Upgrade Liteon lvw-5045 to 400G successfully

[bithead9]

He means erasing at once using the TOOLS in the Liteon.

[CrazyCanuck]

The former HDD upgrade method, you could not erase the whole HDD, you could only erase titles individually. If you did erase the HDD, it would format it back to the size originally intended to be used in the recorder. The new files however, once applied, allows you to erase the whole HDD and retain the full capacity of any size HDD up to 500GB.

[videobruce]

Why would you want to wipe the whole drive instead of just the individual titles (recordings)??

[bithead9]

The SCANDISK that runs at startup (after a power failure) checks the integrity of the disk. If the firmware is not patched the system will revert to the original value for the 5045 it was 160Gigs. That a big loss of data on a 512GB drive. Also the advantage of using the Liteon FORMAT (aka erase tool) is that it is using the exact method that Liteon uses to format the HDD and not one made up from a PC utility. There is some comfort in that. The 512GB patch that MikeB is hosting makes this a no brainer for adding a bigger HDD. No worry about the PC formatting and loss of data on power off.

[videobruce]

Oh boy, I love automatic features that you can't turn off. M$ must of designed this.

[bithead9]

!!Update on the DVD burner :
Here is what I tested: Liton 5045 recorder with a Liteon iHAS122 SATA DVD burner. It PLAYS and FAST FORWARDs ! YAY! First one so far that I have seen work on FF! Next I used a Koutech IO-ASA120 IDE to SATA II Device Adapter. I set the pins to MASTER and tested ERASE of a 4GB RW less than one minute. Did a disk prepare (after erase) took 1 minute. Play a standard DVD, no problems. Copied a couple video to DVD from the HDD and no problems. I think we have another supply of non-IDE drives we can now use in our old faithful 5045 units! And here is a place that sells the adapter: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812240012
I would be interested if anyone else has other adapters that work... Have fun folks!

[frank1218]

Hello all. I am new to this forum but have owned an LVW5045 for several years now and generally have been quite pleased with it's performance. I recently purchased an Iomega Screenplay Pro HD and was immediately dissatified with the user interface which is nowhere as user friendly as the 5045. In any event, like many of you, I have also experienced my share of challenges with my 5045. I followed some of the suggestions in this forum and am in the process now of upgrading the capacity of the unit. Realizing that I night not be able to use the entire drive right away, I installed a 1TB drive and using ERASE was able to format it to 512MB with the hacked software. I also attempted to do the same with the hack for 1TB but the ERASE failed. I would be interested in learning how to modify the code for the machine myself if that's possible. I am also dealing with the issue of a non-responsive optical drive is is pretty much useless at this point except for reading CDs. I noticed posting in other places which suggested using an optical cleaning disc which I tried but it failed to resolve the problem so I assume I'm looking at a drive replacement. I would like to know if there are any plans to take another crack at the 1TB drive hack in the future. Best regards to all.

[bithead9]

Please tell me the type you have. USA or other ? The 1TB hacked firmware is available to test. If you have a hex editor I can direct you for your own tweaking. I will say that the checkum (16bit) of the entire file cannot change. So the values you can hack into the drive cluster size is limited to values that hash to the same sum. You can go here an try the USA 1TB if you like:
http://groups.google.com/group/techassist
the file called 1TB_LNJCU204.DA1.zip is to allow format up to 1TB. I only tested up to 640GB. Please let me know of any results you get. In the USA firmware at offset +247e9e try changing the value to x1E7E1000
or another that allows the checksum to equal 16 bit checksum xEB5A for all bytes in the file. The Liteon software may not handle greater than the 512GB due to the fact that 1TB and 640GB drives did not exist when it was being sold. The biggest were 512GB....I think. Good luck!

[bithead9]

As for optical drives. Get a Liteon IDE unit and it will probably work 99%. You usually cannot use FF after you replace with the newer series Liteon DVD drives. You will also likely need to hack the front bezel/tray to get that to fit properly.

[frank1218]

Bithead - Thanks for the info. Yes my type is US. As per my post, I tried to use the 1TB version and was completely unsuccessful with a 1 TB drive. It would not even process it as 512MB ... the ERASE function simply failed after it ran for awhile. I verified that the version of the software I tested with is already hacked with x'1E7E1000' at offset x'247E9E' and the checksum-16 is EB5A. As I said, the version hacked to 512MB seems to work ok and set up the drive as 512MB. I compared both files and the only difference is that the value at that offset is x'1E3F4F00' in the 512MB version which seems to work.

The issue with the optical drive is quite bizzare. I removed it from the machine opened it up and cleaned the lens manually. I hooked it up to my PC and the drive seemed to function properly. I reinstalled it back into the 5045 and it's completely useless. I will probably just end up replacing it. Just out of curiousity, would you know what OS the chip in the 5045 is running ? Could it be a Linux distribution of some kind ? I am an IBM mainframe systems programmer by profession hence my curiousity about the internals.

