Hello,

I have a Phillips DVDR824P Dvd writer connected to my PC, it has had a fair amount of use but the last couple of days it has gone very slow.

Usually, it takes approximately 30 minutes to write a DVD using the discs I have used since I have purchased the machine (about 2 years ago) - I have been very happy with it and have kept the same discs.

However, in the last couple of days playback and writing have been very slow. It plays well if I use real player, but if I use power DVD I get disc fault (when I know its not faulty) if I want to skip a chapter, and if I use Nero showtime it can be a bit jumpy - not that bad but a bit.

I mainly use as a burner, usually with Nero or DVD shrink - however, in the last two days the burning has been SLLOOW - usually taking around 1 1/2 hours per disc (often longer) - this is with the same discs that it used to take 30 minutes. It also often crashes when it comes to writing the lead out in the burning process, meaning the disc will be broken. You could imagine the frustration I am suffering if this is happening after waiting so long for it to work.

I have cleaned the lens using a lens cleaner, and have also done a spyware/adware virus check and got rid of any viruses - still no joy at reducing the speed.

Any ideas whats the problem.

Cheers.

Stu.

Well - this is a standalone DVD recorder forum so you might not get that many replies for a PC DVD writer.

However:

1. What brand (or better still, media code) of discs are you using, and what speed rating are they? Taking ~30 mins for a burn is more than you'd expect for 2.4x.

2. How old are the blank discs, approximately, from the purchase date?

3. Are you using an external box + connection (USB-2, FireWire)?

4. Have you looked in your Start -> Control Panel -> System -> Hardware tab -> Device Manager -> IDE Channel -> <right-click> -> Properties -> Advanced Settings, to see whether DMA is enabled for the writer? Sometimes it can get reset, and slow burns are the result.

I think its probably just packing up, looking at it performance on the Nero tests. Anyway to answer your questions.

1) Redisc - x8 speed - DVD-R's.

2) About 2 months old, still like new.

3) Its all internal.

4) Yes, I have done that check.

Can you get the media code of these 'Redisc' things? Use DVD Identifier (freeware) to do this.

ITS CMC (dye type CMCMAG) - which I know is poor, but I have been happy with them.

However, the performance has been equally as poor using Ritek media coded x8 speed discs, Ritek is apparently much more reliable according to http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm

Realising how lucky I have been with the CMC's - I won't be buying them again, when Ritek is just as cheap.

Yes, Ritek is probably better than CMC Magnetics, but it still depends which Ritek dye.

a. You could try with some better discs such as Verbatim
b. check which IDE bus the drive is attached, whether it's master or slave
c. Do you have another device attached to the same bus? Some people have found that the presence of another DVD writer or DVD-ROM drive can limit the burn speed.
d Check if your HDD is really fragmented. Data will not be fed to the drive fast enough and slow burns will result.

What we really could do with is seeing the real speed that Nero is writing at. If you're comfortable about changing registry settings then I can give you some settings that will enable dynamic display of the Nero writing speed.

If none of these things work, then I suggest you post the question on a more specialist forum, such as the CD Freaks BenQ/Philips forum. There are a lot more knowledgeable people there than me, to be honest

BTW, referring to your earlier post, do you really mean you're trying to burn -R rather than +R? I thought that drive was +R/+RW only (unless you have the famous firmware update).

On the last paragraph, no typo and I didn't download any firmware. It started allowing the burning of -r discs when I downloaded DVD shrink. I have been using -r's for about 6 months now with similar results as +r's. Up untill last weekend (but both +r's and -r's are not performing as they should).

It was strange, but the only thing I have downloaded concerning my DVD writer is DVD shrink.

I have done a Nero test drive (if that is what you mean) and here are the dissapointing results.

Speed

Average = 1.38x
Start = 1.23x
End = 1.43x

Type = CLV

DAE Quality = nothing (blank). Accurate Screen not checked/ticked

Disc -
Type = DVDrom
Length = 2.25GB (purchased movie).

Seek Time
Random = 86 ms
1/3 = 98 ms
Full = 133 ms

CPU usage
1x = 71%
2x = 100%
4x 100%
8x = 100%

Interface
Burst Rate = 0 MB/s

The Green and the Yellow lines never crossed the 2x.

Hmmm... it looks like your system is working almost flat out to maintain just over a 1x burn speed. What is the processor, and how much RAM do you have? Do you have anything else running in the background?

When burning, can you hear the hard disk thrashing around and see the buffers emptying faster than they can be refilled? If so, perhaps look at the hard disk fragmentation using something like O&O Defrag (reckoned to be the best at the moment; and with one month's free trial).

If you are using version 3.2 of DVD Shrink, then there is the option to burn using DVD Decrypter if that is installed, rather than Nero. You can try using this different burning engine to see whether it's faster, and thus determine that the problem is something to do with Nero. Alternatively you could just try reinstalling Nero anyway.

Now, this is an area where I need assistance. I couldn't tell you if this is bad or good.

RAM = 256 MB
Operating system - Windows XP Proffesional.

Processor - x86 Family 6 Model 4 Stepping 4
Speed = 1410 Mhz

BIOS version = Award Software, Inc. ASUS A7A133 ACPI BIOS Revision 1008

Is this all the information you need? This stuff I am not familiar with.

As for your other questions.

1) Nothing running in the background, not online and had no other programme.

2) Hard Disk is very quiet during burning (both normally and now since it has been playing up), both the DVD drive and the C: drive are very quiet.

Well it's not that bad a specification. I used to burn DVDs using a laptop P4 1.4MHz XP Pro via USB-2 to an external burner at 8x quite happily. That's probably the limit though.

Did you try the DVD Decrypter option in DVD Shrink?

What about the Nero reinstall? I have had lots of problems with Nero, which are sometimes cured by doing this.

In the Hardware Device Manager, you could try uninstalling the IDE bus that your Philips rewriter is on, and then immediately scan for hardware changes. Sometimes that sorts out rogue slowdowns of burn speed.