DVD burning Problem

billstraighten

hi i have a pioneer external 16X dvd burner and it takes around an hour to burn a dvd over 2GB .writing at 8X...just wondering if i was to get one fitted to my computer would it make it any faster ..or is this the normal speed for any dvd burner wheter external or internal

Oh and if anyone knows a good place to get one fitted that might be handy aswell


Cheers

Balfa

16x takes 6-7 minutes for a full 4.7GB disc.
Not sure off the top of my head with 8 speed but it's probably about 10-12 minutes.

What way is it connected to your PC? If it's USB 2.0 or firewire, then it should be able to transfer much quicker than the drive can write, but if it's only USB 1.0, that'll definitely bottleneck it.

The minimum theoretical time that USB 1.0 (1.4MB/s) could move 2GB is about 25 minutes. Given overheads and stuff, an hour is feasible.

Make sure your motherboard supports USB 2.0 (tell us the model name of it or your PC) and that you're using an O/S that supports USB 2.0 (at least windows XP SP1 - vanilla XP doesn't support USB 2.0).

edit: also make sure that your drive (and cable?) supports USB 2.0. Although I doubt anyone would make an external DVD burner that only works on USB 1.0.

billstraighten

thanks for the info...yeah i only got usb 1.0..im on an old enough dell...
i dont fancy doing anything to my computer..would a fitted one burn faster .. would anyone know/reccomend a good place?

Bubba

billstraighten wrote:

thanks for the info...yeah i only got usb 1.0..im on an old enough dell...
i dont fancy doing anything to my computer..would a fitted one burn faster .. would anyone know/reccomend a good place?

There pretty simple to put in yourself but if not any computer shop should do it for you. Prob charge you a bomb for something so small though.

di11on

Yes, fitting an internal one should solve your problem as the transfer speeds over the IDE connection will be far in excess of the fastest write speed of the drive. Something like this will do the trick:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=314090&cks=PRL

Balfa

Or, since you've already gone and bought the DVD burner, you could grab a USB 2.0 PCI card for e19 (komplett also have a e15 one, but it's out of stock right now) which would give you some USB 2.0 sockets in addition to the USB1 sockets already on your motherboard. Then you could plug your USB 2.0 DVD burner into one of the new USB sockets, and burn at full speed.

It'd also be easier to install than an internal DVD drive!

First thing, though, is to check that your PC has a free PCI slot. Dell's are well dodgy when it comes to expandability, so heave open the case and have a look

chalky

Balfa wrote:

16x takes 6-7 minutes for a full 4.7GB disc.
Not sure off the top of my head with 8 speed but it's probably about 10-12 minutes.

ARE YOU SERIOUS???!!!
I have an internal DVD burner (installed it myself). It takes between 1.5hrs to 2.5 hrs to burn a DVD. (I think its 8X)

garred

chalky wrote:

ARE YOU SERIOUS???!!!
I have an internal DVD burner (installed it myself). It takes between 1.5hrs to 2.5 hrs to burn a DVD. (I think its 8X)

Then there is definitely something wrong. It should only take about 10 mins. Check your ide transfer modes in device manager.

Edit - Actually if you are "backing up" movies it takes about 7-8 mins. I always presume when people mean burn on dvd they mean movie backup, I should'nt but can't help it.
Don't know how long it would be if you were doing just data.

deckie27

Data takes the saem amount of time. 8* should take 10ish minutes
Chalky Is your computer old ?

ianmc38

I assume you are using 8x DVDs? By the sounds of things you're using 4x DVDs.

chalky

ianmc38 wrote:

I assume you are using 8x DVDs? By the sounds of things you're using 4x DVDs.

That could be it actually, but I do remember someone burning with the same discs I use and it was a hell of a lot faster.

My comp is about 2/3 yrs old. Its a Dell Dimension 4600 with 2.6GHz P4 & 1G RAM. Not at home at the mo so I can't check the actual speed of the burner or discs.

John R

chalky wrote:

That could be it actually, but I do remember someone burning with the same discs I use and it was a hell of a lot faster.

