DVD Writer Upgrade for BT Vision (Would it work????)

[Plasma]

See my original ramble here, thought I'd move it in to Hardware ..

http://www.t-hack.com/forum/index.php?topic=565.msg3953#msg3953

I also had a crazy thought whilst laying in bed the other night, would it be possibe to fit a DVD to the BT box? We already have an IDE interface and I have stacks (well a few) Slimline DVD/RW drives from laptops, there would appear to be room if we removed the card readers / modded the faceplate slightly? But would the IDE interface / OS support a DVD? To be able to play DVD's in it would be amazing, it might also give way to being able to back recordings of to disk as Mick was alluding to earlier.

I've since had a little play and can't seem to get the Vision box to boot when a 2nd IDE Device is attached, it may be that the CD-ROM drive I'm trying is goosed so I'm going to find a new one to try again. I replaced the IDE cable with an 80pin standard one with a master and slave port on it. I've plugged the Hard Disk in to the Master, and the CD-ROM in to the Slave. The CD Drive doesn't have any jumpers as its an ultra thin laptop style, but I've tried the Hard disk in "Master" and "Cable Select", it just doesn't boot.

My idea being we could remove the useless (for me anyway) card slots and modify the front to put a DVD Writer in the Vision Box. Would be a pretty cool mod if we could get it going!

Before I waste further time with this can anyone advise if the IDE Interface on the Vision box is a single chnnel only? Or if the 2nd channel is disabled? In the mean time I'll go look for a known good DVD Drive and continue my quest!

Cheers

Plasma

[Plasma]

Ok with a known good writer the box now boots with it attached, although I cannot see it when I go to "Browse FileSystem" on the web interface.

I doubt it will help but I'm using a "HP DV-W28E DVD +/- RW Drive", I've T'd in to the power cable of the hard drive and taken a +5v feed to the DVD

When it booted I was all ready to get the Dremel out and start hacking the case to pieces, but it was a short lived moment of joy!

So I guess that takes me back to the original question of should this be possible?

Plasma

[is0-mick]

I *guess* it would be possible as its just an IDE device, but you may need to have a kernel that supports dvd drives, not sure if the current kernel does, also some burning software....


Mick

[Plasma]

I *guess* it would be possible as its just an IDE device, but you may need to have a kernel that supports dvd drives, not sure if the current kernel does, also some burning software....


Mick

Mick,
        Thanks for the reply, it may be that its there already, do you know if the page that is created for "Browse FileSystem" would look for DVD-Rom's? It may be as simple as that, I've not tried anything other than the browser access. Maybe I could try to write a little app that displays current drive assignments and run it to see if its visible to the OS. I'll report back if i get anywhere with it!

    Cheers

            Plasma

[Plasma]

also some burning software....

Found this, its not burning software but if we can get our hands on it, it may enable DVD Playback which would be a start ...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2000_Nov_6/ai_66622960/

Plasma