Blu-ray Disc Hardware

[ddrueding]

I'm in the market for an external BR reader for ripping disks. eSATA length limitations (2m) would make things inconvenient, and nothing short of USB3 will be fast enough to not be a bottleneck.

I have eSATA, USB 3.0 and Firewire (1394a) available, and would love to run it about 9 feet.

Has anyone bought an external BR drive? Found any good reviews online? What performance are you seeing?

Thanks as always...

 

[MaxBurn]

FYI all the BD ROM drives I have seen are limited to 4x or lower when playing or ripping a disk with AACS. Does that alleviate the bottle neck for you?

 

[Stereodude]

Are you sure about that? I thought some of the drives could get up to 8x. link

 

[ddrueding]

Good review Stereodude. Reconsidering eSATA to get that kind of speed.

 

[MaxBurn]

Know of any plain bluray readers that can do that? I was browsing readers the other day looking for something faster and ran into those tidbits like this drive and some of the other drives in reviews that mentioned slower than 8x performance when ripping AACS disks.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductReview.aspx?Item=N82E16827136162
In comments, newegg doesn't post that stuff.

I wouldn't really mind getting a quicker drive, takes over a hundred minutes on some disks with my GGH-H20L.

 

[Stereodude]

I wouldn't really mind getting a quicker drive, takes over a hundred minutes on some disks with my GGH-H20L.

How are exactly are you ripping them?

 

[MaxBurn]

AnydvdHD to ISO.

 

[Santilli]

I've got a

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...40&cm_re=bluray_burner-_-27-249-040-_-Product

Seems to work great with my new computer;-)

 

[Stereodude]

AnydvdHD to ISO.

There's part of your problem. Use AnyDVDHD (on the fly decryption) + IMGburn (read image). It's noticeably faster.

 

[MaxBurn]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

 

[Stereodude]

Thanks, I will give it a try.

I found AnyDVDHD + Imgburn only took about 60% of the time of AnyDVDHD alone did.

 

[ddrueding]

Interesting tip Stereodude.

 

[Handruin]

That is good info. I'll also give it a try, thanks!

 

[MaxBurn]

Do you still get the features like "remove annoying adverts" and the "remove user user prohibited" when ripping that way?

 

[Stereodude]

Do you still get the features like "remove annoying adverts" and the "remove user user prohibited" when ripping that way?

Sure, because that is done by AnyDVD. Same result. It just rips faster.

 

[ddrueding]

I found AnyDVDHD + Imgburn only took about 60% of the time of AnyDVDHD alone did.

Trying this out now. It seems to be a little faster, but I still can't seem to get over 2.5x with my internal SATA BR drive (LG).

 

[Stereodude]

Trying this out now. It seems to be a little faster, but I still can't seem to get over 2.5x with my internal SATA BR drive (LG).

Which LG drive do you have? I have an LG GGC-H20L and it goes a lot faster than that.

 

[Handruin]

A new version of AnyDVD just came out recently.

6.6.2.3 2010 02 22
- New (HD DVD & Blu-ray): Faster response time when changing
settings during scan in progress
- New (Blu-ray): Updated decryption keys
- New (Blu-ray): Added support for new BD+ protections
- New (Blu-ray): Added support for new structural protection
- New (Blu-ray): Added workaround for District 9 (US) playback
problem with PowerDVD
- New (DVD): Added support for new protections
- New (DVD): CSS archive now stores layer break VTS key for
increased performance
- New (DVD): CSS keys are always stored, regardless of the
"Use CSS archive" setting
- New (DVD): Added workaround to AnyDVD ripper for "Angel &
Demons (rental)", Japan
- New: Added more info to logfile
- New: Information window while AnyDVD is scanning discs
- New: Option to enable / disable this window
- New: Workaround for problems with some VMs and certain drives
- New: Create logfiles for empty drives
- New: Better handling of "files in use" during installation
- Change (DVD): CSS archive is enabled by default
- Change: Replaced AnyDVD "Safe Mode" with "Aggressive I/O Mode".
- Note: Aggressive I/O mode is disabled by default. It might be
required with some 3rd party software.
Please report which programs require it. Thank you!
- New: Added warning message, if applications requiring
"Aggressive I/O Mode" are installed
- New: Added option to disable the "Aggressive I/O Mode"
warning message
- Fix (DVD): AI scanner removed non-existant copy protection
from "Tomorrow Never Dies", US
- Fix (DVD): AI scanner could mess up chapters with some discs,
e.g. "Odyssey 5", UK
- Fix: Driver verifier problem with ElbyCDIO.sys
- Fix: Driver verifier problem with AnyDVD.sys
- Fix: Various potential crashes
- Fix: Changing a disc could be missed while AnyDVD is scanning
a disc in another drive
- Fix: Disabling power saving didn't always work
- Some minor fixes and improvements
- Updated languages

 

[MaxBurn]

There's part of your problem. Use AnyDVDHD (on the fly decryption) + IMGburn (read image). It's noticeably faster.

