Just got my Optorite DD0203 from accupc.com

[P1Tom]

I just came from the AfterDawn forum and there is a thread over there where people are having issues all over the place with 2.17. Basically not letting Windows boot up unless they unplug the Optorite drive. They can't flash back to 2.16 because it won't let them past recognizing the drives when it is attached.

It is exactly what happen to me, lucky for me it finally did boot up windows so I could flash it back.

If you upgrade to 2.17 be aware that it may cause you issues. I am sticking with 2.16 until I find out more.

[Telstar]

According to following link by nicw:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=176382

Version 2.17 is for the DD0201 not for the DD0203, Optorite made a mistake by posting the firmware. Do not flash to 2.17 if you have the DD0203 model

[raygay27]

oh my god!
i flashed this before reading thie posts.
but i dun face any issues. so should i stay with it or flash back to 2.16?

[raygay27]

Anyone having issues with Firmware 2.17? I don't know yet but I think it is making my system reset when it has an issue. I tried to burn on some cheap Media and got a Calibration Error, which is no big deal had that happen before, but then my system reset.

Then I was trying out how well Optorite can read my other CD-R's and one of them it couldn't read, said it was blank even though I knew it had files on it. Then it seemed to get stuck and my system reset again.

This didn't start happening until I started using 2.17. I am using XP Pro. Anyone else experience anything like this?

I swithced back to 2.16 and I will let you know if it happen again or not.

i observed that BCLIP is causing erratic reboots of system. after removing the s/w the system seems back to normal again. i tried to locate new patches/updates in BHA page but there isn't any that matches the one that comes with Optorite. anyway faced this issue?

[overfiend]

omfg, that's one big mistake. It's weird cuz my drive is still functioning properly. I even did a +R burn and it was fine. Lemme go check if HDburn works while i'm at it.

[nansenng]

Is anyone using nero 6 with the optorite? I burned my first data disc today and the dvd reads as an audio cd instead of a dvd-r in my dvd-rom drive. I can't figure out what I did wrong when I burned the dvd-r in the ISO format. The strange thing is that the disc appears fine using the optorite.

[xman]

How do you flash back from 2.17 to 2.16? I tried the original 2.16 on WinXPSP1, but all it did was hang. I rebooted my system after waiting awhile and nothing has changed. Still stuck with 2.17. Anyone can help me get back to 2.16?

[overfiend]

flashed back fine here using windows flasher

[pflowing]

Geez, wish I read this before flashing. I flashed to v2.17 last Thursday and I've had the exact same problem P1Tom mentioned above. Now Windows doesn't even recognize my drive and worse yet, the drive doesn't seem to be working at all as it doesn't respond when I push the eject button and the lights do not go on either.

I've tried emailing Optorite twice already (once via email and once via their online tech support form) with no replies thus far. Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this or how to get Optorite's attention?

p

[Bud-man]

OMG!!!....after loading 2.17 few days ago, did burn a few -R's ok but the weird lights, when flashing it opened the tray then flashed..i flashed back ok and didnt have any boot errors, well if something did happen optorite would be responsible and send you a replacement....hopefully.

[naki]

I can't seem to burn at 4x at all, on Ritek G04 running 2.16. Most of the time it will finish burning, but it will be completely unreadable by any drive, including itself. But sometimes I will get focus or tracking error. On one completed 4x disc, it looks like it actually skipped tracks about 2/3 through the dvd. I've tried several media at 2x/4x, about half burned at 2x are ok, the others, are also unreadable by anything. It seems very random, I can burn 2 identical dvds on G04 at 2x, one will read, one won't. Using Nero 6.0.0.11. Any ideas? Or is this an obvious RMA?

[raygay27]

How do you flash back from 2.17 to 2.16? I tried the original 2.16 on WinXPSP1, but all it did was hang. I rebooted my system after waiting awhile and nothing has changed. Still stuck with 2.17. Anyone can help me get back to 2.16?

i faced similar issue here. i m now stuck with 2.17, but my drive is working okay though.hav been doing all kinda burnings.

