Pioneer DVR-A06 (DVR-A106)

bholm · 01-11-2004, 03:11 PM

I'm needing to upgrade my Combo drive in my Mac G4 Dual-533Mhz.

I want the Pioneer A06 (also known as A106) but want to know if I buy one like this one at B&H Photo
that says it's for Windows work?
Pioneer DVR-A06 It's only $139 now after rebate.

Will this drive bought as an internal drive work?
Will iDVD '04 (or iDVD 3) work with this drive?
Will it work with iMovie, iTunes seamlessly as the Apple supplied Superdrives work?

Has anyone successfully bought this internal drive and gotten it to work as described?

If there is a web site that talks about this, which models work, how to install, etc...please direct me to it.

Thanks

DeltaMac · 01-11-2004, 03:19 PM

Lots of reports on your DVR-A06 at THIS SITE Just do a search for DVR-A06, and look through at least 30 reports and hints.

saint.duo · 01-11-2004, 04:22 PM

I have a Pioneer DVR-106 installed in my AGP G4.

10.2.6 and lower : toast had to be used to burn CDs
10.2.8 : fully supported, worked in all iApps
10.3 - 10.3.1 : fully supported, works in all iApps, but will cause a kernel panic if I leave a disk in the drive and let the drive spin down. the actual panic happens when I try to access the media in the drive again.
10.3.2 - ? : fully supported, works in all iApps, kernel panic problem seems to have been resolved

I've never tested in in OS 9 except to make sure it reads CDs.

bholm · 01-11-2004, 06:57 PM

Thanks for the replys.
Saint.duo...I have a G4 Digital Audio Mac with dual-533Mhz. I'm wondering how well it would do compared with your AGP G4. So your experience was pretty much total compatibility for iLife apps and Toast 6 once you had the latest versions? Was that iLife 3 or iLife '04? Is your drive an internal A06 or external (firewire)?

I've heard that Firewire based ext. DVD drives are not recognized by Apple iLife apps. Is that true or not? Anyone?

Anyone else have experiences pro/con with getting Pioneer A06/A106 DVD+/-R/W drive to work with G4 Macs, particularly dual processor Digital Audio models?

saint.duo · 01-11-2004, 11:13 PM

Your machine should act the same as mine with the drive.

I have the drive installed internally. I know that at least iDVD will only recognize internal drives.
iTunes did recognize the drive when I had it in a firewire enclosure. I never tried iPhoto before installing it internally.

This is with iLife 3. Not very many people should have iLife 04 before Friday.

bholm · 01-12-2004, 05:17 PM

Saint.Duo, I see there are Pioneer DVR-106, DVR-A06, DVR-A06U, and possibly DVR-A106 models...what's the difference between all these? You got the DVR-106? Is it the OEM version as some refer to it? Is it slot loading or tray-loading?

Where'd you get it? Any come with Toast?

saint.duo · 01-12-2004, 06:32 PM

How I got my drive is interesting. I ORDERED a Pioneer DVR-105 in a firewire case from coolerexpress.com. They were out of stock, so upgraded me to a DVR-106 for free.

Apple system profiler reads the drive as "PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-106D". The actual sticker on the drive reads "Pioneer DVR-A06U/Z".

I did not get Toast with the drive, as I already had it, and coolerexpress does not offer it. (the drive is not "officially" mac compatible)

I know that the 106 and A06 are basically the same drive, except one is manufactured for OEM, and one is Pioneer Retail. I don't know what the A06U is, or what the Z designation on mine is. A "B" designation seems to indicate a black bezel.

My drive is tray loading.

MCE Technologies (mcetech.com) sells a DVD-RW/DVD+RW for $149 with toast lite. They used to sell the DVR-105, so I'd make an educated guess that this new one is the DVR-106. They guarantee compatibility, so if nothing else, you should have a support path to fall back on if you have trouble. http://www.mcetech.com/dvdr4xdt.html

bholm · 01-12-2004, 06:55 PM

Thanks again...real helpful info.
From what I can tell...the A06 (retail) version comes with software which is for the PC so doesn't really benefit Mac. But I found some places that sell the DVR-106 which specifally says "OEM" and "no software" but since I intend to buy Toast 6... seems like the way to go. I will assume the 106 and 106D are the same thing. Let me know if bad assumption.

