Buffer on DVD-Rom and Speeds

[joeblo123]

My roomie is looking for a DVD player so any input would be greatly appreciated. He bought a cheapie 12X w/128KB butter one from BestBuys and it was really choppy. He wants to return it and get a good one that will not make it choppy. He has a ATI 32MB Radeon VE.

The question here is DOES the size of the Buffer make a diff? Also, does the speeds make a big difference(i.e. between 12x and 16x)?

I'm looking at a couple different ones for him from NEWEGG. A Toshiba 16x that only has 128KB or a Creative 12x that has 512KB buffer?

Also, what is cloneCD?

Thanks for the info.

 

[dvdwriters]

No the buffer wont make much difference.

There also isnt much difference between x 12 and x16.. Only on paper.

Yup get the Toshiba cos its Clone CD compatible and the Creative drives
are quite bad.

Clone CD is a CDR program this enables you to make 1:1 copies of
programs.. which may be copy protected. Its not compatible with all
hardware and requires hardware that can read subchannel data.

Toshibas are the very few DVD drives that can read them.

 

[clockhar]

Hey, what kind of computer does he have? I don't think the buffer (and I know the speed) does not matter when playing DVD. They are mainly for CD-ROM type issues. When playing a DVD, it is mainly an issue of using software vs. hardware DVD playback. But since your roomie has an ATI Radeon card (with hardware DVD), that shouldn't be a problem. Which DVD software are you using? My guess is that if you are using some 3rd party software (vs. ATI's DVD player), it won't take advantage of the hardware DVD decoder in your ATI card. That might be why your roomie is getting choppy playback. Otherwise, it just might be he needs a faster system?? (who doesn't these days). But I really doubt buying another DVD player will correct this problem. Just my 2 cents here ... anyone correct me if I am wrong

 

[Madcowz]

yea, buffer shouldn't make a big difference. If he has choppy playback, it's probably for a different reason. What CPU is he using?

 

[joeblo123]

He's got a Duron 700@ 880 with 256MB of ram. I don't think the computer speed is an issue.

I think it was just a crappy DVD-Rom.

Thanks for all the info.

 

[bigballer]

Is DMA enabled?

 

[joeblo123]

Yes, DMA is enabled.