Cited on HN 3 times, 2023–2025, never outright recommendedscore 0
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026
Linked in printer DRM threads as proof that workarounds exist for Brother's cartridge restrictions.
A short walkthrough of a hack that tricks a Brother laser printer into accepting third-party toner by working around its genuine-toner check. It notes this may void the warranty.
“You can still (for now) get around the Toner DRM.” (HN, 2023)
I have a new brother printer (<2 years old). It works just fine. The quality of the printer, as a device itself, I have no complaints about. It's the DRM Toner bullshit that is the problem. Unfortunately, in the past, that kind of behavior has often presaged other things like degrading hardware quality in the future. Will Brother do the same? I have no idea. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of a different company that both supplies a quality product and also doesn't do the DRM bullshit. So, in my opinion, Brother is not longer better than other companies, but it doesn't appear to be worse either. Which is more an indictment of the printer industry than anything good about Brother. -edit- You can still (for now) get around the Toner DRM. The drm chip is pretty easy to remove and it just slots into a little spot on the toner. It's about a ~5 minute operation. So make sure to keep your OEM cartridge for now: [this video]
Shows removing the Brother toner DRM chip in minutes
Brother have started going down the cartridge DRM route now too, so they're no longer a good brand. :( [link] There are ways around their particular DRM - for now - but who knows how long it'll be until they're as bad as HP and friends: [this video]
> I’m about to add a Brother Laser Printer too. Be careful. Brother is doing shaddy things this days, like lowering printing quality, or not printing, if a non-Brother toner is detected. E.g. [this video] for a toner hack that shouln't be needed.
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