Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

hldan · 02:28 AM

Hi, sorry to beat this thread to death but I want to try the Superdrive firmware update so I will have 2x burning on my 17"Powerbook. So far most people in this forum have talked about their TiBooks and 12"PB's only but hardly anyone has said anything about their 17"PB.
I know the firmware update will only increase the DVD burning speed since the CD-R burning is already maxed out at 16x.
So my question is has anyone done the firmware update on their 17"PB and if so was it sucessful and did the CDR burning remain at 16x (very important to know) and were there any side effects and does all media work with the Superdrive after the update such as DVD+RW, DVD-RAM and so forth.
Any feedback appreciated. I'm sure other 17" owners want to know about this as well.
Thanks!

Karim · Aug 24, 2003, 12:08 PM

I did it yesterday. So far 2x DVD is working fine. I've burned a couple of DVD-R's (data).

One Apple media I tried actually burned at 1x. I tried again and then it did it at 2x. Even though both disks were 2x rated.

Haven't tried CD-R since the update but will try it shortly...

tritonus · Aug 25, 2003, 02:19 AM

I didn't do it.

16x CD-R is important to me, 2x DVR-R is not so important.

When there will be a downgrade path to DWDB (original 17" PB firmware), I'll consider it. Or when Apple will release an official firmware.

- - e r i k - - · Aug 25, 2003, 06:49 AM

Works for me. This was my #1 pet peeve when I purchased the 17". A true upgrade this is

Link · Aug 25, 2003, 07:13 AM

When i talked to an apple person the day I got to mess with a 17" (back when they were first announced) he actually said the drive was capable of 4x burning (which I believe.. is not the case)..

apparently it was limited to 1x for heat reasons.. 2x gets the machine hot enough to be a problem, or at least this was the case on the early models.

Then again.. the heat is worth it burning in half the time isn't it?

jsiburt · Aug 25, 2003, 08:13 AM

I've got too much invested to play around with an non-Apple firm ware update.

Maybe after it as depreciated I'll hack it, but until then I'm happy with my baby the way it is.

blot · Aug 25, 2003, 08:16 AM

I have not done so too (no requirement to burn DVD-R yet). What I really need is a RPC1 firmware.

Axo1ot1 · Aug 25, 2003, 09:48 AM

I just got a 17 incher the other day. Do I need to upgrade the firmware already? What does the upgrade do?

Karim · Aug 25, 2003, 10:42 AM

The update is an unsupported "hack" that gives 2x DVD writing. You don't NEED to update to it, although I have noticed no detrimental side effects.

Axo1ot1 · Aug 25, 2003, 02:18 PM

Hmmm. The computer came with a piece of 2X media, so I assumed it was 2X. Where can I download/get more info on the hack?

Eug · Aug 25, 2003, 02:32 PM

Originally posted by Karim:
The update is an unsupported "hack" that gives 2x DVD writing. You don't NEED to update to it, although I have noticed no detrimental side effects.

No it isn't a hacked firmware. At least not quite.

AFAIK, it's a real firmware from Panasonic, stuffed into an Apple updater.

Axo1ot1, look here.

stevesnj · Aug 25, 2003, 04:05 PM

Is this Firmware update supported by Apple? If not and if something happens I will have to pay to get it fixed?

Eug · Aug 25, 2003, 04:17 PM

Originally posted by stevesnj:
Is this Firmware update supported by Apple? If not and if something happens I will have to pay to get it fixed?

There is a downgrader, but it downgrades to D0CB, which is what the TiBook and the 12" use, not the 17"'s DWDB.

djjava · Aug 25, 2003, 05:16 PM

Originally posted by jsiburt:
I've got too much invested to play around with an non-Apple firm ware update.

Maybe after it as depreciated I'll hack it, but until then I'm happy with my baby the way it is.

ditto.... not worth it right now. waiting for an Apple Update (and if they don't, oh well).

