What can Firmware do to your writer?

[qaidskey]

ok. i heard somewhere that soon when dual layer burners are out (for dvds) that some will just need a firmware upgrade to burn dual layer dvds. is that true? is it even possible? if so, does this mean firmware upgrades could even do things like speed up how fast it can burn dvds?

[ZippyP.]

Firmware is the program that resides internally on your writer (on a chip) which controls it's operation. There is official firmware from the manufacturer and hacked firmware from hobbyists. I have heard of firmware (hacked) that allows some writers to burn some disks faster, like a 1x rated disk at 2x. Pushing a writer or disk beyond it's design like that is a somewhat risky business, but some people do it with success.

I suppose anything is possible, but being able to do a double layer disk with just a firmware upgrade sounds far fetched to me. Surely to burn like that would require some mechanical differences as well and not just programming.

[Gazorgan]

If you already own a DVDRW drive, then odds are 99.9% that you won't be able to do dual layer with it. Only 1 specific drive currently being sold may be firmware upgradeable to dual layer.

[steelhead]

I agree with ZippyP that to burn a Dual Layer disk the mechanical parts in the DVD are more than likely going to be different.

/Steelhead