Pioneer sparks DVD fire fears

A glitch in Pioneer DVD recorders and re-writers could send either the discs or the player up in smoke, the company has confirmed.

The electronics firm has issued a warning along with a mandatory upgrade on its website, but up to one million people could be affected by the bug.

The affected models are: DVR-7000; PRV-9000; DVR-A03; DVR-103; DVR-A04 and DVR-104. They may also be known as the Pioneer SuperDrive.

The problem may occur when a Pioneer drive is used in conjunction with new media that has only just come onto the market. Until recently DVD discs could only record in real time. But faster discs, such as 2-speed re-writable and 4-speed write-once discs are now avaiable.

Rather worryingly, the laser in the affected drives does not recognise the new types of disc, so when testing the disc to set the correct burn power it just keeps trying, until it heats up so much that either the disc or the drive catches fire.

Pioneer's advisory, which neglects to mention the possible toasting a user's computer may get, warns: "Use of the new high-speed discs for recording on these particular Pioneer products may cause damage to both the loaded disc and to the drive/recorder."

A 1Mb upgrade has been posted on the site and users are urged to download and install it.