ATTENTION OPTORITE DD0203 OWNERS:FW V2.23 WORKS!

[jacksona]

Have you ever seen a drive as **cked up as the Optorite DD0203 ??

More firmware flashes than I've had hot dinners, and a crappy Windows flash utility that crashes and incorrect help DOS instructions on their website

Also many people are complaining that with 2.23fw after burning a DVD-R the drive seems to get stuck in a loop and won't read CD-Rs until you reset the computer.

If I wasn't laughing I would cry !

[jolo]

I love the Optorite DD203. Absolutely the best on the market as far as price/performance goes. The HD-BURN feature if GREAT !! I mean to backup 1.4GB of data onto an inexpensive floppy is rather cool.

I loved the drive and it installed flawlessly. The only thing on the documentation that was wrong was a typo when the mention to put the fies in the same file , whne they meant file folder.

On the web site, you can see that they increased the number of media that is supported manyfold.

One thing I learned is if you use really crappy media and don't use the recommended media you might have problems.

I just picked up my favorite CDs, the Fujifilm 50 pack for 9.99 at Office Depot. They are Taiyo Yudens and handle HD-BURN very well, plus you will never have data loss from those media.

About a month ago, Compusa had a great sale on Fujifilm and I got some DVD-R that burn at 4X. They we cheaper than the Compusa brand !!

I have use TDK +R which burn wonderfully at 4X. I also have had success at 4X with Verbatim. Both of the I purchased at Staples during a sale.

For fun, I did get two Compusa Brand DVD+R DVDs and I was able to do a data backup on them successfully, although I will not use them as a regular basis.

You can get the top media at cheapo prices by keeping an eye on the sales. Like I said, this week, all Fujifilm media (which are TY), are on sale at Office Max.

There also are some real good people working for them.

I general I would say, follow the directions on the web site on installing the firmware upgrade. Get the media that the recommend and you won't have problems.

[tig2002]

jolo, I absolutely agree with you. Optorite DD0203 is definitely one of the best when it comes to features/price comparison. I don't see why Optorite cannot compete with Pioneer or Sony burners. Pioneer may be a winner of burning cheap media, but... why on earth would I need to burn cheap media if it would not last long. If you are making backups of your data, favorite DVD movies, or, which is more important, family movies, of course you would like to use better DVD media. So far I found TDK the best media in both + and - formats. They burn flawlessly, and play flawlessly.

I definitely think that the problems that many people experience with their Optorite burners (firmware flashing issues, power calibration errors, etc.) are caused by their system configurations and software conflicts, so don't blame Optorite for that simply because there is a large group of users that absolutely love Optorite (Sanyo).

By the way, what's wrong with seeing many firmware updates from Optorite? That means engineers work hard on getting more and more media that is compatible with this excellent burner. In more than two months I upgraded my firmware three times without a single hiccup, and I burned many DVD's with not a single coaster by Optorite's fault.

[Michelle]

V2.25 is now available on the Optorite site.

[MOVIEGEEK]

V2.25 is now available on the Optorite site.

Thanks..any change log?

[tig2002]

Of course we have no idea what this new update is about since Optorite keeps this information secret… Newer revision in 13 days! Did they miss something in 2.23, or just more media compatibility? Has anyone tried 2.25?

P.S. I still like my Optorite…

[Roderz]

won't read CD-Rs

Seen a few post's about this, after burning a dvd+-r/rw drive won't read CD-Rs !!!!
Optorite support have admited there is a prob, so I guess the new fw(2.25) is a fix for it.
Other workaround for same prob (won't read CD-Rs ) on fw2.23 is to fire up burnatonce
goto tools-->reset writer
ta da now will read cd-rs! (saves a reboot)

Are the ever going to put up a changelog fat chance

[fritzi93]

Did a bit of searching and evidently the following are all the same: Sanyo CRD-BPDV2, Optorite DD0203, and I/O Magic IDVDRW4D. On www.blue-hardware.com, the assertion is made that the units are absolutely identical, and that the same firmware works in them all, or so at least forum posters there say. But I'd like to be more certain before I try an upgrade. The I/O Magic support site only has firmware 215.

[DVD Master]

Does the "I/O Magic IDVDRW4D" have HD burning capabilities ?

[fritzi93]

To DVD Master: What the hell, I went ahead and flashed my I/O Magic IDVDRW4D with the Optorite 2.25 firmware. DVDinfo Pro now tells me my writer does have HD burning. But it's not something I was looking for before, so maybe it already had it.

