MDR to HDR... Any reality to the myth?

Wilson · 13th July 2004

Hey,

We have in our studios a Mackie MDR and we were wondering if anyone has suceeded in upgrading an MDR with a video card, HUI devices and the editing software. We have no fear of losing our warranty so any solution that works would be appreciated.

Wilson

DDev · 20th July 2004

I don't have any first-hand experience with this but have heard some stories. There was a guy selling some kits on ebay to do this, but it is not strictly legal since, from my understanding, the only way he could have gotten the source software was from Mackie. There has been some discussion regarding this on the Mackie forum.

There is, however, an upgrade that can be done to an MDR to allow larger size hard drives to be used. You can procure the BIOS upgrade for the HDR to increase the drive size and install it in an MDR. The installation requires slaving in a video card and cutting out the back panel to plug in the keyboard and mouse ports. Again, there are some instructions on the Mackie forum for doing this.

Personally, I intend to do the hard drive upgrade to my MDR soon, but I don't need a full HDR since I dump everything into my DAW for mixing and editing already. I just track with the MDR.

Good luck,
Darryl.....

kerryt2 · 3rd February 2008

Guys, I've first hand experience of doing this upgrade. It's quite simple, except you need to get your hands on the HDR EPROM which stores the software. This is not the same as the BIOS EPROM which is on the motherboard, the HDR OS Eprom sits on the controller card near the front of the unit. Also, you can use an alternative to the AGP graphics card. I'm in the process of replicating the EPROM chips, so let me know if you need one.

coolfog09 · 15th October 2009

I would be interested in one of these.....send me an email if you still have any.

Mike

13th July 2004	#1
Wilson Gear interested Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: New York State Posts: 2 Thread Starter	MDR to HDR... Any reality to the myth? Hey, We have in our studios a Mackie MDR and we were wondering if anyone has suceeded in upgrading an MDR with a video card, HUI devices and the editing software. We have no fear of losing our warranty so any solution that works would be appreciated. Wilson

3rd February 2008	#3
kerryt2 Gear interested Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 1	MDR to HDR Upgrade Guys, I've first hand experience of doing this upgrade. It's quite simple, except you need to get your hands on the HDR EPROM which stores the software. This is not the same as the BIOS EPROM which is on the motherboard, the HDR OS Eprom sits on the controller card near the front of the unit. Also, you can use an alternative to the AGP graphics card. I'm in the process of replicating the EPROM chips, so let me know if you need one.

15th October 2009	#4
coolfog09 Gear interested Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 1	mdr to hdr eprom chip I would be interested in one of these.....send me an email if you still have any. Mike

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20th July 2004	#2
DDev Gear interested Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Wichita, KS Posts: 6	I don't have any first-hand experience with this but have heard some stories. There was a guy selling some kits on ebay to do this, but it is not strictly legal since, from my understanding, the only way he could have gotten the source software was from Mackie. There has been some discussion regarding this on the Mackie forum. There is, however, an upgrade that can be done to an MDR to allow larger size hard drives to be used. You can procure the BIOS upgrade for the HDR to increase the drive size and install it in an MDR. The installation requires slaving in a video card and cutting out the back panel to plug in the keyboard and mouse ports. Again, there are some instructions on the Mackie forum for doing this. Personally, I intend to do the hard drive upgrade to my MDR soon, but I don't need a full HDR since I dump everything into my DAW for mixing and editing already. I just track with the MDR. Good luck, Darryl.....