DVD-ROM Rip Comparison

[Jim]

I had an interesting experience today and thought I would share. My sister gave me a copy of "They Live" on DVD as a gift. It's been unavailable on DVD for awhile. She found it at a video store that was going out of business. Anyway, the disc had some scratches on it from the wear and tear it took. I wanted to make a back-up and use that instead.

I ripped it with DVD Decrypter v3.2.1.0 on my Lite-On LTD163 DVD-ROM. The drive slowed down at 50% to 0.2x at the first part of the first VOB and then continued to 60% where it slowed down again to 0.1x. It retried 20 times to read the sector and then gave up. I have DVD Decrypter set to retry 20 times. I then tried the same thing with my Pioneer DVR-106D and it had the same behavior and couldn't get past the 60% mark and maxed out on retries. I was a little bummed but thought I would try my old Toshiba laptop which had a very early DVD-ROM drive in it. The laptop Toshiba was able to read it after 4 retries at the 60% mark of the VOB. I then decided to swap the Lite-On DVD-ROM for a Toshiba SD-M1712 I bought to use in a standalone DVD player. The drive was speed limited to 2x ripping, but it went through the VOB without a burp. Feeling in the scientific mode I then flashed the Toshiba with region free and speed limit removed firmware and it again ripped the DVD only dropping to 5-6x from 8x at the 50% and 60% mark. Just to make sure the DVD didn't change at all I repeated the process with my DVR-106D and it gave up at the same place as before.

I am impressed with the SD-M1712. I just checked and NewEgg has more of these drives in. They were hard to find there for awhile.

Jim

[dodecahedron]

did you compare the (successful) rips to see that they are identical?

thansk for the tip on the Toshibas 1712s @ newegg, chance for anyone interested to snatch one! i already got mine

they were hard to find because apparently they were replaced by the newerr SD-M1802 model (reputadly not as good).

[cfitz]

thansk for the tip on the Toshibas 1712s @ newegg, chance for anyone interested to snatch one! i already got mine

they were hard to find because apparently they were replaced by the newerr SD-M1802 model (reputadly not as good).

I was thinking the same thing. I wonder if the drives listed at newegg really are 1712 or 1802 models? Retailers often sold (and maybe still sell) Lite-On 165H and 166S drives interchangeably, labeling them as simply (but incorrectly) 166S or LiteOn 16x DVD-ROM drives. This might be the same thing. Of course, newegg is generally pretty good about specifying the exact model, and now that hacked firmware is available for the 1802 it doesn't matter so much which you get.

cfitz

[Jim]

I compared the rest of the DVD that the Lite-On ripped successfully to the Toshiba 1712 complete rip and they are identical. Of course the LiteON didn't rip the problem VOB. I compared the VOB that caused problems between the original firmware 1712 and no speed limit firmware and they were identical. I also compared the problem VOB file that the Lite-On LTD163 and Pioneer DVR-106D couldn't rip that the 1712 did to the one that the old Toshiba DVD drive on the laptop ripped and it was identical.

I actually had to RMA the 1712 back to NewEgg because I kept it in storage and discovered when I unpacked it to use with the DVD player that the front bezel was cracked. So I RMA it back to NewEgg in CA and two days later I received a message that I was receiving a new 1712 from their NJ warehouse. It was sitting on my desk in a box which made me give it a try today in what turned out to be a ripping experiment.

[cfitz]

I wish I had known newegg would eventually be selling the SD-M1712 again back when I got one from another vendor a few months ago. At that time almost no vendors were selling the SD-M1712 and it looked like it was being permanently replaced by the 1802, so I had to buy from a place that charged exorbitant shipping.

Anyway, thanks for letting people know about newegg stocking it again.

cfitz

[hoxlund]

i used to own the toshiba 1712, and I unlocked it as well

when i did that, when it would read anything besides dvds it would be hella loud

[Jim]

The Toshiba 1712 is a pretty versatile drive. The KiSS DVD players in Europe use it and there is a special firmware to lock the speed even lower so it is ultra quiet. I tried this drive in one of my Apex DVD players that had its OEM drive killed and it worked well with both the OEM and KiSS lower speed locked firmware, but it had problems playing SVCD discs. No problems with pressed DVD or VCD discs which I found odd. My next test will be trying the LiteON LTD163 in the Apex DVD player.

I don't care how loud optical drives are in the computer as long as they get the job done.

Jim

[VEFF]

Thanks Jim.
I was looking for a new DVD-ROM drive, and I want one that
has the least problems reading discs.
Thanks to your 'review' (and other feedback on it), I think I will go with the Toshiba.

[hoxlund]

i would recommend toshiba too, i used to own the 1712, with hacked firmware to unlock the dvd rip speed, and region