Disko_matt · Aug 25, 2003, 09:38 PM

I did it. It works great. Burning a 4.3g DVD took 25 mins. Rockin.

hldan · Aug 26, 2003, 02:26 AM

Originally posted by Disko_matt:
I did it. It works great. Burning a 4.3g DVD took 25 mins. Rockin.

Disko_matt, now that you have 2x DVD burning does your 17"PB still burn CD-R's at 16x? That was the major question that I had. Some people are saying that Toast is showing 8x CD-R burning on the 17"PB after the firmware update even though the DVD now burns at 2x.

Karim · Aug 26, 2003, 05:49 PM

I checked and Toast 5.2.1 still allows for 16x CD burning. DVD burning at 2x also works.

No side effects noted after several burns.

jia_zhuang · Aug 27, 2003, 02:33 PM

What about the heat? Does the drive feel hotter to the touch? I'm thinking of doing it too but just don't want anything bad to happen to my baby.

Karim · Aug 27, 2003, 06:37 PM

Heat is not a problem. Doesn't feel any warmer than normal. No wierd behavior of the computer. I have Temperature Monitor on my PB and it doesn't show any abnormal rise in temp.

I'd say go for it and don't look back.

jia_zhuang · Aug 30, 2003, 08:13 PM

OK, just downloaded the update and installed it. now burning a 4.2Gb disc with Packard Bell DVD (unknown speed rating) and choose the 2X option. However it seems for every 1 second to pass on Roxio 2 seconds passes in the clock, and now 15 mins passed the DVD has only completed 6 mins of work. I'm wondering if this is just because maybe the DVD media isn't rated for 2X??? Those of u who have done the update can u confirm that buring a 4.3GB disc with 2X media completes within 25mins? Thanks all!

tritonus · Aug 31, 2003, 02:48 AM

You might wanna wait for this:

"Panther to support DVD+R/DVD+RW: In recent builds of Panther (7B49 notably), the Finder has been built with icons to properly display DVD+R/W discs mounted on the desktop. Although Apple's firmware for its various Superdrive vendors disables DVD-RW and the "DVD+" formats where supported by the drive hardware itself, this is a strong indication that Apple may be planning to support those standards in the near future. Whether this development will apply only to certain new machines or will be useable on any Superdrive is still not known, but hopes are high that this will soon no longer be an achilles heel of the platform."

Source: www.macosrumors.com

Karim · Aug 31, 2003, 05:40 AM

I talked about this on another thread. I did notice the same thing: Burning a DVD where 2x was selected but actual time indicated 1x.

I tried different media and then got actuall 2x burning.

The drive seems to be picky on which 2x media it will really burn at 2x.

Newer Apple media work well at 2x. Haven't tried other brands yet.

tritonus · Aug 31, 2003, 12:25 PM

Originally posted by jia_zhuang:
OK, just downloaded the update and installed it. now burning a 4.2Gb disc with Packard Bell DVD (unknown speed rating) and choose the 2X option. However it seems for every 1 second to pass on Roxio 2 seconds passes in the clock, and now 15 mins passed the DVD has only completed 6 mins of work. I'm wondering if this is just because maybe the DVD media isn't rated for 2X??? Those of u who have done the update can u confirm that buring a 4.3GB disc with 2X media completes within 25mins? Thanks all!

Same happens to me when burning CD audio with my cheap media (8x instead of 16x).

parsec_kadets · Sep 1, 2003, 12:48 PM

Originally posted by tritonus:
You might wanna wait for this:

"Panther to support DVD+R/DVD+RW: In recent builds of Panther (7B49 notably), the Finder has been built with icons to properly display DVD+R/W discs mounted on the desktop. Although Apple's firmware for its various Superdrive vendors disables DVD-RW and the "DVD+" formats where supported by the drive hardware itself, this is a strong indication that Apple may be planning to support those standards in the near future. Whether this development will apply only to certain new machines or will be useable on any Superdrive is still not known, but hopes are high that this will soon no longer be an achilles heel of the platform."

