DVD burner read/write speeds

[ecc]

I have this problem with my DVD burner. When I first installed it, the ripping took about 20 minutes and burning of back-ups or stuff I authored myself usually took 40 minutes to an hour depending on how much of the disc it filled up. When I updated the firmware (after a session error), it was ripping in about 10 minutes and burning in about 20 minutes full single-layer discs. After a few days, this slowed down back to 40 minutes to an hour. I updated the firmware again and it speed up again. Then a few days later, its back to the same slow ripping/burning speeds.

Before updating the firmware, I could not do anything on the computer while it was ripping and everything else was slow when burning. After the firmware update, I could type and browse while ripping and burning without any stalling. When it slows back down to the old speeds, doing anything else during ripping/burning is again slow (I can type a whole sentence before the characters appear onscreen).

Does anyone know why this happens and how to keep the DVD burner ripping/burning at those fast speeds? It really helps especially when I need multiple copies of data discs.

[budz]

It would be helpful if you posted the brand and model of your dvd burner. Check to see if your drive is in DMA MODE. Below is a guide on how to enable DMA MODE. When burning dvd media it's best not to run any programs at the same time or having programs running in the background.

http://www.cdrlabs.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7625

[ecc]

My drive is a Samsung SH-S182M. It is set to "DMA if available".

[budz]

My drive is a Samsung SH-S182M. It is set to "DMA if available".

Is it set to UDMA 2 or 4? Also what firmware is on the drive after you updated it.

[ecc]

The firmware is version 5. There is a version 6 but when I downloaded and unzipped it it had the program to download and load the update but there was not .bin file to load into it as there was with the previous updates.

How do you know if its UDMA 2 or 4?

[budz]

The firmware is version 5. There is a version 6 but when I downloaded and unzipped it it had the program to download and load the update but there was not .bin file to load into it as there was with the previous updates.

How do you know if its UDMA 2 or 4?

Did you read the link I posted on How to enable DMA mode? If you looked at that link it shows the DMA 2.
As for your firmware of drive I've never seen a firmware version 5 for SAMSUNG drives. Where did you download the SAMSUNG firmware?

[ecc]

Its on DMA if available but it says that the current mode is still PIO. The link you provided has another link to set it to DMA if it is stuck on PIO so I'll have to try that.

Here is the firmware page for the drive: http://www.samsung.com/us/support/download/supportDown.do?group=computersperipherals&t...sp_nm=SH-S182M

[budz]

From the SAMSUNG website it seems "SB06" is the latest firmware for your 182 drive.
This thread needs to be moved to the DVD REWRITER section.

[ecc]

I've finally been able to come back to this. From what I understand, the transfer reverts to the PIO mode if there are failed access attempts by the drive (which may have occurred when I was trying to decrypt a couple discs that were sent to me that did not play). Before I try some of the suggestions for changing the transfer mode since its stuck in PIO, how can I be sure what IDE channel each device is on. Is it just safe to assume that the CD and DVDR drives are on the secondary IDE channels? Looking at the details for each of the devices in the Device Manager did not give me much info.

I ask this because my device manager has two primary IDE channel and two secondary IDE channel entries each:

From the SAMSUNG website it seems "SB06" is the latest firmware for your 182 drive.

The problem with that is that the .bin file is missing from the downloaded zip for SB06.

[ecc]

Never mind. Got it. I used this suggestion:

http://sniptools.com/tipstricks/getting-back-to-dma-mode-in-windows-xp

and my dvd writer is ripping a DVDR disc fine.