Well I gave in, stopped being so pissed off on principle, and bought the 3500AG. It is perfect on the Prodisc S03s I stockpiled before the quality fell off so I guess I can live without new firmware. At least I will get my money's worth burning what I already own before I am unable to burn something new. By then I will probably buy a different drive anyway. What a beautiful burn; clearly 1/4 the errors of my Pioneer107D.