Liteon LVW-5045 keeps stopping while recording

[DB83]

I may be mistaken but I do not see a 196 UK firmware hack on that site. There is a 197 and a 204 but no 196.

[DB83]

And if you have 'killed' it then I really do take no pleasure in saying that you were warned.

[dbr97]

I may be mistaken but I do not see a 196 UK firmware hack on that site. There is a 197 and a 204 but no 196.

And if you have 'killed' it then I really do take no pleasure in saying that you were warned.

There wasn't a 196 file, so I selected the 204, but it didn't load anyway, or maybe it did and that's what caused it to screw up. Anyway, I felt it was worth trying, but as it was the recording wouldn't do what I wanted. So all it cost was time and the very kind offers to share knowledge from you and our CrazyCanuck friend

[CrazyCanuck]

I've seen bad disc burns in the past, at this point I would suggest to burn a fresh disc and try again.

[CrazyCanuck]

The 204 is just an upgrade, when you load a good disc, you will get a prompt to "UPDATE YES NO", once yes is pressed, the display will show an ascending percentage count to 100%. then you turn off the 5045 and then turn it back on.

[dbr97]

I've seen bad disc burns in the past, at this point I would suggest to burn a fresh disc and try again.

The problem is, when I selected to restore to default it wouldn't start, so unfortunately now I don't have an option to load the CD

[TimA-C]

The only other thing I can suggest is removing the power lead. With it still unplugged, press and hold the power button on the recorder (not the remote) for at least 10 seconds. Plug the power lead in again and try turning it on again. Another long-shot I'm afraid.

[dbr97]

The only other thing I can suggest is removing the power lead. With it still unplugged, press and hold the power button on the recorder (not the remote) for at least 10 seconds. Plug the power lead in again and try turning it on again. Another long-shot I'm afraid.

That was a good suggestion, which made a difference I think. When it restarted I saw the led indicator on the front roll up to 100 then it said done. The screen still flashed on and off, but I noticed it quickly said something about invalid display. I remembered that I had a screen shot of how it was set before the changes, so even though I couldn't see what I was doing, I went into setup, moved the cursor over to the display setting and pressed enter and it then displayed correctly asking if I want to keep that video output setting.

Voila!! Now it's working again.

I put the CD back in, but it didn't start automatically, so using guider I selected play, but it said change disk and ejected it.

I put the 204UK file on the CD using Windows 10. Should it have been a CD-r or a DVD-r?

So anyway it looks like I might be able to continue this investigation at least for another day...

[orsetto]

I put the 204UK file on the CD using Windows 10. Should it have been a CD-r or a DVD-r?

When posting my earlier reply, I initially included my agreement you should heed DB83's emphasis on caution, but you managed to already download the firmware and start the process while I was typing, so I deleted that section. Now seems a good time to add it back in.

First: wait for Crazy Canuck to confirm exactly what type of disc the recorder requires to load firmware properly: if you used CD-R when it wants DVD-R, or DVD-R when it needs DVD+R, installation might fail or or not engage at all. And never use RW erasable media: that almost always causes problems with firmware installation.

Second: don't make the firmware disc using Windows built-in copy/burn tools: they always seem to do something funky when burning this specific type of mission-critical installer disc that kills the whole deal. Instead, burn the disc using the reliable gold-standard ImgBurn utility (free download from VH tools section): it makes flawless clean discs unencumbered by any of the stray hidden Windows file management crap that can trip up an installer package from loading correctly.

Third: you wouldn't ordinarily choose "restore factory defaults" when attempting a firmware upgrade: if thats the only option that appears, the firmware disc probably didn't get recognized properly by the recorder so you should cancel and start over (or just bail altogether). As Crazy Canuck noted, if a firmware disc loads and is recognized properly, the usual response by the recorder is to throw up a display along the lines of " UPDATE? YES NO?". If you don't see an alert like that, chances are something is off with the disc (or the firmware on it)

You might try posting a request for the 197 firmware over at the somewhat more EU-centric AVforums: odds are a bit better there that a UK-based counterpart of Crazy Canuck might see it and offer a link (or be willing to mail you an actual disc locally).