Thanks again, faster but not the blazing speed I wanted.

I 18:50:37 ImgBurn Version 2.5.0.0 started!
I 18:50:37 Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium x64 Edition (6.1, Build 7600)
I 18:50:37 Total Physical Memory: 4,192,300 KB  -  Available: 2,149,852 KB
W 18:50:37 AnyDVD can interfere with ImgBurn's ability to verify accurately, please ensure it's disabled!
W 18:50:37 SPTD can have a detrimental effect on drive performance.
I 18:50:37 Initialising SPTI...
I 18:50:37 Searching for SCSI / ATAPI devices...
I 18:50:37 Found 1 DVD±RW, 1 BD-ROM/HD DVD-ROM and 1 BD-ROM/HD DVD-ROM/DVD±RW!
I 18:51:37 Operation Started!
I 18:51:37 Source Device: [1:0:0] HL-DT-ST BDDVDRW GGC-H20L 1.03 (G:) (SATA)
I 18:51:37 Source Media Type: BD-R (Speeds: 0.2x, 0.3x, 0.6x, 1x, 1.3x, 1.6x)
I 18:51:37 Source Media Sectors: 19,611,072
I 18:51:37 Source Media Size: 40,163,475,456 bytes
I 18:51:37 Source Media Volume Identifier: THE_HANGOVER
I 18:51:37 Source Media Volume Set Identifier: 01C32DB1        THE_HANGOVER
I 18:51:37 Source Media Application Identifier: SonicScenaristBD
I 18:51:37 Source Media Implementation Identifier: SonicScenaristBD
I 18:51:37 Source Media File System(s): UDF (2.50)
I 18:51:37 Read Speed (Data/Audio): MAX / 8x
I 18:51:37 Destination File: F:\THE_HANGOVER.ISO
I 18:51:37 Destination Free Space: 96,248,782,848 Bytes (93,992,952 KB) (91,789 MB) (89 GB)
I 18:51:37 Destination File System: NTFS
I 18:51:37 File Splitting: Auto
I 18:51:43 Reading Session 1 of 1... (1 Track, LBA: 0 - 19611071)
I 18:51:43 Reading Track 1 of 1... (MODE1/2048, LBA: 0 - 19611071)
I 19:43:07 Exporting Graph Data...
I 19:43:07 Graph Data File: C:\Users\Jimmy Hoffa\AppData\Roaming\ImgBurn\Graph Data Files\HL-DT-ST_BDDVDRW_GGC-H20L_1.03_MONDAY-MARCH-01-2010_6-51_PM_N-A.ibg
I 19:43:07 Export Successfully Completed!
I 19:43:07 Operation Successfully Completed! - Duration: 00:51:29
I 19:43:07 Average Read Rate: 12,697 KB/s (2.8x) - Maximum Read Rate: 14,729 KB/s (3.3x)

 

[Stereodude]

Get an 8x reader then

 

[Handruin]

Do you know if it's possible to rip two discs at once assuming two drives and one copy of AnyDVD?

 

[MaxBurn]

Never tried it, as long as the destination is the same drive that is a recipe for fragmentation. I think it will work, I can open up multiple windows from anydvdhd or imgburn.

 

[Stereodude]

Get an 8x reader then

Scratch that... Get a 10x BD-ROM. :twistd:

 

[Stereodude]

Do you know if it's possible to rip two discs at once assuming two drives and one copy of AnyDVD?

Should be.

 

[MaxBurn]

Scratch that... Get a 10x BD-ROM. :twistd:

I was cleaning recently and realized I literally have a stack of optical drives sitting here from upgrades from doing things like this. Notable ones include a TOP G 52x CDROM which I am really thinking of using again to re-rip my CD's from 192k MP3 into some lossless format, I think this is faster than anything sold today! Also a Pioneer DVD115 16x with special firmware to be a real screamer at ripping DVD.

 

[Stereodude]

I found speed when ripping CDs to be completely arbitrary if you use EAC's secure mode. Even an old Lite-on 52x CD-ROM drive isn't very fast. I do a test & rip in EAC, so that takes longer, but it averages less than 4x for the whole disc. My Samsung DVD burner is about the same. My LG HD-DVD/Blu-Ray drive is even slower.

The fastest drive I've ever seen for EAC secure ripping is an old Sony DRU-500A (the first +/- DVD burner). It can do a secure rip at an average of about 20x or even higher if the disc is long.

