sengork Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dacbo Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threetonesun Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
freeza Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 well the dvd plays...thats all that counts right? what is the 16x for? seek times? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nomis_nehc Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aaron901 Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 well i think 1x in dvd is like 8x for cd-rom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dacbo Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick0142 Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pctuk Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xWeston Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dazzla Veteran Posted July 12, 2002 Veteran Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wired57 Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jaz Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted July 12, 2002 Veteran Share Posted July 12, 2002 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..:) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mick0142 Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 Apparently SHoTTa35 knows what is up... as does jaz... very nice info guys... very helpfull... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
threetonesun Posted July 12, 2002 Share Posted July 12, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted July 13, 2002 Veteran Share Posted July 13, 2002 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 :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted July 13, 2002 Share Posted July 13, 2002 As a sidenote... Ever wondered how fast a CD can go before it flies apart? Read on for the answer... http://www.qedata.se/e_js_n-cdrom.htm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sengork Posted July 13, 2002 Author Share Posted July 13, 2002 Thanx all for the replyes, but I'm still not 100% sure about the multiregion software support. Does anyone else know? :? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pctuk Posted July 13, 2002 Share Posted July 13, 2002 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caustiK Posted July 13, 2002 Share Posted July 13, 2002 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. :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roger H. Veteran Posted July 14, 2002 Veteran Share Posted July 14, 2002 well yeah, you're right but isn't over 50X the chance of a CD breaking apart? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sengork Posted July 14, 2002 Author Share Posted July 14, 2002 Originally posted by SHoTTa35 well yeah, you're right but isn't over 50X the chance of a CD breaking apart? True, of you use low quality CDs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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