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Book type +R/+RW media on Pioneer drives


Cynthia

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Book type +R/+RW media on Pioneer drives

 

 

In this guide you will see how Pioneer drives can book type +R and +RW single layer media. With official firmware only +R DL media will be book typed to 'DVD-ROM'.

 

Certain older DVD players, including DVD players in some laptop computers, will not load DVD+R discs at all because those formats did not even exist when the player's firmware was written. However, by changing the book type on a DVD+R to DVD-ROM, those players should be able to load and play the DVD+R.

 

In the ImgBurn log you will see that the 'Book Type' is set to the same as the 'Source Media Type'.

 

I 00:00:04 Cycling Tray before Verify...

I 00:00:13 Waiting for device to become ready...

I 00:00:25 Device Ready!

I 00:00:25 Operation Started!

I 00:00:25 Source Device: [6:0:0] PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-216D 1.09 (H:) (SCSI)

I 00:00:25 Source Media Type: DVD+R (Book Type: DVD+R) (Disc ID: YUDEN000-T02-00) (Speeds: 4x; 6x; 8x)

 

So what you need to do is to flash the drive with a patched firmware, that sets the book type to DVD-ROM for you. In this guide I will use the Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-216D as an example.

 

Note 1: The flash instructions are only valid for a Windows NT, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7 system.

Note 2: The flash instructions are only valid for an original Pioneer drive.

Note 3: The Pioneer DVR-118L, DVR-A18L, DVR-A18LBK, DVR-A218L, A218LBK and DVR-218L series of drives will automatically set the book type to DVD-ROM on DVD +R/RW single layer media when using original firmware.

  1. Download the original firmware
     
    Download the appropriate firmware for your model of drive from Firmware HQ and save it to the hard disk.
    .
  2. Extract the binary file
     
    The original firmware file we downloaded is an executable file that contains both a flashing tool and a binary file. This binary file we need to have so we can change some data inside it. So we need to to unzip/extract the downloaded file to the hard disk, so we can get our hands on that file. This can be done with the free program 7-Zip or any other similar tool. In the following part we will use 7-Zip for this purpose.
     
    Assuming we now have 7-Zip installed, we can now start to extract the binary file.

    1. Right click on the downloaded firmware file
       
      In our example the name of the file is 'DVR-216D_FW109EU2.EXE'.
       
      Right click on the 'DVR-216D_FW109EU2.EXE' file and select the menu option 'Extract files...'.
       
      216_01.png
    2. Extract
       
      Change the suggested location to where to save the extracted file to. We will use 'C:\pioneer'.
       
      216_02.png
       
      Then click on the 'OK' button and let 7-Zip extract the file.
       
      We should now have a new folder named 'pioneer' with some files inside it.
       
      216_03.png
       
      The file we are going to use as source in the following steps is the binary file named 'S0815001.109'.

[*]Patching the firmware

 

Download the Media Code Speed Edit tool for DVD-Writers and save it to the hard disk.

 

We then need to unzip/extract the downloaded file to the hard disk. This can be done with the free program 7-Zip or any other similar tool.

  1. Start the 'Media Code Speed Edit' program
     
    Run the file 'MediaCodeSpeedEdit.exe' from the location where we extracted the downloaded 'The Media Code Speed Edit tool for DVD-Writers' file.
     
    216_04.png
    .
  2. Load the binary file
     
    Press the button 'Load' and browse to the location where we saved the extracted downloaded firmware. In our example the file is located in the folder named 'pioneer' and the file name is ''S0815001.109'.
     
    216_05.png
     
    When the binary file is loaded we should see this.
     
    216_06.png
    .
  3. Enable bitsetting
     
    Check mark the option 'enable bitsetting'.
     
    216_07.png
    .
  4. Save the patched file
     
    Press the 'Save' button and we will see a warning window. We just ignore it by pressing the 'Yes' button.
     
    216_08.png
     
    In our example we are going to name the new file and save it as 'new.109'. Press the 'Save' button and save it to the hard disk.
     
    216_09.png
    .
  5. Exit the program.
     
    We can now exit 'Media Code Speed Edit'.

[*]Download the flashing tool

 

Go to the DVRFlash web page and download the current version to the hard disk.

 

We then need to unzip/extract the downloaded file on the hard disk. This can be done with the free program 7-Zip or any other similar tool.

  • Copy DVRFlash
     
    To make it easier during the flash of the new firmware we are going to copy the flashing program to the same folder as we saved the patched firmware in.
     
    We should have some files in the extracted folder of DVRFlash. In our example the folder 'dvrflash_win32' looks like this.
     
    216_10.png
     
    Just copy the 'DVRFlash.exe' file to the 'pioneer' folder. This 'pioneer' folder should now include these files.
     
    216_11.png

[*]Flash the drive

 

Before we flash the drive, we have to make sure that there is no disc in the tray and that the tray is closed. Also we need to close down programs that can affect the flash.

  1. Open up a Windows command interpreter window (DOS window)
     
    In this guide we can see how you open up a Windows command interpreter window (DOS window).
     
    When we managed to open up such a window, we should see a command line prompt.
     
    216_12.png
    .
  2. Change the folder
     
    We first need to change the path to the folder where we saved the flasher and the patched firmware in. In our example we named the folder to 'pioneer'.
     
    Write
     
    cd \pioneer
     
    and press the 'Enter' key.
     
    216_13.png
    .
  3. Identify the drive
     
    Now we need to find out the drive letter of the drive we are going to flash. Luckily 'DVRFlash will do this task easily for us.
     
    Write
     
    dvrflash
     
    and press the 'Enter' key.
     
    216_14.png
     
    In our example we want to flash the Pioneer drive DVR-216D. As we can see in the list, this drive has the letter 'H' associated with it. On your own computer it will probably be another letter.
    .
  4. Flash the drive
     
    We are now ready to flash the drive with our patched firmware. In our example we identified the drive we want to flash as associated with the letter 'H'. If you drive is associated with another drive letter, replace the 'H' with that letter.
     
    Write
     
    dvrflash -f H: new.109
     
    and press the 'Enter' key.
     
    216_15.png
     
    We will now see a 'Disclaimer' text on the screen. Nothing to be worried about.
     
    216_16.png
     
    Write
     
    y
     
    and press the 'Enter' key. This brings up a question that asks us if we wants to flash the drive or not. We answer yes to this question.
     
    216_17.png
     
    Write
     
    y
     
    and press the 'Enter' key to start the flash.
     
    216_18.png
     
    When the flash is done we will see that the flash was successful.
     
    216_19.png
     
    We can now exit the Windows command interpreter window (DOS window).
     
    Write
     
    exit
     
    and press the 'Enter' key to terminate the Windows command interpreter window (DOS window).
     
    216_20.png
    .
  5. Restart the computer
     
    Now we need to restart the computer so the new firmware can be recognized by Windows.

The next time when we burn a +R single layer disc we will see that the 'Book Type' is changed to 'DVD-ROM'.

 

I 00:00:24 Cycling Tray before Verify...

I 00:00:32 Waiting for device to become ready...

I 00:00:44 Device Ready!

I 00:00:45 Operation Started!

I 00:00:45 Source Device: [6:0:0] PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-216D 1.09 (H:) (SCSI)

I 00:00:45 Source Media Type: DVD+R (Book Type: DVD-ROM) (Disc ID: YUDEN000-T02-00) (Speeds: 4x; 6x; 8x)

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