PIKAONE or PIKA ONE EXT DUAL DVD WRITER IN PCWORLD BOXING DAY SALE FOR £99.99

[pinipatel]

Just reading the papers today, and came across an ad for a Pikaone Ext Dual DVD writer, USB 2.0 & Firewire that will be on sale in PC World on Boxing Day for the price of £99.99. Bargain! or is it? Does anyone out there have any experience with this, I haven't heard of the company before but www.pikaone.com looks ok.

I had a read of the manual online and its not region-free, ie. only 5 changes. does anyone know if there is firmware available to correct this?

the internal version of this is a BTC DRW1004IM according to other forums but no mention of this external one (even on the picaone website), does anybody know what the external version could be?

it sounds like a cracking deal, for under a hundred quid but only if its pretty kosher. no point buying cheap crap when there's plenty good stuff out there anyway.

Opinions please?

 

[GoNz0]

that would be a bargain for that, even at 2x write speed with usb2 + firewire.

and theres 3rd party tools to reset dvd regions.

 

[Taurus]

i have experience with two BTC cd burners and both weren't very reliable and died after about a year. they're a generic brand.

side note; usb2.0 and firewire should be able to keep up with 4x dvd burning or even faster.

 

[pinipatel]

it is pretty much average spec, ie. 4 speed, etc.

has anyone had any experience with these?

 

[pinipatel]

Gonzo,

assuming that I do buy the drive, what are my options as far as the 3rd party tools to reset the dvd regions?

I thought that dvd genie and the like only work with software players, not with the actual dvd drive itself?

 

[GoNz0]

theres a few here, i dont need 1 myself anymore as i have region free.

http://forum.rpc1.org/dl_utility.php

 

[pinipatel]

Yes, I bought this this morning, and just about got hold of it! Only 3 on the shelf, and I managed to grab the first one; the next guy grabbed the other two! Well worth getting down there at 8.45am.

Anyway, I managed a solution to my original problem with a little lateral thinking: I could not find an rpc-1 firmware that would work with this since it is external USB2.0/Firewire. So, I popped in an old IDE dvd-rom drive that is region-free (Matsush!ta I think), and cost me next to nothing! I use this to rip, and then when I burn I make sure its a region-free burn using IMGTool.

Not bad eh? well, its pretty good thinking for me at least with a raging hangover...I'm sure you folks would have figured it out months ago!

Laters