Im having a real problem. My benq 1620 only seems to read commercial dvd (movies) at 10x speed but I thought it should read them at 16x, correct? It registers dvd+rs at a read speed of 16x but not the "real" ones. This is a big problem becuae when I wnat to back up with dvd shrink it takes sometimes 30 minutes (!) to read it before the burning. Thats more than twice as long as my as I was told it should. Can someone help me. It there a setting Im supposed to change or something? Will a firmware update help. So far I have only put on b7P9.

Before the T firmware the drive would only read single layer pressed DVD's (very rare now) at 16x, ALL other DVD's were read at 8x.

I think from T onwards it has been increased to your 10x for dual layer reading & 16x for single layer.

Remeber that 16x is the final maximum speed the drive will reach. The disc itself would not survive if the drive attempted to read it at 16x from the start. The motor spins the disc at its fastest possible speed from the start.

10x is about as fast as any DVD drive will read a disc, I dont know of any faster drive (but will be proved wrong I am sure)

The AOpen 1648 reads DL discs above 10X. Check out this thread:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=107490

Granted the drive is not a burner, but it does appear to be a great ripper.

30 minutes to just read or 30 minutes to read and shrink it ?

BenQ 1620 will (try to) read (talking about transfer rate speed ) single layer PRESSED DVD´s (meaning commercially produced, if you can find them...) at 16 X.

Just to walk the extrta info mile, if you CAN burn a single layer DVD+R, bitset it to DVD-ROM and corrupt it´s MID info so that 1620 will not find it as: Media ID=DVD+R, believe-you-me, it will (try to) read it @16 (lots of reports/questions already posted on this)

It will also (try to) read (talking about transfer rate speed ) Burned DVD+/-R/W and Dual layer DVD´s @8 X (@qwakrz, it can not do 10X P9, or T9 FW..)

Now, this does not mean it will read a disk constantly at this speed...


Many people use DVD-ROM´s for ripping DVD´s to HDD. I am (still) very happy with my JLMS XJ-HD166S (lite-on) Rom drive,
as after a Speed hack FW upgrade, it will (transfer rate) read fast, very fast, every kind of DVD ...

just my 2 cts...

Hp. _

Yes, the read speed is normal for the market. Very few drives can rip faster. Most Sony DVD drives rip so fast you'll split your pants, however the ultra-fast rip speeds can introduce errors. Fast rip drives introduce timing errors and glitches into video. BenQ reads even scratched discs with quality results.
So, it's a compromise of speed for quality, but that's okay by me!

Shrink for 30 min? Not 12 to 20 min?

Well, you can clean the original discs with pledge/favor, but don't get the one that includes REAL oil. Try it on sunglasses first to test it. Spray it on slow so that it is "gunky" and then rub it in with clean fingertips till it turns to completely to liquid. Buff with a very clean T-shirt. That can really clean dirty originals without adding any scratches in the process. The movie rental gal has noticed that some of her discs are totally clean and smell really wonderful. I had some videotapes to replace, but I admit to nothing. . .

You can use a faster processor and some more memory.

If Norton is installed, you can turn off the Norton Protected Recycle Bin slowdown bug.

If you have Norton Ghost available, you can turn off System Restore feature of Windows. Using real backup discs is much more effective, and then you won't have System Restore slowing down your system.

You can use a faster processor and plenty of FREE memory (lots of add-on goodies IE weatherbug and 4 messanger programs running at once result in 0 free memory).

Some of the user selectable options in Shrink can cause dramatic speed differences.

Oh, and there's that 40 wire cable, round cable issue. Either one can slow down a 1620 just a little bit. Imagine talking to grandma over a staticy telephone connection: "cat". . ."cap?". . ."No, not cap! Cat!!". . ."Yes cap!". . ."NO! CAT!!!!". . ."What? Did something happen to your cat?". . ."Nothing's wrong with my cat. I was just talking about my cat.". . ."I wasn't asking about your cap. I want to know about your cat.". . ."He's fine!!!". . ."Oh. That's good. So what's this about a cap?". . . Anyway, you get the picture. Imagine yelling over the telephone until you're blue in the face, and still can't communicate at normal speed. How's your IDE cable?

L firmware, firewire-attached, pressed DVD5:

14.8X [only a 3.5GB DVD]:

DVDDecrypter log: