Dual Layer Capable drives
- Thread starter woody
- Start date
PC-GUY
1
A word of advise don't run out and buy a drive just because it DL, wait cause the reviews are all say compatibility problems. Infact this is from cdrinfo's conclusion of the BenQ DW830A:
"For sure, the increased 7.96GB will become handy to all those who wish to make 1:1 backups of DVD9 movies or even store two DVD movies at one disc (with the proper software). Users who wish just to store data, might find the DL solution not so good due to high incompatibility with DVD Writers ( & in general DVD readers for PC/MAC).
We don't know if the compatibility issues can be solved with firmware update or its just a media problem. We assume you wouldn't want to have a disc that can be read only by few drives, especially when includes 7.96GB of important data." Infact cdfreaks gives a list and other than the drive and some liteon drives all drives failed to read the second layer.
It wouldn't be to nice to find out it can't be fixed with a firmware update. So buy the drive cause the price right not that its a DL.
"For sure, the increased 7.96GB will become handy to all those who wish to make 1:1 backups of DVD9 movies or even store two DVD movies at one disc (with the proper software). Users who wish just to store data, might find the DL solution not so good due to high incompatibility with DVD Writers ( & in general DVD readers for PC/MAC).
We don't know if the compatibility issues can be solved with firmware update or its just a media problem. We assume you wouldn't want to have a disc that can be read only by few drives, especially when includes 7.96GB of important data." Infact cdfreaks gives a list and other than the drive and some liteon drives all drives failed to read the second layer.
It wouldn't be to nice to find out it can't be fixed with a firmware update. So buy the drive cause the price right not that its a DL.
Blane
1
Great advice. I think we'll still be using single layer discs for quite a while yet. Too many issues with the DL discs. Will they play in my set top player? Or another dvd drive? I'm pretty sure you have to use both layers on a burn or it might not be readable. And of course the price of these discs. The good thing is that SL discs should be going down even more in price and so will the burners. I'll probably just get a faster SL drive.
My opinion is that there is a lot of hype about dual layer & like Blane SL seems fine to me <> with the modern compression & stripping S/ware I get good results so I reckon its a wait & see scenario!!
832s can be bought unhacked. I just got one on Saturday.woody said:
No complaints about it so far but dual layer functions not tested because no d/l media available yet in my part of the world.
The Liteon DL hack now reaches out to the 451S and 851Swoody said:
http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares.html
The -51S models cannot do 8x on -R or 4x on -RW, so the result is an 8x/4x 4x/2x 2.4x ... on +/-R, +/-RW and DL
NOT the 11's - they use an older laser, so don't expect them to be brought into the fold!
PC-GUY said:Try Kprobe and let us know how they look. You may be in for a surprise.
I had Kprobe already installed but hadn't used it .. hmm you are quite right , I am surprised - unpleasantly.
One thing is obvious this liteon burner much prefers high quality media. Results with pioneer and Tdk media were much better than with ritek g04 burned at 4x or 8x (otoh my Sony Dru 500 loves the riteks) and Princo were better than Ritek. However, all these media play perfectly well in my optical drives so I will try to ignore the kprobe results. I just wish i hadn't started with kprobe because now I am spending all my time testing the media and no time to watch the dvd movies
Well if you mean upgrading the firmware to the latest on an 832s, its fine. I read the huge info in the liteon forum at club.cdfreaks. But a lot of people just upgraded their 812s to 832s. I am not looking to burn dl yet. But it has the functionality and there sure are a lot of Liteon fanatics who provide great support in case of problems (which i have not had yet) Its not always a bad thing to pig out , lolwoody said:Hehe...oops.Thanks for the report Elsamay.Seems the upgrade is safe.