Anyway, I tried backing up a DVD to DVD+RW using DVDShrink and IC7, and all is well, no problems, it works on both my players. So no harm done if you use that firmware for the I/O Magic unit. No doubt the Sanyo as well, but at your own risk and all that.

Now, if I'm very lucky, I can make + and - Rs that'll work on my Apex!

[Bright1]

Hi,

What are the differences between the 203 and the 201 drives? Apart from the front facia panel. Is the 203 the newer or older drive?
Someone got me thinking over at the official MSI forum (my drive is the MSI DR4A), by stating that the MSI IS NOT the 201 drive but in fact the 203! Any ideas? I'm curious now (damn that guy!), but i'm 100% sure that the MSI IS the 201, it has to be! Thats what i've read on many, many forums.

Um, just out of interest, I flashed my MSI (whichever drive it happens to be now!) with the new 203 drive firmware v2.25. It flashed perfectly, and it still burns perfectly. Hmm.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

B1.

[MOVIEGEEK]

MSI,I/O Magic and Optorite DD0203 are all based on the Sanyo CRD-BDDV2,the DD0201 has a play/next track button and the DD0203 does not and the DD0203 has two LED lights.The specs. are the same.

[Michelle]

v2.30 is now available. People report that it fixes the CDR read issue.

[MOVIEGEEK]

I wish Sanyo et al would get their act together!

[tig2002]

The only difference I noticed between V2.23 and V2.25 on Optorite's website was that they increased the number of compatible DVD+RW media from 15 to 17 (TDK 2.4X and Sentinel 2.4X added). No difference in media compatibility between V2.25 and V2.30. To be honest, I don't remember having CD-R reading issues with latest revisions (haven't upgraded to V2.30 yet). The weirdest thing is that V2.25 was released after 13 days of releasing V2.23, and V2.30 was released in another 2 days! What are these guys doing? Are firmware programmers keep forgetting something? Did they go through beta testing already?

I guess we just need to take a wild guess of what these updates are about instead of reading the update history on their website.

Bright1: the difference between DD0201 and DD0203 (according to Optorite's Tech Support) is that they use different tray load mechanisms, have different front panels, and DD0201 has one LED on front panel while DD0203 has two. I don't think first two differences would make sense to have two different revisions of firmware, but the last one does.

[Bright1]

Thanks for the info, but I still have a nagging doubt!
Ok, now my euphoria has receeded a little about my MSI being a quality all round drive, and after having a few doubts placed in my mind by some guy over at the MSI forums, which model is my drive?

It looks like the 201 to my eyes, it has 2 front buttons and 1 LED, actually, it looks like a cross between the 201 and the 203!

Anyway, I can and have flashed it with firmwares for both drives and it still works! I assumed/believed it was a 201 from what I read over at the RPC1 site.

B1.

[jacksona]

Version 2.30 firmware is up on the Optorite site !

(Edit: sorry, see you already know)

Isn't it nice to see organisations that show so much care for their customers, and are constantly upgrading their products for our benefit ?

No. I don't know what this version fixes, but I flashed it anyway.

Hey I was at 2.09 two months ago when I got it.

Oh yeah, the flasher crashed again (in PIO mode)

[yamawho]

Hi all, first post here.
I purchased an Optorite DD0203 a week ago and I flashed it using dos to 223 before using it. So far I have burned to dvd-rw, dvd+rw and dvd+r media. I decided to stick with maxcel dvd+r media since it is the first time I have been able to get my PS2 to play any dvd media I have burned. Works on my Apex AD1500 also. Anyway I emailed Optorite yesterday and asked for details on the firmware updates and this is what they sent me.

Hello,

Firmware version 2.23 & 2.25 - adds support for more brand name media. See
http://www.optorite.com/dd0203.htm for a list of support media.

Firmware version 2.30 - fixes a bug in 2.23 that does not allow reading a
CD-R media after a DVD-R media has been burned or read.

More fixes will be posted on our website.

Thank you,
OptoRite Support

[Bright1]

Hi,

Ok, I think i've discovered a bug in firmware v2.30 for the Optorite 201 (my drive is the MSI DR4A). So I thought i'd give details here in teh 203 thread.
From what i've seen, when writing ISO images to good quality Ritek G04 -R's and Mirror Platinums, the software cant close the disc!
The software's last entry in its log is 'synchronising cache' then ' burn successful' - the disc ejects completed.

