Mail:

"As I have understood, the firmware update will reduce the writing speed at 1 speed. Personally i think this is not an upgrade but a mere "workaround solution/downgrade" to a genuine problem. But in the end it's the safety that's the most important of course."

Answer:

The F/W update will allow the DVD-R7322 to write to the newly released "DVD-R General Purpose, Book 2.0, Revision 1.0, High Speed media" but at a writing speed of 1x instead of 2x.

The writing speed to "DVD-R General Purpose Book 2.0 media" will still remain at 2x. Pioneer believes that this is in the interest of the user and to protect them from any eventualities when using High Speed media.

As you rightly state, "it's the safety that's the most important of course". And yes, this is a "firmware fix/workaround", opposed to a "firmware upgrade", but this will still give the end-user the possibility to use a wider range of DVD media in their DVD-R7322 writer.

For the issues which could be encountered when inserting High Speed media, the following observations are evident:

The drive may be entered into a "hang-up" state. An "over-current" can be supplied to the "laser pick-up assy" which can cause the "objective lens" and the "inserted media" to discolour due to the excess heat generated within the "laser pick-up assy". Once this symptom has occurred the drive cannot be recovered by applying a firmware update. (By no means is there a fire risk or smoke hazard in this eventuality). In the worst possible case the DVD-R7322 writer will be rendered "useless", but with "no damage" to other installed drives, the DRM-7000 jukebox or even the attached server.