USB or Parallel?

[Blackberry Junkie]

I got Epson 900 and it has two different ports to use: USB or Parallel. I wanna know which one has faster transfer rate between the computer to Printer and printer to the computer?

 

[ChalPhut]

USB

 

[Blackberry Junkie]

Cool. What is the MAX transfer rate for USB and for Parallel?
I think I heard USB's transfer rate is around 12 MB per sec. I dunno about Parallel.

 

[Prodigy^]

parallel is OLD! 10 years at least......USB is much nice, and it's pretty cool that you can hot-swap......for example, I've got an USB scanner which I don't really use very often, so I have it standing on the top of a bookcase, and I just plug it in when I want to use it, without having to reboot.

who gives a jack about transfer rates? if it can print then it's good enough 😉 but rest assure that USB is faster....

 

[Xtremist]

Q1: How fast is USB?
A1: Full speed USB devices signal at 12Mb/s, while low speed devices use a 1.5Mb/s subchannel.

http://www.usb.org/faq/ans2.html#q1

I don't remember how fast parellel is, but I'm thinking it's < 1.2Mb/s for some reason. I think it depends if it's enhanced, bi-directional, etc... USB is going to transfer faster in any situation however... Cheers!

 

[Blackberry Junkie]

Thanks guys. I am gonna go out and buy me a USB cable and plug this baby in!

 

[Ulysses]

Don't do that just yet. 🙂

First RTM.

Next ask Epson.

Then consider what HP told me with respect to my HP Deskjec 812C inkjet (their user's manual says parallel). Heres the e-mail message:

---------------------------------------------

QUESTION:
My printer works fine, but I'd like to know which gives the fastest
printing:
1. USB
2. Parallel port @ SPP
3. Parallel port @ ECP
4. Parallel port @ EPP
5. Parallel port @ ECP+ EPP
My PC's BIOS allows any of the
above settings &amp; I've used 2 &amp;
3 above without a problem.

------------------------

ANSWER:
Thank you for contacting Hewlett-Packard's Customer Care.

Hi Gerald:

I understand you want to know which port gives the fastest printing.
The ECP port is the fastest port and the one recommended for our
printers. EPP would be the second fastest port, and the SPP port is
the slowest.

Port descriptions:
ECP
ECP stands for Extended Capabilities Port. This setting
allows the computer's parallel port to send and receive data
in both directions simultaneously. This is the preferred and
fastest type of communication available for newer printers.
ECP is the preferred port setting for most HP DeskJet
printers.

SPP, output, compatible, standard, or Centronics
These settings allow the computer's parallel port to operate
in an output-only mode, meaning data can be sent out to the
printer. The parallel port can also receive limited feedback
from the printer. These settings can also be used as the
alternate port setting for HP DeskJet printers if the ECP
port setting is not available.

Standard bidi, bidi, or bidirectional
These settings allow the computer's parallel port to send
and receive data, but only in one direction at a time,
either sending or receiving.
For information on checking or changing the parallel port
configuration for your computer, see the computer
documentation.

EPP is used for high speed read/write peripheral devices, such a disk
drives or CD ROM.


The speed of the LPT and USB ports are as follows:

LPT port: 90 Mb/Sec
USB port: 12 Mb/Sec

---------------------------------------------

🙂

P.S.
I also thought that USB &quot;shares the bandwidth.&quot; My impression was that USB isn't faster, it's just easier.

I've also been told that it doesn't matter because the printers are so slow they can't outrun the connection, which sounds sensible.

Someday I'm going to test it both ways.

 

[Blackberry Junkie]

HMM.. How do I test both Parallel Port (ECP, EPP,etc) and USB? to see which has the faster transfer rate? is there such a benchamrking program for that??

 

[Xtremist]

There's NO way you can have a parellel port going at 90 megabits per second.

&quot;The EPP and ECP have special hardware support for higher speeds (around 1MB/s)&quot;

http://home.clear.net.nz/pages/kheidens/ppmfaq/khppmfaq.htm

That's like 8 mbit/sec. I think HP has their numbers crossed somewhere. Have you ever tried transferring from a parellel zip before? Phew. There's no way you could fill up one of those things in 10 seconds 🙂

 

[Spearfodder]

I have an epson 740 with both a par port and a usb port. Just for kicks after I got it I tested it thoughly with both.

Verdict: Assuming you're running 98/win2k, go with usb. Hands down. Slightly faster (compared to ecp+epp) but much nicer to use.

Seemed to make a couple second's difference on printing larger print jobs. Smaller ones (i.e. just text) you couldn't tell a difference.

 

[AMB]

I bought a new cable for my Epson 860 and have noticed any faster speeds, although, when printing large documents, the software doesn't chrash anymore.