Page 1 of Which firmware should I flash for the NEC 3500 DVD writer?

Hi again guys,

In anticipation of receiving my NEC 3500 DVD writer on Monday (can`t wait! :) ), I`ve been trying to read a few bits and bobs about upgrading its firmware. There seems to be a lot of work done on the NEC Forums here , but I know a lot of people here have a lot of experience with this drive, so it is your opinion that I`m after. :D

I`m going to need firmware that allows me to back up non-R2 DVDs, and I`m assuming that the drive is locked to R2.

Just to note as well, I`ve had a look at DVD Shrink (looks like a great program!) and also at the DVD Shrink guide at Doom9 , but is there anything else I should know? Any little tweaks that you guys know about? :)

god I hope it arrives on Monday!! lol


Cheers,

EVH

the drive won`t be locked, but you only get to change regions 5 times before it does lock, you can get around this by either using dvd genie (i think thats what its called) or flashing the firmware, but be warned, whilst flashing will give the drive more options (& aparently faster ripping speeds :/ ) if it goes wrong you can easily kill the drive :(

I got a NEC 3500 DVD writer 2 weeks ago, & you can rip a disc without changing the region on the drive. Have a look at this post if you want to do this without buying any regionfree software
Its a lot quicker with the NEC 3500 than the Pioneer 106 I was using when the link was first posted

I`ve just realised that I actually have a full version of DVD Region Free which I use to make my CD-ROM drive region free. Can I assume then that this software will actually fix my problem with the NEC 3500?

I`m a little surprised by the reaction to my comments about flashing the firmware. From the little that I have read up about it, and from what I`ve read previously on this site, I always assumed that this would be the way to go. But heck...as long as the drive is region free I`ll probably not bother. ;)

And in the worst case scenario, I worked out a little while ago how to use "brute force" on DVD Decrypter. :D


Cheers!


EVH

This item was edited on Sunday, 28th November 2004, 08:05

if you`re confident about flashing the drive, that will give you permanent results & probably better performance, i just figured you`d better know the risk involved :D

I flashed the firmware to get the faster writing speeds (reliable 8x on 4x discs now), but it didn`t make it region free. I guess there is a different firmware available which makes it multiregion too, but TBH, I can`t see me "backing up" too many DVDs anyway.

Just to repeat so I`m sure, fellas. :D DVD Region Free - which I currently use in conjunction with my Samsung DVD/CD-ROM - will work for the new NEC 3500?


Thanks again,

EVH

This item was edited on Sunday, 28th November 2004, 12:56

Can`t see any reason why not. Works fine with my NEC 2500.

This item was edited on Friday, 17th December 2004, 19:04

All the info you need will be found on this site

www.cdrinfo.com/forum/tt.asp?forumid=88

It will explain what to do, where to find the firmware, RPC1 (Region free), Riplock (Faster ripping), booktyping etc etc etc. (Though you may to search)

Link should take you to the NEC section.

It also has sections about DVD shrink DVD Decryptor, etc

This item was edited on Friday, 17th December 2004, 19:29

Hi guys,

A couple of months on, I am still considering whether or not to flash my drive. After receiving the drive, I decided not to flash it (see above), but to use DVD Region Free with DVD Decrypter instead. Unfortunately, this did not work, leaving me with a couple of coasters. ;)

The problem is coming to light again because I am trying to backup a R1 disc with Decrypter, using Brute Force method, which eventually works but only after a couple of hours. :o Check out my post here .

Still though, I`m concerned about flashing the drive with modded firmware. Although most have reported good results, with updated firmware others are getting quite a few coasters. See here for the firmware that I`m referring to. My only concern is making the drive region free, not making it go any faster or anything else that might upset the drive.

For this reason I am now considering simply altering the region of my drive. This would allow me one drive for R1 & one drive (the NEC) for R2. I am aware that I only have a certain amount of changes left (3 I think) before my drive is locked to that region, but I cannot think of any reason not to change region on one drive, and keep R2 on the other. This would solve all my problems of backing up R1s quickly. I very rarely backup anything other than R1 or R2.

Can anyone give me any reason why I shouldn`t simply just change the drive region, rather than worrying about problems with flashing modded firmware?


Thanks,

EVH