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Installation
Installation is simple. It appears as "Optorite
DVD RW DD0203" in the WinXP device manager as shown above. No additional
steps necessary as far as installation goes.
Firmware
The most important thing to do when you install
any CD or DVD writer is to first check the manufacturers website for any
firmware updates.
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**click to enlarge** |
**click to enlarge** |
To check the drives information, we used Nero 6
Info Tool. The drive shipped with firmware version 2.06 and if you
notice on the screenshot to your left, the buffer size is only 4MB. This
is less than the advertised internal buffer of 8MB. When upgrading it to
their latest firmware (2.11), the drive now shows the 8MB internal buffer.
Something quite shocking that I would like to share with you was my response
from Optorite regarding the changes made in their latest firmware.
I have ALWAYS been able to obtain a list of changes for any firmware update,
however, Optorite does not provide consumers with this information. This
is quite upsetting. I emailed their tech support department and
their response was as follows:
"Firmware updates normally improve media
compatibility and stability. Unfortunately, we do not receive a list of
changes from our engineers regarding specific media improvements."
This is a big no no in my book. I
think it is extremely important for the manufacturer to provide consumers with
this information, especially with DVD burners. One reason is media
compatibility. If additional media support has been added, I would like
to know what brands that way we don't end up wasting money on incompatible
media. I seriously hope they change this policy in the near future or
eventually release update data to consumers. As we mentioned
above, one thing we do know is that their latest firmware updates the internal
buffer to spec.
I have also read that some people have
encountered problems with their firmware utility on a WinXP machine.
In our case, we received the error above when launching the utility but we
simply hit OK and continued with the update. The firmware updated
successfully and a reboot was required.
The excellent new Nero 6 Ultra Edition had no
problems identifying the Optorite DD0203 and is fully supported. It
identified the 8MB buffer and new firmware.
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