Just got my Optorite DD0203 from accupc.com

[overfiend]

stoner,

when you put in a region1 dvd it will no longer show region free. Same happened to me. Then rerun infotool and dvdinfo to see the manufacturer's region changes left.

[Stoner]

All right, I'll test it out tonight and confirm.

[Tang]

I did exactly as you said. uninstall IAA and then flash the firmware.
Now it's right version and has 8mb buffer. Many thanks.
There are so many intelligent and generous people in this forum, so I may just ask one more newbie question.
Anyone knows between DVDshink and DVD2one which one is a better program to use. Thanks in advance.

[Spitwad]

Both do the job, but you have more customizability (sp?) with DVDShrink. With this you can set the quality of the compression level, delete menus and extras, insert only certain titles and edit where the title starts or stops. With DVD2One you have no choice on the compression level and I dont think you have many of the options DVDShrink has. DVDShrink will take longer to setup the encoding process, and depending on the compression level, it might take longer to encode.

[overfiend]

no problem Tang. Glad I could help.

fiend

[UALOneKPlus]

All right, I'll test it out tonight and confirm.

Any resolution on this issue? I haven't applied the 2.09 firmware update precisely because I don't want the Windows or DVD drive to reduce the # of region changes...

[Stoner]

My bad, forgot all about it... you guys made it sound so horrible, I don't think I want to test it now. Besides, I'm one of those people who has 3 optical drives so they are dedicated to their purpose (DVD-ROM, CD writer, DVD writer).

[firehawk12]

Anyone figure out the DVD-Region "problem" yeT?

[Budman69]

For you guys bitchin about the hard to push eject button, i found that if you push the right corner of the button its easy to push and no "pop" sound...if you push the left side or middle...its hard and loud.
I was wondering why sometimes it was easy then hard
2.09 software been great, all regions, 8 meg buffer...now i surf the net while burning for 20 mins...anyone know what 4x media works?
got some cheapy princo 4x that only burns at 2x..same with kypermedia..only 4x i ever saw burn was the supplied +r

[overfiend]

where the heck did you get a region free 2.09 from? Put a region coded disk in the drive and check again.

all the 4x +R i've tried works. ritek 4x -R works well too. stay away from the princo4x and the khypermedia 4x (cmc magnetics). They're junk.

[doofusdud]

What burning progs are you folks using? Since the upgrade to 2.09, disks recorded with my Optorite do not play on my Sony standalone (dvp-nc655p). Tried B's Recorder (bundled) with a version (5.32) upgrade, Nero, DVD Decrypter and the 321 Studios stuff. After some number of coasters, have gone back to testing with -RW. Switched from the original use of TDK 2x -RW, Memorex 4x -R and Sony 1x-RW which seemed to be OK with orig firmware but now just increase my frisbee collection. Now using Fujifilm 1x -RW and Imitation 1x-RW --which were brands claimed by the mfg. to work with the burner --without much luck. According to forums for 321 (X Copy, X Copy Xpress) they are aware of a problem with this burner and their coders are working on a fix. Maybe some ASPI issue? I'm hittin' a wall here.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

[UALOneKPlus]

...
Any ideas would be appreciated.

Wow, that really bites.

Keep us posted on any fixes!

[griffindoor]

Has anyone tried burning an vcd/xvcd/svcd using hd-burn and was able to play it off their stand-alone dvd player?

[syntax]

Wanted to chip in my two cents on this drive.

Purchased it from NewEgg.com for $199 about 2 weeks ago.

Originally hooked it into my system on a Promise 100TX2 PCI IDE card. This drive did not like the card, and it would not burn while attached to it.
The cards BIOS detected the drive fine, but it would not burn using the enclosed B's software, Nero .42 or DVDXCopy.
I then swapped the drive with my DVD drive and have had no problems at all. (On secondary IDE master)

My DVD drive seems to be happy on the PCI IDE card...so I can keep my 3 optical drives

Flashed the firmware to 1.09 with no problems.

