scsi-dvd rom recommendations ?

[VJ]

a viable alternative ?

Just out of curiosity : some dvd-players (for homecinema's) have a firewire (IEEE1394) connection. This can probably be connected to a PC.

Does anybody have experience with such a combination?
Is it just a regular DVD-drive for the PC ?
Can CD ROMs be read ? (and at what speed ?)
What about software DVDs ?

Thanks !
(my computer is positioned quite close to my tv, this way, I could use the dvd as standalone as well...)


Jörg

[prophet]

pioneer 304S

I'm using Pioneer DVD 304S (predecessor to 305S), with last FW version (1.04 I think) problems with DAE quality and CDRW media are gone! And it is region free (RPC1)..
But it is still true, Mode 2 reading is slow.. about 12x, Toshiba 1401 can read subcodes and protections very fast, but DAE is not so good..

[VJ]

Hello,

Well, the firewire is not a viable alternative (virtually not available, guess this is too early).

Toshiba has some newer IDE-models, that are capable of reading DVD-RW and DVD-RAM (16x, SD-M1612). I mailed Toshiba to inquire about new SCSI-models, I this was the reply :
-
Unfortunately there are not more business opportunities for SCSI DVD-Drives.
The model SD-M1401 is the only available now and will become discontinued
and no sell anymore once our stock will finished off. I have forwarded your message to our feedback mailbox concerning our drives. I appreciate your comments and I would like to thank for your concern and
interest for our model SD-M1401.
-

I don't really like being products I know are discontinued even before I buy them... Also the fact that newer IDE-models outperform both the Pioneer and Toshiba drives makes me think...

Perhaps I should opt for an IDE-drive (aarrrghhh ), with the likely disadvantage that disk/disk copy will not be possible, and higher cpu-usage (my controller is not yet ata/33)... It really is a shame to see this demise of SCSI...

Does anybody have experience with SCSI-IDE adapters ? (e.g. Acard, perhaps as a future upgrade ?...)

Thanks !


Jörg

[The PIT]

Well since I've got a Via chipset and these tend to funny with atapi devices I always prefer scsi solutions. However the market is shrinking and it looks like the manufacturers want to kill it so it will die.

[VJ]

I also fear that SCSI is going that way... Finding fast SCSI-harddrives is no problem (10K, 15K, ...), but other hardware is not easy to get hold on.

Atapi-cdrw's are available up to 24x for various manufacturers, in SCSI, only Lacie make 24x writers. I have contacted Plextor, and they are currently not considering new SCSI-devices.

As far as DVD-ROM is concerned, I currently think that only Pioneer and Toshiba are left... (and the only Toshiba SD-M1401 is being fased out).

Scanners are virtually all USB-connected.

DVD-RAM is currently one of the only non-harddisk devicetypes that are available on SCSI.

It's a shame to see a good standard go...

More devices become available for USB2.0 (e.g. Plextor). Firewire does also seem to be gaining ground, perhaps that we'll have to resort to this standard...


Jörg

[Colin Morey]

my Pioneer

I've got the OEM slot loading DVD rom in my main workstation, (currently offline as the room is being painted).
Noise wise, yes i can hear it when its running at full whack, but when playing back a DVD I can't hear it above the rest of the system.

performance,.. well it does the job, rips audio nice and fast, if only i could get a good encoder that would use multi procs.

Colin.

[DentyCracker]

I think the advantage for me (as a CloneCD user) is that Toshiba drives can do fast error skip in hardware. Makes for fast on the fly CD copies.

[VJ]

Currently, I cannot make on the fly copies; either my Samsung CDROM is to blame, or the fact that there is a difference in standard (atapi for cdrom, scsi for writer).

Has anyone else with a "mixed" setup succeeded in making on the fly copies ?

I think I will go for the Toshiba SD-M1612, it is an atapi-drive, but I'd rather have new atapi than an end-of-line scsi model. What I find particularly interesting, is that it can read dvd-ram as well...
Thanks for all the feedback!


Jörg

[Indiana]

Originally posted by Verstraete J

Has anyone else with a "mixed" setup succeeded in making on the fly copies ?

Yes. Using an old SCSI Toshiba SD-M1201 DVD-Rom and a TEAC W512E CDR.

[VJ]

Ok, thanks !

I suspected the Samsung was to blame (it doesn't perform that good according to several cdrom read tests), but now I know it ought to work.


Jörg

[Wombat]

I didn't see your system specs. It may not be the drive, it may be the south bridge.

For example, on my old MSI-6167 (all AMD 750 board), I could copy on the fly, but the same drives on my Epox board (all Via), can't.

[VJ]

Wombat: The mainboard is a Shuttle Spacewalker 661 (Intel BX chipset).
The specs are:
Pentium II 450, 384 MB SDRAM
Matrox Millenium G200
Adaptec 2940UW
--Quantum Atlas 10K
--IBM Ultrastar 36LZX
--Plextor 4220
Adaptec 2906
--Agfa Snapscan 1236s
--Iomega Zip 250
3com 3c900 Combo
Creative Sound Blaster AWE32

And there used to be a Samsung SCR3231 on primary master .

Jörg

[Indiana]

I have an EPoX VIA based board (8KHA) and as said it works without problems, so this shoud not be an issue, either.

[Wombat]

Well, with intel chips you should be fine.

Indiana, are you doing on the fly with two IDE drives? You have a different south bridge, and it would be nice to know if this problem would go away with a MB upgrade.

[Indiana]

Nope. The DVDRom is a SCSI one, the burner is IDE (after a long time I've finally upgraded from my trusty old SCSI Plextor....).
Verstraete was asking about mixed SCSI/IDE configurations with successful OTF copying and I fit in that category.
But I don't (yet?) have an IDE DVDRom, so I can't test IDE-to-IDE OTF copying.