LiteON has done the unthinkable with a new firmware

November 25, 2004

C0deKing used our news submit to tell us "LiteOn has done the unthinkable and released a firmware upgrade that adds functionality to the drive."

No one of us ever thought that LiteON would be willing to upgrade the writing speeds of a already available DVD±RW DL drive via the firmware. Looks like we were wrong, because LiteON in a move similar to BenQ and Sony has upgraded the the writing speed for one of its drives, the SOHW 1633S(X) to 4x for DVD+R DL and to 12x for DVD-R.

Lite-On is pleased to announce an enhanced version of firmware that enables faster Double Layer (DL) writing performance, available at 'no-charge" for SOHW-1633S and SOHW-1633SX drives only. With this new firmware, the specified DVD ReWritable drives will increase DL 'burn" speed to 4X; a 66% improvement from the previous 2.4X specification.

This seems to be a logical response from LiteOn when we consider the actions made by BenQ and Sony.However, whatever the reasoning, they have it done and the customer is the winner.

Finally I can only say: Let us hope that this becomes a new trend and that we will hear more of such great news also from other companies.

Those of you who are interested in upgrading the firmware to enjoy the new features can download the firmware here.Some of our members have already tested this new firmware, so please visit this thread in our LiteON Forum when you want to add your questions and results or when you simply want more information before you upgrade your drive.

Source: Lite-ON