Pio DV-563A firmware fix

Here is a forum that is aggressively pursuing the firmware fix to resolve disc compatibilitiy problems with the Pioneer DV-563A universal player:

http://www.quadraphonicquad.com/foru...ead.php?t=3020

Even after a month of numerous contacts with Pioneer, there still doesn't seem to be a definitve statement of whether firmware can be obtained by customers, or if the firmware can at least make its way to the nearest authorized repair facilities, or if units need to be shipped, or who picks up shipping charges.

The good news is that Pioneer has at least come around to acknowledge the problem, and come up with some kind of fix... furthermore, the fix will presumably be included in new units currently shipping.

For my part, I'm taking a wait-and-see position... haven't bought many hi-res discs, anyway.

How about changing the DVD-A crossover from the obscene 200 Hz down to 80 to 100 Hz while they're at it?

Here's the Pioneer Product Support line #: product support line (800)421-1404 (using phone menu choices 1,6) too call.


*ALL*
Update, I just got off the phone with Pioneer support.

According to them, there are 8 service centers in USA that can do the firmware upgrade...the one you'd send to depends on your location. Mine it turns out (I'm in Ga) is Denver Colorado(strange but that was the closest he said). When you call the above Tel nbr, the support person will supply you the name of the closest Service Center to you and their tel nbr - you need to call them(Service Center) b4 you ship it to them!

Also, he said that the owners had to pay for shipping to the Service Center-Pioneer only pays the return shipping

Lastly, there is no known range of serial nbrs for those affected - again according to this support person. He did say that this issue was early yet and that more info &.or repair choices may come available. But, I asked about a firmware CD, specifically, that could be shipped to owners instead of owners having to ship their units off; and he said: "not yet" and that - for now - this was not possible...only repairs available now are thru the 8 specific Service Centers.

How about a large raaazzz for Pioneer on this one -

What is one of the discs that I can pick up to see if mine will play it?

Tod

My understanding is that it occurs with any disc from Warner, Rhino and Universal. I picked up my 563a 3 weeks ago and then found out about this firmware issue. I went in search of a Warner disc to confirm the problem. I picked up The Nightfly by D. Fagen and played it without problem in the DVD-A format on my 563a. Except for being thin with bass (a 563a disadvantage) it played fine. I will be trying T-Rex next. Might some newer models of the 563a have the firmware update?
Daryl

Neil Young's "Greendale" has been frequently mentioned.

This article contains a fairly thorough description of the problem:

http://www.highfidelityreview.com/ne...umber=10659686

thx for the info. i haven't had any issues yet, but i've only just bought the darn thing ... figures.

Thx, GregD, for the HFR and Quadrophonicquad.com links. Read the former and am reading the latter but would like to broach this issue here as well:

Is the problem limited to surround mixes or are stereo tracks not playing on some discs as well?

Ironic: in Jan. 1999 I sent my first DVD-V player (the Tosh SD-2108) to the manuf. for firmware upgrade (it supposedly did not play the original Alien) and now it would appear similar hashizzle will be involved on my first uni player. Tosh sent me back a completely different 2108.

-p

Pretty damn remarkable that the firmware upgrade ("software patch") is mentioned in this article in a local, mainstream newspaper, The Hartford [Connecticut] Courant.

"Low-Cost Players Could Save SACD, DVD-Audio"

-p

Yikes, this isn't true!

This problem happens only with certain new discs made with a certain (new) professional disc authoring software package. And according to a Universal Music employee ("Jimby") posting at the Steve Hoffman forum, unfortunately there are upcoming discs already in the production pipeline authored with this same new software. So Pioneer really needs to hurry up and announce a fix for this problem.

Another irritating fact: at my local Best Buy and Circuit City none of the music software & hardware employees I talked to knew about this problem (so I told them myself). Why didn't corporate HQ send them at least a small note via their own intranet system???

LJ

you're kidding right?

i'm pretty sure there's only a few guys in my department who even know about hi-res music and i'm damn nearly positive i'm the only one who is using it at home - and i just bought this player a couple of weeks ago. there's *no way* corporate is going to relay this kind of buggy issue all the way to the retail floor level.