But with +R discs; Riteks, eProformance and Imation (RicohJpn) the software displays a few extra lines after 'synch'g cache' saying 'closing track' and finalising disc'

Software used: Nero60023 and DVD Decryptor.

I emailed Optorite support with details.

Anyone else had troubles or am I imagining things?

Thanks,

B1.

[dolbytsurround]

HELP MEEE!!!! HELP!!

Hello,

Thanks for your advice. That's great!! However, uNfortunately it doesn't work. I have a feeling that it could be a turntable or motor failure somehow, since I have visited the website, and also downloaded the very latest firmware (tried both version 2.23 and 2.30). I connected the Optowrite DVD RW to a secondary IDE channel, everything is fine until one puts in any CD/DVD somehow. Then everything freezes.

If a disc is in the drive before booting, it affects the hard drive too somehow. The red LED hard drive light stays on infinitely. Everything, keyboard, mouse freezes again.

Thanks for reading.


----- Original Message -----

Sent: Sunday, November 30, 2003 10:29 AM
Subject: RE: HELP ME AND MY OPTORITE!!


Remove the hardware from the Device Manager in Windows then shutdown.
Try pluging the Optorite in another IDE channel and boot up into Windows and let it recognize the drive.
See if that helps. You need to troubleshoot the problem by eliminating possible causes.

Any other questions, please use the forums.

http://www.extrememhz.com/phpBB

Regards,

--



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: HELP ME AND MY OPTORITE!!


Hi,

I've got a problem where I have a DD0203 Optowrite drive, and when I put in a disc, it gets stuck and windows crashes and freezes. The same thing too, when I reboot. If there is a disc in the DVd writer, the red light on the Hard drive and the DVD RW stays on forever, and eventually, the computer could not detect the hard drive at all.

They both share the same Primary IDE stuff. The 80 gig Hard drive uses Primary Master stuff. (Ultra DMA 5)

Whereas the DVD RW is the Primary Slave drive (Ultra DMA 2)

I updated the firmware to 2.30 version.H

It keeps crashing!! HELP ME!!

Please reply.

[fritzi93]

I'm happy to report that recent Optorite firmware upgrades do indeed improve compatibility in DVD players. Previously, My Apex AD-1200 would only play rewritables (either format). Last night I burned a few movies on cheapie Imation DVD-Rs, and they play perfectly. Apps used were DVDShrink 2.3 and Instant Copy 7.1, using the recommended settings in IC Hidden Settings.

No doubt it would be worthwhile for anyone with a Sanyo dual format burner to upgrade. That is, the Optorite DD0203, I/O Magic IDVDRW4D, Sanyo CRD-BPDV2. Possibly the Optorite 201 as well? Also, is this same burner not sold under the name Sonic (something or other) brand too?

Cheers to Optorite support and jeers to I/O Magic support. I emailed I/O a couple questions requiring only a yes or no answer, whereupon they send me 4.71 ASPI and ignored my questions completely. (As if ASPI wasn't one of the first things I checked on)

[KiNgSiZe323]

I have just recently obtained a optorite dd203 from newegg.
The drive has burned cds flawlessly
I have had trouble burning dvd+rw(optodisk) - it ether has trouble finalizing the disk or it finishes and neither of my stand alone dvd players read it or both of my dvd drives
I am using firmware 2.17
I have tried upgrading using the dvflash but the program stops responding and i have to exit it so i have niot been able to update the firmware.

Is there anyone who has a solution to any of these problems?

-thanx

[TBoneit]

It sounds like you are trying to flash inside of windows. Don't!

Use the DOS Flash firmware upgrade.

Make a clean dos boot disk. to flash from. Not a dos prompt from inside of windows.

make sure the Drive is on a motherboard controller not a add in or raid controller.

It has always worked for me that way when I pre-flash the drives we sell at work after installing them.
Cheers & Good Luck

[tig2002]

It appears that Optorite no longer provides firmware updates for DVD burners in DOS environment (click here). I have never had any issues updating my firmware in Windows XP. You may try setting DD0203 as master, connecting it as the only drive on secondary IDE controller before updating the firmware.

I had problems with Optodisk and will try to avoid using that cheap media even if I see it on clearance shelf for $0.05 a piece. Try better quality media such as TDK or Fujifilm for -/+R, or Phillips for -/+RW.