DVD-ROM question(s) ---


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Hello all!

Hopefully you will make things a bit clearer for me here :)

So here we go:

Why do DVD-ROM speeds seem to have stopped at 16x

Almost all drives that are available, go at this speed. Is there a reason for it? And I mean a reason like DVD standards, in other words what kinds of DVDs the DVD-ROM can read. Are the standards going to change, so a DVD-ROM from today won't read DVDs from the future (2-3 yrs.)?

Oh, almost forgot.

Does it matter anymore, whether the DVD-ROM is multi-region (hardware) compatible? I mean does it depend on software settings, to watch a movie from another region for example?

Thanx all.

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i think that this is the highest that they can get outta drives at the moment, remeber DVD speeds are diff to CD speeds, and 16x is pretty fast anyway

i dont think there are any changes with dvd drives in the future i havent heard anything about them and dvd hasnt come into the mainstream yet as far as software and games go so if there is a new format it wont be necessary for a while

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If I remeber correctly...there's always a problem with keeping a laser focused on a disc that is exhibiting force as it spins (ie...expands) at high speeds. The DVD laser is more focused than a CD one...which would probably account for 16x in DVDs and 42x in CDs.

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mmm, good question. it got me thinking too. seemingly, the best excuse I can think of right now is that there's no need for faster speed at the moment.

I mean, we as human beings, crave bigger, faster things, etc, but I dunno, can't think up better excuse.

And giving it another thought, I would say if they really want to surpass the 16x speed, they can probably develope some kind of method to. (use splitter to split the laser beam into multiple laser beams, use different color laser (stronger))

the other big problem I am guessing that may occur when passing the 16x mark is the accuracy of reading. (obviously not high, heh)

oh yah, excuse my poorly written and formatted response, it's late over here and I am pretty darn tired. :knocked-o

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a 1x CD-ROM is like 150K and a 1x DVD has up to 900K a second (i could be wrong on these rates) Anyways, because DVD has much smaller pits, it has to read a lot more data per revolution.

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Originally posted by threetonesun

If I remeber correctly...there's always a problem with keeping a laser focused on a disc that is exhibiting force as it spins (ie...expands) at high speeds. The DVD laser is more focused than a CD one...which would probably account for 16x in DVDs and 42x in CDs.

yeah cept that the max ive seen in cds is 54x (yes 54x not 52x)

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think of it this way... if you have a 4x dvd rom, and you can watch movies without it bogging down(or i would hope, else they really wouldn't sell) so having a 16x means nothing as far as watching movies is concerned.. correct me if i am wrong on ths btw... but i assume that it doesn't go above 16x for the reasons stated above, and it would be pointless... it isn't like the movie will play better...

as far as the region thing, i know that with stand alone dvd players, to watch european discs you have to have a european player, or a region free on.. i am not sure with dvd roms though, cause like you said it has to do with how it decodes it, which in essence would be the software...

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Perhaps there is no need for higher speeds than 16 because this is fast enough to keep a constant video stream, which most dvds are used for these days. If the dvd plays without jerks it's fast enough? When dvds are used more for data (where there is a desire for faster speeds - so that data can be copied faster) the demand for speed will increase and so may the technology?

Just a guess, might be a some technological reason :s

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Originally posted by dacbo

yeah cept that the max ive seen in cds is 54x (yes 54x not 52x)

kenwood makes a 72x drive, and it actually does 72x on the whole disc i think.

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Because of the density of DVD's being higher and the amount of data they pull off of the disk, 16x DVD is roughly equivelant to 50x CD-Rom. They won't be getting any faster for the time being.

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I think they are alot faster then that I'll look up some dvd specs and let you people know. I own a dvdrom I used it to replace a 50x cdrom and it is alot faster then that 50x I had for everything.

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geeez you lot are so behind the times bar xweston.

Kenwood do make a 72X CD Drive and thats the fastest theyve bothered to produce because its not the most stable :ermm:

there are currently 20X DVD chips that will be put into place either this summer or this autumn/winter.

the next progression for DVD's is said to be Blu Ray. but thats all in the future.

get with it

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yeah, jaz is right. But why the hell would you need a DVD drive faster than 16X dvd movies plays at 1X so you don't need anything faster than that really. DVD 16X is more than fast enough for any dvd and no dvd drive ever reaches that fast when reading info off a disc. Not even in windvds 20X fast forward mode does it reach that high. At 16X it reads about 20MBytes/s (NOT bits) of info and DVDs only have a bitstream for 9.8Mbits/s for th REALLY high quality ones. (for the techno illiterate 9.8Mbits/s is only 9.8/8 = 1.225MBytes/s and remember ONLY the THX certified ones reach that high. Most DVDs are 7.8Mbits/s so it's just not needed to be that fast anymore)

So that covers it i think..:)

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Originally posted by SHoTTa35

yeah, jaz is right. But why the hell would you need a DVD drive faster than 16X

Because you can? Isn't that the excuse for most computer technologies constantly advancing? Of course, there is no reason for speeds that high...but people will buy them anyway.

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well there is need for a faster HD and faster CPUs and faster GFX cards and .. should i continue? AT 32X tho my CDRW drive is plenty fast even tho it would be nice to just burn a disc in less than 1 minute but oh well... :)

oh and thanx mick0142 :)

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You have to make sure both the drive is region free and the software is too. You can download a little program to tell you about the hardware, I'm not sure of the name, and if the DVD is region-locked you can often download "dodgy" firmware which you flash to the drive to make it region free. That's what I did and mine works fien and dandy.

After that, all you need to do is download a little program from Elby (the people that make Clone CD) here and if you keep the program running in the system tray you can use most major software (I use PowerDVD) with DVDs of any region.

Hope this helps.

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DVD 16X is more than fast enough for any dvd and no dvd drive ever reaches that fast when reading info off a disc.

erm, that's like saying a cdrom at 8x is plenty fast because audio cd's only run at 1x. DVD's aren't just for video (ok right now they are for the most part, but there are some exceptions) - more and more stuff will probably be put on dvd as they begin to replace cd-roms altogether. I'd much rather install VS.NET (on DVD) on a 16x drive than a 1x, 2x etc. - faster is always better. oh the kenwood 72x - i think it uses multiple lasers right? a 1 laser system can only get about ~52x before they become too unstable for a good read/performance gain, so with 2 or 4 lasers you can read more data at a more stable (slower) rate. i think that's right. :)

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