Why do DVD players have different speed ratings?

[VTrider]

I understand the difference between let's say a 12x and a 52x CD, same goes for CDR/CDRW, but what's the deal with DVD's

For example, what is the advantage of a 16x DVD player compared to an 8x DVD player? Thanks, i'm a little confused.

 

[Pabster]

16X DVD, in theory, can read data off the DVD faster than an 8X model, though that is often not the case. You won't find any 16X DVD-ROM, for example, which can rip DVDs at 16X. Remember that while DVD is often used for video, it can be used for software as well. Digital Versatile Disc

 

[VTrider]

Thanks Pabster....would the speed rating of a DVD player have any effect on the smooth/choppy playing of a movie? Would a DVD movie play the same on 'all' DVD players regardless of speed rating?

 

[Pabster]

Not at all. If you are planning on just playing DVDs, you can get by with an older 4/6/8x unit. Just make sure you've got DMA enabled if it is an IDE DVD-ROM. Also, if you don't have a "powerful" machine you may need either a Radeon (hardware DVD decoding) or a Hollywood decoder card. A reasonably fast machine should be able to do it without any problems.

 

[yeuemmaimai]

whn you play back a movie, it is played at 1x speed regardless of the actual speed rating of the drive. Several factors determine how fast the drive will read

1. max speed of the drive
2. what 'Mode' the application uses to read data from the drive. This was a problem in DOS days but windows will typically read the data as fast as it can from the drive


You WILL notice a difference between a 8x and 16x drive if you are copying the contents to your HDD for some reason ahem cough...ripping...copying to another format....cough....