[fogfire]

I didn't find any problems after using 2.17. But did go back to 2.16

I like the light configuration better on the 2.17. With the black face and both LEDs green it can be confusing. The 2.17 lights fixed this by lighting both when writing.

[raygay27]

my pioneer slot-loading dvdrom 16x(106s)has many problems reading dvdr burnt by dd0203. but i am pretty sure that it is indeed media issue.
too bad that the dvdrom has not released new f/w upgrades for too long!
anyone has similar encounter using this pioneer dvdrom?

[aston]

very suspicious with DVD-R burning with my optorite
many tests, many questions
burn many differents -R media (Bulkpaq, Memorex, Verbatim, Q 4x) and everytime I can't read those dvd in a PC reader (differents brands tested : Liteon 163d, Pioneer 116 & 119R, Samsung), but they play very well in standalone player (Toshiba, Pioneer 535, Sony). Also tried different software.
When I make the same tests with +R media (Imation, Verbatim, Memorex), they play flawlessly in my PC.
The problem is the same with data dvd (impossible to read -R media onto my PC, no problem wih +R)
The big mystery is that the same -R media, written with another burner (a Pioneer) will be read without any problem.
Any clue ?

[naki]

Which pioneer are you burning with? It seems the burn quality with -r on both the optorite's I have here is pretty iffy. I burned only one + disc on it (the one that came with the drive) and it burned 4x great, and picks up immediately in my dvdrom, all my - discs have been real iffy as far as reading regardless of burn speed, in both the optorite drive and my dvdrom, not to speak of the standalone, which is spotty on most of the -r. Definitely looking at exchanging the drive for a new one, is that the dvr106 you burn well with? That's what i'm looking at picking up.

[aston]

don't know the model off the Pioneer sorry, it's a friend of mine who has made the test for me with his burner
for me, it's a pity to have a "multiformat" burner that can't burn -R
no reply from optorite to my mail...

[xman]

I to have been experiencing same problems with DVD-R (Datawrite 4x, Mirror 4x) burnt on my Optorite DD0203 (firmware 2.16). I'm use nero 6 to backup data. The problem is they wont read on my dvdrom!? The disc just spins in the drive like it can't see anything. I burnt the same batch of disc on a Pioneer 105 and they work perfectly on my dvdrom. They also appear to work on the optorite, but that is'nt exactly practical. Optorite needs to serious look into the problems in the current firmware lack of support for DVD-R!!

[raygay27]

very suspicious with DVD-R burning with my optorite
many tests, many questions
burn many differents -R media (Bulkpaq, Memorex, Verbatim, Q 4x) and everytime I can't read those dvd in a PC reader (differents brands tested : Liteon 163d, Pioneer 116 & 119R, Samsung), but they play very well in standalone player (Toshiba, Pioneer 535, Sony). Also tried different software.
When I make the same tests with +R media (Imation, Verbatim, Memorex), they play flawlessly in my PC.
The problem is the same with data dvd (impossible to read -R media onto my PC, no problem wih +R)
The big mystery is that the same -R media, written with another burner (a Pioneer) will be read without any problem.
Any clue ?

yup !this is the issue! dunno why so many dvdroms cant read dvd-r burnt by optorite. i thot pioneer dvdrom 16x(106s) has not got latest f/w to update its media compatibility. seemingly this is not the issue of pioneer but Optorite itself?

[tig2002]

I burn mostly DVD-R media on my Optorite, and so far had very few problems with that format. I was able to successfully burn CompUSA (Princo), Memorex, Ritek and CompUSA (Optodisk) disks with no problems. All burned disks played back on Optorite, EPO DVD-ROM drive, xBox and Samsung home DVD player.

Since many people have different experience with Optorite drive, I suspect that the performance of this drive depends on hardware and software configurations of the system where the drive is installed. In fact, performance of any DVD or CD burner depends on the system configuration. From my experience the rule number one: turn off any anti virus software and get rid of all those fancy icons in the taskbar before burning any CD or DVD. The only thing I have in my taskbar is the volume control, clock and anti-virus auto protect, which I turn off before opening Nero. I also got rid of all programs in Startup folder.

