I've got problem finding right DVD's for this
Acer 8006 laptop Super-Multi DVD burner.
I've tried RITEC's -R , TDK's +R and TDK +RW
and on this DVDs i am able to burn just 2,4x.
This device should be able to burn 8x R/4x RW.
Could anyone give me adviece what DVDs i should
use for this burner to allow me burn faster then 2.4x
or is there new firmware a available to download (my is 1.5) ?

Thanks folks

Just scrolling thru this board and found your post.

I have the aspire 3500 with the UJ-840D. I had a similar problem with Discs that should burn up to 8X but was finding that 2x and 4x were my only solution at best until I found Verbatim 8X -R discs.

My burner now sees them at 8X and can burn at 8x as well.

Hope this may be of some help to you

Cheers

I also have the Matshita UJ-831d, it came in my Asus Z70v laptop. I've yet to try the burner, but I'm curious to know if there's any sort of hacked firmware available (riplock, rpc1, bitsetting, overspeeding).

With the newest Nero (6.6.0.15) it only registers 2X with TYG02 discs. I'm not impressed.

matSHITa drives - the name itself describes it best.

HOVER DAMN!

So I'm to understand there's absolutely no firmware support for this drive. I've always wondered why people consider Panasonic a respectable brand, I have no reason to believe that. Conversely I have reasons not to believe that, and adding this to that list makes many reasons.

My first burn: 2X, failed at 71%. Bloody hell.

There are 2 firmware updates available for this drive: UJ-831.
see here
BUT they are only for either NEC or SONY OEM drives!
A firmware update for your drive would have to be provided by ASUS.

Matshita itself doesn't sell retail drives, that's why they give no support...

What could convince one of those firmwares to work on my Matshita? A flasher and firmware dump from someone's Sony or NEC? I take it a flasher doesn't exist.

You cannot "dump" Matshita firmwares.

I see. Are they so radically different from other drives like NECs, or does the software just not exist?

I've noticed people with supposedly three different firmwares on the UJ-831D. The common 1.00 (like me), 1.01 and 1.05. If this is the case the lazy-asses at Panasonic have no excuse not to post firmware updates - they already exist! Unless they suffered from extreme stupidity in the design phase and made the firmware ROM non-flashable. Who knows.

See post #8. It's explained there why...

This is my experience: I have a Toshiba Satellite M40-193 equiped with this burner (UJ-831S). I have downloaded firmware version 1.02 on toshiba's site and I have successfully upgraded my device. Yesterday I have succesfully burned a Memorex dvd+rw at 4x and successfully verified it (nero 6.6.0.16). I have also burned several audio cds without any problem. I can't say it is so bad except for it's write strategy: ZCLV.

Hey deathrider i have the matshita uj-831D could you please give me the site where you took that firmware for your drive? thanks

I doubt the 831S firmware will flash onto the 831D. This was my experience with the Sony and NEC firmwares.

Is there a definitive list for media that works in this drive? 8X burning and usuable discs.

hi to all...

well... i've a damn Matshita UJ-831D on my damn ASUS M6842NEUH and i've got a lot of problems about burning DVD using any dvd burning software and any blank DVD... looks like a lot of people (most of european peole) have a lot of problems using this shitty dvd recorder in ACER, TOSHIBA and ASUS notebooks... it should be a power problem and there is not a damn firmware update for this shitty product...



i've burnt about 50 dvd of different productors/materials and this is my personal experience about DVD burning:


philips DVD-R 8x:
write speed from tests: 6x
real write speed: 2x
failed burn/unreadble media: 1 failed

Datawrite DVD-R Red, Yellow, Gray 8x:
write speed from tests: 2x
real write speed: 2x
failed burn/unreadble media: 0

Princo DVD-R White 4x:
write speed from tests: 2x
real write speed: never used
failed burn/unreadble media: NA

Verbatim DVD-R 16x:
write speed from tests: 2x
real write speed: 2x
failed burn/unreadble media: 0

PS:
usefull link

The firmware page

allright... little update:

TDK DVD-R 8x:
write speed from tests: 8x
real write speed: 2x
failed burn/unreadble media: 0

Only 2x with any media??
Is DMA really enabled??

My latest batch of Fuji 8X DVD-R (made in Japan)
Write 8X (although Alcohol posts an average speed of 3.6X and it takes nearly 15 mins)

The burns start at 2X. So my thought is the best speed you can get from this drive is 12 mins for a full disc at 8X. That's not the same 8X I get from my desktop NEC drive (under 10), or my friend's NEC 6500 laptop burner (10 mins).

Oh well, for limited use, at least it completes the bloody burns now. I still use an external when I'm not on the road.

well actually DMA is enabled only for the HDD... the dvd recorder only allows PIO mode...


it is easy to verify:
a full dvd is about 4400 MB, an 8x writing transfers the data at 11,080 MB/sec; so, for a constant writing speed at 8x it should take about 6 minutes and 30 seconds... considering that actually the writing speed at the start is slower we can say that an 8x burning should take about 8-9 minutes,including lead in/out... a 4x burning takes 17-18 mins and a 2x burning should take about 26 mins, adding lead i/out we have about 30 mins... this is the fu**ing time i need to burn an entire DVD...


PS.
my firmware version is 1.00

2x is approx. 30min
2.4x is approx 24min
4x is approx 15min
8x is approx 8-9min
16x differs from approx 6 to 8min, mainly because of the used write-method.

Hi chef:

I have a SONY VGN-FS18GP laptop and a Matshita UJ831Da1.01 drive. I tried downloading from your link from above, but it's taking me to a japanese site. Can you direct me to right place? Also, does the flashware that you are providing work on my drive? I'm mainly just trying to use my DVD player to watch DVDs from other regions.

Doesn't look good actually, link is probably dead and I've searched the site and found nothing for this drive....

Thanks Chef:

It's a shame that there are no viable solutions out there, but I appreciate you trying. I do have an older laptop and I guess that one won't retire just as yet...

Cheers
Garry

Garry,

you should poke on SONY. "Flood" them with emails asking for an firmware update. Just say things like "Verbatim media is not supported at their rated speeds".

They should at least give you an good answer.