Tried to copy a movie to the included That's DVD+R disk using Nero .42.... did not work.

I have since burned multiple movies to K-Hypermedia DVD-R and burned multiple 1.3GB HD-Burns to both Maxell and Fuji branded CDR.

I have no problems with the disk eject button that other people have mentioned.

I'd like to thank all the previous posters to this thread, you're basically the main reason I decided to purchase this drive and I am very happy with the drive so far.

I found a thread on the Meritline.com forums about media for this drive, and thought I would share it as this media seems to be the least expensive media going right now.

http://forum.meritline.net/showthread.p ... t=optorite

I highly recommend anyone searching for a dual format drive purchase this drive.

I will post and media findings that I discover and hope that others will do the same.

Thanks!

Syntax

[overfiend]

well thanks for the link. I'm sure now NOT to get those 3 media tested. Why pay for 4x media that can only be burnt at 2x.

[syntax]

well thanks for the link. I'm sure now NOT to get those 3 media tested. Why pay for 4x media that can only be burnt at 2x.

Well, I guess it depends on what you have more of...time or money.

I personally do not think $119 for 100 DVD-R that burn at 2X is that bad of a deal....or do you know of a better deal?

Syntax

[overfiend]

i don't have time nor $.

picked up some tdk 4x +r from bestbuy 2 weeks ago for $129.99/100 no rebate. last week had imations 2x -r and 2.4x +r for $1.20ea no rebate. This week also at officedepot or officemax (forgot). I use the 4x when i have like 10 disks to burn and don't wanna waste a whole day. I'm trying out some leaddata (LD code) which burns at 2x at $.79 each. It's annoying cuz it doesn't finalize the disk. Your link showed one w/ leaddata TAO so that confirmed it for me. Some players won't read disks that aren't finalized. Don't ask me why cuz i have no idea. I tried these on my dvdroms and players and all worked until a friend couldn't get it to work on his yamakawa player. But the same disks burned on his sony500a works on his yamakawa so I hope optorite improves -R compatibility on their future firmwares.

[UALOneKPlus]

Wanted to chip in my two cents on this drive.

Purchased it from NewEgg.com for $199 about 2 weeks ago.
....

I'd like to thank all the previous posters to this thread, you're basically the main reason I decided to purchase this drive and I am very happy with the drive so far.

I found a thread on the Meritline.com forums about media for this drive, and thought I would share it as this media seems to be the least expensive media going right now.

http://forum.meritline.net/showthread.p ... t=optorite

I highly recommend anyone searching for a dual format drive purchase this drive.

I will post and media findings that I discover and hope that others will do the same.

Thanks!

Syntax

You're welcome & thanks for your info.

Another convert!!

[Stoner]

1) I'm using Nero 551042 and Fuji 2.4x DVD+R. Not a prob.

2) Optical drives don't like to be put on PCI IDE controllers in general. Put them on the mobo IDE for stability, compatibility, and performance. Put all your HDs on the PCI controller.

3) You want a deal? How about 50 Fuji 2.4x DVD+R for $60 after IR and MIR @ BestBuy? That comes out to $1.2/DVD w/o tax.

[tessel8]

Ok.. thanks to the good commentary on this forum and some of the quick responses from Optorite, I now own one of these babies. The physical installation went fine (internal IDE), but I did have a hiccup when I booted my system. When I first booted, the drive was recognized by the BIOS, but just before it booted, it came back and said that it didn't support ATAPI. When XP boot, the drive was not listed in the hardware manager (the BIOS must have disabled it). I rebooted a few times, trying different things. Then after booting into XP one time, I changed the IDE controller (ICH4 built-in IDE) to PIO mode from DMA and the drive magically appeared. I then flipped it back to DMA mode and everything has been working fine sinse. I am guessing that their outgoing Q&A test at Optorite may have left the drive in some funky IDE mode and changing it to PIO cleared it. This was all with the 2.03 firmware.

