Very slow DVD ripping in Windows 7

[stephens]

I have installed Windows 7 (Home premium) as a dual boot (with XP) and now as a single boot. Both times it took 2 or 3 times as long to rip a DVD to the hard drive (approx. 27minutes), using either DVDFab or DVDDecrypter than it did with XP.

I noticed in device manager, that for IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers: ATAPI Cdrom shows as PIOMode4.

Does anybody know:-

1. Should DMA be enabled by default for the DVDRW in Windows 7? I have not ripped any dirty disks lately, some say that turns it off.
2. Should I update anything for my Pioneer DVR-216B when using Windows 7, it was plug and play so I have not installed any drivers or changed the firmware that came with it?
3. Are the rips still accurate if DMA is not enable? Is it just the speed that is affected.
4. How can I enable DMA for the DVDRW what is the correct way to enable it when using Windows 7?

Many thanks for any replies, I have not got the slightest idea when it comes to these things as it just worked in XP.

[tinker]

This may be a dumb question, but did you check how fragmented is you drive?
DMA will improve speed, but will have no effect on accuracy.
And Yes, you are not running DMA. Go to device manager IDE Controller and change it to "DMA if available". This it say in XP, not sure what it say in Win7. Restart, it will check the drive.

[redwudz]

1) Yes. Usually drives revert to PIO mode after 6 consecutive read failures.

2) Probably not. That wouldn't be likely to affect speed, it's mostly for upgrades for newer media compatibility.

3) Yes, and the amount of CPU used for ripping or burning. PIO is very CPU intensive.

4) To check DMA/PIO mode within Windows:

Control Panel>System>Hardware>Device Manager>IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
From there, right click on one of the channels and choose 'Properties>Advanced Settings'. All drives should be DMA mode. The 'Current Transfer Mode' for Hard drives is usually DMA 4-6 and DVD burners DMA 2-4, DVD ROMs usually DMA 2. If you see any in PIO mode, that can slow things down.
Changing them back may be easy or complicated. First see if you can change them in that window. If not, I usually uninstall the channel the drive is on and let the OS reinstall it. This will usually take a reboot. This will not damage any files on the computer.

If that doesn't change all affected drives back to DMA, then there may be other problems. Not using the correct 80 conductor IDE (PATA) cable may also cause the problem, or having a damaged IDE cable. Or not setting IDE jumpers correctly. (Master and Slave.) What brand and model of DVD RW drive do you have?

[stephens]

Thanks for the info redwudz and tinker

What brand and model of DVD RW drive do you have?

The DVDRW is a Pioneer DVR-216D SATA, it worked fine with XP but as soon as I set up a dual boot with Windows 7 I noticed the DVD rips (in Win7) were a lot longer. I then installed Windows 7 on it's own and I really noticed it with a longer movie.

I have since followed the Win7 Help instructions and been into device manager and the appropriate Channel to select ATAPI Cdrom which shows as PIOMode4. Then I checked the "DMA enabled" box and clicked OK.
The window then refreshes and the "DMA enabled" box is unchecked again, so it looks like I cannot change it from there.

Not sure where to go from here. It's a pity I got rid of the dual boot so quick as I could of booted XP and confirmed it was still fast. I dont think it's the cables because it has been months since I was inside the tower and I did plenty of rips right up until the dual boot, then the first rip in Win7 was slow.

The BIOS has never been updated because Intel say not to unless problems, and I am not sure if that would help.

I suppose it's re-install XP or a trip to the local Computer shop!

Thanks for confirming that the rips are still accurate in PIO mode, at least I can use it until I decide what to do.

Are the DVDRW completely plug and play or is there a chance that it is not Win7 compatible, or that it needs some Win7 drivers for it?

Many thanks for any replies.

[redwudz]

With SATA drives, I'm not sure that showing the drive in PIO mode means much. Someone here may have better info. But you can check your Task Manager to see if your CPU % is very high during ripping. If not, likely something else other than PIO mode may be causing the slow reads. All three of my SATA optical drives, a BD-ROM, a DVD-RW and a BD-RW show as DMA-5 with W7. That seems a bit on the high side, but they work fine.

But I would probably uninstall the channel and reboot and see if that changes it. If it doesn't then a registry fix might be needed if that is the cause of the slow reads. If you have Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools installed, they have also been reported to cause this problem. Other burning programs might also be causing a problem, though that is rare.

Registry fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929461 Caution!: Back up the registry before making any changes there.

I would only upgrade the MB BIOS most times if there is a particular fix or update you need listed in that BIOS upgrade.

If would be nice if you could test that drive on another OS or better, another PC. W7 shouldn't have any problems with DVD ripping speed compared to Vista or XP. Maybe the drive itself is the problem.

[tinker]

If your drive is SATA, you are looking at a wrong controller. It is not controlled by IDE.
Just right click on the drive in Device manager to get Properties for your drive.
Do not worry about cable, because it is not using flat cable any more.
To update a Window driver for the drive may solve the problem.
Since you had double boot before it is possible the driver is still for WinXP

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SATA_drive

[stephens]

If you have Alcohol 120% or Daemon Tools installed, they have also been reported to cause this problem.

Apart from the usual: Browser, PDF reader, Skype and Webcam software, I just have ImgBurn, DVDFab with VSO and VLC, I had only just installed Win7 and done a single rip.

I would probably uninstall the channel and reboot and see if that changes it.

