Any writers out there that don't have many firmware updates?

[dmuk]

I have a liteon 1633S and i know it's fairly old now, but I have to keep changing firmware for it to recognise different brands/dyes of CD/DVDs and it's a real pain in the ***. Are there any out there that support all blank discs?

Thanks

[oldandinthe way]

The nature of recordable DVD is that writers must have a write strategy for all of the media that they can successfully burn.

The default strategy on most drives has been inadequate for the latest media products.

If you want to burn DVDs you must perform firmware updates periodically.

The older your drive, the less likely it is to contain write strategies for all of the media sold in the "big box" stores.

Some newer drives have done an excellent job of providing the popular media you find today, and will take a longer time to need firmware updates. But they will. Needless to say the older drives will pickup some but not all of the new media in their next formware release.

If updating firmware is a hardship for you, a new DVDwriter can be had for as little as $30. Changing drives every 6 months might be an alternative.

[classfour]

I've yet to see a firmware update for a Panasonic

[ofbarea]

BenQ drives had a tool that allowed them to learn new media without the need of updating Firmware.

This tool worked fine under XP SP2, but it is not supported under Vista x64.

Just be aware that Lite-on bought BenQ and the drives supported by this tool are disappearing from the market.

[budz]

BenQ drives had a tool that allowed them to learn new media without the need of updating Firmware.

This tool worked fine under XP SP2, but it is not supported under Vista x64.

Just be aware that Lite-on bought BenQ and the drives supported by this tool are disappearing from the market.

LITEON has "SMARTBURN" which is similar to BENQ's QSUITE 2.1. In fact you can use "SMARTBURN" with the BENQ 1800 drive which is a "LITEON 18A1P drive".

[oldandinthe way]

I've yet to see a firmware update for a Panasonic

The lack of firmware updates does not mean that the drive actually has firmware to support the media. It usually means it does not and the drive maker doesn't care.

Hard to believe this is the case for Panasonic

Re. automatically updating drives, - I believe one of the DVR+R features is expanded write strategy information on the media. Another poster had advised me that BenQ was one of the few to implement this. I would expect there are also some Phillips drives with this feature because they invented it. I am not aware of this capability for DVD-R.

[oldfart13]

I've yet to see a firmware update for a Panasonic

Maybe you should look under "Matsushita" instead. Lots of drive and DVD recorder firmware updates under that name.....

[ssj2_goha]

I have a Lacie burner and i have yet to run into anything i can't burn.......

[oldfart13]

Finally got the update for the GSA-H22L (LG) but now the drive is only recognized as a CD writer....

[nic2k4]

Plextor has autostrategy, but that shouldn't be a surprise since they were getting their drives made by Benq and now Lite-on. The system works pretty good, I've scanned discs made with it and the results weren't as good as a properly tweaked strategy, but still very good. Errors were all within the limits and way better than what passes for a good burn on some drives.

[classfour]

I really don't burn much with the Panasonic drives that I have - but haven't had hardly any coasters from them, either.

I do check for, and update the Plextor, Lite-On, and NEC drives when updates are available.

I do only burn TY media - so that may explain the Panny's working????