PIONEER BD-RW BDR-209M firmware 1.34-ID60 is borked

[dbminter]

Do NOT update your Pioneer BD-RW BDR-209M drive with firmware update 1.34-D60 IF you plan on using 8x Ritek DVD+RW Disc ID: RICOHJPN-W21-01.  After applying this update to my two copies of this drive, Verifies no longer pass.  Burning these same failed discs in my Asus Verify successfully.  So, it's the firmware update that borked the drives.  The drives were working fine with 1.33 on this media a few hours before applying the 1.34 update.  Now, burning these discs in both copies of my Pioneer fail to pass Verify.  And these same discs which had just failed in the Pioneers burn fine on the Asus.  One of the failing Pioneer drives I've only had for 2 months, so it's highly unlikely it's died already.  And since BOTH drives do it after updating the firmware and the Asus does not, it's the firmware.

 

 

I looked online and there are many horror stories where Pioneer revisions have borked some previously working functionality of media in the drives.  My past experience was only good with firmware revisions, as for a year, inkjet MKM 8x Verbatim DataLife Plus DVD+R DL's failed to burn the 2nd layer until a firmware revision fixed that.  Now, I'm encountering lots of evidence that Pioneer doesn't know what it's doing.

 

 

I think Pioneer is on my list now.  I can't use my primary rewritable DVD media now except in the Asus.  So, I bought an internal Asus to replace one of the Pioneers. 

[dbminter]

I performed some more tests and I've discovered the borked part of the firmware update is in the writing process.

 

 

I took one of the failed discs and issued a manual Verify of the image against its contents in the Asus drive that does work.  The Verify fails in the Asus, too.  Since burns in the Asus pass Verify in the Asus and burns in the Pioneers fail Verifies in the Pioneers and the Asus, the problem is in the writing on the Pioneers' firmware.

 

 

The issue appears to be random.  While most failures are at 99%, near the end of the Verify, some Verifies fail near the start.  This indicates that the writing problem is at either the outer or the inner edges.