like to know what is going on if possible, especially if there is something I should or can do to correct this, or even if it is just something that I am stuck with but would benefit from knowing what is wrong - for example, should I not even use the drive to write CDRs, is it hosed in some way??? It seems to read & write DVDs OK though.

THANKS for any helpful advice.

#2

That debug info is of no use, the 55 mins was coming from the ‘Read Track Information’ command.

There’s nothing anyone can do about it, your drive is just misbehaving and misreporting.

#3

[QUOTE=LIGHTNING UK!;2197162]That debug info is of no use, the 55 mins was coming from the ‘Read Track Information’ command.

There’s nothing anyone can do about it, your drive is just misbehaving and misreporting.[/QUOTE]

THANKS lightning, didn’t know you were up here, but it makes sense that you are!

I still hope to hear from someone up here that can help me though. Maybe I need to contact PIONEER??? My drive has something wrong with it?? Or do others with this drive have this same problem???

#4

[QUOTE=LIGHTNING UK!;2197162]That debug info is of no use, the 55 mins was coming from the ‘Read Track Information’ command.

There’s nothing anyone can do about it, your drive is just misbehaving and misreporting.[/QUOTE]

Oops forgot to ask - what does this debug info mean??

“SENSE Interpretation: Invalid Field in CDB”

Is that a normal thing to see in the debug??? I thought that must have meant something.

#5

Have you tried changing the IDE cable to a new 80-conductor one?

#6

[QUOTE=KTL;2197386]Have you tried changing the IDE cable to a new 80-conductor one?[/QUOTE]

No, I haven’t tried that. I am definitely using an 80 conductor cable though. If the cable was bad wouldn’t I be having much more severe, or noticeable problems? I’ll try getting another cable if you think that is worth a shot though.

Speaking of stuff like that, I went through a lot of pain with my old Lite-On LH-20A1H burner in that I could never get it to burn any faster than 8x even though it supported faster speeds. No matter what cables I used (and I swapped out several) or what advice I tried from up here (all good advice) that unit would NEVER show up any faster than “Ultra DMA Mode 2” in device manager, despite it supposedly supporting Mode 4 according to the advice I was given. After weeks of messing with that I gave up and concluded it was some kind of limitation with my motherboard. But here’s the wierd thing - the new Pioneer comes up as Ultra DMA Mode 4 with no problem and can burn like 20x!!! But I added a new Lite-On DH-20A4H and that one will only show up as Mode 2, I can’t get it to go to mode 4, which I think it is supposed to?? Maybe this wierdness is also what is going on with my Pioneer not always reading CDR blanks correctly???

#7

Are you overclocking any parts in your computer? Overclocking can have very strange side effects when it comes to optical drives.

#8

[QUOTE=hwp;2197495]Are you overclocking any parts in your computer? Overclocking can have very strange side effects when it comes to optical drives.[/QUOTE]

Not overclocking anything as far as I know. I don’t even know if it is possible, but could that be something the motherboard is doing by design to cheat to run faster? The PC is an old Dell “Optiplex GX240”, 1.7 ghz P4. Or is there something I can look into in device manager (or anywhere) to verify no overclocking unbeknownst to me?

Oh, and thanks to everyone that has chimed in trying to help me figure this out.

#9

[QUOTE=slipkid;2197000]I have a new Pioneer DVR-115D that I flashed to v1.22.[/QUOTE]

Flash it back to 1.18 and see if the problem is still there.

#10

[QUOTE=negritude;2202295]Flash it back to 1.18 and see if the problem is still there.[/QUOTE]

Thanks, I was thinking of trying that, but wanted to see first if anyone else had this problem with 1.22. No one has said anything so I guess not though.

What I will do is first try removing that pfc filter and see if that makes a difference, then will setting back to non-region free again with 1.22 & see what happens, then trying 1.18 or whatever I can get prior to 1.22.

I’ll report back up here if anyone is interested.

#11

[QUOTE=slipkid;2202315]

What I will do is first try removing that pfc filter and see if that makes a difference, then will setting back to non-region free again with 1.22 & see what happens, then trying 1.18 or whatever I can get prior to 1.22.

[/QUOTE]

Was just assembling some things I would need regarding trying the test of setting back the firmware, and realized:

I don’t have any older firmware versions to revert back to. Pioneer’s website that I downloaded v1.22 doesn’t have any older ones there. Suppose I could try searching through threads up here or googling on the 'net and find something archived somewhere, but I noticed this on the PIONEER page:

http://wwwbsc.pioneer.co.jp/product-e/ibs/device_e/dev00001r_e.html

[B]Once updated to version 1.22, this drive will not revert to older firmware versions.
[/B]

Is there a way around that? I don’t have the time this week to spend on figuring that out…I will try to do some of the other stuff I mentioned but in reality I am ready to just give up, am too busy…

#12

Read the MCSE or firmware/DVRFlash thread.

#13

[QUOTE=chef;2204274]Read the MCSE or firmware/DVRFlash thread.[/QUOTE]

Thanks I will have to do that (again).

I did use MCSE originally to modify the flasher executable (or whatever it is called) to allow me to flash it to v1.22 more than once (the first time I was just doing the update, the 2nd time I had modified the firmware for non-regions), and I read many many threads here and other info on the 'net about MCSE to try to figure it out when I did that.

Perhaps whatever I changed with that already (allowing me to reflash v1.22) is the same as allowing it to flash an older version? I will re-read the thread when I get time. Unfortunately my memory retention for these kinds of details is around zero. I don’t work with this stuff often enough to remember squat about it, and then every time something new comes up weeks/months later I have to spend hours searching & reading things again. Like where to find old Pioneer firmware revisions should I figure out whether I can flash backwards. But also I am thinking more I’m not sure I want to go backwards - that might hurt me in other areas with DVD media performance/compatibility. Maybe it is better to just live with this crazy problem.

Switching gears, I did remove the PFC filter and for the next couple days the Pioneer was reading the blank CDR times with IMGBURN correctly every time I checked. However checking it again right now, it is back to reading only 55 minutes instead of 79+. I am really suspicious that some other application that I have running now (or had running recently) somehow is affecting IMGBURN, rather than this just being a straight drive/firmware issue. Otherwise why would it sometimes see the discs correctly and other times not??? This just makes no sense to me.