PC Peripherals Sony/Gigabyte/LiteOn optical drives question

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Darth_Infernus

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It seems that atleast for CDRW and DVD drives, Sony, Gigabyte and LiteOn use the same hardware - the only differences between the drives lie in the firmware.

Now what I'm curious to learn is that what difference exactly would the firmware make? Can it make one drive better than the other despite having same hardware?

So what exactly would be the key differences between the Sony, Gigabyte and Liteon firmwares for the same drives (you can use any drive as example, the Sony CRX230E is the same as Liteon LTR52327S)?

Just wanted to know. :)
 
If the drives are same, you can crossflash. So effectively getting whatever drive is fine. Some versions of firmware may perform better than others in terms of speed/write quality/media support.
 
But the features won't change, right? I mean, if the drive is same, and I crossflash from Liteon to Gigabyte firmware (for example), then it wouldn't be giving me extra features would it (better readability of CDs or better error correction, DVD+R DL support or stuff like that)?

B'coz from what I hear, the firmware is independently developed by the respective companies....
 
You'd get whatever features that particular firmware supports. So if the litey supports something more than the sony and you have the sony drive, if you flash to the litey fw, you get the litey features. This is only applicable for drives that are exactly identical other than firmware. Else flashing wrong firmware will ruin the drive. Also remember that officially, crossflashing voids warranty.
 
& remember that using firmware also voids warranty.

& u also get special or hacked firmwares made by other ppl which are great & allows u burn faster & also write the media better.
 
stormblast said:
& u also get special or hacked firmwares made by other ppl which are great & allows u burn faster & also write the media better.
Click to expand...

...and in the case of DVD writers some let you make the drive Region Free.
 
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