DVDBackup/DTOX Slow - Please help

[Rayz]

I am stumped.
After reading the postings and doing a demo, I bought DTOX and started to back-up my DVDs. I have a 800 MHz G4, 17” Flat Panel iMac, 768RAM, OSX 10.2. However, each disc I am backing up is taking 3 ½ to 4 hours and I don’t understand why it is taking so long. Based on the input to the forum, Macs with less RAM and slower clock speeds than I have are doing a DVD in about an hour. Here is the process I have been following (and the time it takes):
[1] Insert DVD into drive and let the main title play a few seconds in Apple DVD Player.
- Turn off the DVD Player and leave the original disc in the drive
[2] Launch DVDBackup (v1.3)
[3] Drag the DVD icon into DVDBackup.
- Uncheck the “region code” box
- Check Macrovision
- Check CSS
- Setup a VIDEO_TS file
- Select all of the files (not just the VBO files)
[4] Process the files. (THIS TAKES 1 ½ TO 1 ¾ HOURS )
[5] Close DVDBackup and launch DVD2OneX (v1.0.1) (THIS TAKES 1 HOUR)
- Process the files to 4.472gb
- Select the extracted VIDEO_TS folder on the HD, select audio track, select subtitles and click "Start"
[6] Remove the original disc.
[7] Open Toast (v5.2)
- Insert a blank disc
- Create a Title folder for the disc title using all caps and no spaces (use '_' instead).
- Inside the Title folder, I put a VIDEO_TS folder and an AUDIO_TS folder.
- Drag the Title folder to Toast
[8] Burn (THIS TAKES 1 HOUR)
- Choose DVD (New DVD).
- I hit the “Start Button”
As you can see, the whole process takes 3 ½ to 4 hours. I have done 2 DVDs and the time was the same for both. Also, the time is the same for “movie only” or the full disc. While DTOX is a terrific improvement over what the Mac community has had to work with, 4 hours is a long time and appears to be out of perspective for a Mac. I would really appreciate any help I can get to speed things up.

[fab98]

Well problem
#1 is your DVD drive... You should get an external DVD drive that has quick read speeds...hat would save you and hr and 1/2 right there..

#2 replace the superdrive with a newer one. Allowing you to burn at 4x instead or burning at 2x or slower

#3 Replacing the HD for a faster (7,200rpm) or maybe just Defraging it would speed things up.

[Rayz]

fab98,

Thanks for the suggestions. The iMac is only 6 months old, so everything is likely pretty much up to date. Two of your suggestions involve a faster burner, but the 1 1/2 hour period with DVDBackup doesn't involve the burner. Each of the steps/software in the process (DVDBackup, DVD2one and Toast) is slow.

In reading the other posts on DTOX, there is a consistent thread that the front end takes 1/2 hour or less and the burn with Toast takes 1/2 hour or less. Several older Macs with slower clock speed and less RAM reflect these speeds. NOBODY has mentioned the slower speeds I am experiencing.

I'm not yet convinced that this is necessarily a hardware related issue. I'd guess that the causal is some setting I haven't done correctly, either in the software or in the iMac.

It would be nice to hear if anyone else is experiencing slower speeds like I am.

[ps2daddy]

fab98,

Thanks for the suggestions. The iMac is only 6 months old, so everything is likely pretty much up to date. Two of your suggestions involve a faster burner, but the 1 1/2 hour period with DVDBackup doesn't involve the burner. Each of the steps/software in the process (DVDBackup, DVD2one and Toast) is slow.

In reading the other posts on DTOX, there is a consistent thread that the front end takes 1/2 hour or less and the burn with Toast takes 1/2 hour or less. Several older Macs with slower clock speed and less RAM reflect these speeds. NOBODY has mentioned the slower speeds I am experiencing.

I'm not yet convinced that this is necessarily a hardware related issue. I'd guess that the causal is some setting I haven't done correctly, either in the software or in the iMac.

It would be nice to hear if anyone else is experiencing slower speeds like I am.

What you are experiencing sounds normal to me if you want DTOX to only take 30min just choose the movie to convert and not the extras.