To update a Window driver for the drive may solve the problem.
Since you had double boot before it is possible the driver is still for WinXP

I will give that a try redwudz and tinker and see if it sorts it.

I read the notes for the BIOS updates and none seemed appropriate so I won't update it.

If that does not work I will either put XP back and see if its OK, or take it to the PC shop that built it. I am not very confident about registry changes due to lack of experience.

Thanks very much for your advice.

[tinker]

Go to bed. Morning may be smarter.

[stephens]

I took tinker's advice and went to bed, then when I got up:-

I tried uninstalling the Microsoft Driver for it, re-booted, and let Windows 7 install the driver again. But it still stays in PIOMode4.
The Pioneer website just says that the DVR-216D works with Vista using the Microsoft driver (no mention of Windows 7.)

If would be nice if you could test that drive on another OS or better, another PC. W7 shouldn't have any problems with DVD ripping speed compared to Vista or XP. Maybe the drive itself is the problem.

Then re-installed XP and it is fine again (DMA is enabled) and the Movie that took 27 minutes to copy to HDD only took 7 minutes.
So the DVDRW and SATA cables are definitely OK.

For XP, the chipset driver I installed was from the Intel Mobo driver install CD, so it is an older version than the latest version I downloaded for Windows 7. I am not sure if using the latest chipset driver could be the problem.
Also there are later BIOS updates for my Mobo but the notes for them don't seem to have anything relevant to this problem.

Has anyone got any ideas that I could try, seeing as it is OK with XP?

Many thanks for any replies.

[tinker]

I just checked my mobo manual and it say if using SATA, I need to enable RAID in BIOS. Mind you my board is older. Has two IDE and two SATA ports only, all with WinXP. I have additional four port SATA card where my optical drives are plugged, but they all are listed as SCSI devices.
I would go and check your mobo manual what it say about SATA configuration.

[stephens]

I would go and check your mobo manual what it say about SATA configuration.

The trouble is, even though the Mobo is just over a year old, Intel say they don't support it for Windows 7. The latest/current drivers are there for download though. But they don't provide any help.

The board has 4 SATA ports and the manual says they just auto detect anything that is connected. This is what happened when I added a Backup HDD. It was just detected and worked fine.

I suppose I could Install Win7 and do an image backup of the system before installing a chipset driver, then try older chipset drivers and keep restoring a fresh image to try each chipset driver. One of the older ones may work if the problem was with the latest chipset driver.

Or I could try a BIOS update just in case it helps!

Or I could stick with XP as it is supported by Microsoft for another 4 years. I only paid £44.95 for Win7 as it was on offer! Pity though I did quite like it, apart from the one little snag.

[tinker]

I think if Intel say they do not support board for Win7, they must have a reason.
It could be one or all of the above you want to try.
Sorry.

[H22A]

Hi

Not sure if this will help, but in your BIOS do you have a setting for SATA MODE (or similar)? If so, what is yours set to? If possible change it to IDE to see if that helps.

Bear with me as this will take some explaining, but changing SATA MODE to IDE fixed what appears to be the same problem I had as you on a new Windows 7 build where my DVD Drive was stuck in PIO mode and I couldn't change it and enable DMA.

I have been running Windows 7 for nearly a year with no DVD issues.
My Release Candidate expired a couple of days ago, so I got round to installing a new copy of Win 7 Home Premium.
I'd just bought a lovely SSD (80Gb Intel X25-M) and reading up on it before installing my new OS, articles said to set SATA MODE in the BIOS to AHCI for maximum performance. Apparently you need to do this before you install Windows as it will then detect it and install appropriate drivers on the ATA/ATAPI Controllers (or something like that).
So I did this (changing the setting it from IDE) and everything seemed fine, v pleased with SSD.
However, when I came to burn a DVD, I found that doing a quick erase on a DVDRW was taking 30 minutes instead of 30 seconds.
I did some digging and remembered about PIO Mode and DMA etc, and found that I had this problem on the channel that my DVD drive had been allocated to. I tried many things including uninstalling the channel, but it always came back in PIO mode.
In the end, I remembered the change I'd made when installing this new OS, and changed SATA MODE back to IDE.
Hey Presto, my DVD writer is now back to normal. What I find really bizarre is that my DVD Drive is connected to an IDE port via a ribbon cable, not a SATA port, so I really don't know what changing the SATA MODE affects it, but in my case it does. I have a Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3LR motherboard.

I need to do some investigation as to how to resolve this properly, however as a quick fix it might (I hope) work for you.

[CSULB71]

Why not just keep the dual-boot setup and use XP when you rip DVD's?

[stephens]

Posted by H22A
Not sure if this will help, but in your BIOS do you have a setting for SATA MODE (or similar)? If so, what is yours set to? If possible change it to IDE to see if that helps.

Thanks for the info H22A. I will look at the Motherboard manual and see what settings there are.

[stephens]

Posted by CSULB71
Why not just keep the dual-boot setup and use XP when you rip DVD's?

If I cannot get DMA sorted for the DVD drive, this looks like my best bet.

DVD Shrink, Decrypter etc. will not be updated and run well on XP so I might stick XP and all my MP4's on my large primary HDD, then Windows 7 on my smaller second HDD and use it for the Web and up to date software.

It was quite quick to switch between the two when I tried dual boot.

[CSULB71]

Sounds like a plan to me. It's nice when the simplest solution and the best results come together.