[dbr97]

I put the 204UK file on the CD using Windows 10. Should it have been a CD-r or a DVD-r?

When I posted my first reply earlier, I initially included my agreement with DB83's emphasis on caution, but you managed to already download the firmware and start the process while I was typing, so I deleted that section. Now seems a good time to add it back in.

First and most important, wait for Crazy Canuck to confirm exactly what type of disc the recorder requires to load firmware properly: if you used CD-R when it wants DVD-R, or DVD-R when it needs DVD+R, installation might fail or or not engage at all. And never use RW erasable media: that almost always causes problems with firmware installation.

Second and almost as important: don't make the firmware disc using Windows built-in copy/burn tools: they always seem to do something funky when burning this specific type of mission-critical installer disc that kills the whole deal. Instead, burn the disc using the reliable gold-standard ImgBurn utility (free download from VH tools section): it makes flawless clean discs unencumbered by any of the stray hidden Windows file management crap that can trip up an installer package from loading correctly.

Some very good points, for which I'm grateful

As I had done a reset I thought I'd try another recording and that went well for just under an hour and then it stopped with the message "Protected content", but previously it stopped after about 40 minutes, so I was starting to think optimistically for a while and then that boat sunk...

I will download that burn utility, but will first do as you suggest and wait for further advice.

[CrazyCanuck]

Well that's all good news !!!

The "invalid disc, change disc " message is a clear indicator that the CD is not properly burned.

What firmware is it now showing under the SN when on SETUP and what are the 3 digit also?

Make sure that you pick the HACKED version of the firmware from the site.

Use a fresh CD-R, need to burn the disc, burn the DA1 file only on the disc, finalize the session.

1-Before inserting the disc, Press TARGET to show DISC.

2-Insert disc and wait for "UPDATE YES/NO" prompt.

3-The update might include a disc drive update also, so it could count up to 100% twice, the first one for the drive, if no update on the firmware it will skip to the second for the system.

4-If I remember correctly, the tray should open automatically after a proper update, remove the disc, don't close the tray manually and turn off the 5045.

5-After a proper install of the hacked firmware your SN should show the third series of 4 digits as 0204, might be a change in the fourth set of 4 digits if the update included a disc drive update, and the first 3 digits in the parenthesis should show 610 as you were at region free "0" and the hack drop it down by one cycling the region code to 6.

You will need to do a region change with the remote again.

Once done and region code done the 3 digit series should read as "010".

[CrazyCanuck]

Past UK firmware versions are also archived on the site provided, the 204 file is the latest update for the 5045.

[dbr97]

Well that's all good news !!!

The "invalid disc, change disc " message is a clear indicator that the CD is not properly burned.

What firmware is it now showing under the SN when on SETUP and what are the 3 digit also?

It's the same serial number with firmware 0196 and (200-010D)

[dbr97]

Make sure that you pick the HACKED version of the firmware from the site.

Use a fresh CD-R, need to burn the disc, burn the DA1 file only on the disc, finalize the session.

1-Before inserting the disc, Press TARGET to show DISC.

2-Insert disc and wait for "UPDATE YES/NO" prompt.

3-The update might include a disc drive update also, so it could count up to 100% twice, the first one for the drive, if no update on the firmware it will skip to the second for the system.

4-If I remember correctly, the tray should open automatically after a proper update, remove the disc, don't close the tray manually and turn off the 5045.

5-After a proper install of the hacked firmware your SN should show the third series of 4 digits as 0204, might be a change in the fourth set of 4 digits if the update included a disc drive update, and the first 3 digits in the parenthesis should show 610 as you were at region free "0" and the hack drop it down by one cycling the region code to 6.

You will need to do a region change with the remote again.

Once done and region code done the 3 digit series should read as "010".

When you say press TARGET, where is that? I usually press the Guider button on the remote and play, then it says hard drive or DVD. Is that what you mean or is the target a button on the front?

Also I downloaded the 204UK file? Is that the one I need? You mention a DA1 file

Please forgive what seem like simple questions but I've never done this before and having got it wrong once yesterday I want to be sure about getting it right now.