Source: www.macosrumors.com

Ok, I see a few problems with your assumption here. First, MacOSRumors.com doesn't have the greatest track record when it comes to rumor accuracy. Second, even they admit that Apple could only allow support for these formats in future models and leave current SD owners hanging. That's exactly what they did with the last revision of the PowerMac before the G5. Those computers have USB 2 ports, but the firmware cripples them to USB 1.1. Now the G5 is out with USB 2, but there is no word of a firmware update for the older PowerMacs. Third, Apple could be including support in the OS just so third party drives will work correctly. It doesn't mean that they will allow DVD+R or other formats on the drives they build into their machines.

On a side note, remember that Apple believes that eventually all of this will be moot because DVD-R/W will be selected as the standard format. Apple expects that five years from now you'll be at Best Buy or CompUSA, see a pack of old DVD+R discs, and say "Why the hell would anyone buy that crap? Everything uses DVD-R these days." This explains why it has taken Apple so long to include support for the other formats in OS X. They thought that the standard recordable format would have been selected by now and that it would have been DVD-R. Personally, I think they should have known better considering it took the industry until 2000 to choose the standard format for non-recordable media.

jia_zhuang · Sep 7, 2003, 09:10 AM

Thanks Karim, I've just burned a DVD with 4.4GB of data in 28mins! The 2X speed works great! I used the Apple brand 2X DVD media. I wonder tho, perhaps the reason Apple decided to slow the drive down is due to premature aging and so slowed it to make its lifespan longer?

Karim · Sep 7, 2003, 11:19 AM

Originally posted by jia_zhuang:
Thanks Karim, I've just burned a DVD with 4.4GB of data in 28mins! The 2X speed works great! I used the Apple brand 2X DVD media. I wonder tho, perhaps the reason Apple decided to slow the drive down is due to premature aging and so slowed it to make its lifespan longer?

Drives are rated in MTBF (Mean time between failure). They also have a duty cycle expressed in a %. Basically they use the duty cycle to allow them to report a higher MTBF.

So, if you multiply the MTBF x Writing duty cycle you will reach the average number of hours your drive can write before it is expected to fail.

The Pioneer DVR-A03/04's have a MTBF of 60,000 hours with a duty cycle of 20% for reads or writes.

I don't know the exact specs for the optical drives in our powerbooks but using the desktop #'s as reference lets us know that if the drive just sits there, whish isn't likely, it should break around 60,000 hours.

But, if we use the drive all the time reading or writing, which isn't likely either, the average failure should be around 12,000 hours.

Writing DVD-R's at our old speed would mean we can write around 12,000 full DVD's.

If we didn't change the MTBF by upgrading our firmware, now we could write 24,000 DVD's.

But, if we halved our reliability by the higher speed, were still no better or worse off in terms of failures.

So, I say go for the speed!

nobitacu · Sep 8, 2003, 03:45 AM

While it would be great to be able to burn my dvd in half the time at 2x, this is still not a offical firmware, so... I'm not going to risk it at this time, too much money put into this thing to risk it. IF more people with 17inches use this without any problems later on, than I might think about giving it a go. Other than that, my hope is that Panther will somehow fix this problem and let us be able to burn dvds at 2x speed, if not, faster. 4x anyone?

marselen · Sep 8, 2003, 07:17 PM

I've taken the plunge and installed the firmware. So far, it seems that with generic media, there is no improvement in speed. Toast reports 2x DVD burning, but it seemed to take just as long as before the upgrade.

I have some Apple DVD media, but have nothing to burn just yet. Will report back when I use the Apple media.

P.S. No problems burning DVDs or CDs.

marselen · Sep 18, 2003, 10:07 AM

Just got my hands on some Apple 2x DVD media and the firmware upgrade DOES indeed lead to a 2x dvd burn. I just finished a 4gig (of photos) dvd burn in 28 minutes. Toast quoted 25 minutes remaining at the beginning of the session, so that's pretty accurate. This is an awesome upgrade!