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mistertee
Newbie
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 17
Location: SF Bay Area
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 Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject: Slow DVD Burning / Confusing Test Results |
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| Hello, I've been making CD's and DVD's for years with (generally) great quality results. That said, after reading various CD/DVD related web board forums I decided it was time to test my burners, all of which are in USB2 enclosures. Using the latest Nero CD/DVD Speed test utility (version 4.11) I was really surprised to see that my CAV transfer scan results were never better than 4X (average speed 3.8X). With this in mind I have a 2 part question. 1) If these benchmark tests are accurate, why am I usually able to burn a 2 hour DVD-R in less than 18 minutes? Simple math would indicate an actual burn rate of around 6.5X, not 3.8X as reported by Nero. Am I not calculating this correctly? 2) What steps can I take to troubleshoot my slow burning problem? All of my writers are capable of 16X and my external enclosure are definitely USB2. I've tried testing my drives in a number of different enclosures connected to various USB2 ports including both hub and primary. I'm using quality cables and my drive models seem to be fairly well respected by the burning community. My basic PC specs are: Sony Vaio PC Intel P4 HT @ 3.2ghz 2.0gb PC3200 DDR 120gb HDD (internal) 900gb HDD (external USB2) Just FYI, my PC tends to run very well (problems or conflicts of any kind are rare) and is 100% free of spyware or virus. I'd love to burn at 8X, 12X or better yet, 16X. Any comments or suggestions would be welcome.
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SirQUK
Webmaster
Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 2732
Location: Locked in the CDR-Zone basement
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:51 am Post subject: |
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Hi mistertee Its confusing I'm sure but 2 hrs of video at 3.8x does indeed equal about 18 minutes in the DVD burning world  it goes on video file size and not running time ( thankfully ) As to why you cant get faster than 4x.... heres some questions I have found to help troubleshoot this problem. What media are you using to burn with? Do u have more than one usb controller to plug into ( i have found some USB controllers just dont cut it in the burning world but are fine for hardrive use ) Some extermal cases use chipsets which may need updating for best results too - is it possible to say which chipset your external casse is using? Is it possible for you to remove the external from its case and try it internally inside the pc to see if the drive can reach faster than 4x speeds? If this doesn't help we can try some other solutions
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mistertee
Newbie
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 17
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 3:21 pm Post subject: |
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Thanks very much for the reply! | Quote: | | What media are you using to burn with? |
I've done most of my testing with the current TDK 16X DVD-R, ink jet printable discs but have also experimented with some HP 8X (aka; CMC AE1) lightscribe DVD-R and TYG02 8X DVD-R. The results have prettty much been the same with all. | Quote: | | Do u have more than one usb controller to plug into ( i have found some USB controllers just dont cut it in the burning world but are fine for hardrive use ) |
Yes, I have 3, but no hubs running off hubs. All are connected directly to one of the ports on my PC. 2 of the hubs are Belkin and the 3rd is generic. A few weeks ago I discovered (as you just mentioned) the generic hub is not suited for burning. So currently my drives are connected to only to the Belkin hubs. That said, I have also tested several of the drives connected directly to the USB2 ports on the front of my PC. There was perhaps a slight improvement but virtually negligible. | Quote: | | Some extermal cases use chipsets which may need updating for best results too - is it possible to say which chipset your external casse is using? |
Well, here I have to confess I've been using mostly Sony USB2 enclosures salvaged from previous CD and DVD externals. I've accumulated 4 of these over the last few years. They seem to work well howver there's certainly no chip updating potential. My best enclosure is a Venus DS5. As it stands, the results with the Venus were no different than Sony's. Is there some way to update the FW for the Venus? I've never noticed it appearing as a device on my system as would be the case with a DVD-RW drive. | Quote: | | Is it possible for you to remove the external from its case and try it internally inside the pc to see if the drive can reach faster than 4x speeds? |
Possible, yes. Unfortunately my PC enclosure is mid-size and requires something just short of removong all the guts to get at the internal drives. As a last resort I'd be willing to try this. | Quote: | | If this doesn't help we can try some other solutions |
I'm open to any and all suggestions including purchasing a specific model enclosure for testing. Would you have any recommendations? Thanks again 
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SirQUK
Webmaster
Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 2732
Location: Locked in the CDR-Zone basement
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| Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2006 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Quote: | | Well, here I have to confess I've been using mostly Sony USB2 enclosures salvaged from previous CD and DVD externals. I've accumulated 4 of these over the last few years. They seem to work well howver there's certainly no chip updating potential. My best enclosure is a Venus DS5. As it stands, the results with the Venus were no different than Sony's. Is there some way to update the FW for the Venus? I've never noticed it appearing as a device on my system as would be the case with a DVD-RW drive. |
They will appear as USB devices in device manager. | Quote: | | I'm open to any and all suggestions including purchasing a specific model enclosure for testing. Would you have any recommendations? |
A good question! CDFreaks have a big thread where ppl have published their sucess and failures
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mistertee
Newbie
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 17
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 5:48 am Post subject: |
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Well, it looks like my problem is USB2. I switched to a firewire connection using a stock Sony enclosue with a TDK 16X DVD-R and got this result...
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| Filesize: |
105.69 KB |
| Viewed: |
3665 Time(s) |
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SirQUK
Webmaster
Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 2732
Location: Locked in the CDR-Zone basement
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:18 am Post subject: |
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| How strange but at least firewire is working:)
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mistertee
Newbie
Joined: 03 Feb 2006
Posts: 17
Location: SF Bay Area
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 3:36 pm Post subject: |
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| SirQUK wrote: | | How strange but at least firewire is working:) |
Yeah, really odd... especially since I can reach 35X with CD-R and process DV and analog video through USB2 with nice results. In any case, I'm just glad to have found a solution and no doubt my CD-R performance will improve as well. I really appreciated your help Thanks again!
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SirQUK
Webmaster
Joined: 20 Sep 2002
Posts: 2732
Location: Locked in the CDR-Zone basement
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| Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:30 pm Post subject: |
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| Always here to try and lend an helping hand where possible - its the cdr-zone way!
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