Is there any way to find out wheather the gigabyte dvd drive is a rebadged unit and if so what is it? I cant find a region patch for this drive...

The firmware revision might tell you something about the drive. Look in Device Manager. Do a web search on the revision number.

[<b>update</b>]
Better still, once you have the firmware number do a search at <A HREF="http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php" target="_new">The Firmware Page</A>

<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by phsstpok on 10/23/03 11:03 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

I used driveinfo and it showed nothing except "DSY1" as firmware version. Looking in the firmware page and cant find ANY reference to gigabyte dvd drives... whats up with this??


By the way the drive is Gigabyte GO-D1600A (if it helps)

I found this software
http://www.cybermind.com.sg/module [...] tit&lid=46
and used it on my dvd drive. You select the drive and press "disable" and I did that and driveinfo showed "no lock detected" hmmm....
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by rahimiv on 10/25/03 02:34 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

"DSY1" looks a little like the Liteon LTD-166S firmware numbers which are all numbeed "DSxx" but DSY1 is not a valid number (unless it is an OEM number).

You might check the drive for markings that might indicate its source of manufacture but if you don't find anything I don't know what to tell you.

You could try this site, <A HREF="http://digi.rpc1.org/" target="_new">http://digi.rpc1.org/</A>. Supposedly, you'll find tools for checking Liteon drives and forcing a flash if necessary. Maybe the tools will tell if your drive is really a Liteon.

Incidentally, acording to the same site, Lite-on DVD manufacturing (just DVD drives) has become part of JVC.

URL
<A HREF="http://digi.rpc1.org/" target="_new">http://digi.rpc1.org/</A>

<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>

Yep, thats the same tool I used to disable region on my drive... and it worked too. But it doesnt say anything about it being a lite-on drive and a search on the firmware forum reveals nothing on any gigabyte dvd drive. Its not listed as a manufacturer and its almost as if the drive doesnt exist! but its popular in taiwan... Its the only way I can watch "The core" on DVD because amazon will ship dvd's across sea but I cant find it in taiwan (apprantly its just hitting theather in hong kong!)

Damm this region crap... I just wish someone will make a law banning regions... I mean it just encourages piracy that much more because someone in Asia wants to see some movie that isnt available. Guess what, only way he can watch it is to d/l an illegal copy or buy an illegal copy...

Well, at least the region free tool worked for you. I'm sure if and when it becomes necessary Gigabyte will provide updated firmware. Hopefully the region free tool will still work.

Anyway, you got what you wanted, a region free drive or region programmable drive.

If that's not good enough you might try the forums at both <A HREF="http://www.cdfreaks.com" target="_new">www.cdfreaks.com</A> and <A HREF="http://www.dvdrhelp.com" target="_new">www.dvdrhelp.com</A>. Hopefully a user can provide you more information about your drive.

I think you do have a rebadged Liteon but it's just a guess. The drive chipset would proably tell but that would mean opening the drive, plus I don't actually know the chipset used on Liteons DVDROMs. There is no information at the Gigabyte site. I did find a <A HREF="http://tw.giga-byte.com/Peripherals/Support/Firmware/Firmware_GO-D1600A (DVD-ROM).htm" target="_new">support page for the GO-1600A</A> (not easy to find by the way) but it states, "coming soon". Of course, you'll never find region-free info at a manufacturer site.

If it were me, and I was armed with the tools that can force a flash, I might try a Liteon, region-free firmware but that's just me. I really don't recommend it.

I definitely would not try it unless I had a backup copy of the original firmware.

By the way, regarding tools that force a flash. I recommend disconnecting all drives you don't want to flash before you start. This way you won't accidentally flash the wrong drive (it can happen).

I understand the region stuff. The movie industry wants to reap as much money as it can. First they want to collect theater revenues, then pay-per-view money, followed by cable and satellite, next DVD and VHS receipts, and finally television. If DVDs are released too early then the industry would lose money for the other forms of distibution.

This I understand. What I don't understand is why they can't synchronize distribution world-wide. This way they wouldn't need regions and region coding.



<b>56K, slow and steady does not win the race on internet!</b>