Slow ripping speeds with Sony DRU500a

[dosemu]

Hey everyone I got this great drive but am running into a little problem. I have searched and searched but to no avail i cant seem to get this to work. The drive rips/decodes DVD's at only 2x with smartrippper 2.41/DVD Decrypter,Nero Speed Test, or any other program for that matter. I'm using WinXP Pro with ASPI drivers 4.71. When I look up properties on my controller card UDMA2 is enabled for the drive, in my bios (KG7-RAID) everything is set to auto for that controller, so that shouldnt be a problem. No where do I have PIO mode selected, everything is on UDMA. No matter what I do, the drive will not rip/decode DVD over 2.0x, it acts like it's capped at that speed, when I know the drive is 8x cabable. Also I am using 1.0d firmware. Any help would be apreciated, thanks.

[James_T_Kirk]

I have this drive also - I bought it last week - it is my first DVD drive to use, since it is very new maybe these ripping programs do not fuly support it yet - I haven't done any ripping as of yet but I plan on checking it out -

I did notice something aobut the drive - not sure if mine is defective or not - but every other burn it hangs there before hand and doesn't do anythign and I have to hard boot my system to get the disc out - but I haven't ran into this problem yet after installing the firmware upgrade

[DigiToast]

The slow ripping speed that seems almost like a cap at 2x is something that is happening to everybody. It's just something that Sony needs to work out and perhaps fix in a later firmware update. If you look at this review:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=154&page=Performance
then you'll see that it reads data DVDs without a problem...

[dosemu]

Yeah it reads everything fine, as I have ripped many encrypted DVD's fine, but I find it strange that the firmware caps it at 2x, when the drive is rated for 8x, can anyone elaborate on this? thanks for the replys.

[Jester700]

Sony is a big movie making company. I suspect they capped ripping at 2x on purpose.

[dosemu]

Not a bad theory Jester700, but then why would they rate the drive at 8x read speed?

[flinchme]

the reason it hangs capt kirk is because of the dla. uninstall it, also make sure firmware is updated. mine did that until i uninstalled dla.

[dosemu]

Thanks for the review DigiToast, explained alot. Ehh screw it, thanks for the help everyone, I'm just going to get the Liteon LTD-163 for ripping, fastest drive out there for CSS decryption by far. Thanks all.

[jgibson65]

the reason it hangs capt kirk is because of the dla. uninstall it, also make sure firmware is updated. mine did that until i uninstalled dla.

What is the "dla"? Also, where do I find a firmware update?

[DigiToast]

DLA is the packet writing software that comes with the Sony drive. . . and the firmware is available here:
http://sony.storagesupport.com/dvdrw/downloads/dru500a/FirmwareUpdateDRU500A.zip

[jgibson65]

I see. The DRU500 is a dvd writer. I have the DDU1621 which is not but seems to have the same 2x cap. Any suggestions on how to remove the cap on this particular model?

Thanks.

[Chips144]

I have both a Sony DRU-500A and a Pioneer A04. Both cap dvd reading at approximately 2X. I didn't install any of the software that came with either of these drives. Could DLA have snuck in with some other program? How can you tell if it is present on your computer? When you uninstalled DLA, how fast were you able to read dvd's?

[DigiToast]

It's highly unlikely that DLA would "sneak in" onto your computer while installing other third party software that didn't come with your drive. DLA is a standalone software application that I doubt any other writing software company would give you for free.

As for how to tell if it's present or not.. I wouldn't know. I havn't used any of the software discs that came with the Sony drive at all, but if I did use any discs, I wouldn't use packetwriting at all.. I learned to hate it back when I got my first 1x CDR writer and have never looked into packetwriting since. The only disc writing applications I have on my computer are Nero and DVD Decrypter. I'm pretty sure, however, that the DLA has nothing to do with the rip speeds. The only problems that DLA is causing for some people are computer crashes and problems with upgrading the firmware.

[kitty]

Other threads confirm that with pressed discs it works at 8x and for burned disks 2x read speed (do a forum search) - seems under at least firmware 1.0c maybe 1.0d. Firmware 1.0e is due out December 9th according to the Sony website. Write them and tell them there is a "bug" in reading your "data" discs.