My comp is about 2/3 yrs old. Its a Dell Dimension 4600 with 2.6GHz P4 & 1G RAM. Not at home at the mo so I can't check the actual speed of the burner or discs.

Even burning at 2X only takes 30 minutes.

Are you sure you are referring to burning time and not the time it takes to encode avi files or something similar?

chalky

John R wrote:

Even burning at 2X only takes 30 minutes.

Are you sure you are referring to burning time and not the time it takes to encode avi files or something similar?

No its the actual burning time.
I'm using Nero btw.

Balfa

chalky wrote:

I have an internal DVD burner (installed it myself). It takes between 1.5hrs to 2.5 hrs to burn a DVD. (I think its 8X)

A few things to check, then.

First, like garred said, what ATA transfer mode are you using?
Right click my computer -> hardware tab -> Device manager button
Click view then devices by connection.
Navigate to the IDE channel that your burner is on (see IDE.png) and doubleclick that channel. Click the advanced settings tab and tell us your current transfer mode (see IDE2.png).

Also, what is the model of your burner and what media are you using? Have you tried other media? What are you burning?

chalky

Its in PIO Mode
The Burner is an AOpen DVD+/-RW (16X DVD+R, 8X DVD-R)
I'm using unbranded DVD-Rs at the mo but I have used TDK 8x DVD-Rs.
I burn DVD files and Data (anything really)

Balfa

chalky wrote:

Its in PIO Mode

It should be in DMA mode. Are you able to select "DMA if available" from the dropdown?

If not, make sure you have the latest drivers for your motherboard chipset. Also, are there any other drives sharing that channel? Try and remove them.

What motherboard and OS are you using?

chalky

"DMA if available" was already selected, it just showed PIO Mode as the current.
My main DVD/CD writer is also using that channel, I'd rather not remove it.
I'm using XP SP2 and according to Belarc my mobo is "Dell Computer Corp. 02Y832"
As for the drivers, I haven't updated them since I got the comp. Tried a couple of times but it couldn't find any newer ones. (Do I have to find them myself and download them first?)

ianmc38

So you have tested now with 8x DVDs?

chalky

ianmc38 wrote:

So you have tested now with 8x DVDs?

Yeah, I've used 8x DVDs with it.

astrofool

The slower device is limiting the speed of the faster device on the same cable, limiting both to PIO mode.

chalky

OK so how can I fix it so the DVD burner is quicker and so I can still use both devices?

EDIT: Is this just a case using a different cable to connect the drive to the mobo?

Balfa

First, you need to make sure that's actually the problem. Unplug the ATA cable from the other optical drive see what it says in that dialogue. If it says something else, burn a disc and see if you get better speed.

Balfa

by the way, just to make sure, there are two devices listed in the advanced settings box, are both current transfer modes PIO? Or what?

chalky

I'm fairly sure it was. I'll double check when I get home.
Thanks btw.

billstraighten

thanks a lot guys i think i might go ahead and get the usb 2.0 slots as balfa suggested ...thanks a lot saved me the hassle of going to a shop etc etc

chalky

Sorry for hijacking your thread billstraighten

chalky

Both were PIO mode, I unpluged the 1st device and it still says PIO mode in the burner. Does it matter that its device 1 (as opposed to device 0)?

Balfa

chalky wrote:

Does it matter that its device 1 (as opposed to device 0)?

Nope!

Okay, this step probably should have come before the last step but go into your BIOS and on the main setup screen you should have your various IDE devices listed. Go into the dvd burner and for the various transfer mode settings, if they're not already all on auto, then set them to auto.
If they ARE on auto, then play around with them a bit. Probably try setting PIO to auto and DMA to UDMA2 or something. See if that works. Or try the highest PIO and Multiword DMA 2. My bios gives me options to force them to a certain mode or leave it on auto, and it also tells me what mode they're on above that.

chalky

Hey It worked.
The burner is now set at "Ultra DMA Mode 2" and its way faster.
BIOS was a bit different than you described, It didn't seem to recognise the burner at all, which is strange as I've been using it for a while now.
But I got it working anyway. Thanks Balfa.