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I have an APEX DVD player that died that I occasionally play around with and tried swapping in a Lite-ON LTD-163 DVD drive and it functions fine, but it is noisy for a stand alone DVD player. I was wondering if there are any firmware versions available for this drive that lock the speed lower, either hacked or an early firmware?

I would also appreciate suggestions on DVD-ROM drives that are speed locked. I tried the Toshiba 1712 but it wasn't compatible with SVCD in the APEX, but it was quiet and otherwise functioned fine.

Thanks

Jim

i think LG drives are relatively quiet. check out their DVD ROM drive.

Have you tried Toshiba with KISS firmware?

Yes, I tried the Toshiba with the KiSS firmware, the factory firmware, and the hacked firmware. Every format and disc works except SVCD. I tried a second 1712 to confirm it. It just hangs the DVD player, so I think it's a communication issue between the Toshiba and the APEX. The LTD163 works fine but it very loud. Normally I wouldn't care if it was for my PC, but the DVD enclosure dampens the noise less than my PC case.

I looked at NewEgg for LG drives and quite a few people were complaining about noise and media compatibility issues. I was thinking about the Samsung SD-616E. It appears to be quiet from their feedback and no real media complaints that I saw. Does anyone have any feedback on it?

Nothing out there to limit the speed of the 163. Haven't even heard of anything like that for a DVD drive.

i think Pioneer (or Toshiba ? maybe i'm getting these 2 mixed up) has a utility for setting the speed of the drive.
it's an official utility from Pioneer's website (nothing hacked).

but i'm not sure if the setting stays "fixed" upon power-down (if the speed setting stays in the firmware). if not, it's not going to be useful inside a DVD player.

maybe you'll find more info on this utility in www.rpc1.org .

Ive got a samsung 616 in my xbox. Reads anything. Dont know how loud it is as it sounds like a wind tunnel in here.

ahh, wicked, so you opted for the 16x dvd-rom for xbox

when you rip games into your xbox does it go noticebly faster?

also do you have a ATA133 cable in there?

no i didnt get the uncut cable. I am still using the stock one. Yes it does rip quite a bit quicker. I didnt mod this drive I bought it pre modded from llama. I didnt want to try it and risk fubaring the drive on my first one. Now that I got this one I popped the covers back off to see what exactly was done I had a stock samsung drive in here that I sold and it almost paid for the replacement drive totally.

dodecahedron wrote:i think Pioneer (or Toshiba ? maybe i'm getting these 2 mixed up) has a utility for setting the speed of the drive.
it's an official utility from Pioneer's website (nothing hacked).

Pioneer has released utility to lower the drive's speed.

dodecahedron wrote:but i'm not sure if the setting stays "fixed" upon power-down (if the speed setting stays in the firmware). if not, it's not going to be useful inside a DVD player.

I've tested it on 106S and 116 units. Settings are written into firmware, so the speed remains the same after power down...

that's exactly what i was talking about!
thanks Han.

wicked1 wrote:no i didnt get the uncut cable. I am still using the stock one. Yes it does rip quite a bit quicker. I didnt mod this drive I bought it pre modded from llama. I didnt want to try it and risk fubaring the drive on my first one. Now that I got this one I popped the covers back off to see what exactly was done I had a stock samsung drive in here that I sold and it almost paid for the replacement drive totally.

This one? http://secure.llamma.com/catalog/produc ... ucts_id=43

also where did you sell your oem samsung drive?

yeah thats it. I sold my stock one to a friend whos xbox i modded. He had a philips that wouldnt read any burnt dvds at all.I have seen some drives on ebay that is modded nicer than llama does. No Y splitter or modified yellow cable required and half the cost.