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Upgrade Doubles +R Speed For Some Lite-On Drives
Binsbergen writes "Owners of a Lite-On 451S (lowest price $ 69.50) and a Lite-On 851S can load the firmware of the Lite-On 832S and burn their DVD+Rs at 8x speed and also write to double-layer media. Before this seemed impossible, because many manufacturers have told us that upgrading a 4x drive to a double-layer writer was impossible due hardware differences. Of course it's important to note that 'overclocking' voids your warrantee and should be done after have carefully read the instructions. Read more about the procedure, the results and others experiences in the official 451S@832S, 851S@832S -- It works! thread. That's a dirt-cheap upgrade!" (Sounds similar to the NEC upgrade mentioned in May.)
If you don't currently own a 451S don't bother with purchasing one. The mad rush that this is going to cause will only raise the cost and the wait time for this specific unit. After a quick search I found the Lite-On 8x DVD+/-RW drive that does double layered writing for $89 (see here at newegg - BTW, I just did a quick search for Lite-On, I don't work for newegg or even recommend them).
Seems to me that paying $20 more (without even checking anywhere else) to purchase a drive that is meant to write at 8x (apparently in both + and -) and won't void your warranty is a much better deal.
This patch is fine and dandy, but I cannot find any dual layered discs anywhere!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
The TiG4 Powerbooks had the same type of firmware 'fix'. I can't find the link to the upgradable firmware, but it doubled the speed of the MATSHITA DVD-R UJ-815A. Definitely was a major improvement over the standard 1x DVD burning that came with my powerbook.
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The "hack" was released around December/January I believe. Kinda late there /.
Anyway, Lite-On has some excellent burners. I got mine during Black Friday and let me tell you, the 4x burns at 8x =)
Unless your Xbox is chip'd. IIRC, xbox media is read from the outside in, you need a modchip, or some crazy burning software to make it work. Much easier to just get a hard drive and rip the games.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
http://forums.speedlabs.org/ (membership required) has a series of mods/steps to let your 401S/411S write DVD+Rs (and -Rs when they arrive) at 8X, effectively converting them to a 8xxS drive. Drives thus converted can later be flashed with original 8xxS firmware. (401s must first be "overclocked" to 411s and from then to 8xx).
You can burn xbox games with single layer discs, and have been able to for 2 years now. The tough part is that the xbox data is burned backwards... from the outside of the disc in from what I understand. This means that no, you can't put an xbox game in your computer and just "burn" it. You have to read it with your xbox while having the xbox modded and running linux, and then copy the data over the network to your computer via ftp - and then burn the thing using Nero or whatever. Then, you have a copy that will load on the xbox. Having a dual layer burner has nothing to do with it.
There's tons of other burners that can do dual layer with unofficial firmware upgrades.
;-)
:-( Maybe someone else can provide one?
;-)
Even my el cheapo drive (Pioneer DVR-A06) might be able to do the trick, although I doubt Pioneer will release their hacked firmware for it just for the heck of it.
I once knew the link to pages summarizing the recorders where dual layer firmware was available but have lost it since then.
Anyway, if your recorder supports recording 8x discs, chances are that it has a modified firmware for dual layer recording floating around somewhere, as one of the requirements -- a 140 mW laser -- is a common requirement for 8x DVD+/-R burning and DL burning. Philips has confirmed this, but says that in some cases the Optical Pickup Unit is still not of high enough quality. Obviously not always, since DL burning with modified firmware has been done by people upgrading their drives like this.
Finally, it's still a risky business and you might bust your DVD-ROM drive by upgrading to a hacked firmware. And I doubt warranty applies.
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!
if you want a cheaper 451S do a pricewatch search for it, the first link is $53 shipped (in Cali).
Of course +R DL's are more then 3x the price of decent Single layers, so chances are most people are waiting for the media prices to drop, then will see what burners do DL.
Lots of companies use different manufacturers from time to time.
I had a second generation 2.4x DVD burnder from them. Turns out it was actually Ricoh than manufactured it. The thing was a piece of crap, burns would fail all of the time, not much would read it, et cetera. Finally I got fed up and found a trick for flashing it to be the Ricoh brand.
Ricoh's site had 3-4 versions after the version of firmware that Sony offered. A relatively simple trick switched it over and it's been working great ever since.
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At this site. What you need to know There are two methods of modification here: 1. The firmware hacking method 2. The EEPROM correction method These need further explanation I feel. The firmware hacking method disabled the sentinel or checking routine so the firmware is forced onto the 812S hardware. Pro's Its easy. Any pleb can find a hacked firmware on the lamerWeb. Also, there are lots of really cool hacks and write strategy adjustments being worked on. If you are into tweaking - this might just be for you! Con's LiteOn are sick of this behaviour. They are now considering making it SO hard to hack the firmware, soon, these methods of hacking will be made useless. It is a little minature war which, in the end - the hackers will fall in. The EEPROM method entails you extracting your EEPROM and having it custom checksummed to make the drive a "REAL" 832S DL drive. Pro's You have a REAL 832S on your hands - no need to worry about cross flash protection or hacking woes for you!!! This is as cool as it gets. Con's It requires the process of checksumming, which requires the EEPROM to be sent to me - then returned. It also requires the use of LTNFlash - which some users are unacquainted with.
I think the term you want is CLV, constant linear velocity. The alternative is CAV, or constant angular velocity. I sometimes get them mixed up though.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Just flashed my LDW-851S. Everything is ok so far... yay :)
www.taperesources-store.com This is just the first link I found on froogle, they are not listed in Pricewatch yet.
As shown here, Sony does use Lite-on for this drive.
No, regular dual layer disks are 8.5, not 9.6gb. Remember how single layer disks are called DVD5 and dual are called DVD9? For whatever reason, the second layer is not as large as the first. http://www.disctronics.co.uk/technology/dvdintro/d vd_formats.htm