For DVD viewing, older is better.

[Action Jackson]

After trying out a few brands and speeds of DVD ROMS, I'd have to say that the OLDER ones [around 6x or slower] have the greatest benefits as least in my limited experience.

- the DVD light doesn't blink as much.
- the DVD's do not eject out feeling like they've been in an oven as they are in a LiteON LTD 163D or Pioneer 116. [both 16x drives].
- they tend to be super quiet.

There might be some drawbacks. The older drives might not be able to properly read dual layered DVD's so they :

- may stop playback [Gladiator]
- revert to the end of the movie [Aliens]
- skip a whole lot of scenes [I can't remember if it was Platoon or Apocalypse Now].
- might take some time to recognize a DVD [Aliens]

An updated firmware can help that, or as I did, I put the DVD ROM on Primary Master [harddrives on controller card].

The mixed bag were a LG 32/10/40/16 and LG 48/24/48/16 combo drives. While they were super quiet, they had that real annoying blinking light and the DVD's came out super hot.

Here's a list of what I've tried all on the same system and the DVD speeds to the best of my knowledge:

Toshiba SD-M1202 [my fav 4.8x]
LiteON LTD 163D [16x]
Pioneer 116 [16x]
Samsung SDR-430 [4.8x]
LG GCC 4880 [16x]
LG GCC 4320 [16x]
Sony DDU220E [6x]

Just my 2 cents.

[TheWizard]

I give you credit for testing all of these drives. I also give you credit for staring at the blinking light the whole while. Honestly, man, watch the movie!

[Action Jackson]

..... I also give you credit for staring at the blinking light the whole while. Honestly, man, watch the movie!

LOL!

I do but sometimes it really blinks a lot like the LiteON.

It also makes me think that it's really working hard and wearing itself out faster.

[dodecahedron]

well, i'm sure the LED is wearing out faster!

[Action Jackson]

well, i'm sure the LED is wearing out faster!

I hope so. I'm tired of the GREEN or ORANGE colored LED's. I'd like to switch them.

[Coyote]

I have the Pioneer 106s slot-dvdrom. It's an older drive, but still can be found in Best Buy and other stores. It's been a great drive but it was noisy when playing dvd's and any audio cd. I had to use a utility that changed something in the firmware, which made the drive read cd's slower. It's much quieter now, and I really don't notice the speed difference.

For other brand drives, you can download Ahead's DriveSpeed which allows you to change the maximum read speed of drives.

I just don't understand why they don't make CDROM drives more intelligent. Instead of playing an Audio CD at regular speed, the drive spins at max speed. Doesn't make sense.

[dodecahedron]

I just don't understand why they don't make CDROM drives more intelligent. Instead of playing an Audio CD at regular speed, the drive spins at max speed. Doesn't make sense.

isn't this what SMART-X (Lite-On) does?

[aviationwiz]

I just don't understand why they don't make CDROM drives more intelligent. Instead of playing an Audio CD at regular speed, the drive spins at max speed. Doesn't make sense.

isn't this what SMART-X (Lite-On) does?

Yeah, that's what it is supposed to do. I can't honetly say if it works well though.

[dodecahedron]

should be simple to test, no?
put an Audio CD in the LiteOn drive and see how fast it spins when playing music.

[aviationwiz]

I have an LTD-163D, which is in the process of being upgrade I should add, that has Smart-X, I'll test it out shortly and get back to you.

[aviationwiz]

Yup,

I tried it out with just playing a DVD movie and it sure wasn't running at top speed, I would have noticed.

[Action Jackson]

Even if the DVD ROM isn't running top speed, I cannot figure out why the DVD's or music CD's come out of those drives so hot?

Ever play a game where the music is spooled from the CD [i.e. Master of Orion 2]. Comes out hot. That's why I still use slower DVD and CD ROM's.

[SkaarjMaster]

Not that it really matters much anymore, but I tried flashing my Toshiba SD-M1202 from 1020 to the newest 1028 firmware and it said something like unrecognized ROM file or something. Anyone know what's going on? Yes, I did it on my Win98SE computer in DOS like the instructions say.

[Han]

Please, give us some more details, i.e. how exactly did you try to flash the drive (in DOS window or in pure DOS), on which IDE channel, whether your Toshiba is an OEM edition, have you set the region before applying the patched firmware, etc.

[wicked1]

well, i'm sure the LED is wearing out faster!

I hope so. I'm tired of the GREEN or ORANGE colored LED's. I'd like to switch them.

Yeah the blue/purple combo light on my yamaha f1 is nice . Now to just get all the drives leds that color. . . . New modding idea comes to mind.