Why does it take so long to read media in optical drives??

[videobruce]

For the time optical media has been out, why does it still take so long, around 30 seconds, for a optical disc to be read or reconized by the O/S (2k)?
I understand it has to spin up (a few seconds) and read the TOC (a few seconds, or should be), but why should/does that take what seems forever? The whole computer is at the mercy of this process since you can't do anything else while this is taking place. Even opening another folder doesn't happen untill the O/S reads the disc.

It doesn't seem to matter if it is a plain old CD or a DVD movie. Neither does what type of drive it is or how old the drive is. Mind you, I run a 'lean' machine without the usual 30 or 40 processes running at startyup I see many other with.

I could understand when they first came out, but that was light years ago (in computer time).

Input please.

[jagabo]

Before it can read the TOC the system has to determine if it CD-ROM, CR-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-RAM, UDF, ISO, ISO+UDF, Joilette, single session, multisession, single layer, dual layer...

[videobruce]

Ok, 2 or 3 seconds...........

[oldandinthe way]

Optical media is and always has been slow. Access time, transfer rate any measure you choose -SLOW.

Its like complaining about the color of the ocean. Thats the way it is. Its faster now than 30 years ago, but still substantially slower than magnetic media.

[Krispy Kritter]

It also varies greatly by drive manufacturer / model. Some drives take longer than your "2-3" seconds, just to spin up.