Here's RPC1 patched firmware for these models. Download the flash tool, unzip, unrar and flash.

Only the SH-S203N firmware is tested, but the patch is identical for all these models, so they should all work fine.

** DISCONTINUED **

Please now use MCSE to patch the latest official firmware.

Great work Mr.Shine. Thanks!

FAQ updated

CodeKing,

Now we just need the release of a mix of your FB FR firmware with this RPC-1.

Thanks for these nice rpc1 firmwares...

Also nice to see you back in business. Can still recal your post 2y back, linkyBTW, I tried LtnFlash on my S203B a while ago and also got "rpc1" drive. Problem is that I can't get it back to "one" region.
Any suggestions.

This will be great!!!

Thanks for the RPC1 Mr. Shine

Thank you Mr.Shine, it is greatly appreciated.

Everyone who knows how to to use a hex editor should be able to do that himself. Here's how:

1. download the original firmware
2. do a binary compare with mine - there should be exactly 3 bytes difference (4 in some firmwares), STOP HERE if there are any more differences!
3. write down the first 2 differences (should be 0x60->0x80 and 0x70->0x80)
4. download C0deKing's FR or FB/FR firmware
5. verify that C0deKing's firmware looks identical to the original one at the two matching places you wrote down in (3), STOP HERE if it doesn't!
6. change the two bytes in C0deKing's firmware to match mine
7. go to the very end of the file. The last two bytes are a 16bit number in big endian format. This is the checksum. Add 0x30 to that.
8. Save, flash and reboot.
9. If your drive boots up displaying "BOOT" instead of "SB00" resp. "SB01" as version number, you failed and will have to reflash to any of the working firmwares. Your drive is NOT bricked, it's just in a kind of "safe mode".

As for the "STOP HERE" warnings - this thread mentions that some firmware binaries differ despite identical version number, depending from where you downloaded them. If you happen to encounter such differences, the above will not work, don't even try it!

Easiest would of course be if a new version of Omnipatcher added support for Samsung drives, allowing for RPC and speed patches. Who knows, maybe C0deKing is already working on that.

Happy hex-editing to all those who can't wait

P.S. If you don't fully understand what I wrote above, don't try it. I warned you.

Hehe, not really "back", as I didn't actually patch stuff before - the few I did were mostly private, as they were only "ports" of other people's patches (e.g. when a new firmware came out and no one bothered to release a patched version).

For the record:
All the info you need for patching current Samsung firmwares is the following:
- read and understand (!) XVI's guide
- Mediatek chipsets are using an Intel 8051 compatible micro controller
- the checksum is a simple byte sum of the static part of the firmware. No need to re-generate it from scratch, though, if you're only patching two bytes like I did - just add the delta between the original and patched value of each byte.

Reading your post doesn't give me the impression that your drive became RPC1, though. You simply set it to "region 1" (don't confuse with RPC1!). Why this worked with LtnFlash? Because setting the region is a standard ATAPI command, nothing specific to Liteon. Click "Disable" instead of "Set Region" and you'll get an error, because THAT command is Liteon specific. To go back to region 2, just select region 2 and click "Set Region" again. Or insert an original R2 DVD and start the DVD player software of your choice. It will offer changing the region to "2". The region setting has nothing to do with burning, only with playback. You can burn a region 1 disc with your drive set to region 2 - you just can't play it back afterwards.

please keep them seperate

I want Kings firmware, but no RPC1

I could have swore i posted in this thread but my age and memory seem to be foggy a lot these days.

Anyway i want to say thank you for the info and f/w's but i really have no need for them but this is good for people that need this type of f/w.

I contacted Mr.Shine and will add his patch to the next MCSE release, so you can mix the firmwares as you want soon.

Excellent news ala42

to kewl ala42

Did the rpc1 patch to codekings firmware. Attaching screenshot with benchmark and driveinfo, which I think is proof of fast read and region free unlock. Can someone confirm this? Thanks to Codeking and Mr.Shine.

Drive Benchmark showing fast read and rpc1


Firmware
Samsung S-203B RPC1 FB+FR

Raghu.

This is done now and works great! Thanks Mr.Shine and ala42!

What's rpc1???

http://club.cdfreaks.com/f61/f-q-pc-...18794/#fw-rpc1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD_region_code

Thank you C0deKing, Mr.Shine, and ala42.

Hmm - didn't work on my SH-S203B. I had already set it to region 2 before applying the update. After flashing the DVDs I tested got really strange volume labels and my software (Nero ShowTime) refused to play them claiming that there was no valid DVD video structure found on them.

When I flash the unmodified SB01 everything works fine except that it's region locked...

Do you know how RPC1 works?

Up until now I thought I did. Did I get anything wrong?

That's some strange behavior indeed. If Nero Showtime works like every other DVD player software I know, it should complain that your drive has no region set and either offer you to set the region or tell you how to do it in Windows. That is, in case you don't have software like RegionKiller running in the background which takes care of faking the region.

In case you have any software running in the background (DVD43, AnyDVD et al), disable it and try again.

Windows Explorer by the way should not show any different behavior compared to a RPC2 drive. It will still show all files but refuse to copy most of them unless the DVD is authenticated (e.g. by starting a DVD player software, DVDDecrypter, etc.)

Aw crap - looks like I'm out of luck here:
*click*

I'll try with VLC and post my results.

Nero Showtime seems to be a stupid POS then. Try using RegionKiller, should work then.