If you burn apple DVD-r at 2x it should take around 28:45sec

I had a 7.1GB and it took me about an hour and 10min to put the video on my external fire hard drive using g3 700mhz g3 ibook. (a faster dvd drive would have help a lot)

Then it took DTOX 1hr 20min to take that down to 4.38GB using my G4 400MHz Sawtooth. (A faster processor would have helped some on this too but it sounds like it was near the same speed as your imac which is 2x as fast as mine processor wise about a 20min difference)

Then it took me 28min to burn it to a disk using toast (apple brand at 2x speed sony dru500a drive)

so yep 3 hours total sounds about right.
(doing just the movie should cut of at least 25-30 minutes in your process)
(along with burning apple band dvd-rs at 2X takes about 30min so you could save about an hour overall in your process)

Hope that helps

[Rayz]

ps2daddy,

Your summary sounds about right. I have been burning at 1X, I'll try 2X. Unfortunately, I am finding the about same speed using movie only as I am with diskcopy. Hopefully we'll see some additional input on this.

[ps2daddy]

ps2daddy,

Your summary sounds about right. I have been burning at 1X, I'll try 2X. Unfortunately, I am finding the about same speed using movie only as I am with diskcopy. Hopefully we'll see some additional input on this.

Whe I ws running DTOX in demo mode I had about a 34min total time that showed up to convert the whole movie but it stopped after about 10 min saying that it could only convert the first 30min of a movie on the 700Mhz ibook.

It took about an 1hr and 20min total after I bought the software using the 400mhz G4

[fab98]

Well as far as dvd backup time i wasnt talking about a newburner...just a dvd drive that reads quicker...the superdrive is horrible for reading, especially if you are copying files off it..I popped in a dvd drive under my superdrive and dvdbackup takes about 5 mins instead of an hr+

[ps2daddy]

Well as far as dvd backup time i wasnt talking about a newburner...just a dvd drive that reads quicker...the superdrive is horrible for reading, especially if you are copying files off it..I popped in a dvd drive under my superdrive and dvdbackup takes about 5 mins instead of an hr+

I knew exactly what you were taking about I have experienced the same thing it is slow for dvd extracting I found the sony drive when I had it in my external case was a lot faster that using the pioneer a03 that was inside my tower

[Rayz]

I think I understand what you guys are saying and that means I would need an external drive. I can't really pop another drive into the iMac - there is nowhere to put it.

I am having a little trouble making the disctinction between a dvd drive and a burner. Is the dvd drive a replacement for the Superdrive or a supplement to the system? Do you have any specific manufacturer/model suggestions? USB or FireWire?

Thanks for chasing this with me.

[galactica]

Rayz:
The iMac can only hold one optical drive (cd's/dvd's)
The superdrive doesnt have the best read speeds (which is why many people either opted not to get them when they bought the machine, or for those with the ability to have more than one optical drive purchase an additional combo drive (has much faster reading speeds but cant burn a dvd)

Thereby having both. For your situation, if would be most cost effective to get an external combo drive that is firewire if you really want to boost the speed of your dvd backup

By the way

Dvd drive -- a optical drive that can play dvd's (NOT BURN THEM)
Dvd Burner - an optical drive that can play and burn dvd's

there is no need to really replace your superdive you have in your iMac. It does everything (play cd's, burns cd's plays dvd's burns dvd's) but a sacrifice you have due to this ability is lower read speeds for dvd's than you could achieve if you didnt have them all combined. Make since?!?

Most common drives:

CD - Plays cds
CDRW - Plays Cd;s Burns Cd's
Combo - Play Cd's Burn Cd's Play DVD's
Super - Play Cd's Burn Cd's Play DVD's Burn DVD's

[TugBoat]

Just to give you an idea about how bad the Superdrive is for reading DVDs, I did a little test. This machine came with a TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-R1312 rated at 12x DVD read. I added an aftermarket PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105 ($250) rated at 8x DVD read to the upper bay and moved the Toshiba to the lower bay. They are on the same bus with the Pioneer as master. Using DVD Backup 1.3, the Toshiba finishes a 7.8GB DVD in 17 minutes, the Pioneer takes 49 minutes! I've been using the Toshiba for ripping and didn't even bother checking the Pioneer. These times don't jive with the speeds, I really don't know why, I guess the Pioneer just REALLY sucks for reading. I can only imagine how bad the older Superdrives are. I didn't realize they were that bad 'till now. Interesting.

[bluebook]

Seem to remember reading somewhere that Apple/Pioneer PURPOSELY dropped the read speed of the 103/104/105 to 2x max in the firmware.....something to do with heat or (possible) read errors maybe?

Been trying to find someone who's been brave enough to try some of the RPC-1 PC firmware in their 104, 'cause you get 8x read, 2x burn for all media and RPC-1.