Pio DV-563A firmware fix (1 Viewer)

[EricRWem]

If I were to buy this player now, is the firmware already installed or am I looking at having to jump through this hoop as well?

 

[gregD]

No guarantees from me personally, but... the firmware fix should be installed in any 563a manufactured in February 04 or later... the manufacture date should be printed on the carton (as mine was).

 

[Tom McA]

Oop! I haven't bothered to get the firmware fix yet, because until now, I didn't have any software that wouldn't play. At the AES show last week, DTS was handing out freebie DVD-Audio discs from DTS Entertainment at their booth (I got Polyphonic Spree "Together We're Heavy" and Blue Man Group "Complex".) The DVD-Audio tracks wouldn't play on either disc. Crud. Guess it's fix time.



Questions: Did anyone get this fix recently? Is it available at most factory-authorized shops by now? How long will they want to keep my player? Any chance I'll be able to walk in and out the same day?



Thanks in advance to whomever has answers.

 

[Citizen87645]

I got my firmware fix at the end of September. About a week turnaround. I think all the shops should have the fix by now. I got "The Complex" from the HTF L.A. trip and my player was upgraded while I was away, so it the timing was good when I returned.

 

[Paul.S]

At long damn last, I downloaded the file, burned a CD of it and updated both of my household's 563As. Now, finally, the Seal IV and Tommy DVD-As' high rez tracks are playing just fine.

Too bad the fw upgrades to my Tosh HD DVD player aren't as seamless.

 

[Nathan Eddy]

Is it too late to upgrade my player? Can anyone explain how I do it?

 

[Paul.S]

Hey again, Nathan.

Why would it be "too late"? At this stage years later, the upgrade is available "in the wild." PM me with your e-mail address and I can send you the .ISO file that you can burn to a CD to do the upgrade yourself per earlier comments in the thread.

 

[Nathan Eddy]

Actually, I've got the iso file, I just can't get it to work, and was hoping there was another way. Apparently, I don't have the correct software to open the file, or don't know which software I need. When I try to download the software the windows suggests I need, that software then needs additional software to open it. And so on. What is the simplest way to do this?

 

[Nathan Eddy]

Ok, I finally got some free software to work (Isobuster), as far as extracting the iso file, but it won't burn to a CD. Is there anywhere I can just buy the damn CD? Would Pioneer ship that to me?

 

[Paul.S]

"[A]nother way" is what you've seen many kvetching about for 2+ pages in this thread: send the unit to Pio.

Take a quickie read of the Wikipedia page on ISO files. You're not opening or running the ISO file in the traditional .EXE file sense. All you need to do is put that ISO on a CD-ROM disc which the Pio then reads. There are two ways to do this based upon how Pio designed the player to read the file (and I don't remember which is the case):

1) The simple way (like Panasonic does with their Blu-ray player firmware upgrades) is to enable the player to just read a copy of the ISO file. In this case, standard Windows writing software is all you need. Put a fresh CD-ROM in your drive, navigate to the ISO file on your computer and right-click on it, select "Send To . . ." and choose your ROM drive. Boom. Windows writes a copy of the file to the disc.

2) The slightly more complicated way (which Toshiba chose for their HD DVD player firmware upgrades) is to require the player to read an image of the file. Unlike the option above, this is not like, say, copying a music CD. This option requires burning software, freeware and trial versions of which are available all over the 'Net. Popular choices include IMGBurn and Nero. Here's a link--generated by just Googling "ISO burn"--to information on other burning apps and step-by-step instructions: How to Write ISO Files to CD.

Try option one. Make sure you use a clean, new disc. If it doesn't work, try option two. It's been so long I can't remember for sure but I think I created my disc using native Win XP writing capability (meaning no other app was required).

And again, if all this seems Greek to you, I can snail mail you the disc I still have that's worked on three different 563As. But eventually, what with the direction consumer electronics is going, I think we all might have to get familiar with firmware upgrades procedures. But this will eventually all probably be handled via the 'Net.

 

[Paul.S]

Your 69 went up while I was typing my 70.

ISOBuster is a data recovery application (after admittedly cursory first glance, it looks like something you use to hopefully recover data from a disc that has gotten corrupted somehow). You shouldn't need something like that to "extract" (I think you mean UnZip?).

 

[Paul.S]

Why would Pio send to customers now something that they didn't provide 3+ years ago . . . when the players were under warranty? IF they did that, they would almost certainly charge an unreasonable price. The price of burning your own disc is the cost of blank CD media.

 

[Nathan Eddy]

Ok, I finally got this to work. The problem turned out to be my DVD drive. Time for a new one. But on my laptop everything burned correctly.

I can't believe there is no step-by-step instruction anywhere on this issue, given that so many people had problems. Oh well, if there is anyone left, option 1 above does not work. Option 2 worked for me, after getting IMGburn software. Just put the disc in and the player says, "Download," and then it takes care of the rest. You can see it erasing memory addresses and then rewriting them.

Now I can finally listen to my Lord of the Rings DVD-A. I'm happy. I know this isn't the right thread, but while we're on the subject, does anyone know off hand what the specs are on this particular DVD-A? Even in stereo mode (advanced resolution), it only plays in 48 kHz, 24 bit. Is that as high as it goes? Or do I need to reset my player's settings?

Back on topic . . . that reminds me: once you upgrade the firmware, channel settings revert back to defaults. So I had to input that info again (distance, levels, etc.). I haven't checked yet, but I assume other settings were changed, too.

 

[Paul.S]

Glad you got it to work.

Re "I can't believe there is no step-by-step instruction anywhere on this issue, given that so many people had problems":

If you mean general step-by-step instructions on how to burn an ISO file, I think even my little helpful hints and links in recent posts point to a broad amount of burning instructions out there on the Web, Nathan.

Especially more recently--what with many high def DVD players requiring firmware updates--the general availability of info on this in the "HT community" has skyrocketed. Right here at HTF, administrator Adam Barratt has posted lots of helpful info about how to best burn discs if you care to look for it.

If you mean Pio-specific instructions, perhaps you didn't have time to even skim the thread before posting but, the history of this very thread suggests if not evidences why that didn't happen (specifically my post #25).

There was some finger-pointing going on in connection with this issue back in 2004: insisting their decks conformed to spec, c.e. companies blamed the record labels for changing the way they encrypted content; the labels blamed the vendors supplying them with encryption applications. The "compromise" position Pio came to was to offer customers a firmware upgrade by taking their unit in to an authorized service center or by shipping it to Pio, often at the customer's own expense.

I'm not even sure how, years later, the ISO got into the wild such that consumers could perform the upgrade themselves if they hadn't already done so. But the intersection of the ease of burning one's own CD with the ready availability of the needed ISO file makes for a home fix for which we should be grateful IMO.

Without having to leave home or send your player anywhere and wait weeks for its return, you've now got a firmware upgraded player in less than three days from the time you posted word of your issue.

Here's a better, likely more responsive thread re LOtRs DVD-A concerns: http://www.hometheaterforum.com/htf/...e-5-1-dvd.html

And you're welcome for all the help, btw.