who Manufacture the Micro Advantage DVD+/-RW

Who manufactures the Micro Advantage DVD+/-RW 16X Model No. 16DDVDRW-A13 burner. The drive has the fowwing specs:

Writing Speed: DVD+R at 16X
DVD-R at 8X
DVD+/-RW at 4X
DVD+R (D/L) at 2.4X

CD-R at 48X
CD-RW at 24X
BTW: This drive will be on sale starting Sunday March 6, at Office Max for $39 flat with no rebate.

I think they are AOpen.

To confirm the maker of this Micro Advantage DVD 16X drive, I just opened the package it is Aopen Model DUW 1608 drive. So being Aopen, the $39 for the retail version of this drive is top deal and you can't bit it. Please indicate any experience you have had with drive so far. Thanks

could you tell me how to find that model number on the drive??
i got it today
would like to know who made it
TIA!!!

Look in to the marking on top of the drive which says model number: the model no. is "Model DUW1608/APP which is AOpen made 16X DVDRW writer. look in to the following link for verification of it:

http://english.aopen.com.tw/products...DUW1608ARR.htm

So, what firmware should I use on the bugger? MicroAdvantage or AOpen ?

That is up to you and your choice and your pick.

Did some testing with Leon 8X brand Media Code CMC Mag E01 and transfer test of the same burned disk, also did the transfer rate on pressed D/L DVD Video disk. The result are the following. How is your opinion on these tests and quality of them?.

It looks pretty good. Interesting that the pressed DL disc changes to CLV on the second layer.

Thanks CodeKing for the comment, I was wondering is there any "Modded F/W" for this drive?. Ofcourse I did flashed it with the latest Micro Advantage f/w ( since M/A is AOpen repackage) I still can flash it with latest from AOpen itself, but is there any Modded f/w for it?. Thanks again.

Me too!

Vlad of the Dangerous Brothers modded the flasher for me a few days ago. I flashed my drive to the AOpen DUW1608/ARR A070 firmware successfully. I made two burns on it with the new firmware and no problems at all. I believe the AOpen and Micro Advantage Firmware are identical except for the model #.

Link to hacked A070 Firmware Courtesy of The Dangerous Brothers.

*Please flash this at your own risk. As of now I haven't received the hacked AOpen flasher with the Micro Advantage firmware in it from Vlad so there is no way to flash it back to stock unless you know how to repackage the firmwares yourself. You run the chance of ruining your drive if you do this, but I've been successful with the flash.

Picture of the 3 Firmware Flashes I did.


If you flash to the AOpen firmware please post some scans of burn quality before and after so we can see if there is any difference. I can't test this since I already flashed it

Jughead; Thanks for the very usefull and informative information with graphical presentation on your migration from Micro Advantage f/w (for the drive DUW1608/APP) to geniun f/w from AOpen. Reference to your question on performing test on both version of f/w (M/A version A070 and AOpen versionr107), if you notice in previous post I have provide the result of test done with M/A version and will do with AOpen also when flash the drive with AOpen r107.

Thanks again

Jughead; Could you possiblly post any graphical relsuts of your 1608 drive burning with new flashed AOpen F/W. Also do you notice any significant performance increase on this drive (1608) since you have flashed it with AOpen f/w. Thanks.

I'll have to post tomorrow because that burner is at my work and I'm home. I'll do another test burn tomorrow with it and post the results.

Thanks again for your replay, could you also tell me when you flashed with modded flasher from TDB the AOpen r107 did process went smooth?.

Yep.. flashed just as smooth as when I upgraded from stock firmware to Micro Advantage A070. If you get both company's flashers, you'll notice they're completely identical aside from Logos and wording. It took about 45 seconds (estimated) to flash it. TDB did a great job making this for me. I'm still waiting on a flasher to go back to stock Micro Advantage Firmware.

Then Why do you want to go back (re-flash) to Micro Advantage f/w when you have already original and geniun f/w from Main Mfrr(AOpen)?.

Just in case I have to send it back to Micro Advantage or if the AOpen firmware starts to act flaky. You never know, but it's nice to have both options.

@Jughead
Thanks, for sharing the information and firmware. Also thanks to TDB. Those guys are amazing, aren't they.

Yeah it's nice to know a Joe Shmoe can email asking about how to decompile the flashers and bind the firmware, and the next day getting an email back with with the work already done for me. Top notch guys!! Thanks again TDB

I also thank TDB on my own behalf for their hard work and contribution to "Burning Community" and again thanks to you Jughead for sharing TDB product and information with us.

I did some ripping testing with both NEC-3500 and AOpen 1608 with same Video Disk to make comparison; the Disk is D/L both produced ripping as follow:

NEC 3500 ripped the disk at 4758 Max

AOpen 1608 ripped the same disk at 4877

As you can see as far as both drive concern the ripping speed are almost the same, as far as my own experience with both drive the quality of both drive are also the same but only exception is that NEC 3500 burn some disk at faster speed know that f/w of my NEC-3500 is hacked f/w from modded by Liggy/DE-27 (LD_V1.4FAST) but f/w on AOpen is none hacked f/w from M/A (A070).

Jughead;

Just little while ago I downloaded the modded flasher from TDB site have provided link then I try to closing look how this f/w being patched by TDB, to my amazed I found out that you are still having Micro Advantage f/w flashed the only difference is that the patcher from TDB has modified the sting embedded in M/A f/w to identifies the "DUW1608" drive as AOpen DUW1608 but you are still have Micro Advantage f/w "A070 not AOpen r107. close look in to your graphical presentation after you flashed with TDB flash show the drive f/w still is A070.

TCAS/JUGHEAD=What site is that FW on? I went to D Brothers and did not see it listed.

Only down side is this will not burn 16x with TY +R8X media. But for $39.99 for a retail box. Outstanding.

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Last edited by etp; 10-03-2005 at 13:44.

Link to A070 Firmware

I'm hosting it on my webspace. TDB specifically did this for me after I emailed them. I'm not sure why they didn't send it to RPC1.org or host it on their site.