The Matshita (Panasonic) SW 9584 D

I bought one to go with my other DVD drive. Can anyone tell me if it has another name. I can't find anything out about it.

I also bought one of these a week ago..... worse drive I've
ever come across ;-( I bought it for DVD-RAM, but it won't
recognise DVD-RAM, even Nero's CD-Speed shows DVD-RAM
as unsupported. It looks like it may have been flashed not to
work with it. The firmware is not listed anywhere on the web.
Mines BYN9 16-3-05 What is your firmware.

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_firmware.php?download_id=2075
list 3 firmwares, but non of them will flash the drive.

Strangely one of the firmwares for the SW-9585 seems to
recognise the drive and says the firmware does not need
flashing.

I have 2No Panasonic LF-D521's and a LG GSA-4120 All of
which work fine with DVD-RAM. Never had one single problem
with any of them.

I have tried the latest Panasonic drivers from BHA and they
work OK with the other 3 drives, so it must be the new
drive.

Incidently Instant CD/DVD is far superior to Panasonic's
drivers for DVD-RAM. Unfortunately Pinnacle bought it from
VOB and don't keep it up to date with new drives. It lets
you defrag DVD-RAM and finalize the disk to use on a m/c
that does not have a UDF driver installed. Sadly it also
costs more than the drive. ;-(

These drives are only available as OEM and so their firmware is only OEM specific.

It doesn't matter where the firmware comes from as long as
it makes the drive usable. I'd take mine back, but it's about a
45 mins drive each way to return it. I might give it to the bin
man on Friday ;-(

You simply forgot the connection specific settings into the Laptop ODD firmwares.

>> You simply forgot the connection specific settings into the Laptop ODD firmwares.

Sorry, I can't understand the above? Are you saying the Laptop ODD firmwares
need hacking or is there a firmaware writing program that allows these to be
overridden.

I haven't even come across a program to write the firmware for this
writer, never mind the firmware.

I've rung the Dealer and he's making some enquiries about
firmware.

Thanks,

Sean B

The necessary connection setting (Master, slave, cable select, CS inverted) to make such a slimdrive working is stored into the firmware and there are very few brands that can be patched with non-manufacturer tools to override this.

Sorry, but if the firmwares available doesn't allow you to flash your drive with then actually you have no chance to force it.

Just for the record I returned this drive to the dealer and bought an LG GSA-4163B off him. Seems a good drive.

I would advise anyone considering this drive to look elsewhere. It had SW 9584 C on the label but showed up in Windows as a SW 9584 D and the specs for the two models are not the same. Unbelievable that a Panasonic does not do DVD-RAM considering that they have persuaded all the other manufatures to support it on their drives.

I am still looking for a retail new model Panasonic in the UK (scarce) that will take DVD-RAM in a cartridge and have the latest version of Panasonics excellent DVD-MovieAlbum. I still use the version that came with my LF-D521 for copying recordings made on a domestic DVD recorder to PC.

Sean B