AccuPC sells it for $111 + 5 s/h with 30-day guarantee so I think I'll go for it. That site you steered me to doesn't mention the brand that I could see. Are you sure it's Pioneer DVR-A06?

saint.duo · 01-12-2004, 07:43 PM

MCE? No, they don't say the brand. I'm just making an educated guess based on past experience with the company.

As far as the difference between the 106 and 106D, no clue.

bholm · 01-19-2004, 02:19 PM

Saint.duo,
Can you post or email me how you installed your DVR-106 drive...not the cable connections but the process in general to get the pre-DVR drive status changed such that the Mac OSX recognizes the drive after the DVR install. I've read that PRAM should be zapped? Did you do that? Whatever you can share that defines the steps from a high level.

Thanks

batcam · 01-19-2004, 03:01 PM

There's a step-by-step guide on railheaddesign.com. Just click under "various" and scroll down.

saint.duo · 01-19-2004, 03:09 PM

I installed the drive, and rebooted. That's it. No PRAM zapping, nothing. The railheaddesign.com instructions do a good job of explaining how to actually put it in.

bholm · 01-19-2004, 03:21 PM

Thanks batcam and saint.duo.
The RAILhead guide is for A03 but that shouldn't matter. I'm installing a DVR-106D which should be the same thing as the DVR-A06...the later being the retail version. Mine is a "drive only" version and is an OEM version I think.

I'll add that RAILHead leaves out instructions on what to do with the flash shield...replace or not? Skips the step for plugin of cables, but that's fairly obvious step. Just not sure on the flashing. I'll assume it goes back in...temporarily removed only for access to cable plugins.

I wasn't concerned about the hardware install, but more of what else was necessary. I've read of issues some have had...rebooting was not all they had to do. I hope it goes as smoothly for me as it did for you Saint.duo.

saint.duo · 01-19-2004, 03:50 PM

Flash shield? I'm assuming that you're talking about the metal cover around the back of the drive that the cables go through? I bought my machine used initially, and it wasn't there. Every machine that has it I have tried to put it on the new drive.

bholm · 01-20-2004, 12:15 PM

Yes I was referring to that shielding around the back of the unit.

BTW I installed my new DVR-106 Pioneer drive last night into my Dual-533Mhz Dig Audio G4. I'll give the end result first for those who don't want to read further...
It was a complete success!! (except I haven't burned anything with it yet...it was still encoding a 2-hr movie in Toast when I left for work this morning)

Now for the detailed comments...I found the directions on the RAILHead site pretty close to my experience with these exceptions.

1.) The cables are NOT long enough on the DA G4 for you to pull the CD/DVD rack out thru the front opening. After removing the front two screws, the rack would pull out only about half way. It was enough to get your fingers in around the back of the rack and disconnect the cables from the old drive and the ZIP drive (that I have in my G4). It made it more difficult to pull off the power connector since those buggers are always a royal PAIN to pull out. (I really wish someone in the power engineering world would make a design that was easier to disconnect.) I spent about 5-10 minutes trying to pull off these connectors off the CD/DVD and zip drives.

2.) Since RAILHead didn't mention the screws and rack dismount I will say that once you unplug the two IDE cable connectors and the two power connectors from the old CD/DVD drive and ZIP drive (if you have one) and then pull the rack out the front of the opening of the G4 box, you then flip the rack assembly over and remove 4 screws holding the drive in place. Slide the old drive out and slip in the new drive. Note that there is likely some silvery tape that you have to peel back (or cut as RAILHead states) to disconnect the IDE cable connector. I guess they want to know who has tampered with the drive and removed/replaced it if you bring it in for warrantee work.

