Storage Solutions DVD-5 overburning feature in slim IDE DVD writers

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Recruit
Hi everybody!
I've a few questions regarding DVD overburning.
Particularly, I'm referring to the slim IDE/ATA internal DVD writers coming with laptops about 10 years ago (Pioneer DVR-K17A, in my case, but I could get other second-hand models of other brands, if necessary). I've known that the majority of burners doesn't support DVD-5 overburning. Are the slim internal IDE DVD writers different from the normal IDE ones for desktop PC (in terms of DVD overburning support)?
As far as you know, is there 1 or more models of IDE internal DVD writers (of any manufacturer) that is actually able to overburn DVDs?
Or this feature only belongs to DVD writers of desktop PCs?

After all, this operation just concerns the writing beyond a certain number of sectors.
So, if the firmware contains a limit of sectors beyond which the burner cannot write, what about finding and raising that limit in the firmware file?
Is that possible, theoretically?
 
Pioneer DVR-118 22x (IDE) with minor tweak in the firmware over burning is possible . But you will need a SPI programmer to reprogram the Burner Rom Chip .
 
Thanks for your tip!
The model you mentioned is a bit different from the one I own: mine is slim (for laptops), while yours is standard for desktop PC. But actually this could be irrelevant.
Since I don't have a SPI programmer, what if I use Devilsclaw's Flasher (or other utilities that you think are better, if you can give me a tip on this point) to extract the firmware from my burner, then open it with Hex Workshop (or other software more suitable, if you think there is), apply the minor tweak you were referring to and finally flash the modified firmware (always using Devilsclaw's Flasher)? Does it sound good?

My Pioneer is already able to overburn CDs but not DVDs yet. Is this a similar situation of the burner you mentioned before applying the tweak?
 
Ok! Let's opt for a DMI tool!
Would you suggest a specific one?
Consider that, if it can be relevant, my laptop is an old Clevo D470W and last time I flashed the BIOS, I did it via floppy disk since its motherboard doesn't support boot via USB pendrives.
 
First up, I had to get the media identiciation code of the . Use an application called DVD Identifier to do the job. It’s just a matter of popping in the blank disc, running the application and clicking the Identify button on the BD-R/-RE tab.

DVD Identifier - Shintaro BD-R Results

As we can see, there’s quite a bit of information there including burn speeds supported by the disc, number of layers, capacity and type. However, the details in which I was most interested were the Manufacturer ID (“CMCMAG”) and Media Type ID (“BA5”). We’ll see why later on.

The next step was to extract the firmware from my burner so I could examine its contents. Sounds scary and perhaps rightly so for people who don’t normally poke around in the nether regions of device memory! The utility I used for this is called Flasher (otherwise knows as Devilsclaw’s Flasher). There are versions available for:

  • Linux (32-bit),
  • Mac OS X,
  • Windows (32-bit and 64-bit).
I used the 64-bit Windows version and ran it from an administrative command line to make sure I didn’t run into any problems with being unable to access my burner’s internal memory. I then executed the following commands after navigating to the folder containing the flasher (and note case sensitivity):

  • flasher -D
    • this gives you a list of all optical drives in the computer and their ID numbers.
  • flasher -d x -m main_firmware.bin
    • this contains the Manufacturer ID and Media Type ID data for the drive – replace x in the command with the ID number obtained in the last step corresponding with the drive from which you want to extract firmware.
After a while the utility should have done its job.


Flasher - Extract Burner Firmware

Don’t close the command prompt as you will need it later on.

The next step is to check out the extracted firmware with a hex editor and I used Hex Workshop. Fire it up and open up the main_firmware.bin file that was extracted in the last step. We want to do a text search for the Manufacturer ID (CMCMAG) in the file which you can do as follows:

  • Hit Ctrl + F on the keyboard,
  • On the Criteria tab select Text String from the drop down menu,
  • In the Value box type in “CMCMAG”,
  • Click OK,
  • The first matching value will be highlighted and in its vicinity you should also find something resembling the Media Type ID (something similar to “BA5” that we identified for the Shintaro disc that started this exercise),
  • Hit F3 if you don’t find the exact Media Type ID or something close to it.
In this example, the sixth hit found something of interest:


Hex Workshop - GGW-H20L YL07 Firmware Typo

Eleven characters along from the sixth hit is the text “BB5” which looks like a Media Type ID. This text is odd as the two prior references to the Manufacturer ID of “CMCMAG” had Media Type IDs of “BAx” where x was a number. Potentially, the “BB5” is a typo and was meant to be “BA5” so I am going to try changing it to “BA5” and save the firmware file under a new filename in the same folder like “main_firmware_new.bin”.

So now, we need to flash the firmware to our drive. Needless to say you should bear in mind the following:

  • Updating your burner’s firmware has the potential to really mess up your burner from minor weird behaviour through to complete lack of operation,
  • Uploading unofficial firmware can void your burner’s warranty,
  • Don’t turn off the computer while the firmware is uploading,
  • Updating your burner’s firmware has the potential to really mess up your burner from minor weird behaviour through to complete lack of operation (yes, I’m saying this again).
To upload the firmware, go back to the command prompt window and type in the following command:
  • flasher -d x -f main_firmware_new.bin

Flasher - Upload Updated Burner Firmware

During flashing of the updated firmware, the light on your burner should flash.

After flashing, you may find that the drive may have also ejected the tray and is now unresponsive. Don’t be alarmed, just shut down your computer (i.e. power it off, not just a reboot) and it should come good during the subsequent boot up. The tray should also retract by itself by you can manually retract it yourself at this point by pushing the button on the front of the drive.

Once back up and running, the true test is in burning to our problematic disc. So how did I go?


CDBurnerXP - Successful Burn


Source :http://mingersoft.com
Credit goes to original Author Boyd Chan


Hope this helps you .
Regards
 
Good! As I said a few days ago, it's necessary to extract the firmware and then edit it (no need of SPI programmers and DMI tools then?).
Actually, the 32-bit version of Devilclaw's Flasher doesn't work and Hex Workshop is just shareware. So, even if these are the programs that I mentioned previously, I've preferred to download a very useful utility (DVRTool) able to dump and flash firmware for Pioneer DVR writers. Then, for firmware editing I've downloaded a freeware program from sourceforge and I've opened the extracted firmware. At that point, I've noticed some interesting strings that could be suitable for being modified, but I need someone who perfectly knows this stuff.
Anyway, you wrote that a minor tweak in the firmware of Pioneer DVR-118 enables overburning feature. I'd be really glad to know what this minor tweak consists of. You can post links of related articles or directly explain this minor tweak if it's something very simple. Thank you in advance!
 
Sure, I'm a beginner with Hex code but I'm getting more and more familiar thanks to articles and tutorials on the web.
Of course, any change will be made in a copy of the extracted firmware. If the results are not satisfying, I can easily flash back the original firmware.
Please, explain this tweak as easy as you can.
 
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