This little prob has thrown me for a loop. Just bought this drive, thinking maybe it was about time I bought a 'better' unit than the Liteons I've always used before (My other DVD burner is a Liteon 1693S, plus I've a Liteon CDRW\DVD combo, that plays DVDs, in another machine)

But I can't get the Pioneer to PLAY DVDs when I bring AnyDVD 5.5.5.1 into the loop.

Like, if I don't run AnyDVD, the Pioneer will play DVDs, but, of course, WinDVD moans about regionalisation.

But if I run AnyDVD first, zip happens. In My Computer, the drive doesn't even show that a DVD has been inserted.

I first tried AnyDVD 5.1.1.1, which works with the other two machines, as well as with the MATSHITA CDRW\DVD combo in my laptop.

The Pioneer is an OEM model. According to a Pioneer drive-checking utility, it was made in August 05 (sheesh, and I only just bought it from my wholesaler) and it's firmware is 1.17, which the utility says is up-to-date. In any case, OEM drives don't seem to catered for in the Pioneer firmware collections.

In case it's relevant, DVDRInfo says the Pioneer has 'RPC2', which I assume is some sort of regionalisation configuration.

Advice would be appreciated ops:

You are 2 months and 6 updates behind in your AnyDVD 5.5.5.1 version. Good place to start is update AnyDVD.

Whisperer

Well, thanks, but I can't see how the version is the issue, as I said in my first post. 5.1.1.1 is working on the 1693S and the combo player.

Anyway, just in case, I installed AnyDVD 5.8.2.1 but there's no change. It still won't allow a DVD movie to run, or even allow My Computer to recognise a DVD movie disc in the drive.

Disable AnyDVD and the disc immediately appears in My Computer. And a movie disc will play. Naturally, the regionalisation is still an issue.

Nope, kind of a waste of money, I reckon. If I could I'd return it, but it's not easy to do that in NZ. Looks like I might be stuck with the Pioneer.

You might want to try changing the drive from OEM to retail with a firmware flash. I'm unclear exactly how to do this on the Pioneer, but the folks at firmware-flash probably know!

Or maybe in the Pioneer forum here (do we have a Pioneer forum)?

i dont know about the OEM, but the latest firmware for the 110 and 110D is 1.37

I would try to flash it with dvrflash 2.2 to the 1.37 110 drive and then see how it goes.

See this guide

anonymous999, thanks for that. That's certainly an excellent guide. Guess I've just gotta toss up whether I send the drive back to the supplier, or toast the warranty and turn it into an A10XLA. I mean, if I'm gonna do the firmware thing, guess I might as well go the whole stretch :--))

Cheers