3.) This may have been mentioned in the RAILHead directions but I don't recall seeing it. Maybe because I'm installing a DVR-106 (A06) drive instead of the A03 drive it talks about. The length is a little longer than the Apple supplied DVD-ROM drive I took out. It requires prying the metal shielding open that encasing the back end of the rack and slipping it about a 1/2" out away from the end of the rack so that the new Pioneer drive can fit and seat in the rack flush in front. Fortunately it does not cause a problem when installing the rack back in the G4 box...in terms of hitting something else or scrunching the cabling. Extending the shielding location that 1/2" off the end of the rack requires removing the silver tape top and bottom which tends to tear for me anyway. I tried to reuse as much of it as I had left.

When I powered up my G4, I went to the System Profiler (accessed via a "More Info" button in the About This Mac window) and it identified the drive correctly. I don't have iDVD yet but I assume it will work. I did insert CDs and they read fine. I'll know tonight if the DVD burned ok. I'll have iDVD 3 by the end of this week to test if it natively recognizes the Superdrive.

Hope this helps others upgrade their G4 to a Superdrive!!

saint.duo · 01-20-2004, 01:35 PM

Good for you. I had to disconnect the cables on my PowerMac G4 AGP after pulling the drive out halfway from the front, as well.

ronsard · 05-21-2004, 01:29 PM

hello,

you can burn with iDVD to external drives. it's a little bit of trouble but doing a search hurz and pfurz should get you started.

it works!

thanks heavens. i own about $5K of apple hardware and being locked out of iDVD is not my idea of a thank you note.

saint.duo · 05-21-2004, 03:29 PM

It is possible that hack will be disabled with an iDVD update, so I personally would rather stick to internal to be safe.

ronsard · 05-21-2004, 06:35 PM

if apple does disable this hack, the last of my goodwill towards the company will disappear. i cycle two macs a year so putting superdrives inside would be just a huge waste of money.

i was ticked off enough that they disabled iDVD in the first place for those of us who prefer to share a single burner among computers.

i hope they have the good business sense not to piss off the core base.

01-11-2004, 03:11 PM	#1
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Pioneer DVR-A06 (DVR-A106) I'm needing to upgrade my Combo drive in my Mac G4 Dual-533Mhz. I want the Pioneer A06 (also known as A106) but want to know if I buy one like this one at B&H Photo that says it's for Windows work? Pioneer DVR-A06 It's only $139 now after rebate. Will this drive bought as an internal drive work? Will iDVD '04 (or iDVD 3) work with this drive? Will it work with iMovie, iTunes seamlessly as the Apple supplied Superdrives work? Has anyone successfully bought this internal drive and gotten it to work as described? If there is a web site that talks about this, which models work, how to install, etc...please direct me to it. Thanks

01-20-2004, 01:35 PM	#16
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	Woo Hoo! Good for you. I had to disconnect the cables on my PowerMac G4 AGP after pulling the drive out halfway from the front, as well.

05-21-2004, 01:29 PM	#17
ronsard Prospect Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 17	you can burn to external drives hello, you can burn with iDVD to external drives. it's a little bit of trouble but doing a search hurz and pfurz should get you started. it works! thanks heavens. i own about $5K of apple hardware and being locked out of iDVD is not my idea of a thank you note.

05-21-2004, 06:35 PM	#19
ronsard Prospect Join Date: Oct 2002 Posts: 17	keeping secrets is one thing, disabling another if apple does disable this hack, the last of my goodwill towards the company will disappear. i cycle two macs a year so putting superdrives inside would be just a huge waste of money. i was ticked off enough that they disabled iDVD in the first place for those of us who prefer to share a single burner among computers. i hope they have the good business sense not to piss off the core base.

01-11-2004, 03:19 PM	#2
DeltaMac League Commissioner Join Date: Jan 2002 Posts: 8,531	Lots of reports on your DVR-A06 at THIS SITE Just do a search for DVR-A06, and look through at least 30 reports and hints.

