Very slow ripping

[ZIYAD A. M. AL-BATLY]

On Sun, 2005-06-05 at 01:09 -0400, jonathanhanna wrote:
> I have also had the same problem.  My drive was only ripping at 1.0x!  I
> tried _all_ of the methods posted in this forum to get the speed up, but
> was only able to increase it to 2.0x.  I have a thought on why this may
> be, hopefully someone can help guide me...
> 
> 
> 
> Here's my situation:  I have a CD-RW/DVD drive that reads at 52x (52x
> CD-R, 32x CD-RW, 16x DVD...if relevent).  I've tried using this drive
> in Windows and it rips very quickly, though I cannot recall at what
> speed.  As I mentioned above, I have tried all methods mentioned
> previously in this forum:  SCSI emulation, turn off CD/DVD auto start,
> turn on DMA, etc.  Out of curiosity, I looked at my
> /proc/sys/dev/cdrom/info file, as the original poster did, and it
> showed the following (before SCSI emulation):
> 
> 
> 
> CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
> 
> drive name:             hdd
> drive speed:            4
> drive # of slots:       1
> Can close tray:         1
> Can open tray:          1
> Can lock tray:          1
> Can change speed:       1
> Can select disk:        0
> Can read multisession:  1
> Can read MCN:           1
> Reports media changed:  1
> Can play audio:         1
> Can write CD-R:         1
> Can write CD-RW:        1
> Can read DVD:           1
> Can write DVD-R:        0
> Can write DVD-RAM:      0
> Can read MRW:           1
> Can write MRW:          1
> Can write RAM:          1
> 
> 
> 
> As you can see, it shows drive speed at 4!  Why is that?  Well, I
> thought that may be the problem.  After I performed the SCSI emulation,
> I looked in the file again and found the following:
> 
> 
> 
> CD-ROM information, Id: cdrom.c 3.20 2003/12/17
> 
> drive name:             sr0
> drive speed:            52
> drive # of slots:       1
> Can close tray:         1
> Can open tray:          1
> Can lock tray:          1
> Can change speed:       1
> Can select disk:        0
> Can read multisession:  1
> Can read MCN:           1
> Reports media changed:  1
> Can play audio:         1
> Can write CD-R:         1
> Can write CD-RW:        1
> Can read DVD:           1
> Can write DVD-R:        0
> Can write DVD-RAM:      0
> Can read MRW:           1
> Can write MRW:          1
> Can write RAM:          1
> 
> 
> Now the speed's changed to 52, as it should be!  Yet, I'm still ripping
> at 2.0x.  So what's going on here?  What am I missing?  Anything else I
> can try? ](*,) 
> 
> 
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> 
> P.S.  Why did I have to do the SCSI emulation to get the speed up to
> 52, as what it should be?  Are there other methods?  I'm not sure if
> this should be saved for another forum thread, but I was just curious
> since I don't understand this whole SCSI emulation thing.
> 
> 
> -- 
> jonathanhanna
> 
I thought that SCSI emulation would enhance the situation!   Apparently,
I was wrong (what's new about that?)!

About the *reported* CD-ROM speed in native IDE mode, don't give a
thought.  The most important thing is the real speed of copying files
from the CD, and that can be measured accurately only by timing it.
CD-ROM drives tend to change their speed on-the-fly depending on the
current situation to reduce noise level, power consumption, and/or to
lower the possibility of read errors.  If it bother you that much, use:
        sudo hdparm -E 52 /dev/hdd

Here's a quote from “hdparm” manual:
         -E
                Set cdrom speed.  This is NOT necessary for regular
                operation, as the drive will automatically switch speeds
                on its own.  But if you want to play with it, just
                supply a speed number after the option, usually a number
                like 2 or 4.


I hope this helps you.
Ziyad.