[bithead9]

It uses a Linux like OS called VXworks. It is proprietary as in the dev kit you cannot download online. You must pay the vendor like 10 or 20 grand to play with this...
The liteon seems a little more picky than a PC with the optical drives. I don't know why. But it is a more basic OS and probably does not have great error recovery retry logic... hmm. Did you try hacking the value to like 640GB sectors or perhape 750GB ? I definately formatted a 640GB drive using the 1TB fw. There must be a point where the formation routine breaks with the physical drive size. 640gb definately works.

[frank1218]

Can you tell me what value you used to allow 640GB to work ? I assume there are charts available that detail what the maximum sector values are for any given drive capacity or formulas to calculate them. Since x'1E7E1000' (which is 511,578,112) didn't work, I don't believe that a higher value would either. It's reasonable to assume that there must be some other limiting factor that's contained in the code. I guess I can make a copy of the working code and test various values but I am somewhat dubious of the possible results. Without a full copy of the source it's virtually impossible to know all the details of how the machine is designed to function.

[bithead9]

Everything I have done has been experimental. There unfortunately is no source. Maybe you can do a disassemble but that takes eons to decode and decipher. Not worth the time fo an aging device. I can tell you that the following values should work for a 640Gb drive:

Original $'78142000' 172GB 05152 sectors 172,872,433,664 bytes
$'78250000' 317GB 09472 sectors 317,827,579,904 bytes
$'78340000' 446GB 13312 sectors 446,676,598,800 bytes
$'1E3F4F00' 507GB 16207 sectors 543,816,679,424 bytes
$'5D4F4000' 632GB 20224 sectors 678,604,832,768 bytes
$'5C500000' 640GB 20480 sectors 687,194,767,360 bytes
$'1E7E1000' 1006GB 32272 sectors 1,082,868,629,504 bytes
These should also work:

$'3C3F3100' 505.5GB 16177 sectors 542,810,046,464 bytes
$'78430000' 536GB 17152 sectors 575,525,617,664 bytes
$'68440000' 544GB 17408 sectors 584,115,552,256 bytes
$'58540000' 672GB 21504 sectors 721,554,505,728 bytes

$'48620000' 784GB 25088 sectors 841,813,590,016 bytes
$'38710000' 904GB 28928 sectors 970,662,608,896 bytes
$'307C0000' 1065GB 31744 sectors 1,065,151,889,408 bytes
$'2c800000' 1TB 32768 sectors 1,099,511,627,776 bytes

I only tested 5 of these values with my 640GB drive. It is possible that the 1TB just
will not work. Or at last the mfg. you have does not work. Mine is Seagate and the original was a Maxtor.
good luck and let us know of any testing youdo.

[bithead9]

There is also some speculation that the LBA addressing may be used by LiteonFAT and the limit of 40bits could play into the max drive size. I think maybe the Check your drive jumpers to see if there are any that dictate the settings for addressing. If you use a legacy addressing jumper it may work? Just a thought.

[frank1218]

Thanks again for the info. I probably won't have an opportunity to experiment again until next week. I will repost as soon as I have something noteworthy to report.

[richardh]

I have a Liteon LVW 5045 DVD recorder. It still has the original firmware. Its serial number and mfg date are shown in the attached image.

My questions are:

Is there a way to know what the current firmware version is in the machine?

If I should change it to a hacked firmware (version 204), is it possible to revert to the original firmware, if desired?

Thanks,
richard

label1.jpg

[bithead9]

I think you go to the setup screen and look at the serial number. It is formatted like this:
xxxx-xxxx-NNNN-xxxx The third set of numbers NNNN is the firmware version. For USA 0204 is the latest.

BTW - the 193 in that serial# means is is 0197 level as shipped from Liteon factory. Unless it was updated
somewhere that is what will show in the setup serial#

[richardh]

Thank you for the prompt reply.

My on screen serial number is: "0132-0141-0197-B20B (100--100)" (see attached image).

Si I guess I have version 197. I'm looking at installing this one: "http://www.ncc2315.com/ilo/5045/204US.zip"

I have read that some versions won't allow hacking. Does this refer to using Mr Wizard's tool?

The above 204 firmware is supposed to be pre-hacked.

I need the MV disabled but am concerned about destroying an otherwise perfectly functional (and very good) DVD recorder.

Thanks, richard

[CrazyCanuck]

Hi richardh, I would suggest that you stick with the 197 firmware. There are some mixed reports that state that the hack does not work past the 197 version by some users so it is recommended to stick with 197. All firmware versions past 197 had no fixes or new features under than media compatibility. By reading your S/N, I can tell it's not hacked. The string in brackets at the end show (100-010D), the first digit (1) indicates the region of the recorder now set at Region 1, the second digit (0) shows that the Macrovision is enabled.

