Liteon LTD-163-02 DVD drive.........region free.....how???

J

jollster101

1
I have just purchased a new drive as above and want to remove the region code to make it region free.

Anyone give me a good link or s/w app that I can use.

With thanks

Jollster
 
red_shed2000

red_shed2000

1
I am a little confused!!!!!!
I have a Liteon LTD 163 - not the D model - at least in device manager it doesn't say that it is the D model (I got the drive with my Dell PC).
I have been looking for a Firmware update and have downloaded one (D163GH5E.zip) which I guessed to be the latest version from the Liteon website. When I run the dos bat file it tells me that it supports firmware upgrades x to y but Plex tools tells me that my firmware is something different to any of the firmware the upgrade supports (I currently have GDHA firmware) - sorry if that was a mouthful!!
I didn't want to run the update for obvious reasons! Can anybody shed any light PLEASE!! Could it be that I have the D model? Whats going on?:confused:
 
S

shadoe_phantom

1
either take your DVD drive out of its bay in the case & check what model # it is, or you can also try Drive Region Info from *ww.visualdomain.net
It is for detecting if your drive is region locked, but it can also show what model # & firmware you currently have on it. I know there was a better tool for this, just have a mental block right now. Probably too long in the shadows lol
 
red_shed2000

red_shed2000

1
I now know whats going on.

As I said, the Liteon DVD drive came with my Dell PC. For some reason they have used their own firmware and not the original Liteon Firmware. Any know why this would be and whether it had a bad effect on the drives performance?
I have read that flashing the drive with Liteon Firmware will invalidate the warranty from Dell on the drive.

What do you think guys?:rolleyes:
 
S

shadoe_phantom

1
eeeeek. That's a bit of an issue. From what I know, if companies put their own firmware into a drive, sometimes it's not possible to update the firmware (flashing) with the original hardware company.
Ofcourse flashing your Drive always makes you lose your warranty. Infact the first time I patched my Sony drive it died (site posted a bad flash that doesn't work), but luckily the store just took it back & replaced it with a new one (had to lie how it happened lol, but then also did it the first night, so it looks believable that it's a faulty drive).
Maybe someone else here will tell you different, but have a look at the firmware page h**p://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/ & read to see any info on your drive.
 
red_shed2000

red_shed2000

1
Thanks for the info Shadoe. I'm not too worried about what firmware my drive has as long as it does everything it should!!
From what I have read its one of the best DVD players around and is also pretty good (and quick) at reading most copy protections. I wouldn't like it if Dell's firmware is effecting its capability to do this kind of stuff!

Anyone else have/had a similar problem?:rolleyes:

I'm not keen on invalidating its warranty for no gain in performance.
 
S

shadoe_phantom

1
errrrrrr sorry, my mistake lol. Everytime I see firmware I always assume it's to region free patch it lol.
In answer to your question red_shed2000, you would still mostly like (90%) have to use the firmware that dell provides (or from their site) to update your firmware. But then again, I can't say for sure on that one, cause I don't own that particular model. (have a different lite-on on a different machine).
But a good rule of thumb is:
don't upgrade if things are working fine/good the way they are. If you encounter any troubles, then perhaps think about upgrading your firmware, otherwise I wouldn't touch it. Sometimes newer firmwares aren't as good either.
Good luck.
 
J

jollster101

1
Now I am somewhat confused. At the beginning I wanted to know how to make the drive region free and thanks to bertieg for his assistance.

I have followed what was said and as far as I know the region free patch worked fine. I say this because using the recommended s/w (Drive Region Info is what I think it was called) it states that neither of my drives are region locked....have a LiteOn 24x10x40 burner and my Liteon LTD63 DVD.

The reason Im confused is because although the s/w says its region free when I swop either a region 1 or region 2 disc the drives properties page counts down and says I have only 2 more region changes before its locked.

Has my drive been unlocked to region free or not. S/w says yes but drive properties seems to conflict this. What I dont want to happen is for the counter to reach zero and the drive be locked......unless it can be unlocked from there of course.

Any ideas please

Jollster
 
S

shadoe_phantom

1
hard to say for sure. If drive info says it is regino free then 98% chance it is region free. On mine it's also at 2 changes left, but it's remained that way (over a month now). Perhaps changing your drive to region free, is considered a change for the drive itself, so from 3 it would have gone down to 2.
Also don't forget you will need a region free software to play your DVDs.
If it goes down to one (the drive) post the info here & maybe we can see if you used the right patch or not *or if a newer better one is available*.
Good luck.
 
civilus

civilus

1
Please visit this little site:

h**p://digitri.tk

It's specialized in the LiteOn 163 and how to make it region free.
 
Phil K

Phil K

1
There is of course, Ollie's "DVD Region-killer" software, downloadable at :-
/http://www.elby.org/english/corp/index.htm

Now that DOES work, although you manually have to change the region from the taskbar pop-up. :D
 
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