Ted: Yea, I know that is pretty much wishful thinking on my part. But what makes me have some hope for it was because this problem is so blantantly obvious and involves money in the three digit range. And when a customer who buys those certain discs for that player (which my local Best Buy goes through like Kleenex) and they don't work, guess who will first feel their wrath? The customer service people. Then, it will be a music software and/or a video department employee. And (duh) offering to replace the disc or the player would do nothing positive for any of the people mentioned so far.

So being the sunshiny optimist that I am I figured the respective corporate offices over in Virginia and up in Minnesota would send a message to prevent most of this needless confusion from occurring in the first place (and let Pioneer deal with them instead).

Maybe I should stop watching that show with the purple dinosaur so much................

LJ

yup, and then they'll just give you a blank stare ... then send you over to either ht or media ... where more blank stares will ensue.

When the player first came out, I went through seven players that
had distortions in the center and sub while listening to 2ch 192khz DVD-A
discs through the 5.1 analog outputs with the speakers small and the sub on.
I was told that the fix would require a firmware fix and the firmware is
on an IC chip that has to be replaced.

After about four months of promises, I was instructed to send the player to California.
I got it back and the problems were gone.

I just hope that the fix that lets me play my newer DVD-A
doesn't bring back my old woes.

Does anyone know the secret button sequence to display the firmware version on the
563a?

Craig

Craig:

I remember reading the thread on this head-scratcher. You have waaay more patience than I if you went through seven units.

What with this firmware upgrade, it's going to be interesting to see how sales of the 563A are possibly impacted by the SD-4960 (Tosh's uni due in June according to the article I link to in my post #10 above).

My first DVD player was a Tosh and it has my favorite navigation and remote of all four players I've owned.

-p

Paul S.

After 4 it became sort of a personal quest to prove I wasn't crazy.
Luckily, Pioneer proved I wasn't, if only in that instance.

I have the 2 year BB extended warranty on the thing and might
go the route of waiting until I know the new DVD-A playability issues
are solved and in the newer product. Then I'll switch it out at BB.
Funny, considering what it took to get the one I've got now fixed.

Hopefully, all this firmware mess will teach Pioneer to go strictly
with firmware that's upgradable by the customer via CD-R.

It's just unfortunate I couldn't talk anyone at Pioneer into telling me
how to display the firmware version, or if it's even a possibility.

Craig

Craig:

Switch it out for yet another 563A, or a different manu's uni? The latter is what I have in mind for either my 563A (w/ Best Buy's "Performance Service Plan") or my Mitsu DD-8020 (DVD-A; w/ Good Guys' "Extended Service Protection") once Tosh's SD-4960 uni hopfeully comes out as announced in June.

Speaking of, can any "blue shirts" here comment on whether or not the ability to replace products costing less than $200 was changed/impacted when BB changed the name of this coverage program from "Product Replacement Plan" to "Performance Service Plan," apparently sometime just this past spring?

-p

Paul S.

That's a good question. I wouldn't be against switching the 563a out for
the new Toshiba Universal depending on the buzz it gets once it's out.
I'll have to find some info on it's pre-release specs.

I figure it'll only be a week or two until people start getting their
563a's back from Pioneer. And hopefully it won't be long before there is
news of good manufacture dates and/or serial #'s.

Craig

to this day (since i'm only part-time) i'm still not sure where the dollar cut-off is. but, as you probably already know, the main difference between a prp and a psp is that the prp allows for immediate replacement. you don't have to go through the "hassles" of a psp.

usually the prp is on the cheaper stuff, but, afaik, all the dvd players fall under a psp.

Thanks very much for the info., Ted. Spoke with someone at BB this afternoon and its based upon product class (i.e., DVD players, televisions, etc.) not dollar amopunt.

So, Craig, it looks like BB's PSP doesn't provide for getting a new player, even on a whim, the way PRP does. You would have to have a problem with the unit, have them service it and then still have an issue in order to get a new player under PSP.

I think GG's ESP works the same way: DVD players are in a product class that is not just summarily replaced. Its serviced first.

Further sauce for my goose: I swung through my local Good Guys yesterday for the first time in about 6 months. They're no longer carrying Tosh. So it looks like the SD-4960 won't be showing up there.

Its remarkable how the DVD product line has shifted towards recordability, whether its DVD recorders or PVRs. At least at GGs, the shift is very much away from hi rez: there were two players with hi rez playback capability on two walls full of players.

