DVD: is 16x worth it?

[nychris86]

I'm not an avid movie watcher, not on my computer anyway. I've got a DVD player and a large TV, so I rarely use DVDs on my computer, I do use it sometimes though. Is 16x worth it then? Or is 8x plenty of speed?

 

[LordAccord]

Not unless you are ripping or want to fast forward really quickly....

LoRdAccord

 

[Viper GTS]

Considering the rather minimal price premium for 16X, you might as well get the fastest available.

If you're on an extremely tight budget, 8X will be fine.

I have a LiteOn 16X that is also a pretty damn quick CD drive, so the benefit is definitely there for the faster drives.

Viper GTS

 

[nychris86]

Hmm, a Lite On 16x is what I had in my shopping cart before I started wondering if I needed a 16x at all. So the speed is different on the CD side as well? If so, I'll stick with the 16x, it's hardly more expensive, I'm just looking to shave every dollar if I can

 

[madthumbs]

For me the speed is mostly for the CDrom function. You'll find that these drives can't rip at the indicated speeds... Like Toshiba's that rip at 2x. I think people who rip are more concerned about cpu speed. For simply playing DVD's without doing scans a 2x should be sufficient.

 

[Mavrick007]

Any speed dvd is plenty to play a dvd, but as they are saying, the faster the dvd drive is, the faster the cd reading will be. Ripping is different and you should check how the DAE is as well as how fast you can rip a dvd to divX. Some faster players are capped at ripping dvds like the guy said of the Toshiba 16x (now the Toshiba 12x can do it full speed, which is what I have).

 

[ripthesystem]

the 16x lite-on is an excellent DVD player/CD-ROM with an oustanding DAE and great DVD rip times as well. I love mine and wouldn't even think of getting a different one. Esp. when they are so cheap.

you might want to check This 16x DVD Deal from Dell and maybe save some cash!

ripthesystem

 

[nychris86]

Bah! That deal would be perfect, except the drive is not black

Cheapest Lite on 16x black drive I can find is 43.00 at bananapc.com, I'll probably stick with that

 

[NTB]

Another thing you may want to keep in mind is that faster - and therefore, probably newer - drives are more likely to be compatible with newer standards, such as DVD-Audio and the various DVD recording formats.

Just my 2 cents.

Nate

 

[Nomjr]

Have you tried newegg? Sorry didn't look before I posted


Nomjr

 

[ElFenix]

the lite-on 16x rips audio cds really quick... combined with my athlon xp i can rip and encode to lame --r3mix in under 10 minutes per cd. its awesome.

 

[thomsbrain]

Originally posted by: ripthesystem
the 16x lite-on is an excellent DVD player/CD-ROM with an oustanding DAE and great DVD rip times as well. I love mine and wouldn't even think of getting a different one. Esp. when they are so cheap.

you might want to check This 16x DVD Deal from Dell and maybe save some cash!

ripthesystem

Ditto on my Lite-On, it's just an awesome drive.

 

[Diable]

thomsbrain, those lines in your sig were written by Hunter S. Thompson not the guy in Tool.

 

[MWink]

It is NOT worth it. I have an old Panasonic 8X DVD-ROM and it OUTPERFORMS my 16X drives. It beat my Lite-On and Pioneer 16X. It actually was able to rip a DVD at 8X, the others did it slower despite their higher rated speed. I would much rather an older drive as most of them seem built better than newer ones.

 

[BFG10K]

When I was browsing for DVD drives the only ones I could see were 16x ones. So perhaps a better question would be: why wouldn't you want one?

 

[jayboal]

Does the "X" factor of a DVD drive actually affect fast-forward speed? Does this mean that on an old 1X drive fast-forward is actually real-time?

 

[madthumbs]

Originally posted by: jayboal
Does the "X" factor of a DVD drive actually affect fast-forward speed? Does this mean that on an old 1X drive fast-forward is actually real-time?

-Would affect smoothness or frame rate... not necessarily speed.

 

[LordAccord]

yeah, I didnt mean to be unclear, I mean you will drop frames when you ff with a slower drive, you can still ff quickly, as far as I have seen..

I think that CRAPPY drives dont rip up to speed, my Pioneer 10x rips at 9.6x consistantly.... heh, so.... if that says anything about quality of a drive.... I wish someone would do a comparison of all the different dvd drives still readily available...

CD speed was something I didnt think of, Im just used to using my plex40x for everything....

LoRdAccord

 

[Neurofreeze]

Originally posted by: MWink
It is NOT worth it. I have an old Panasonic 8X DVD-ROM and it OUTPERFORMS my 16X drives. It beat my Lite-On and Pioneer 16X. It actually was able to rip a DVD at 8X, the others did it slower despite their higher rated speed. I would much rather an older drive as most of them seem built better than newer ones.

Make sure you have the correct drivers. There was a period when some manufacturers limited certain models' ripping speed purposely. I'm afraid I don't have a list of models and driver versions though. If I remember correctly, the Pioneer 115 (or maybe it was 105?) was the most infamous at this, ripping at 2x while being a 16x drive. Like LordAccord said, his Pioneer 10x rips at 9.6x, which is faster than your 8x Panasonic.

I'd get the 16x's. Even if I don't seek that much, when I do, I want to wait as little as possible.

 

[MWink]

Make sure you have the correct drivers. There was a period when some manufacturers limited certain models' ripping speed purposely. I'm afraid I don't have a list of models and driver versions though. If I remember correctly, the Pioneer 115 (or maybe it was 105?) was the most infamous at this, ripping at 2x while being a 16x drive. Like LordAccord said, his Pioneer 10x rips at 9.6x, which is faster than your 8x Panasonic.

That doesn't change the fact that the newer ones are slower. I have a Pioneer 106S/2 and it only rips at 2.2x. What else am I going to do with those 16x's??? It's not like they are putting software on DVD's yet.