Once you flash the recorder with the hacked version of 197, the digits in the bracket will show (010-010D) which will mean that the region is now set at (0) region 0 (region free) and the second digit (1) is set at macrovision disabled.
Here's a link to the hacked versions, http://www.ss3f.com/ilo/5045/index.htm [url].

Make sure to burn a CD of the US version, do not change the name of the file, do not just drag-and-drop, do a "restore" through the set-up function, insert disc and choose yes as the option offered. I always do my upgrades on a nice day as a power outage during the flashing process would destroy recorders. And yes you can flash back the 5045 to any of its firmware versions.

If you have been reading this thread then you are aware that there's also an upgraded 5045 firmware version, developped by bithead9, that allows you to install a larger HDD in the 5045.

I've had a fair number of Liteon and clones over the last 5 years (approx. 20 recorders), some I still use, I've kept a few spares, others sold or gave away to family and friends and I've flashed all of them with the hacked firmwares, never had any problems.

Good luck

[richardh]

Thank you Mr CrazyCanuk.

Yes, I've read about bithead9's firmware but where can I get it? None of the links mentioned in this thread work. One goes to forum that requires registration but registration has been disabled!

Also, is the unhacked 197 firmware available anywhere, just in case I wanted (or needed) to restore it?

Thanks again, richard

[bithead9]

The 197 version and others are available here:
http://www.ss3f.com/ilo/
They have various version of fw both hached and unhacked. I have a 5045 with 204 and the MV and region hacks work fine. You can always flash back to the 197 version. The 204 is way more reliable for scandisk and various bugs that were reported between 197 and 204.... You can def. get the 0197 hacked version at the site above. It will work the same as what you have now. Good luck!
This link has the 512GB and 1TB version (prehacked) of the 0204 USA fw:
http://groups.google.com/group/techassist
No registration required. Its an open link to the files...

[richardh]

Mr bithead9:

Are you saying that I could install the 204 hacked version and retain the ability to downgrade to the 197 hacked version if I so desired? What I was thinking was that, I think I'd like the ability to re-flash the original 197 firmware (don't know why - just seems like a good idea).

Your first link doesn't seem to have what I was wanting - the unhacked US 197 version. Do you know if that's available anywhere?

Thanks, richard

[bithead9]

Not sure why you need the 0197 unhacked. It has two bits set different from the stock firmware. One sets the region to zero and the other flips the macro bit on (to disable copy protection). Why you would want the stock firmware is beyond my comprehension. These units are LONG out of warranty. Liteon will not give two hoots if you hacked the thing out of warranty. Plus you are more likely to be able to fix the unit yourself by replacing the HDD or DVD mech and it will cost much less $. If you really want the 0197 stock I can dig it up.

[bithead9]

OK check the Google techassist link again. I put 197USRevB.ZIP
and 197USRevA.ZIP up there.

[richardh]

Thanks again!

Finally mustered enough nerve to apply the 204 hack. All went well and everything seems to be working fine.

However, looking at my new serial number, I noticed that the MV bit is now a "U"!

Not that it matters, but has anyone else encountered this?

richard

[bithead9]

I will check my 5045. It is a REV A just like yours. It works fine withn 0204 fw update. You will likely be OK too. If you used the 512GB 204 firmware then some day when you need to replace your hard drive or want a bigger one you can upgrade to a 512GB drive and fit about 4 times the amount of video. Nice.

[markpaul]

I check the firmware for this unit from the Phillis website and it is way different than the original. It does not contain the eyecatchers that the Ilohacker or the HDD hack looks for ...It does contain strings that show Wind River systems and LSI logic. So it may be hackable... We might need Mike to take a look at the newest firmware. I definately have one user that PMed me saying they update their phillips DVDR520H using the fw I have posted. So it does work for that unit. Maybe they changed the dev kit. I think Windriver got baought by Intel ?? I forget.. but they would def. changed things and the newer phillips would use the new api calls, etc.

Did anyone (Mike?) ever take a closer look at the firmware for the Philips DVDR3350H? I just got this DVR and 80gb is too small. The firmware is way different. It has 3 files to install, two ".CUB" files and a ".bin" file. I'm willing to run a test if someone has come up with somthing.

[richardh]

While I've been using this fw successfully for the most part (mv is gone), I have encountered a few issues. It's guaranteed the machine won't be able to close the disk without ejecting and reinserting it first. Also, I've had a few times where it stops recording for no apparent reason. And just today it locked up at 99% while copying a 1.5 hour video to a disk (the same brand I've used all along).

[bithead9]

Richard. Sorry to hear that. Was the older firmware 197 better for you ? You can always go back. Most folks seem to use the 204 (including me) with no issues. Now I have replaced by DVD drive so it could be your DVD unit is getting old and not finalizing properly. I have the problem too. Of course if you flash back to 197 and all is well then you must have a unit with some other issue. Since my Litey is REVA also.

[richardh]

It doesn't matter at this point. The project is finished and I'm very grateful to you and the others for helping me. It's very possible I will never use the DVR recorder again.

Thanks,
Richard