This review can be viewed on the following link:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/211

Feel free to post your comments or questions on this thread.

Update: This player has had an unusual death on the 22nd February 2007 and thus I can no longer carry out any further tests on this recorder.

Wow. Very comprehensive review. It appears that this unit still does PAL to NTSC coversion, correct? That is, one could play a PAL DVD and output NTSC video?

Also, does the m* deactivate program still work? That is, is it possible to patch & reload the current firmware to deactivate m*?

Does anyone know if this recorder plays DL+R. I tried a couple of Datsafe Riteks and they don't get recognised (burned with Nero and a Pioneer 109). However, I read another review that said it did. It didn't mention any DL+R brands though.

nwg - I have the 5005 and have not tried burned DL+r media in my 5005. We have some users here that have the 5045 and should be able to answer your question. Here is a link to the manual for the 5045. It's in the right hand column.

Hi

I already have the manual and there isn't anything about DL in there. However, I have seen posts that some people have had success including a review on CDRInfo.

There is nothing in the manual about burning or reading DL +R DVD's but ya figure they would play. You'll get to see that the LiteOn recorders can be finicky when it comes to media (most 5005's anyway with the ddw series drives), more than PC based burners. If ya can, the next DL +R burn you do, make them DVD-ROM if you can. The review says it is an 832s combo drive. I have one and they are supposed to burn DL. And of course most commercial movie dvd's are DL now and it plays them, but they are not +r format. I have not tried any homemade DVD with DL media in any of my 3 LiteOn burners (5005, 832s, 1633s)

I haven't heard of anyone having success with the DL issue, it appears that if the drive can handle it it has been disabled. Some have even hooked up a different burner and got that to operate to a degree but still no DL success.

Can you find the link for that CDRinfo review?

TravelGuy - I presume you're refering to MV protection, if so the answer is yes. Whether it has been blocked in the shortly to be released firmware update we'll have to wait and see.

I can confirm that this recorder will play a PAL DVD with the output set to NTSC mode as well as play an NTSC DVD with the otput set to PAL.

There are a few articles on the Internet that show what bytes of the firmware to modify in order to allow it to record from a protected source. However I have neither tested these 'hacks' and would only recommend trying them if you are well familiar with the consequences and that an incorrect modification can actually render the recorder unusable.

Unfortunately I dont have any DVD+R DL or DVD-R DL media to test playback with this recorder.

This is from the cdrinfo review here

The Good
- Firmware upgradable
- Easy to setup/use.
- DV IN.
- Advanced features like timeshift recording
- Good error correction/writing quality.
- Supports DVD disc burning up to 8x
- Explanatory manual.
- Good price
- Reads DVD+R DL discs
- Hard drive can be used to store video, music, photos
- Can be made region free

but then in these posts it will not read DL+r media

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=135720

jm1647.

MY Pioneer 109 makes every DL disc a DVD ROM. I would have been good to know what bramd CDRInfo used. I bet it is a Verbnatim as they are supposed to be the best. They are too expensive at £4 each though.

nwg - It wasn't because it was DL+r then, it was burned as DVD-ROM. $$$$ is why I have stayed away from DL media in the first place Even when I ghost, I just span the DVD5. The price is coming down though.

I wonder if cdrinfo used a commercially pressed DL DVD ?

Then it is very misleading if they did as all DVD players can do that.

I am using Datasafe Riteks which are £2 a go. I just wondered if it was the different dye that made the difference. I have played the discs on four players (none which mention DL+R in the manual as the players are a year to many years old) and the disc works. They are two Sonys and two Pioneers.

The only recorders I have seen mention DL are the new Sony's. They will also record onto DL as well.

nwg as I mentioned the LiteOn's as well as other burners are finicky with media. It could be the dye though. Try and give LiteoN support a call. There is a PC based utility called OmniPatcher that will extract the media table from the burner. You'll hafta hook the burner up to your pc to extract it.

I E-mailed Lite-On asking if their player supports DVD+R Double Layer media and I got a reply confirming that the LVW 5045 is capable of playing back DVD+R Double Layer Media, however it is incapable of recording to such media.

My recommendation would be to try Verbatim or Memorex media. Unfortunately both of these brands of DVD+R DL media are rather expensive. I don't have any DVD+R DL media at hand to test in this recorder.

@nwg - there is also a utility called Media Code Speed Editor that when used with the other utilities will allow you to edit/add/changed the DVD media table for the 5045. Check out the PC based LiteOn threads. A lot of nice utilities for LiteOn burners.

I have done two 1:1 backups with just DVD Decrypter and they both work fine in the 5045. The same discs burned with Nero still don't work. So, I guess it isn't the discs or the dye.

As mentioned in another forum we both visit, people say don't use Nero to burn. Nice experiment. Were they DL 1:1 backups? I have only used Nero to burn my DVD5's with so far and haven't had a problem with my 5005 recognizing them yet.

It is mainly one person isn't it

They are exact 1:1 on DL Datasafe DVD+R's. The Pioneer 109 automatically set it to DVD ROM in both Nero and DVDD.

It does seem that DVDD has produced better compatibility for this Recorder. My Sony and Pansonic players have no problems reading Nero and DVDD burned discs.

I also tried to do a movie only DL backup with Nero and before Pgcedit could do DL. The disc doesn't work in any DVD players. It does however work in my LG 4040 DVD writer. The drive doesn't normally read DL media so, it must be the DVD ROM setting making it work. The LG 4040 can output the DVD to my projector so, i can still make the disc work and haven't created a coaster as such.

Yup

As I mentioned for some reason these 5XXX's are picky from machine to machine as far as media but this is the first time I heard of a different program making a media work. Hmmm I wonder if it's that 32K gap thing that nero has been mentioned to not do....Once again nice find!!!!!

It did surprise me.

Hi all... I liked the features on this recorder and I am wondering if I can use this recorder to record from an NTSC source into PAL format on the HDD. Is this possible? Also, is there a firmware upgrade that will allow me to record in SEP?

If they ever get it to work properly I'd really like this recorder. I've tried 4 of them now and both manufactured in January 2005, defragmenting the hard drive sometimes causes recording to become corrupt and unplayable and both manufactured in February will record timer recordings for the wrong day. Updating to 197 firmware didn't help any of them.

The recorder does not have any digital input. If I have a CD player and I want to copy a CD to this recorder, then I have to go through the analog RCA plug. Or I have to copy to HDD first then to CD-R. Is that true?

I can't speak to the problems with the January version but it seems they may have finally fixed the timer problems of the February version with the 201 firmware. When I noticed it, it wasn't on the US website or available for all regions yet but now it seems to be everywhere, except Australia.

http://www.liteonit.com/DC/english/download.htm

JM - I downloaded the update onto my computer - but not quite sure what to do next = isn't there a process I need to do with it before putting into recorder??