01-11-2004, 04:22 PM	#3
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	I have a Pioneer DVR-106 installed in my AGP G4. 10.2.6 and lower : toast had to be used to burn CDs 10.2.8 : fully supported, worked in all iApps 10.3 - 10.3.1 : fully supported, works in all iApps, but will cause a kernel panic if I leave a disk in the drive and let the drive spin down. the actual panic happens when I try to access the media in the drive again. 10.3.2 - ? : fully supported, works in all iApps, kernel panic problem seems to have been resolved I've never tested in in OS 9 except to make sure it reads CDs.

01-11-2004, 06:57 PM	#4
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Thanks for the replys. Saint.duo...I have a G4 Digital Audio Mac with dual-533Mhz. I'm wondering how well it would do compared with your AGP G4. So your experience was pretty much total compatibility for iLife apps and Toast 6 once you had the latest versions? Was that iLife 3 or iLife '04? Is your drive an internal A06 or external (firewire)? I've heard that Firewire based ext. DVD drives are not recognized by Apple iLife apps. Is that true or not? Anyone? Anyone else have experiences pro/con with getting Pioneer A06/A106 DVD+/-R/W drive to work with G4 Macs, particularly dual processor Digital Audio models?

01-11-2004, 11:13 PM	#5
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	Your machine should act the same as mine with the drive. I have the drive installed internally. I know that at least iDVD will only recognize internal drives. iTunes did recognize the drive when I had it in a firewire enclosure. I never tried iPhoto before installing it internally. This is with iLife 3. Not very many people should have iLife 04 before Friday.

01-12-2004, 05:17 PM	#6
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Saint.Duo, I see there are Pioneer DVR-106, DVR-A06, DVR-A06U, and possibly DVR-A106 models...what's the difference between all these? You got the DVR-106? Is it the OEM version as some refer to it? Is it slot loading or tray-loading? Where'd you get it? Any come with Toast?

01-12-2004, 06:32 PM	#7
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	How I got my drive is interesting. I ORDERED a Pioneer DVR-105 in a firewire case from coolerexpress.com. They were out of stock, so upgraded me to a DVR-106 for free. Apple system profiler reads the drive as "PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-106D". The actual sticker on the drive reads "Pioneer DVR-A06U/Z". I did not get Toast with the drive, as I already had it, and coolerexpress does not offer it. (the drive is not "officially" mac compatible) I know that the 106 and A06 are basically the same drive, except one is manufactured for OEM, and one is Pioneer Retail. I don't know what the A06U is, or what the Z designation on mine is. A "B" designation seems to indicate a black bezel. My drive is tray loading. MCE Technologies (mcetech.com) sells a DVD-RW/DVD+RW for $149 with toast lite. They used to sell the DVR-105, so I'd make an educated guess that this new one is the DVR-106. They guarantee compatibility, so if nothing else, you should have a support path to fall back on if you have trouble. http://www.mcetech.com/dvdr4xdt.html

01-12-2004, 06:55 PM	#8
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Thanks again...real helpful info. From what I can tell...the A06 (retail) version comes with software which is for the PC so doesn't really benefit Mac. But I found some places that sell the DVR-106 which specifally says "OEM" and "no software" but since I intend to buy Toast 6... seems like the way to go. I will assume the 106 and 106D are the same thing. Let me know if bad assumption. AccuPC sells it for $111 + 5 s/h with 30-day guarantee so I think I'll go for it. That site you steered me to doesn't mention the brand that I could see. Are you sure it's Pioneer DVR-A06?

01-12-2004, 07:43 PM	#9
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	MCE? No, they don't say the brand. I'm just making an educated guess based on past experience with the company. As far as the difference between the 106 and 106D, no clue.

01-19-2004, 02:19 PM	#10
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Saint.duo, Can you post or email me how you installed your DVR-106 drive...not the cable connections but the process in general to get the pre-DVR drive status changed such that the Mac OSX recognizes the drive after the DVR install. I've read that PRAM should be zapped? Did you do that? Whatever you can share that defines the steps from a high level. Thanks

01-19-2004, 03:01 PM	#11
batcam Triple-A Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 52	There's a step-by-step guide on railheaddesign.com. Just click under "various" and scroll down.

