Warning for those about to buy a DVD+-RW with an Asus

I have the Mat****a UJ-845S and burn some DVD's (TDK DVD+RW 1-4x) and till now no problems.
Also normal CD's (Philips) no problem.
And i don't test the speed, because i always lower the speed setting.(no hurry here)

 

I'm very dissappointed with my Matshita UJ-845s.

I didn't know I had to use a DVD Region Free program not to lock the optical drive.

Since there's only 5 chances to alter the Region, I only loaded 5 DVD's without noticing that I'm gonna lock it and have this annoying problem.

THe laptop is only 5 months old and can't watch any further DVDs on it .

When I sent to Panasonic, they replied to me, "Questions relating to this optical disk drive are answered by PC Manufacturer technical support staff or other qualified agent of the complete system."


Asus didn't help that much either...:S

I'm very frastrated.

 

Is that true, do the Asus DVD drives lock after 5 uses? I guess you could also run DVD region+CSS Free in the background to avert the issue...but It's good to know none the less.

What steps are other new Asus owners taking?

 

Its true CC. None of the region free program work on the matshita drives =(

 

Any idea what branding the drive of the A8jm is? (Canada)

 

Are you serious, so what are people doing to get around this?

 

That's the same question I'm trying to answer myself...

Don't know...:/
I'm in this situation....

 

As a whole, Panasonic makes good technology. I'd be surprised if it was an inherent flaw of the drive, rather than the media as has been speculated.

 

Holy crap... what does all this mean? (I'm clueless). My new DVD drive will stop working after 5 uses??!! Someone please advise, because now I am totally confused. Thanks.

 

I'm just guessing they mean you can only change the region of the drive up to 5 times. DVDs have different "versions" and each "version" is only playable on the matching version DVD reader. (e.g. region 1 dvds can be only played on region 1 dvd readers). Computer DVD readers can change its region--it can change it's own region so it can read different region's dvds. But only up to 5 times.

 

it just means you can alter the dvd region code 5 times and then it is locked for good. the region code tells the dvd player where the dvd your using is from. if you only use dvds or burn dvds from your region (ie, the US), its not a concern for you. if you get dvds from korea or phillipines (cuz its dirt cheap there) and wanna play em or make copies, you gotta change the region code to read it (or have a region-bypassing software in use).

Here in Hawaii, I know a lot of guys who make business trips to Korea and Phillipines, so region codes are of concern to them.

 

Yes that's it

I have inserted only 5 dvds and they happened to be from different regions, without noticing. Actually, I was not even aware of all this!!!

Now I'm a bit worried what to do since the laptop is only 6 months old, still with warranty and cannot load no DVDs.

Now I have a shiney new slot OD Drive without any use

 

I thought the ODD locked onto the last region to be used after 5 changes, so you can only play DVDs from that region or multi-region (region 0) DVDs. If my memory is correct, one way to make a region 0 DVD is to use DVD Shrink.

John

 

Well i have to say that is thread is a rather interesting read, BUT I really dont see what all the fuss is about. I''ve bought 3 notebook in the last 6 months, two had TSST drives (one with light scribe and still working great) (the other TSST one needed replacing) and the latest with a Matshita UJ-841s .
All the drives wrote +R's and -R's at 8x without a problem at all no matter if i used the no-name DVD my company i work for makes, or if i used Imation or TDK, or mitibishi they all wrote at the speed that the disk said.

Looking into my desk draw I can see about 60 disks that I've burnt recently, there are only about 3 disks in there that didnt write properly - ie, falied.

If anything I've found my new Matshita to be the most quiet of the lot while reading and writing!

I've always used Nero, and dont have a problem with it. I'm sure there will be some faliures from all manufacturers, thats natural! I think some of you just have aweful bad luck


Ok I didnt read every post in this thred, only around half of them, but I cant see how this affects anyone personally. This insight was just given by a member here to give everyone a heads-up, if you dont agree that fine, your experieces may be different!. I'm 80% sure no one buys a notebook based on the drive it comes with, so I think its a total non-issue.


Insane

 

that's true Insane,

I have no -ve complaints, whatsoever, for Matshita, regarding, burning +R's and -R's at 8x and not branded DVD's, performance and quiteness.

I like it myself, being a slot drive it's even nicer, adding it's performance !!!

BUT the DVD region issue with Matshita makes me a very frustrated customer...
this is not just me...there's a lot out there with the same problem...

 

Hmmm... I always thought the DVD-Region thing affected all drives... some sort of Standardized method to prevent people from buying and using dvd's that arent meant for that region.

DVDs from different regions are priced differently, some lower, some higher, depending on which region/economic status of that region is. (Ie: It DVDs from China are very cheap when compared to DVDs from the UK, etc etc.)

The only solution to this would be, to buy Region 0 dvds (multi-region) and to stick to the region that you currently set your drive to. I have a Sony drive on my desktop which has 2 changes left... and another at work which has 3 changes left... Im very careful when buying dvds

 

Well I've never set the DVD region on this notebook... have installed that CC region free program, so hopefully it will be ok, but besides I live in a zone 4 region, so all the tailand/indonesian dvds around here are zone 4 anyway so no real problem

Oh, burned a DVD-RAM and that worked too on this matsh1ta uj-841s. I think its got something to do with the software you use as I could burn faster on my desktop using nero 6.6 than now with nero 7. (same cheap DVDs') with nero 6.6 I could burn DVD+R's at 12x when the disk was rated at 8x. And only at 4x when the disks were also rated at 8x for DVD-R's (on my desktop). same disks i get from work super cheap!

I hate to say it, but I fear that a lot of the problems poeple are having in regards to burning are 'user' errors. [hides from the flames to come]

edit: corrected some spelling errors


insane

 

hehehe you maybe correct...no I'm not gonna throw you flames

I'm posting here so that I can read opinions of what can I do to overcome the problem...but since now I don't seem to have the correct answer to my errors

maybe my problem was that I didn't installed a DVD Region Free Software from the beginning....!!!

 

I have upgraded the used Matsushita UJ-841S with a new NEC ND-7550!

 

Insane, I wasn't worried about burning DVDs/CDs...It was the region lock that concerned me. Not just the region lock itself, because most drives have that, but the fact that someone said the Matsushita drives can't be "tricked" with software in anyway. I find that hard to believe, that's why I asked if it was true...and them someone else said it was...that's what worried me. I still don't have the sofware on here to confirm that yet...but If it is true, then that could be really bad for some people. I don't see how the MATSU drives could be the only one's immune though. In any case, I'm glad I caught it early.

How do you like that NEC drive emperor?

 

I agree with you calibratedcoma...


But Emperor how can I know which firmware is appropriate for my Matshita UJ-845s?
I read a lot that many, flashed the UJ-845s that are not Toshiba based lappys, with a firmware Toshiba OEM. Which is stated that it's not siutable for Matshita in Asus systems....

 

There is a problem with NEC ND-7550 since...it needs to be MASTER and as i noticed through BIOS its PRIMARY Slave...There is a reversed ATA firmware that makes the drive work at SLAVE mode, but there is no return to MASTER mode...Doh, but in order to make this conversion i need a 2.5" -> 3.5" IDE adapter.

I think for now, i will re-install UJ-841S back to A6JA. As for firmware, best place to look is www.rpc1.org but last time i checked for UJ-841S there wasn't any firmware update, only v1.11 but only for Sony Vaio notebooks, i wonder why ASUS doesn't release any firmware updates