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Power Mac's with dual layered DVD drives as standard?

F

FireArse

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 29, 2004
900
110
Hey guys,

I just hold of my new dual 2GHz powermac, and noticed some places Link saying that the standard Pioneer 117 DVD drive is actually a re-labelled (and function reduced) 108 (which is capable of higher speeds & dual layer burning!)

Has anybody here done the Firmware upgrade to get it going? Is this thing true?

Thanks for your time guys,

FireArse
 
Apparently this is true but I haven't seen any firmware patches yet. OSX does support it entirely, so even if you'd swap it for an internal Dual Layer drive OSX would recognize it, etc.
 
Diatribe said:
Apparently this is true but I haven't seen any firmware patches yet. OSX does support it entirely, so even if you'd swap it for an internal Dual Layer drive OSX would recognize it, etc.
Click to expand...
Actually Applle might not recognize the 108. So it may not have full functionallity.

The 117 model is what is supported and if you re-flash it with the 108 firmware, the drive will identify itself as a 108 instead of a 117.
 
Bear said:
Actually Applle might not recognize the 108. So it may not have full functionallity.

The 117 model is what is supported and if you re-flash it with the 108 firmware, the drive will identify itself as a 108 instead of a 117.
Click to expand...

I have heard that some people have in fact swapped the drive for a Dual Layer one and OSX recognized it. These are not facts though as I have only read this and not seen it.
 
If you have access to a PC you may be able to alter the firmware (read: flash it to a full 108) there, then bring it back. I seem to remember reading an article in which they did just that.
 
I just wonder when Apple is going to bundle double layer drives (and DL firmware) with their systems. It's strange that officially you need an external drive to make double layer DVDs.
 
Diatribe said:
I have heard that some people have in fact swapped the drive for a Dual Layer one and OSX recognized it. These are not facts though as I have only read this and not seen it.
Click to expand...
The question is, did it recognize it as an Apple Supplied/Supported drive? If not, then certain things won't work on it. (Mostly iDVD I think will have issues.)
 
Bear said:
The question is, did it recognize it as an Apple Supplied/Supported drive? If not, then certain things won't work on it. (Mostly iDVD I think will have issues.)
Click to expand...

Yes, this would be good to know. I guess there's only one way to find out...
 
simie said:
117 to 108 upgrade rpc1
Click to expand...
I tried this on my G5's Pioneer 117D and it worked flawlessly. Toast and the Finder both recognize the drive as a Pioneer 108 now, and the iApps still burn without any problems...without even using patchburn.

I can now get 16x DVD-R write speed (previously 8x) and 32x CD-R write speed (previously 24x). Dual Layer burning should be 4x, but I haven't tested it yet.

And... so far, all of the 8x media I've tried (ProDisc, Ritek, Memorex) have all burned at 16x speed! Burns an entire DVD in 3 minutes! :D
 
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