[mythtv-users] DVD hardware

Rod Smith mythtv at rodsbooks.com
Mon Feb 25 15:42:36 UTC 2008


On Monday 25 February 2008 02:33:41 Ben Newman wrote:
> Only tangentially myth related I know, but does anyone else have
> troubles keeping a working DVD drive in their system?  We seem to only
> be able to keep a drive in our system for about 3 months before is
> starts having problems when trying to watch DVDs: skipping, stuttering
> and eventually just not able to read a DVD.  I'm assuming this is just
> because the cheapie DVD drives I use just aren't meant for the heavy
> use frequent DVD watching puts them through, but it sure is
> frustrating.  Does anyone have any recommendations on a solid drive
> that won't need frequent replacement?

My experience is that CD-ROM/CD-R, and now DVD, drives are the least reliable 
component in any computer. I don't really know why this is, from a 
manufacturing/technology perspective, but it's rare to find a drive that'll 
last.

My current MythTV system has an HP drive (an "HP DVD Writer 940d", to 
quote /proc/ide/ide1/hdd/model). This is a PATA DVD+/-RW drive. I've had it 
in my machine for close to a year, and so far it's been pretty reliable, 
although a few discs do give it problems. It's much better than the Sony 
drive I originally put in the box -- that drive had only about a 50% chance 
of reading the DVD+R discs it had written, even when the same discs read fine 
on a desktop system or a standalone DVD player.

Another option is Plextor drives, which have excellent reputations. I once had 
a Plextor CD-ROM drive, and it certainly lasted longer than most optical 
drives. In fact, I think I sold it along with its computer before it died. I 
don't have any experience with more recent Plextor drives, though -- they're 
much more expensive than most competing drives, and somehow I've always been 
trying to pinch pennies when it's come time to buy a new drive. If they 
continue to be more reliable than others, though, Plextors might be cheaper 
in the long run.

Since you say you're using the drive a lot, I'll toss out this suggestion, 
too: You could try ripping your most-watched DVDs to video files and keep 
them on disk. That'll chew up hard disk space, of course, which isn't free, 
but you might end up saving time and money in the long run this way, 
particularly if it's just a few titles that are being played again and again 
(childrens' videos, say).

-- 
Rod Smith


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