01-19-2004, 03:09 PM	#12
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	I installed the drive, and rebooted. That's it. No PRAM zapping, nothing. The railheaddesign.com instructions do a good job of explaining how to actually put it in.

01-19-2004, 03:21 PM	#13
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Thanks batcam and saint.duo. The RAILhead guide is for A03 but that shouldn't matter. I'm installing a DVR-106D which should be the same thing as the DVR-A06...the later being the retail version. Mine is a "drive only" version and is an OEM version I think. I'll add that RAILHead leaves out instructions on what to do with the flash shield...replace or not? Skips the step for plugin of cables, but that's fairly obvious step. Just not sure on the flashing. I'll assume it goes back in...temporarily removed only for access to cable plugins. I wasn't concerned about the hardware install, but more of what else was necessary. I've read of issues some have had...rebooting was not all they had to do. I hope it goes as smoothly for me as it did for you Saint.duo.

01-19-2004, 03:50 PM	#14
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	Flash shield? I'm assuming that you're talking about the metal cover around the back of the drive that the cables go through? I bought my machine used initially, and it wasn't there. Every machine that has it I have tried to put it on the new drive.

01-20-2004, 12:15 PM	#15
bholm Triple-A Player Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: OR Posts: 92	Yes I was referring to that shielding around the back of the unit. BTW I installed my new DVR-106 Pioneer drive last night into my Dual-533Mhz Dig Audio G4. I'll give the end result first for those who don't want to read further... It was a complete success!! (except I haven't burned anything with it yet...it was still encoding a 2-hr movie in Toast when I left for work this morning) Now for the detailed comments...I found the directions on the RAILHead site pretty close to my experience with these exceptions. 1.) The cables are NOT long enough on the DA G4 for you to pull the CD/DVD rack out thru the front opening. After removing the front two screws, the rack would pull out only about half way. It was enough to get your fingers in around the back of the rack and disconnect the cables from the old drive and the ZIP drive (that I have in my G4). It made it more difficult to pull off the power connector since those buggers are always a royal PAIN to pull out. (I really wish someone in the power engineering world would make a design that was easier to disconnect.) I spent about 5-10 minutes trying to pull off these connectors off the CD/DVD and zip drives. 2.) Since RAILHead didn't mention the screws and rack dismount I will say that once you unplug the two IDE cable connectors and the two power connectors from the old CD/DVD drive and ZIP drive (if you have one) and then pull the rack out the front of the opening of the G4 box, you then flip the rack assembly over and remove 4 screws holding the drive in place. Slide the old drive out and slip in the new drive. Note that there is likely some silvery tape that you have to peel back (or cut as RAILHead states) to disconnect the IDE cable connector. I guess they want to know who has tampered with the drive and removed/replaced it if you bring it in for warrantee work. 3.) This may have been mentioned in the RAILHead directions but I don't recall seeing it. Maybe because I'm installing a DVR-106 (A06) drive instead of the A03 drive it talks about. The length is a little longer than the Apple supplied DVD-ROM drive I took out. It requires prying the metal shielding open that encasing the back end of the rack and slipping it about a 1/2" out away from the end of the rack so that the new Pioneer drive can fit and seat in the rack flush in front. Fortunately it does not cause a problem when installing the rack back in the G4 box...in terms of hitting something else or scrunching the cabling. Extending the shielding location that 1/2" off the end of the rack requires removing the silver tape top and bottom which tends to tear for me anyway. I tried to reuse as much of it as I had left. When I powered up my G4, I went to the System Profiler (accessed via a "More Info" button in the About This Mac window) and it identified the drive correctly. I don't have iDVD yet but I assume it will work. I did insert CDs and they read fine. I'll know tonight if the DVD burned ok. I'll have iDVD 3 by the end of this week to test if it natively recognizes the Superdrive. Hope this helps others upgrade their G4 to a Superdrive!!

05-21-2004, 03:29 PM	#18
saint.duo MVP Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Seattle Posts: 1,084	It is possible that hack will be disabled with an iDVD update, so I personally would rather stick to internal to be safe.