I've got a toshiba laptop with this multi dvd recorder,i tried to burn MCC 01RG20 disc and the result was very bad.the burn process started at 2X and then after the 0.5GB mark it speeded up to 4X.I did alot of searching and i couldnt find any firmware update. the drive has firmware 1.00 and the very first impression is very bad,i dont know how can toshiba put such a burner in their laptops.

any idea where can i get a firmware update? the toshiba site and the panasonic site both have no updates at all.

Most of the stuffs found in notebook are junks. Try a GOOGLE search.

We have a Toshiba with the matshita uj-820s firmware 1.50 and it will not burn DVDs. wating on some sort of firmware update also.

same problem with my laptop acer aspire 1513 burns most media at 2.4X thought they are 8x certified ...

Same problem here with Toshiba M35-S456, with that same drive in it. It will not burn faster than 2x and does not seem to matter what media is used.

ouch! sounds like a crap burner

i have a toshiba A65 1762 with the matSHITa dvd-ram. i burnt a couple of dvd almost a month ago and have not been able to burn anything else. cant even use it in I tunes. I have a 1.5 firm ware but doesn't seem to make a differeence.

How hard is it to replce a laptop dvd drive?

odd, why doesn't Toshiba put in their own burners that are made in conjuction w/ Samsung. I have a Toshiba/Samsung laptop combo drive and another DVD-burner and they do quite well *knock on wood*

I do not belive the problem is Matshita, but a problem with Toshiba.
Have a ECS Elitegrupe 556 with this DVD drive and no prolem at all

I don't have any problems with Matsushita either. And I use it daily (burning, etc.).

i have the same prob with mine i have a toshiba a75 and when i go to my computer the drive isnt even there but when im in dvd santa it is and it will burn but then when im encoding video files after about 30 mins into it the computer just turns off all by it self this is the second time this happened last time i had to send it in to best buy took 2 months and got new cpu and hdd dont no what the prob is this time

I also have a matshita uj820s, and it works fine as long as I use the right dvd´s and cd´s.
Verbatim datalifePLUS and EMTEC dvd´s seem to work fine. But these aren´t cheap, so what type are you using alex??

I use only good media, like Taiyo Yuden (usually Fuji), Verbatim, Maxell. My Matsushita did not have any problems recording on TDK 1-4x, but if checked some months later, the TDK content could not be played flawlessly.

In case of firmware updates, Panasonic/Matshita/Matsushita doesn't offer any firmware updates/support because they only sell OEM drives. So, if you have an Toshiba Laptop with a Matshita drive, you could only get a firmware update from Toshiba, and so on.

Can anybody tell me if this drive does Doublelayer DVD's?

i have the same computer, and also had a problem with the computer turning off when in the middle of burning, or any action that required a lot of cpu usage...turned out it was the cooling unit getting stuffed up with dust, etc. now i have to periodically vacuum around the fans to ensure the dust doesn't build up (as weird as that sounds)...

question: my uj-820s used to read/burn also on Princo media, but suddenly it stopped doing this. the toshiba lab i took it into told me that it burns other (better quality) media, and therefore there's nothing wrong with the drive.

has anyone else had a problem like this? is it normal for a drive to stop reading a kind of media it used to read?

No, it does not...

Yes, I have the same prob. My matshita uj820s drive used to burn datastream dvd-r but then stopped. I took a closer look at the package and found that they had changed the speeds from 1x-8x to 4x-12x. Could this be the cause? Of course i found this out after i bout a 50 pack of em.

My brother has a TOSHIBA Satellite P30 PSP30C-RV200E. 3 GHz. It has the MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-820S [CD-ROM drive].

I tried burning a movie with it using DVD+R and noticed that it had a max burn speed of 4X but it would only burn Verbatim 16X at 2.4X. I burned it twice because I thought I had made a mistake. I did not see any firmware update at the Toshiba Canadian site for the drive although they had one for the notebook.

I also noticed that Nero did not report that BURNPROOF was activated so I have to think that the laptop drive doesn't have it.

Here are the specs:
http://209.167.114.38/support/TechSu...-TSB001204.htm

Here is the list for their updates:
http://209.167.114.38/support/Downlo...ite/sp30en.htm

So these are the specs for this drive:

Built-in DVD Super-Multi Drive:
Read: CD-ROM (24X), CD-R (16X), CD-RW (8X), DVD-ROM (8X), DVD-R (4X). DVD-RW (2X), DVD+R (2.4X), DVD+RW (2.4X), DVD RAM (2X)

Write: CD-R (16X), CD-RW (8X), DVD-R (4X), DVD-RW (2X), DVD+R (2.4X), DVD+RW (2.4X), DVD RAM (2X)

Oh, and the drive would not copy Syth-SW3 with Anydvd and DVD Decrypter. It reported a read error. Cyclic redundancy. It worked alright with March of the Penguins.

i own the uj-820s w/ 1.50 firmware.... and yes toshiba should be selling their own drives made by them (because they are a quality product). matshita makes horrible drives that always degrade in quility after usage.....

but anyone who doesnt blame matshita for not releasing firmware updates is a butt munch. even if you only sell OEM products you should support the with drivers and firmware, you know why??? because nobody elese will accept your screw-ups as their problems. which company wants to pay people to make updates for someone eleses faulty products??? matshita makes the cheapest drives which is why they are used so frequently in notebooks these days.

matshita always claims their drives burn at speeds much higher than actually expieranced (a GREAT reason to blame them)

and for starters matshita also produces retail drives and they dont do firmware for them either, the company cuts corners in a way that DEMANDS cutomer complaint, and this is from someone who has 3 notebooks each with horrid matsushita drives the uj-820s, uj-840d and the ujda720..

matshita basiclly says "blame your OEMs for using our faulty products" which is true as well, blame the oems for using such garbage parts BUT also blame matshita for producing and selling these parts.
i just bought a drive by NEC, theres a company that does a ton of OEM and retail business. they do firmware updates all the time. matshita will never get retail business because they dont support their oem products. NEC supports their oem products just as they support their retail products hence i bought from them.

Matshita "support" is worse than you might think.

They even strictly DENY a vendor reset on their website(s), that's incredible shizzle & sucky...

I have had two Panasonic drives, the UJ-812 and UJ-845. Both weren't that great. The both had high error rates at the ends of discs and experienced playback issues. The 812 in particular wouldn't burn any discs rated higher than 2x. As was noted earlier, notebook drives as not as good as desktop drives. I got a NEC 6500 and external case for use with my ThinkPad which only uses Panasonic drives cause they are the only ones who make the super slim drives.

I tend to agree with what's been posted here. I have had nothing but trouble with my UJ-820s.

The most aggravating problem is that it periodically stops recognizing discs. I don't know if this is related to disc type, or if it's a loose connection, or what.

I also don't know what I'm doing to get it to work again, but usually, after a few days, the offending disc will read again.

I used to think this was restricted to DVD+R, but I am having a problem witha CD-R right now.

Also, how do you check the firmware version?

In msconfig or any good burning software will tell you too.