Can I reflash my LTR-48246S to TDK firmware or 52x firmware?

[nosro]

I didn't find anything searching the forum archives, but I am wondering if it is possible or desirable to reflash my Lite-On LTR-48246S drive to TDK firmware. What would be the advantages or disadvantages?

Also, can I reflash it to 52x24x52 specs? Are the 52x and 48x drives mechanically identical except for firmware?

Sorry for the newbie questions. Thanks.

[Spazmogen]

I didn't find anything searching the forum archives, but I am wondering if it is possible or desirable to reflash my Lite-On LTR-48246S drive to TDK firmware. What would be the advantages or disadvantages?

Also, can I reflash it to 52x24x52 specs? Are the 52x and 48x drives mechanically identical except for firmware?

Sorry for the newbie questions. Thanks.

1) you can flash your drive upwards (52x24x52x) or sideways to another 48x24x48x.
2) You'll need a program called MTKFlash to flash it upwards and possibly sideways. You can always flash it backwards to your present firmware (as long as you backed up your firmware BEFORE you try flashing it the 1st time).

3) Disadvantages: voiding your warranty, dead drive if you screw it up (but it can be recovered).
Advantages: flashing upwards to 52x gains about 4 whole seconds over a 48x burn. It may also have better media compatability (may not too).

You can read more about MTKFlash here: http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=44

MTKFlash has it's own sticky thread.

If you read the rest of the posts, you'll see numerous others who are thinking about doing it too.

[vinnie97]

With my not-so-extensive testing, I noticed gains of up to 13 seconds in burn times with Fujifilm aka Tayo Yuiden media (TDK-48x12x48 --> Lite-On-52x24.52).

[coolestnitish]

You may notice that the drive will get noisier after an upgrade to the 52x. Personally I don't mind the loudness, but some people have a problem with it...
As for flashing to a TDK, I don't know why you would want to do that. Most TDK owners like to flash to LiteOn because they keep releasing these "Match more media" firmwares.
About the writing quality being better in the 52x compared to the 48x24x48, I think there is no difference. The main reason being that they have the same hardware and till now whenever LiteOn releases a firmware update for their 52x, they also release one for the 48x24x48.
As you see, it really is a personal opinion.

[dhc014]

You may notice that the drive will get noisier after an upgrade to the 52x. Personally I don't mind the loudness, but some people have a problem with it...
As for flashing to a TDK, I don't know why you would want to do that. Most TDK owners like to flash to LiteOn because they keep releasing these "Match more media" firmwares.

Well, since the TDK firmware is 52x24x48, a person might want to use it if they didn't want so much noise when reading, but wanted to burn at 52x. You are right, media compatibility might not be perfect, but TDK does release more firmware updates than Sony does...

Windows Flasher to convert any 6S based drive to the TDK 5200B, and also the binary firmware here.