Announcement

**SlurpDog** · 22 July 1999, 09:34

I have the Toshiba SD-M1212 and a G400, and the DVD playback is awesome. It's at least as good as my roommate's machine with a decoder card, if not better. I don't think your choice of drive will affect your playback too much, though. I have heard of some problems with SCSI DVDs, so be sure you know about any potential problems if you go that route.

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Celeron 333@416, 192MB, SBLive!, 32MB G400, 12MB Voodoo2, and growing every day.

**Pelle** · 22 July 1999, 11:04

I agree with SlurpDog; stay away from SCSI and get a country-code-free ATAPI-drive (see http://www.activewin.com/dvd/dvdinfomatrix/drives.html for a list). I personally am really happy with the Hitachi GD-2000, which isn't the fastest, but cheap, reliable and, the most imporant thing when watching movies - SILENT. It's not manufactured anymore, but I heard a lot of good things on the GD-2500 as well.

**djroberts** · 22 July 1999, 11:10

I feel the Toshiba drives are a bit slow. the Pioneer 6X is definitly the fastest I've seen. I own a Panasonic 5X that will read DVD-R , has an optical output and is faster then the 5X Toshiba (Haven't tested the Toshiba 6X). I believe the Pioneer lacks a digital out.

- DJ

**djroberts** · 22 July 1999, 11:11

Excuse me, I meant digital output, not optical.

- dJ

**Joel** · 22 July 1999, 12:45

I have the Toshiba SD-M1212 6X-DVD IDE drive (32X CD-ROM)and even on my K6-2/400 with the G400 the DVD playback is just great. I use the software DVD program that came with the G400. Output to my 17" monitor is truly awesome. I have not had a good chance to fully check out the TV out, because I don't have a good TV in the room where my PC is and hauling my 27" screen up the stairs is not easy, but I did though test it out on an older 19" TV. I had to run the signal through an older VCR, and except for the microvision encoding, the output was good.

Joel

**Helevitia** · 22 July 1999, 13:04

Well, I just installed my first DVD drive yesterday and I can tell you that I will return the drive because it shows pauses in regular games and my old CD did not do this. DVD playback is better than I expected on a G200 w/ K6-2 400. The drive is a Samsung SDR-430 4.8X DVD, 32X CD. Hope this helps.

Dave

**Goalie 33** · 23 July 1999, 00:11

I have the Toshiba SDM1212 and love it. One thing to check for on any drive you decide to go with is whether it supports DMA. I got burned on the first Toshiba driver I bought (a 1202) because it didn't support DMA and playback was a little jerky even on a PII 400 system.

**OrangeJulius** · 23 July 1999, 06:06

Thought I replied to this one; oh well. Musta been on Sharkys..

Pioneer DVD-ROM 6X gets the highest ratings on:

- http://www.agnhardware.com
- http://www.cdfreaks.com (hardware section)
- http://www.index-materiel.com/english/hardware_reviews/ (8+ reviews, a couple in french, most in english)

I'm planning on getting the DVD 10X from Pioneer, it's SLOT LOADING (like 6X)! Once you use slot-load (like in your car) you'll never go back. Here's the announcement:
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New Pioneer DVD-ROM drive - 1:40:PM - Jose Antonio Ayala

Thanks go out to cruXader for letting me know that Pioneer has just announced the world's fastet DVD-Rom\CD-Rom drive, the Pioneer DVD-AO4SZ. Here's the press release:

Pioneer Multimedia is once again proving its leadership in DVD technology by launching the world's fastest DVD-ROM drive, the 10X DVD-AO4SZ. The new drive will be bundled in retail outlets throughout Europe from October with a cutting-edge package including FOX Interactive's X-Files Game and Interplay's Baldur's Gate. Both titles are DVD-ROM versions.

With market leading transfer rates of 10X for DVD-ROM (13.5 MB/s) and 40X for CD-ROM (6 MB/s), the new drive operates more than 40 per cent more efficiently than its predecessor and supports multiple disc formats including DVD-R and DVD-RW. It also comes with improved seek and access times of 90ms and 100ms for DVD-ROM and 70ms and 80ms for CD-ROM and is completed with ATAPI (DVD-AO4SZ) interface.

The drive can read both single and dual layer DVD discs. In comparison to a CD-ROM disc, a single-sided, single-layer DVD disc offers seven times the capacity and a double-sided, dual-layer DVD disc, 26 times the capacity.

Both the X-Files game and Baldur's Gate incorporate visual and audio DVD quality and are indicative of the capacity and flexibility of the new technology. The X-Files game incorporates MPEG2 video and high quality sound. This material includes specially created footage used only for this game. The X-Files is a great adventure game that intrigues the mind. Extensive knowledge of the TV series however is not necessary.

Baldur's Gate is an exciting role-playing game in true Dungeons and Dragons tradition. The 7 disc CD-ROM version was a Top 5 hit across Europe and is now available on one DVD-ROM (DVD-5).

Chris Tampsett, Optical Systems Product Manager at Pioneer Multimedia comments, "This is the fastest DVD-ROM drive on the market, with excellent features and, bundled with such a fantastic package, we are confident that it will be extremely well received. We will be supporting it with an extensive marketing campaign.

"Pioneer Multimedia invests considerably in research and development and as a key member of the DVD Consortium, which decides the specifications for future technology, we are at the fore front of multimedia development. Our innovations this year, with our 2nd generation DVD-R writer, 720 disc DVD autochanger and now the fastest DVD-ROM drive, are clear evidence of our lead in the market."

**pnkflyd51** · 23 July 1999, 07:37

My Toshiba 1202 supports DMA.

It works fine in Win9x and WinNT.

**Jihad** · 23 July 1999, 08:43

Hey Orange:

Where is this fancy new 10X drive aviable?
or isn't it?

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Celeron 366->550, 128 MB RAM, 10.1 IBM Deskstar, MX300, G400 vanilla, HP 8100i CD-RW

**Steve C** · 23 July 1999, 10:15

I'll back up the Pioneer 6x Slot drive too. I've got the IDE (103s) version and apart from two minor quirks - quite high CPU usage when playing audio CDs and no digital out, it's a lovely drive.
Touch on the expensive side, but a nice fast drive.

Cheers,

Steve

------------------
Yeah, you know the score...
(ICQ: 29468849)

**Steve C** · 23 July 1999, 10:41

Hi guys,

Just found the firmware update for the Pioneer 103s IDE drive - sorts out the high cpu usage problem.

Go <A HREF="http://perso.club-internet.fr/farzeno/firmware/" target="_blank">HERE</A>

Cheers,

Steve

------------------
Yeah, you know the score...
(ICQ: 29468849)

**pnkflyd51** · 23 July 1999, 11:40

What kind of "digital out" is on DVD-ROM drives? CD-Audio? S/PDIF? What brands/models have this and what can it be hooked up to/used for?

Thanks

**agallag** · 23 July 1999, 11:52

The digital output would be used for plugging into a soundcard with digital input. It's S/PDIF I believe.

My question is, since I have a full SBLive, is the digital out required for passing AC-3 out the SBLive's digital out, or is that all handled by the decoding software?

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Andrew Gallagher - andrew@agallagher.com
Asus P2B-S, PII-350, 64MB PC100, MillG200 8MB (Anxiously awaiting my G400MAX), SBLive! Retail, Win98SE

Announcement

Good DVD drive for G400 software decoding?

Good DVD drive for G400 software decoding?

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