I have updated to 2.09 now (without issue). I haven't had the time to do alot of things with the drive. I have burn 2 CD-Rs (Kypermedia 12x, burn at 8x) without any issues. I also just tried my first DVD video burn, which played back fine on my Xbox. This DVD was about 2.8GB of video and was burn on to Memorex DVD+RW using DVD-IT PE to write directly to the drive. So far, I am pretty impressed.

I did notive in Sunday's sale adds that CompUSA (I think) has a buslink DVD+/-RW for $199, which is the optorite price point. Wonder if it is the same drive.

[UALOneKPlus]

...

I did notive in Sunday's sale adds that CompUSA (I think) has a buslink DVD+/-RW for $199, which is the optorite price point. Wonder if it is the same drive.

Congrats on your purchase. I think you made a wise decision.

RE: the CompUSA busTlink deal, see this thread:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=11669

PS: busTlink SUX big time!!!!

[syntax]

1) I'm using Nero 551042 and Fuji 2.4x DVD+R. Not a prob.

2) Optical drives don't like to be put on PCI IDE controllers in general. Put them on the mobo IDE for stability, compatibility, and performance. Put all your HDs on the PCI controller.

3) You want a deal? How about 50 Fuji 2.4x DVD+R for $60 after IR and MIR @ BestBuy? That comes out to $1.2/DVD w/o tax.

Yep, I jumped on that Fuji deal online. Officemax also had a K-Hypermedia 25 pack for $30 after a $7 mail in rabate.
I've got my 16X dvd drive on my pci ide controller now, and its perfectly happy there.

If found a very in-depth review of the drive here:

http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Article ... W&Series=0


Thats too bad about the Leaddata media....$0.79 each would be great.

*EDIT: I forgot to mention that the drives price has dropped again:
http://store.yahoo.com/livewarehouse/frprmashopdd.html

Let's keep this thread moving with more data, it's a wealth of information as it stands

[overfiend]

yea i found 2 players that won't play the Leaddata (LD) disks, yamakawa (dunnomodel#), and sony 715P which is a very good player w/ good compatibility. But using the sony500a burning the same image on same disks work perfectly in those players tested. Too bad the optorite can't burn them correctly.

[noypi2000]

overfiend, I also had problems with Leaddata disc but this is what I found out. I burnt LD disc bought from COMPUSA with firmware 2.09 and it was playable with skipping in my playstation but not on my Hitachi dvd-rom on my laptop. I always used this disc and there was no problems however my firmware was 2.06. So I flashed my drive with firmware 2.06 again and burnt the same move and everything played fine on my playstation and Hitachi dvd-rom. I guess something got broken with cheap dvd-r in firmware 2.09. BTW, I also tried Verbatim datalife plus made by CMC magnetics have the same problem with fw 2.09. In short I am back to using fw 2.06 until optorite releases a new firmware with good dvd-r results and fixed region change counter.

[VEFF]

i don't have time nor $.

picked up some tdk 4x +r from bestbuy 2 weeks ago for $129.99/100 no rebate. last week had imations 2x -r and 2.4x +r for $1.20ea no rebate. This week also at officedepot or officemax (forgot). I use the 4x when i have like 10 disks to burn and don't wanna waste a whole day. I'm trying out some leaddata (LD code) which burns at 2x at $.79 each. It's annoying cuz it doesn't finalize the disk. Your link showed one w/ leaddata TAO so that confirmed it for me. Some players won't read disks that aren't finalized. Don't ask me why cuz i have no idea. I tried these on my dvdroms and players and all worked until a friend couldn't get it to work on his yamakawa player. But the same disks burned on his sony500a works on his yamakawa so I hope optorite improves -R compatibility on their future firmwares.

I got in on the same BestBuy deal: 100 4X TDK DVD+R for $129 + tax.
They work very well, at a full 4X, and have a scratch resistant frosted top coating, unlike most other blank DVDs including HP, Verbatim and Fuji...
I liked them so much, that I ordered another spindle just before the special sale ended.
It was a pretty large amount of money to spend in one shot for media, but they are well worth it IMO...