What is firmware for a DVD Burner?

[sudzytwo]

A suggestion was given to me to update the firmware to help the DVD burner work. I only got a little book with the DVD burner and no software. I'm using Windows XP Home and it found the DVD burner originally.

[sacajaweeda]

Check the manufacturer's website for an updated firmware download for your burner.

[indolikaa]

Firmware is the set of control codes that dictates how your burner behaves. By updating firmware, you can allow the burner to do things it could not do before. One of the most common reasons to update firmware is to make a DVD burner compatible with recordable media that it previously would not recognize, or burn properly.

Firmware also controls telemetry. Updating your telemetry could allow, for instance, a DVD burner to read HD-Burn'd discs where it could not previously read them. Or, as has been widely discussed (and widely prayed for) a firmware upgrade could allow a DVD burner to burn dual-layer media where it was not originally designed to do so.

What model of DVD burner are you using, and what problems are you running into? A firmware update is not the catch-all fix for DVD burner problems. Sometimes (gasp) the problem can be Windows related as well...