Pioneer DV-563A firmware campaign

Hi Xico,
I have a United Kingdom 565A (European equivalent of the 563A), and have also updated the firmware with help from the forum. My machine was region 2 & 0, and has remained so. What is happening, I think, is that the firmware update returns the region settings to whatever that machines' default factory settings were. It now plays every DVDA I throw at it, well I have to put them in the drawer first of course.

Wow,

It's amazing the amount of people that have this problem, well please add me to the list of people that would love to have this upgrade, thank you in advance to anyone that could take the time to send it to me so I can upgrade my troubled 563 that I really enjoy, but lately it has been giving me problems with some discs. My email address is: [email protected]

This is the only place anywhere I could find that could help me out with an update that frankly should be made publicly available by Pioneer on a player that is almost 3 years old!!
Many thanks to those who obtained it!!!

Michael

Z, Thanks for sending me the 563 ISO, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that, the player is working much better, and it has faster access times too!

Best Regards,

Michael

Hi! I joined this thread many moons ago and had some problems with actually sending my unit into Pioneer Canada. Suffice to say, I sent it via mail and they would not accept it. It floated around for weeks before being returned to me and I didn't want to take a chance or expense of sending it again. Does someone actually have an upgrade that works now? If so I would love to recieve it to do the upgrade. It was mind boggling that Pioneer Canada expected people to send their units in to get an upgrade. Anyone that can send me the info? I would really appreciate that. My e-mail is [email protected] Thanks!!

Hello All,

I got my Pioneer DV-563A when it first came out. The firmware version is 1.306_sglstp. I have recently encountered problems with playing certain DVD-A disks as described in the forum. It'll be greatly appreciated if someone has a copy of the updated firmware that they can send me.

Thanks!

James

[email protected]

I just joined here but I've been following this discussion since I googled it a long while back. I'd also love to get the ISO if anyone would be so kind. I bought my 563 right after they came out and I saw a add at Best Buy for it on a slight sale for 170. Had been waiting for someone to do a proper one since the aborted Apex 7701 several years before this came out.
I'll probably upgrade to the next generation sometime but this still is my main player for everything audio video.
Thanks for the help, Dartman

I have been told that the 1.906 firmware is the last firmware for the 563a. this straight from a AVS forum buddy who heard this from a supervisor who does the upgrades. he got the official upgrade cd mailed to him and had to send it back. he really gave them hell to send it to him, he refused to send the player. he did make an ISO. there is no 2.09, well there is but it is for another pioneer player and NOT for the 563a. if you use that 2.09 firmware you will screw it up.


I love all the people online who said this would never leak. give it time and it will. i knew it would and always refuse to send my player in. especially paying for shipping too. I waited and now the upgrade was free and without sending in my player. those hack dont know how to handle players. I sent in one of my sony dvd players for firmware upgrade and it was brand new, came back as if it had been through a war!

Well Evil Otto sent me a ISO and mine works fine so far though I only reset it then played Dark Side of the Moon just to make sure it worked, it did
I felt the same way, that eventually it would get leaked and I wouldn't have to either ship it or wait for some shop to feel like popping in a update disk.
Panasonic has downloadable updates for all of their settop dvd recorders, why can't Pioneer offer same for a lowly player. I have updated many pieces of equipment in my time and have only had one that totally went bad, and even that one I was able to salvage with some effort. When I indirectly asked Pioneer about firmware updates for this unit they claimed it was non upgradeable, but at the time it seemed to work with every dvd and audio format I owned so I crossed my fingers till the horror stories started showing up a bit later

Yea I just went through the hassle with pioneer service. They admited there is a problem but refused to let me fix it localy, even though I found a authorized service center five miles from my home.They gave me two choices both were out of state I said no I guess i would live with the problem (not buying any new dueldiscs). but it would be the last pioneer product I would ever buy.If anyone could e-mail the upgrade(1.906) and instructions I would appreciate it (e-mail to [email protected]) thanks

I would also be grateful if someone could send me the 563A ISO for firmware upgrade. The 563A is my only working player, and I can't afford another one at this time. I can be reached at gmspamATnycapDOTrrDOTcom. Yes, it really is gmspam.

