I've been reading and hearing about changing the booktyping on DVD's. Is this something that I should be doing? And if so, how do I go about doing so. Will this make my DVD's play better? I currently use Decrypter to burn, and DVD+R media (which I believe that I must use to change the booktype?) Any information on this topic would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance! ~Carl
The only media that usually needs booktyping with current standalone DVD players is +R DL media. If your players are playing your +RW and +R media without problems I wouldn't necessarily worry about it except for the +R DL if you burn dual layer disks. To be able to booktype +R type media, it must be enabled in the burner's firmware. Most burners come with +R DL enabled. Usually one can also enable booktyping for the +R and +RW media as well if it's supported by the firmware. Some manufacturers do not, out of the box, have booktyping for +R and +RW contained in their firmwares. NEC is one where one has to flash modified firmware to enable booktyping for this media although booktyping for +R DL is contained in the factory firmware. Booktyping is enabled with utility programs or with programs like DVD Decrypter. Burning programs like Nero have an option for booktyping +R media automatically. In short, tell us the brand and model of your firmware and someone can help you enable booktyping if that's your desire.
I'm not familiar with that drive. If you have the Nero CD-DVD Speed program, you can select the burner in the menu and then select "bitsetting" from the Extras menu and it'll show what the current booktype settings are and provide for changing them. If a booktype is not available, N/A will be displayed and change menus will be greyed out.
It's possible that your HP writer is a rebadged LG writer and might be able to booktype.... I disagree with Any DVD+R/RW media can be booktyped to DVD-ROM to fool your player that it is playing a store bought DVD therefore making it more compatible. Not just the Dual Layer +R media! Read this: http://k-probe.com/bitsetting-booktype-faq.php there is a guide there that shows you how to change your booktype setting for your drive. Nero would do this automatically for all your DVD+R/RW media. My Philips 8631 drive is booktyped for +R/RW to DVD-ROM so all my media (except my -R media) will be booktyped to DVD-ROM every time I burn to it. So there is a good chance that you HP drive can be booktyped if it's a rebaged LG. My Philips drive is a rebadged BenQ. Good Luck. Welcome to Afterdawn......happy burnings. And if you don't have DVDDecrypter, get it here: http://fileforum.betanews.com/download/DVD_Decrypter/1011845169/1
You also might try booktyping your dvd+r media to dvd-rom with the dvdinfopro booktype utility http://www.dvdinfopro.com/ if it won't work with nero or dvd decrypter. I think your drive is capable of bitsetting/booktyping. I agree that if your drive is capable of bitsetting, set it to do so. It can't hurt and if anything will improve compatability of your dvd+r's. It will not affect dvd-r's whatsoever. You can verify whether or not they are booktyped dvd-rom with dvd identifier http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/
Open DVD Decrypter, with a blank dvd in the burner's drawer. In ISO Write mode, the info on the right side tells you in the very first line, what your burner's model number and firware version is. Mine says: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S BS0K (ATA) The "BSOK", is my firmware, for my Lite-On SOHW-1633S burner. Hope this helps............
or you can go into DVDDecrypter, make sure your drive is the source drive then go under [bold]Tools/drive/check for firmware updated[/bold] and it will tel you your firmware and check to see if your drive has an update for it at the firmware page!
Thanks everyone for all your help. I do believe that my HP DVD drive is actually an LG. I remember seeing LG on it somewhere when I bought it.
Oh, and DVD Decrypter says the same thing about my drive and firmware as I posted before: HP DVD Writer 740b HI24 (ATA) Does this mean my firmware is good so that I can booktype my DVD+R's? Or is there something else that I need to do?
Open dvd decrypter and follow the directions given by IHoe. That will tell you whether or not your f/w is the latest. You will still need to set the drive to booktype dvd+r media to dvd-rom. The f/w alone will not do it. Try using either dvdinfopro's, dvd decrypter's, or nero's booktype utilities to set to dvd-rom.
