DIY DVD writer firmware. How?

Khannie

I have a bunch of 4x discs, but my stupid dvd writer (NEC1100a flashed to 1300A) doesn't recognise them, so it wont burn them at 4x. That bugs me, so I'd like to alter my firmware so that it does recognise my kind of disc.

If anyone could give me some pointers on how to alter firmware .bin files, I'd be much obliged.

ChipZilla

Originally posted by Khannie
If anyone could give me some pointers on how to alter firmware .bin files, I'd be much obliged.

1100 firmware or 1300 firmware? :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

Wouldn't it be easier to buy decent 4x disks rather than risk killing your drive doing something you don't have a clue about?

Anyway look here for starters:

http://forum.rpc1.org/viewtopic.php?t=21490&start=0

Mutant_Fruit

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY AND ALTER IT YOURSELF. YOU WILL KILL YOUR DRIVE.

However, feel free to try pre-"hacked" firmwares, that will possibly increase the speeds of discs burned, and compatibility. They are generally pretty safe.

Khannie

1100 firmware or 1300 firmware?

I don't mind

Wouldn't it be easier to buy decent 4x disks

I have 160 of these puppies, so I'm willing to do quite a bit of research

They burn great at 2.4x though, so if I can't find out how to do a DIY job it wont be the end of the world.

Thanks for the link. A fine starting point.

DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TRY AND ALTER IT YOURSELF. YOU WILL KILL YOUR DRIVE.

Surely it's possible. I mean, those hacked firmwares come out from Herrie and Etna. I'm reasonably competent. Degree in Comp. Sci. and a few years experience. I'm just short on knowledge. The drive is probably cheap enough to replace at this stage anyway. I figure that a lifetime of knowing how to hack firmwares is probably worth the risk and effort.

I was thinking that I could write a program that allows other people to generate their own .bin file once they copy / paste in the dvdinfoPro data. Suppose the feasibility of that will become clear with more digging.

I'll check out all the hacked firmwares first though.

Mutant_Fruit

Surely it's possible. I mean, those hacked firmwares come out from Herrie and Etna

True, but do you know what you're doing. At the moment i would strongly advise against trying to mod your own firmware, at least until you get some instruction on exactly what oyu should be changing etc. I doubt you would kill your drive, but its always a possibility.

Webmonkey

Why don't you sell the drive and buy a one that will burn them or sell the discs rather than going for that risk

Khannie

Originally posted by Webmonkey
Why don't you sell the drive and buy a one that will burn them or sell the discs rather than going for that risk

'Cos I'm likely to face the same cr@p at some point in the future......I'd like to learn how to hack firmware

I'm just looking for documentation. Haven't had much luck googling it.

Originally posted by Mutant_Fruit
True, but do you know what you're doing.

Not yet.

At the moment i would strongly advise against trying to mod your own firmware, at least until you get some instruction on exactly what oyu should be changing etc. I doubt you would kill your drive, but its always a possibility.

Yeah, I'm just looking for a starting point. Some instruction, or link.

Webmonkey

I like adventurous people , well its the best way to learn

Capt'n Midnight

There is an app called CDRidentifier which reports info picked up of the blank media by the CDRW drive eg: max recording speed etc. Not sure if works with DVD's though but it might give some clues.

Khannie

There's an equivalent for DVD's called DVDInfoPro.

The trick (as I understand it), is to alter the firmware binary file to include the info that DVDInfoPro gives you, without messing things up and wasting your drive

It must be tough enough to do that, else everyone would be doing it.

P.S. Thx Webmonkey