Upgrade Your DVD Writer to Double Layer -- Maybe

Autoversicherung writes "Even if NEC tells you its impossible, German netzine Golem is reporting hackers have created an updated, unofficial version of the firmware providing DVD+DL (Double Layer) capabilities. Currently model 2100A and 2500A are patchable, more will hopefully follow soon. How cool, this enables me to skip an update cycle for burners!!" It's always fun to use the fish, and sometimes to void your warranty.

Comments

Re:This is your DRIVE on BAD Firmware

[Anarcho-Goth]

This reminds me of some sort of virus many years ago that claimed to turn a CD ROM drive into a CDR drive.

With this at least it is already a writer.
But I wouldn't rush to be the first to try it out.
Wait a few days and when people start posting "Oh fsck!" messages you'll know not to try it.

But then I still don't have a DVD burner so it is a moot point in this case.

Re:DVD-ROM

[The Clockwork Troll]

You have a cheap DVD-player with a tiny buffer apparently.

The DVD player is only part of it.

Even with a decent-sized buffer (by consumer player standards), the DVD itself has to be mastered in such a way as to facilitate a quick layer change. For example, using opposite-track rather than parallel-track encoding, and switching to a lower bit rate just before the layer change so the read-ahead buffer can have a chance to be filled with more post-layer change frames.

On PC DVD players, this is less of an issue because the drives are fast enough (and RAM plentiful enough) that you can afford to read far enough ahead that you eliminate any chance of layer change glitch, but there are few consumer players with drive speed and buffers that rival what even a low-end PC can accomplish.