I should also take this time to point out that I've found some CDs will not rip well with DVD drives. I had some discs that are perfect. No scratches or anything yet no DVD drive could rip them cleanly (and I tried every one I had). There were audible problems in the rip, and the drive would slow way down and return different CRC's for the test and the rip. I put the same discs in an older CD based optical drive and it would rip the disc perfectly without slowing down and had no issues. I've got a few Plextor CD burners (8x4x32A & 12x10x32) saved for just those discs.

 

[MaxBurn]

EAC Secure mode? Is that like verify or something? I don't think I used that and I know I didn't do a test. A couple rips did have problems, does that help glitches or not very much as you still wound up with problems too?

I just remember this drive sounding like a turbine and the disks coming out warm from the amount of air friction, didn't take long at all to do one disk. On the speed difference in today drives maybe the laser they are using now isn't as good as what they used to use for dedicated CD ROM drives, that could explain your behavior and the speed differences.

 

[Stereodude]

EAC Secure mode? Is that like verify or something? I don't think I used that and I know I didn't do a test. A couple rips did have problems, does that help glitches or not very much as you still wound up with problems too?

Secure mode is explained in excruciating detail here. Apparently it reads every sector at least twice. If you want an accurate rip IMHO, Secure Mode + Test & Copy is the only way to go. Since I don't want to ever re-rip my CDs I make sure it's done correctly the first time even though it might be slower.

The Accuraterip capability now built into EAC is also useful to setup the offset of your drive correctly and validate the correctness of your rip as well.

I just remember this drive sounding like a turbine and the disks coming out warm from the amount of air friction, didn't take long at all to do one disk. On the speed difference in today drives maybe the laser they are using now isn't as good as what they used to use for dedicated CD ROM drives, that could explain your behavior and the speed differences.

I'm sure the smaller size of the laser focus area accounts for why DVD drives can't read some CDs well. On the speed thing, I'm not really sure. Though from the explanation I linked to, if the drive caches audio data that would certainly explain why it might be much faster. My memory however is that the Sony drive did not cache audio data.

 

[Handruin]

I've done all my newer rips for the past couple years using EAC with the secure mode and Accuraterip. I think you told me about it way back then.

 

[Stereodude]

Yeah, I've been a cheerleader of it for a while now.

 

[ddrueding]

Do you know if it's possible to rip two discs at once assuming two drives and one copy of AnyDVD?

Just verified. It freaks out for about 3 seconds, then works fine.

 

[ddrueding]

Scratch that... Get a 10x BD-ROM. :twistd:

Got it. Stuck it in an external enclosure. Connected it via eSATA. Both AnyDVD and ImgBurn are showing the same ~10MB/sec speed for Angels and Demons. Not the speed I was looking for

 

[Handruin]

I was thinking I could use it for ripping multiple DVDs to ISO images using multiple drives. I'd point Drive 1 to Disk 1 and Drive 2 to Disk 2 to spread out the I/O. Thanks for confirming it works...now I'll order another DVD drive.

 

[Stereodude]

I've ripped multiple discs to the same RAID array over my network at the same time. I don't know if the files ended up fragmented or not. Frankly, I don't really care.

 

[Stereodude]

Got it. Stuck it in an external enclosure. Connected it via eSATA. Both AnyDVD and ImgBurn are showing the same ~10MB/sec speed for Angels and Demons. Not the speed I was looking for

Not sure what to tell you. There aren't any reviews of it that I've seen. How big is A&D and how long does it take to rip?

 

[ddrueding]

Looks to be about 90 minutes. I'll tell you when it's done (52% now)...still at 9.73MB/s

 

[ddrueding]

I was thinking I could use it for ripping multiple DVDs to ISO images using multiple drives. I'd point Drive 1 to Disk 1 and Drive 2 to Disk 2 to spread out the I/O. Thanks for confirming it works...now I'll order another DVD drive.

I'll be ripping multiple BR disks to the Z-Drive, should have enough I/O headroom there...

 

[Stereodude]

Looks to be about 90 minutes. I'll tell you when it's done (52% now)...still at 9.73MB/s

Odd, my LG GGC-H20L will rip a ~40GB BD in just over 50 minutes in my usage. It's rated 6x on SL BD and 4.8x on DL BD. The LG UH10LS20 is rated 10x on SL BD and 8x on DL BD, so it should definitely be faster than what I'm getting with the LG GGC-H20L.

 

[ddrueding]

Here it is going just about the exact same speed as my LG GGW-H20L. Weird.

 

[Stereodude]

Here it is going just about the exact same speed as my LG GGW-H20L. Weird.

It sounds like the GGW-H20L wasn't performing as well as it should have either. It's rated the same as the GGC-H20L and you seem to be getting slower rips than I do.