HUMAX DRT400 - Can the DVD Writer also be upgraded?

[dmk1974]

Hello,

If this should move to the upgrade forum, please let me know.

I just upgraded the hard drive on my DRT400 from 40 GB to 250 GB. When I had the box open, I was thinking...can I also replace the Pioneer DVD-R/-RW drive that is in there with a multi-format DVD+/- R/RW drive? Probably can't do DL, but would the Humax even know the difference what kind of writer is in there?

If anyone has tried this or has thoughts, please let me know.

Thanks!

[funtoupgrade]

Not only will your idea not work, replacing the drive with anything other than the exact same DVD drive will not work either. A number of folks have messed with this when their DVD drives became toast.

[dmk1974]

Not only will your idea not work, replacing the drive with anything other than the exact same DVD drive will not work either. A number of folks have messed with this when their DVD drives became toast.

Why not though? I mean, the TiVO doesn't know what brand or speed of hard drive is in it when it's upgraded. Shouldn't the same apply to the DVD? I don't know Linux, but I'd figure that a drive is a drive.

[lessd]

Why not though? I mean, the TiVO doesn't know what brand or speed of hard drive is in it when it's upgraded. Shouldn't the same apply to the DVD? I don't know Linux, but I'd figure that a drive is a drive.

Like the wireless adapters it takes special software and firmware to use the DVD itself, for the hard drive you are putting the special software on it before it will work. Try putting a DVD in your computer without software to run it.

It just will not work, we do not have the firmware needed to use any DVD unit.

[dmk1974]

[QUOTE=lessd]Try putting a DVD in your computer without software to run it.

[QUOTE]

Not exactly the same. For example, I had PowerDVD installed on my PC. When I removed the previous DVD player drive and replaced it with a DRD+R/RW drive, I didn't have to reinstall PowerDVD.

The SOFTWARE is already on the TiVo. Detecting the firmware, to your point, may be another story.

[petew]

The drive in the Humax is already dvd+R/+RW and Dl capable. It's the firmware/software in the Tivo that doesn't support + & DL formats.

[robomeister]

I don't own a DRT400, but I have several Pioneer DVR-810H-S TiVos with DVD writers. They come with either a Pioneer DVR-105 DVD writer or a Pioneer DVD-106 DVD writer. They have special TiVo firmware. I've tried swapping out the DVD drive with another DVR-105 DVD writer. I've also tried Pioneer DVR-106 and Pioneer DVR-108 writers. In all cases, the TiVo will play DVDs, but it will not burn DVDs.

So in short, it has been tried, it doesn't work. You can try it yourself, but you will most likely not be successful.

And as petew has stated, the DVD writer in the DRT400 is already capable of burning Dual Layer discs and capable of burning faster than 4x for DVD-R and 2x for DVD-RW. But, the TiVo software is only capable of burning Single Layer discs at 4x for DVD-R and 2x for DVD-RW.

Also, don't flash new firmware onto the DVD writer in the DRT400. You will most likely disable the burning ability of the drive when it is used in your TiVo.

Now having said all of the above, there is one case I've heard (in the TiVo with DVD writer forum) of a successful upgrade of the DVD writer. The person used a DVD writer with firmware designed for the Mac. I think it is called a "Power Drive" or "Power Disc." There must be something in the firmware that the TiVo is looking for when it tries to burn a disc.

YMMV,
robomeister

[megazone]

Why not though? I mean, the TiVO doesn't know what brand or speed of hard drive is in it when it's upgraded. Shouldn't the same apply to the DVD? I don't know Linux, but I'd figure that a drive is a drive.You figure wrong. Actually the TiVo does *know* brand, speed, etc, of the hard drive - it just doesn't *care*. IDE hard drives are pretty much all identical.

DVD burners aren't quite as interchangable. And they also get firmware updates. If you look in the System Information screen you'll see that the system lists the current firmware. That firmware is loaded by the TiVo and it does get updated. Worst case scenario is you put in a new drive and then the TiVo flashes it with firmware for the Pioneer and it is a brick.

The drive in the Humax is either a DVR-108 or DVR-109 (it was updated at some point), and both of those are 'superdrives' which do 16x DVD-R/+R burning, and support both -R/RW and +R/RW, including DL. You're not going to get any better than that really. But the *software* only supports -R/RW, single layer, and 4x burns.

So there is no point at all in changing the burner.

[dmk1974]

The drive in the Humax is either a DVR-108 or DVR-109 (it was updated at some point), and both of those are 'superdrives' which do 16x DVD-R/+R burning, and support both -R/RW and +R/RW, including DL. You're not going to get any better than that really. But the *software* only supports -R/RW, single layer, and 4x burns.



Yes, it was the DVR-109JA.

This has been very educational. Is there any way to try to get a petition or something to TiVo to allow for the firmware upgrade that allows for the drive's full capabilities? Talk about a bummer that the drive is in fact great, but not able to use it that way.

[megazone]

This has been very educational. Is there any way to try to get a petition or something to TiVo to allow for the firmware upgrade that allows for the drive's full capabilities? I'm not sure if it is really up to TiVo, or if the licensing partners (Pioneer, Toshiba, Humax) have final say over what is enabled on the drives. There may be limits in how fast the system can feed the data, so we may not see 8x or 16x burning - but 4x isn't shaby really. It would be nice to see DL support, and +R/RW would make some folks happy.

[TydalForce]

Now having said all of the above, there is one case I've heard (in the TiVo with DVD writer forum) of a successful upgrade of the DVD writer. The person used a DVD writer with firmware designed for the Mac. I think it is called a "Power Drive" or "Power Disc." There must be something in the firmware that the TiVo is looking for when it tries to burn a disc.

YMMV,
robomeister

That was me, my thread is here:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=296218

It was actually a downgrade. The drive in my DRT800 was a DVR-108JA, and I had a DVR-107 in my PowerMac G4.

For the record, Apple calls it a "SuperDrive", but there was nothing different about the firmware. The drive I pulled out of my PowerMac is just a drive I picked up off the shelf in a computer store. Apple doesn't use/need special firmware for their DVD drives.

The big difference between the 107 and the 108 is the Dual Layer capability. I haven't tried any other drives because I don't have them to try out. :-) I was just curious if it would work, and it did. I suspect other drives would too but it may be a matter of getting "similar" drives (aka other Pioneer drives only for example)

[megazone]

The Pioneer DVR-810H/57H used a DVR-106 I think, so they've always used the same family of drive. So it is probably that you need a drive in the same family. The TiVo software probably has support for them all built-in.

[TydalForce]

a newer drive (is there a DVR-109?) might work, but the TiVo might not take advantage of faster speeds or anything; I'm not sure how much of that is built-in to the software and how much is read from the capabilities of the drive

I'd love to see people grabbing DVD-RW drives and throwing them into their TiVos and see what happens...

[megazone]

a newer drive (is there a DVR-109?) might work, but the TiVo might not take advantage of faster speeds or anything;Yes, there is a DVR-109 - if you look above you'll see that was in the Humax. They started with the DVR-108 and switched to the DVR-109 at some point.

But the unit can't take advantage of even the DVR-106, let alone the 109. The 108 and 109 are both capable of 16x burns, and I think the 106 is too, but in the TiVo all burns max at 4x. There is no functional benefit to changing the drives.