Pioneer DVR-A08XLA DL Recorder - Page 12

BookType Setting

The Pioneer DVR-A08XLA doesn't support BookType Setting for the DVD+R/+RW formats. With DVD+R DL discs, Booktype is automatically set to DVD-ROM.

As Pioneer explains "...It is known that not all existing DVD-ROM drives and set-top DVD Video players will be able to if at all reliably play DVD+R DL discs. This could especially be the situation with DVD players manufactured over 12 months ago. The only way to know if a player is compatible with DVD+R DL media is to simply try it. In particular check if the player can reliably switch to the second layer and continue playing. It must be remembered that standards for Dual Layer did not exist when most earlier players were designed and manufactured so there was no way a manufacturer could have taken this into account.

With the new DVR-108 and DVR-A08XL writers the Pioneer engineers did what they could to maximize compatibility by instigating the following initiative.

Media Support - Book-type issue on +R DL media

+R DL media is tentatively-assigned the book-type field "1110h" which results in very low playback compatibility when the disc is placed into a legacy DVD player or legacy DVD-ROM drive. For "maximum compatibility" with legacy DVD players and DVD-ROM drives the book-type field should be set as "0000h" (DVD-ROM) when the disc is finalised/closed.

The DVR-108/DVR-A08XL's firmware will "automatically" set the default book-type field to "0000h" (DVD-ROM), thus eliminating the need for a separate "bit-setting utility" and further increasing the playback compatibility of +R DL discs when used with legacy DVD players and DVD-ROM drives..."