If you ever need to reformat your HDD and install a fresh copy of Windows, I would recommend installing the tools for DVD burning first, try to burn some DVD's, and then add the rest of your programs. See if it makes any difference, and if it does, one of the programs definitely causes problems.

[fogfire]

I run tons of Junk on my system. AMD 2100+ 1 gig of RAM.

I have had no problems with any burns due to software. The one consistent issue I see in the DVD- problems is the Pioneer drive.

Funny, since in tests often used to cite that DVD-R is more compatible, the Pioneer drives contributed the lion's share of problems reading DVD+RW disks also.

One has to wonder if the Pioneer drives are just plane fussy about recordable media. Is the Optorite burning out of spec? or are the Pioneer drives not able to read media that is within spec?

I think making sure the Optorite is MAster of its IDE channel if not alone might be worth looking at for people having general troubles. I have helped install other DVD writers where that made all the difference.

Just some thoughts for the frey.

[Telstar]

very suspicious with DVD-R burning with my optorite
many tests, many questions
burn many differents -R media (Bulkpaq, Memorex, Verbatim, Q 4x) and everytime I can't read those dvd in a PC reader (differents brands tested : Liteon 163d, Pioneer 116 & 119R, Samsung), but they play very well in standalone player (Toshiba, Pioneer 535, Sony). Also tried different software.
When I make the same tests with +R media (Imation, Verbatim, Memorex), they play flawlessly in my PC.
The problem is the same with data dvd (impossible to read -R media onto my PC, no problem wih +R)
The big mystery is that the same -R media, written with another burner (a Pioneer) will be read without any problem.
Any clue ?

Yes, the DVD-R discs (made by both Optodisc and Ritek) burned by the DD0203 cannot be read by my Lite-On 163 DVD-ROM as well. But I'm not too concerned since I burn mostly DVD-Video discs for my DVD players. However, I also have another older Toshiba DVD-ROM which can read these DVD-R discs without any problems.

So this seems to be a compatibility issue rather than quality issue of the discs and burner. So far we have info that DVD-R discs burned by the DD0203 can be read by EPO and Toshiba DVDROM drives, but not by Lite-On, Pioneer, and Samsung drives. I hope Optorite is aware of the issue and working on it.

[overfiend]

the -R incompatibility is not limited to some dvdroms, it's also apparent on some dvdplayers. I have been mentioning it on older posts but no one have those 2 players i mentioned to confirm it. And those players work fine with -R burned w/ sony. So it's the OPTORITE that's the evildoer.

[firehawk12]

Yeah, I've had problems with -R not being able to be read on other drives.

I've tried Maxell, Ritek, even TY discs.

+R Riteks work fine though.

[pablo0025]

READ:

OPTORITE DD0203 BURNED DVD-Rs WILL NOT WORK on the following pc dvd drives.

1. pioneer 106
2. pioneer 105s
3. pioneer 116
4. pioneer 119
5. liteon 163d
6. soundblaster encore drives
7. LOTS OF MORE DRIVES I BELEIVE, BUT I DONT HAVE ENOUGH DATA.

So far... i only know that the burned dvd-rs can be played on the:

1.PIONEER 120


(this is a major problem, you cant share your burned dvds with anyone, because they will not be able to read them.... AND I DO NOT BELEIVE THIS CAN BE FIXED WITH A FIRMWARE, BECAUSE I THINK THIS IS A MAJOR BUG OF THE OPTIRITE0203 BURNING TECHNIQUE ITSELF)


IF YOUR BURNED OPTORITE DVD CAN BE PLAYED IN YOUR PC DVD-ROM DRIVE..PLEASE POST THE BRAND AND MODEL.

IF IT CANT BE PLAYED AND YOUR DRIVE IS IN THE LIST, PLEASE POST BRAND AND MODEL.