Is one DVD-Rom better than another for ripping?

[mikewg]

I just want to be able to rip DVDs (for backup purposes of course) and perhaps rarely watch a DVD on my computer, but mostly on my DVD player in the living room. I know BestBuy has cheaper ones that aren't a brand name and more expensive brand name ones. Is there really a difference between them?? Is one going to produce better quality?

[likkletree]

On good advice I was told to get an LG, they seem to rip at greater speed than most... 10megs per second, compared to say 6-7megs on a similar spec brand. Before this I was using my old Creative PCDVD to rip and after giving me 2 years good service it just was'nt fast enough for me 2-3megs ps

[Jeomite]

I own a Pioneer 106S, and love it. =)
It really depends on the DVD Type *I think*.
I seem to get ~12X ripping speeds for Dual-Layer DVDs, while I get ~7x-11X for Single-Layer DVDs.
I'm not sure, but the Pioneer 106S is a good pick if you're considering buying a DVD-ROM.

[nfl2k2]

If all you're doing is ripping, then buy a 20$ one from best buy. since ripping takes only 15 minutes, the dvd rom should last you for a long time.

[DiViNeLeFT]

ive seen this topic rise up a lot... not so much on what dvd rom to get... but just with people compareing speeds... my creative 12x compared ok with other drives people posted speeds for but it seemed that the pioneer and toshiba drives whiped the floor with other drives when comparing ripping speeds.

if you search the forums for ripping speeds you will probably find a lot of info on this.

[Darkan9el DVD Master]

Pioneers rock, they are da bomb, ex-cell-ent, I've always had Pioneer DVD Rom and Players Scan ( http://www.scan.co.uk/ ) do good deals on them £10 pound del charge though but their prices can still beat most even with the charge.

[lin(o:]

@Jeomite
I also have a Pioneer 106S as primary on the second IDE channel running win2k pro. My speed is only between 4 to 7. How do you get such good speeds? Any tips?
Thanks!

[DiViNeLeFT]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-09-25 12:21:02, lin(o: wrote:
@Jeomite
I also have a Pioneer 106S as primary on the second IDE channel running win2k pro. My speed is only between 4 to 7. How do you get such good speeds? Any tips?
Thanks!
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

main things to check for... DMA enabled... ASPI layer is good (thats a big one in win2k)... correct mode is set in the bios for the drive... and also, one thing i just tried last night... run smartripper from the noaspi.bat file... for some reason it improved by speeds by about 2x.

[Jeomite]

I'm not sure about WIN2K, but in WINXP, there's option for DMA is used only when possible (its the default settings in Device Manager or some sort); meaning it will use Direct Memory Access only when possible. But otherwise, I believe it also depends on other parts of your system like the hard-drive, and system in general. Previously, on my AMD 500Mhz system, it only ripped around ~1x-6x. Now on my 1.3Ghz system, it rips atleast ~4x-12x. Please notice that you have to 'decrypt' the VOBs when ripping, which takes a few seconds depending on the system.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Jeomite on 2001-09-25 12:40:05 ]</font>

[mikewg]

So the final answer is... if I'm just going to use the drive for ripping to VCDs and not going to watch the DVDs on my computer, then the brand doesn't matter and I should just go for the El Cheapo one?

[taco]

Yep

[jeex]

yeah, if the speed of the rip doesnt matter...
but then again, you do get what you pay for.. a cheapo dvd-rom may not be able to read through scratches on dvd's aswell as say, a pioneer..

[Bloodwyne]

I keep seeing this posted alot, and I feel that your
setup of the dvdrom drive is more important than the
brand by a long shot.

I have a Hi-val dvd rom(69 bucks) 12x, was getting 1x - 2x speed rips.. I keep hearing people say to turn on DMA
to increase performance. I believe everyone has tried this
with few increases in ripping speeds.

I ended up turning off the read ahead cashing for the
cdrom under the perfomance tab in system properties and OMG.. does that make a difference.

I went from 1-2x (1hour 30 min) to 10x or 11x (9-15min)

What usually happens when you rip a dvd, is your drive
will spin down during ripping, kicking your read speeds
down to 1-2x.. by turning off the read ahead caching, the
drive will not spin down, since it is not caching ahead
of the data being read.

For those not familiar with changing your cdrom read ahead,

Here is the exact method.

1. Open control panel, double click on system.
2. Click Performance, and then under advanced settings click
file system.
3. Click the CD-Rom Tab
4. Move the Supplemental Cache Size to small
5. Change Optimize Access pattern from Quad speed to
NO READ AHEAD

Hope this helps everyone getting slow ripping speeds.

Bloodwyne

[DiViNeLeFT]

Bloodwyne

think turning this off will help my dvd playback??? i have always had problems with my dvds skipping during playback kinda like the drive is spinning down and not reading the dvd anymore untill it runs out of buffer, then it skips and plays again. i have always had these problems but by tweaking other things have gotten my rip speeds up to starting at 6x and then gradually climbing to 11.4x max at the end. i never understood how the drive could read data at 11.4x but not beable to play it back at 1x... ill try it tonight and see if it helps.

[Bloodwyne]

Yes.. it could very well help the skipping you are getting
during playback.

I remember some of the intro movies for some games skipping
alot, until I turned off the read ahead.. and that fixed it.

Bloodwyne