Optical drive firmware flashing?

ok guys, my mac has a Sony DW-U21A. Someone figured out, that this is really a liteon drive, as sony doesnt make these drives...just a mac/sony lets take your money ploy.

right now, the drive operates at 8x, single layer.

its really a Lite-On SOHW-1653S dual layer drive. Apparently, ive read that if i can flash the firmware to CS09, it will show up at as a liteon dual layer, burning at either 12x-16x.

Ive read, i remove it, and place it in a PC to do these modifications. Ok, no problem.

also, using LtnRPC i can unlock to region free. I really want this, because my bros german teacher would like some PAL DVDs converted for american machines.

So theres my reasoning, now, is there some sort of firmware utility that will allow me to BACKUP my existing firmware? then flash the new firmware to the new drive? ive never done this before, ive done it on a liteon drive, which was just a firmware update.

I would like to back this up, in case i get errors or something.

is there a util like there is for video cards? where you can backup the rom, watch it update, visually...any problems it will tell you and you can restore the old one.?

thanks in advance.

I'm pretty sure the backup utility has to be written specifically for that drive.

CDfreaks and cdrinfo are my favorite sites for questions like this. Google some keywords and see what you come up with. My current DVD writer was from a Dell, lousy Phillips firmware/rebadge. Was able to get it turned into a BenQ drive and get much better firmware support and features as a result. I almost always check for firmware updates when I first get a drive, much for the same reason you are now - sometimes you're pleasantly suprised what it "really is".

see thats what i question, LiteOn has a backup utility. Nice, however, does that utility rely on what the firmware says? or what it really is?