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I'm interested in finding a new burner that will rip faster than my KHypermedia 8x4x12 unit.

I recently couldn't resist buying a Samsung SH-S182M, since it was so cheap. I also thought that it would be significantly faster than my old KHypermedia.

One really annoying feature of the S182M is that disk recognition takes over 16 seconds - yet I have seen no mention of that in any of the reviews I've read, including the otherwise excellent CDRLabs review of the S182D. (I bought the burner from NewEgg - and the only conclusions I could come to after reading the 300+ user reviews were that dyslexia and ignorance rules!)

Although it will burn at 16x compared to only 8x on the KHypermedia, it's a much slower ripper, taking up to twice as long on some test disks. I notice that the KHypermedia unit has an 8MB buffer whilst the Samsung has the more common 2MB - maybe that's a factor.

Anybody have any recommendations for a faster ripper?

16 seconds does seem kind of long for that drive. Is it like that with all discs?

As far as ripping goes, the SH-S182M is pretty slow, at least with dual layer movies. If I remember right, its rip locked to only 8x. I'm not sure if there is a firmware out there with rip lock removed, but it might be worth looking into.

Thanks for the quick response Ian.

Ian wrote:16 seconds does seem kind of long for that drive. Is it like that with all discs?

All DVD discs, yes, all different booktypes. I think it's still pretty shabby with CD media too - I'll do some more tests.

Ian wrote:As far as ripping goes, the SH-S182M is pretty slow, at least with dual layer movies. If I remember right, its rip locked to only 8x. I'm not sure if there is a firmware out there with rip lock removed, but it might be worth looking into.

Aha, thanks, I've already learnt something! Never knew about no stinkin' rip lock - presume it's not the same as a flying lip-lock!

Ian wrote:As far as ripping goes, the SH-S182M is pretty slow, at least with dual layer movies. If I remember right, its rip locked to only 8x. I'm not sure if there is a firmware out there with rip lock removed, but it might be worth looking into.

There are no patches of anykind available for the latest Samsung drives thanks to their patch protection mechanisms.

Thanks ala42. That explains why I couldn't find any.