-p

paul, you do have an "out"...even with the psp.

it's called the "no lemon guarantee".

essentially, if you have the *same problem" three or more times ... on the fourth carry-in, you automatically get a new unit -- or a comparable unit if yours is unavailable, or has been upgraded, etc.

But Ted, that's not quite the same as being able to walk in and just say you want a new whatever, just because.

-p

So Pioneer is making us pay for shipping to get a player with a design problem fixed?

I called Pioneer and was instructed to send it to some third party repair facility in Colorado. I called this company today and they told me to send it in but the person I spoke to knew nothing about these probablematic players.

I'd much rather just repair this myself, I might try calling Pioneer and get them to send me the part and I'll solder it in myself or whatever is required , at least it won't cost me $15 in shipping this way.

That's pretty s.o.p. in situations such as this, James. If one were to get in touch with someone in Pio management (in other words, not a customer service representative), I'm sure he'd argue that Pio's player does not have a "design problem." And he'd have a point.

Pio (ostensibly) made a player that conforms to the DVD spec. We saw the analogous situation early in the DVD-V era with lots of players that conformed to the spec ending up needing firmware upgrades as "content providers" used new/different vendors' authoring software in the encoding of their discs. (I remember all the 'Net about my first DVD-V player, the Tosh SD-2108, needing a firmware to play the original Alien . . . even though my unit tracked it fine; sent the player to Lebanon, TN on my dime and got a completely different player, along with another remote, manual and cable set in return.)

Unfortunately, DVD-A has taken much longer to catch on (if one could even argue that it has done so). Although we're several years deep into the format, the need for a firmware upgrade on the first mass market, budget universal player is neither unprecedented nor unexpected.

If any party, I blame the record labels and their piracy "paranoia" (the amount of equipment being found on "warez" raids, especially some very recent ones in L.A., now make it problematic to dismiss the labels as paranoid IMO). That's what's at the root of their continuing to dicker/experiment with different copy protection schema and authoring software in an effort to strengthen their discs' imperviousness to the rip 'n' burn crowd.

Again, sounds like pretty typical rigmarole in my experience. A lot of the logistical issues regarding who should send what where are addressed in the Quadrophonicquad thread linked to in the first post of this thread.

You're assuming its a solder issue. If this is a circumstance wherein the firmware could be upgraded via CD-R, then clearly its not a solder issue, no?

And you understand that your opening the unit voids your warranty, yes?

-p

Paul.S... nicely analyzed and explained... thanks!

The other sad big-picture fact is that increasingly all this HT gear has become more computer than audio gear... it's more about media management (and protection, as you noted) than audio quality.

And as anyone who uses a PC (or even a Mac) knows -- hardware and software is continually rolled out with the expectation that it will be buggy, or incompatible with last year's HW/SW to some degree... and we're just expected to live with it and keep investing in it... it's a worst-case planned obsolescence nightmare that's become the norm.

And it's not just Pioneer... virtually all manufacturers experience glitches now.

I still think I'll wait awhile to see if the firmware fix becomes more widely distributed (on the premise that there have been many units sold that need attention), so I don't have to actually ship the box anywhere... although the local 'authorized' Pioneer repair facility leaves much to be desired.

Too bad... we almost had a $150 world-beater there for awhile...

Thx for the props, Greg.

You make an excellent point in your third paragraph above re a "worst-case planned obsolescence nightmare that's become the norm." I think it is a not-talked-about-often-enough ramification of all this ballyhoo'd digital convergence.

Frankly Greg, if I were you, I'd be taking a serious look at Tosh's SD-4960, supposedly streeting in June. Not that it won't have any possible firmware upgrade issues, but perhaps there will be some benefit in getting an even newer model (from a major DVD Forum manufacturer).

-p

I just saw the affected list of titles. I tried setting after setting for literally hours trying to get my copy of Capricornia to work. I sure hope that the firmware fixes this disc.

Take care.

I'm in Georgia and Pioneer had me send mine to Michigan (ABL Electronics). I asked Pioneer if they would arrange a pick-up and they did (UPS)with a pre-paid shipping label. ABL finished the job last Thursday, said it would ship Friday and I'm patiently waiting...
So, if you push a bit Pioneer will pick up the tab for shipping.

I sent mine to Tele-Vue services in Colorado...$9.80 for Fedex Ground insured.

Not a bad price to pay as long as this fix works.