Is Buffer Size Important ?

[harrisburg65]

Love the site. However, confused by one of the *con* comments on most every review. Specifically the remarks that an 8MB buffer would have been preferred over a 2MB buffer.

WHY ? To justify a spec that delivers no real world benefits ?

99.99999% of the real world lives on 2MB buffers with no problems.

I'd like the reviewer - JUST ONCE - to tell us why 8MB would be better. Especially when it adds cost but not functionality to a component most of us will upgrade within 12-18 months.

If there are no underruns - what is the issue ?

This is an anachronism from years past, but with modern underrun technology, it is time to put this comment to bed.

[hoxlund]

do you realize how fast a buffer gets drained during a burn if it gets hit

very fast

[eric93se]

Cost!! what 5 cents!! probably more like 2 cents!

[code65536]

This is an anachronism from years past, but with modern underrun technology, it is time to put this comment to bed.

*agrees* Modern buffer underrun technology and also modern software buffers. DVD Decrypter's software buffer goes up to 256 MB, which offers the ultimate protection, if you have the memory to spare.

[grouch]

in theory it's kinda like music CD player anti-skip, where it reads more than it can play in advance, so when it can't read it'll still play music

so for a burning operation, the hard drive reads more in advance and fills up the 2MB unit buffer, and when the hard drive is interrupted (like starting a program), the 2MB buffer drops....
even though the software has 10MB plus buffer, if the optical drive can't receive it for whatever reason then the dinky 2MB flies by

in alcohol 120 i've seen the buffer drop in 10 seconds and scratch a disc, and the buffer was 128mb...so i believe the buffer on the actual unit is extremely important

i agree with the price issue though, i only kno of plextor that has 8mb buffer and they're usually double if not more than benq/nec/pioneer

[code65536]

if the optical drive can't receive it for whatever reason then the dinky 2MB flies by

If the computer is unable to transfer data from the physical system memory to the drive, then you've got bigger problems on your hands (like, for example, PIO mode)

in alcohol 120 i've seen the buffer drop in 10 seconds and scratch a disc, and the buffer was 128mb...so i believe the buffer on the actual unit is extremely important

Sure, a larger hardware buffer could help you a little bit. But at high 16x DVD burning speeds, this will amount to roughly 300 ms of extra protection. What's an extra 300 ms to compared to 10 seconds? Big hardware buffers are more or less snake oil, and the only place where they are remotely useful is in standalones where a large system memory buffer is not available.

[hoxlund]

if you ask a lot of women they tend to agree its not the size of the buffer its how you use it

[pranav81]

if you ask a lot of women they tend to agree its not the size of the buffer its how you use it

Agreed.


::Pranav::