I plan to look at this in about 2 hours.. around 6pm GMT (around 1pm in Canada?)

[CrazyCanuck]

TARGET should be a button on the remote at the bottom. It will move the indicator on the front display (DISC or HDD).

As long as you picked the file from the "HACKED" section you're good.

The file on the site is in a zip pack, you need to open the pack and extract the LNJCE204.DA1 file from the pack and only burn that file onto disc.

Let me know what the SN number is later on, talk to you later.

[CrazyCanuck]

Just saw the number on your previous post, good, nothing happened yesterday.

[dbr97]

TARGET should be a button on the remote at the bottom. It will move the indicator on the front display (DISC or HDD).

As long as you picked the file from the "HACKED" section you're good.

The file on the site is in a zip pack, you need to open the pack and extract the LNJCE204.DA1 file from the pack and only burn that file onto disc.

Let me know what the SN number is later on, talk to you later.

OK now I understand lot more. What I put on that CD was the 204UK.ZIP file
I didn't realise it needed to be extracted and assumed the Liteon would handle all of that.

Silly mistake, but now I'll be more careful. I checked the remote and I probably have an old one because it doesn't have a button that says TARGET, but I'm assuming it's the button I have highlighted

[Attachment 54801 - Click to enlarge]

[dbr97]

Now another issue. I downloaded the 204UK file again, but when I click on open it fails with a message saying windows can't open it.

I have PKZIP on another computer, so I'll try that. Either that or the ZIP file is no good


[Attachment 54802 - Click to enlarge]

Actually none of the files 201,203 or 204UK would open, but the 197UK file did open so I'll use that

[dbr97]

OK I have some progress to report. I have created pics to show what has happened.

[Attachment 54807 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 54808 - Click to enlarge]

[Attachment 54809 - Click to enlarge]

This is still shown on the Liteon unit and been like that for several minutes. Does the F mean fail?

[Attachment 54810 - Click to enlarge]

[CrazyCanuck]

Yes, that would be the right button, I was going from my ILO remote, just a different name. I'm using RAR as my unzipper and was able to open the 204UK zip file yesterday. The hacked 197 would also work for you.

[CrazyCanuck]

Not sure about the "F" . I think it stands for "firmware". Turn off the 5045 and turn it back on, check the SN, if correctly applied, it will show 0197 as the firmware and the 3 digits should read 110, if so, it's hacked but still need to change the region to 0.

[CrazyCanuck]

Remove the disc!.

[dbr97]

Not sure about the "F" . I think it stands for "firmware". Turn off the 5045 and turn it back on, check the SN, if correctly applied, it will show 0197 as the firmware and the 3 digits should read 110, if so, it's hacked but still need to change the region to 0.

It looks good. It does show 0197 and (111-010D)


[Attachment 54811 - Click to enlarge]

[dbr97]

Now I have applied the REGION and it says

011-010D

[CrazyCanuck]

YES!!! the middle 0 changed to 1 which means the unit is hacked. Now just do the remote region change (SETUP-scroll to EXIT and sit there and press 2960 to open region menu, set a region free and the digits should read 011). Now you have a hacked Liteon which will accept anything you feed it through the line inputs (DVD players, VCRs, laser disc). The 5045 is now also a hacked player if you wish to send the line output to another recorder's line input.

[CrazyCanuck]

FYI. the SN, the first 2 sets of 4 digits refer to the motherboard and the CPU chip on board, the third one we know is the firmware, the fourth is the disc drive firmware which hasn't changed which means that there were no update made to the disc drive with the 0197 update.

[CrazyCanuck]

Beautiful, you're good to go!

[dbr97]

That is fantastic!! Thank you so much. I'm really very grateful for your help with this. Last night I was ready to dispose of it, but now I have just started recording that VHS tape again and hope this time it will keep going to create the full 3 hours.

[dbr97]

This forum will definitely be noted high on my book of useful sites. You and your other friends have welcomed me and shared your knowledge

[CrazyCanuck]

Thanks for the trip down memory lane, haven't had to hack a Liteon/ILO unit since 2009! Enjoy your newly improved 5045!