Hello to everyone
I bought my 811s at Christmas 2003 and had no problems at all with it . The drive came with firmware HSOE.
The media i used where Princo - R and Tayo Yuden - R and +R all x4.
All buned at x4 (movies) without any problems and played to standalone DVD players Samsung DVD E232 and Pioneer DV-454 with no problems at all.
Then⦠i updated the firmware to HSOK and everything was going well as with the original firmware until ⦠i made the mistake to update to HSOP. And thatās where the problems started.
Out of a pack of 25 Princos, at least 15 burned with errors especialy at the end of the discs. (by that time i havenāt read the bad sesults of those discs). The discs where played well in Samsung until the point of error on disc where the movie would freeze for a while, show some small rectangles on screen, and then go on. On the other hand, Pioneer refused to play from that particular point of disc and freezed completely. Had to unplug it from power to eject the disc. Same thing happened in WinDVD latest version.
As i was frustrated by the results, i turned back to Tayo Yuden x2 and burned with no problems. Also tried Intenso DVD-R x4 and another brand x2 i donāt recall at this time and all went well with no errors. Lately i purchased a pack of Mitsui - R x4. The first one burned at x4 OK but wasnāt recognized by the PC or the DVD players at all and went straight to the garbage. The second at x2 burned well.
Until now, from my small experience with different DVD media types iāve come to these conclusions.
- LiteOn 811s is an average low cost DVD burner with a selective performance depending on medias. Also with bad support from LiteOn.
- Latest firmware HSOP is BAD. Why they donāt allow us to go back to previous versions of firmware?!
- You might write a DVD successfully that might play on your DVD Player but wonāt play on anothers.
- Slower burning speeds leed to successfull copies 100% playable.
- The road of DVD burning is long and manufacturers are still at the begining.
And a small advice to future buyers.
So if i had a second chance to choose a burner what would i do?
definitely, i wouldnāt buy LiteOn. Definitely i wouldnāt buy any DVD burner now that industry is experimenting with greater speeds. It is better to wait for a couple of years for the Dual Layer Burners to come out in the market, to wait until they are tested well and then buy one. Same story as for the CD recorders as you all know.
My lesson for now:
Buy expensive brand media.
Burn all media at the lowest speed for the best result with fewer errors.
Thanks for your time and congratulations for your excellent site.