Whats the fastest DVD drive for reading.

[Scarlet Infidel]

I like to rip films off dvd to encode to view on my Archos AV500. I try and keep the encoding as short as possible with good hardware and software choices but i feel im being let down by my DVD-ROM drive.

My current drive is rated at 10x and is reported working at around 4x by dvd decryptor. Am i right in thinking no drives are currently rated to read faster than 16x? Of these which is known to be the fastest? Im not interested in a write unless any particular model is faster than readers alone. Thanks

[nvening]

i cant imagine that there is much difference between 16x drives. Any faster than 16x and the disk is likely to shatter.

[Scarlet Infidel]

Well in that case why do you think my drive only runs at 40% of its rated speed? Is that just how they tend to run? So a 16x one will only run at 6x or 7x? Is it the type of reading im doing? Is 10x more of a burst speed? Or is it the way i have it set up?

[aidanjt]

The drive isn't the limitation, its your CPU, your processor needs to decrypt the frames and remove macrovision before it can write the VOBs to your HD. 4x avg is pretty decent.

[Scarlet Infidel]

Hmm, im not convinced, my cpu utilisation is only 2-5%.

[manwithnoname]

There was a CD drive that could read at something like x72, but that was the very out side of the disc, in the centre it was a lot slower. It might be the very out side of the DVD that is read at x16 ... just a guess

Strange: I remember DVD drives x1 then x2 .. x4 .. (x6?) .. x8 .. x12 .. got to x16 a long time ago yet don't seem to have get any quicker.

[aidanjt]

Well I have a 16x dvdrw, and the most I've seen it do is 15.5x on an unencrypted disk, and 5x on encrypted.

[TheReaFireblade]

There was a CD drive that could read at something like x72, but that was the very out side of the disc, in the centre it was a lot slower.

'Twas the Kenwood TrueX - from many years ago

[Agent]

It might be the very out side of the DVD that is read at x16 ... just a guess

Strange: I remember DVD drives x1 then x2 .. x4 .. (x6?) .. x8 .. x12 .. got to x16 a long time ago yet don't seem to have get any quicker.

Correct !
The speed of a DVD reader is always faster at the outer part of the disk as the laser passes over more sectors at the same speed as it would if the laser was at the centre.

DVD drives havnt really gone past 16X for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, there is really no need. The R&D, extra cost of parts, ect. that would have to go into it wouldn’t make sense. How often do you install stuff from DVD ?, even then, it would be seconds difference, not minutes.

Secondly, going over 16X speed DVD read rate can cause DVD disks to shatter should there be any imperfections in it.

[Funkstar]

Most drives have their speed limited for reading of CSS protected content. I think i remember reading reviews of Lite-On drives are didn't have this limitation, but i'm not sure. There are also hacked firmwares for Pioneer drives that i believe remove the limitation too.

Have a look at places like CDFreaks and CDRLabs for reviews etc.

[manwithnoname]

'Twas the Kenwood TrueX - from many years ago

...
Correct !

... all this rubbish I read, half forget, regurgitate at a later date ... today I'm right. I'm on a roll now .. I'm sure I read about some winning numbers on the lottery if I could just remember!?