Reducing DVD drive speed

[NeonMan]

Hi!

I've trying to make a silent DVD drive for an HTPC and i've already tried the usual suspects to do so, Neo DriveSpeed, cdbremse, eject (linux). None of them could reduce my drive's speed nor it's noise.

I want to know if there's a way to reduce the speed of the drive by software or permanently (ie, by flashing the drive) to a more quiet speed (2x/4x).

<edit>
Drive is a (laptop drive)
HL-DT-STDVD+-RW GSA-T21NA1R1

or either a (Desktop drive)
HLDS GDR-8084N 8x DVD

Both of them are DELL OEM drives.
</edit>

[Ghitulescu]

Hi!

I've trying to make a silent DVD drive for an HTPC and i've already tried the usual suspects to do so, Neo DriveSpeed, cdbremse, eject (linux). None of them could reduce my drive's speed nor it's noise.

I want to know if there's a way to reduce the speed of the drive by software or permanently (ie, by flashing the drive) to a more quiet speed (2x/4x).

<edit>
Drive is a (laptop drive)
HL-DT-STDVD+-RW GSA-T21NA1R1

or either a (Desktop drive)
HLDS GDR-8084N 8x DVD

Both of them are DELL OEM drives.
</edit>

It's called riplock and it was implemented in the original firmwares, apparently to reduce the noise during the DVD playback. It works only with original Video-DVDs. Original firmware also means you'll have back the region code.

[NeonMan]

What I want is a slow drive all the time, either with original DVD-Video or a DVD with a buch of photos or a matroska file on it.

I think the 'easiest' option is to downgrade the drive speed permanently.
There's an firmware editor called Media Code Speed Edit (LINK! (http://ala42.cdfreaks.com/)) which can change the drive's WRITE speed but only increase (remove riplock) the READ speed. I think there must be an way to enable a riplock-for-all-media or directly set read speed on a drive.

[Wombler]

DVD Video is always read at single speed during playback so if your drive isn't quiet enough at this speed then there's nothing you can do except replace it with another quieter model.


Wombler

[Ghitulescu]

DVD Video is always read at single speed during playback so if your drive isn't quiet enough at this speed then there's nothing you can do except replace it with another quieter model.


Wombler

It might be true for a model or two, but it's not for all my drives, they read the DVD at the maximum speed they were allowed, you know just in case some reading problems occur to have enough time to recover. Some smart firmware reduces the speed if not enough data is requested, but running at exact 1x is far from the reality. As for CD-DA I think the only drives hat really read the CD at 1x were the Toshibas and the Mitsumis.

[Wombler]

It might be true for a model or two, but it's not for all my drives, they read the DVD at the maximum speed they were allowed, you know just in case some reading problems occur to have enough time to recover. Some smart firmware reduces the speed if not enough data is requested, but running at exact 1x is far from the reality. As for CD-DA I think the only drives hat really read the CD at 1x were the Toshibas and the Mitsumis.

Yes but it's an HTPC and the OP isn't happy with the noise level during playback.

Playback is always single speed so ripping speed is irrelevant to that scenario.


Wombler

[Ghitulescu]

Playback is always single speed so ripping speed is irrelevant to that scenario.
Wombler

I'm afraid there's no DVD command that would put the DVD drive into 1x play mode, the very same way SCSI command set PLAY AUDIO [xxx] exists, mainly because of the DVD architecture. You can put a CD-DA into PLAY AUDIO mode, but you can only have analog audio enabled (and S/P-DIF), no data over IDE/SCSI. While almost every CD-ROM has that S/P-DIF output (so you can have your digital data without getting through the IDE/SCSi bus), I personally don't know any DVD-ROM having a SDI interface or similar (like Composite video out), therefore the video data run through IDE/SCSI/SATA bus.

That a DVD is spinned at 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x, 8x, 10x, 12x or 16x is entirely firmware dependent.

You may talk about the dedicated video DVD-drives of the real DVD players, yes they work ar 1x, indeed.

[Wombler]

Apologies, I thought you were talking about read rate as opposed to spin speed.

You are of course correct.


Wombler

[NeonMan]

As Ghitulescu said, the drive spin rate, is firmware controlled, but i've seen no one nowhere talking about that.
You may talk about the dedicated video DVD-drives of the real DVD players, yes they work ar 1x, indeed.
I've dismanteled an old Sony DVD player and unlike the toshiba HDDVD player (can't remember which one) the drive is completly integrated inside the player's board so it is impossible to connect it to a PC. Maybe some REALLY old DVD drive reader might do the trick since the first I remember for the PC read at 4x speed.

Just in case i couldn't spin down my drive, may someone recomend a silent drive? I Don't really care neither if it is a recorder nor if it reaches savage read speeds, I only want it to be silent.

[Ghitulescu]

Well, I should have told you before that you can't reuse a standalone drive ... :)