Thanks,
John

I dont know why pioneer is so anal about the upgrade. you literaly have to do nothing but stick the disc in the player. the file auto loads and does everything itself. no special press play, dont so this, do that. the onscreen menu tellas you what and what not to do which is basically nothing. pioneer IMO should be exposed on tv for lying about there not being a firmware upgrade and a eprom.....rumor! the whole time they have denied it and screwed people. it really sucks. thing is pioneer has given upgrades online for other players in the past. why they are so anal about this one is beyond me.

this is an official pioneer firmware as far as I know and was told. it sure looks as official as can be. use at your own risk and I will not be responsible for user error! be aware that firmware upgrades do go wrong and if do can screw up your player. although I have never experienced this and is quite easy and does not require much user input at really any difficult level.

for the inexperienced & others: I am just protecting my butt. I am as frustrated as you pioneer wouldnt release this and I am only trying to help. it worked for me just fine but again, use at your own risk. follow the tv screen onscreen menu and follow the directions. it will show you everything its doing step by step. insert the disc and let it go! do not press play as it auto loads. just follow the onscreen menu/directions that come on your tv screen.


this is an ISO image that can be burned with most software writing programs. I used dvddecryptors ISO write utility. the file is zipped with winzip as to make the file much smaller.


enjoy guys and good luck!



http://home.comcast.net/~ericreid77/563a_1.906.zip

or

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=CVLUQLCY

Thanks for the ISO. I burned it with DVDecrytor to a CD (didn't even know dvdecryptor burned to cdrs).

The first time I tried put it in the player nothing came up on the TV but the LED display of the player said DOWNLOAD. Then it changed to STEP 1 and the STEP 2. After that it started to flash NG and I thought, "Oh no, I hosed the player".

The player seemed to be locked up so I held the power button until it shut down. When I powered back up, everything seemed normal, so I (maybe foolishly) inserted the disc again. This time it passed by STEP2 and kept going. I walked away at about STEP 10. When I came back, the disc was ejected. I removed the disc and cycled power and inserted my Running On Empty DVD-A. Everything worked like a charm.

Just thought I would add my experiences in case someone else wants to try the ISO image.

Onanboy

Hi ho folks.

Glad to see people are getting their hands on the ISO. There's an unconfirmed rumor that a guy whose name starts with Evil and ends with Otto might have it too, and may be able to send it to people

I would be interested to know if any of you have had trouble with your 563a in terms of playing dvd-video disks. Interested in a "professional" way, if you catch my meaning. Please drop me a PM if you have.

Thanks I had the same problems playing SEAL (both Discs) and the Talking Heads also . Now life is sweeet !
The Heads discs sound fantastic.

Arrgh, I've got the .iso file but no matter what I've tried the 563a just says "can't play disc". Am I missing something, or maybe it's because I'm on an iMac (OSX 10.3.9)? It doesn't need to be on a DVD, does it? I'm burning the pioneer.iso file to CD-R and finishing the disc.

My player is:

Region 1
ROM version: 1.306_SglStp

Has anyone else had success upgrading such ancient firmware with the .iso?
Anybody have any ideas?

deadpangerg

Why don't you just find a friend with a windows PC and some decent burning program that can handle ISO's properly and have them burn it for you. Maybe you just don't have the program your using setup to make it back into a proper data disk from the file. I don't have any macs so I can't say what you might need to do to get it working

deadpangerg said:

Arrgh, I've got the .iso file but no matter what I've tried the 563a just says "can't play disc". Am I missing something, or maybe it's because I'm on an iMac (OSX 10.3.9)? It doesn't need to be on a DVD, does it? I'm burning the pioneer.iso file to CD-R and finishing the disc.

My player is:

Region 1
ROM version: 1.306_SglStp

Has anyone else had success upgrading such ancient firmware with the .iso?
Anybody have any ideas?

deadpangerg

Click to expand...

I was having the same problem, but then I mounted the ISO using Toast 7. Worked like a charm.

For all the owners of the European variant Pioneer DV-565A, here's my report from Germany:

Last night I had the heart to use bru87tr's firmware ISO - burned on CD/RW - with my 565a-player. It worked absolutely correct without any trouble just as described by the 563a users! The only difference I noticed: there came no onscreen information, the 11 steps were shown alone at the display. After less than a minute the procedure was finished. Finally I repeated the system setup and tested DVD-A, DualDisc (Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms; that one which did not play so far), SACD, DVD-V (Dolby, DTS). All that stuff sounds very fresh and clear again from the 5.1 channels, with the full bass power as before. Also no problem occurred with regions code which I worried to some degree before.

Thanks so much to bru87tr for finally providing the image via the web! - I followed this thread since more than six months and now I'm very satisfied. Good things come to those who wait ... also under Pioneer's hegemony.

Macintosh users having trouble burning an iso image should check this link out:

http://www.mrbass.org/mac/dvdburn/

Hopefully this helps.