i think stuff like that is controlled by firmware or software, pioneer has some retail drives that detect when a dvd movie is inserted and keeps the drive spinning slowly.

i think most drives spin only as fast as they need to, for example i recently noticed that when i played standard def video from a dvd or a dvd movie- the drive would only spin up when i was seeking or changing tracks, when i played a 720p video off a dvd- the drive pretty much stayed at full speed.

by the way, i'm using a pioneer 112d.

on a side note: in terms of burn quality, pioneer has always been the best- also don't forget that they recently released their 20x 115d and 215d- which trumped the 20x samsung in burn speed and quality.
http://forums.speedlabs.org/index.php?topic=2629.0
'20x shoot out. Samsung SH-203B vs Pioneer DVR-215 * MCC004'

This is a crapshoot. all drives are very noisy at 16x-20x speeds.

Some can be throttled down via sofware (Samsung, orig. Plextor, some Pioneers, some others).

Some know how to switch to 1x speed on dvd playback.

On the average, the Asus and Pioneer models have been a bit less noisy than many others.

I have DVR-115 on order myself. I'll report here when I get it.

quietest dvd burner ive found so far are pioneer slim slot loaders, used in notebooks. You can get adapters to make them fit in a standard optical expansion bay. Or get an external enclosure for it and hook it up to your PC via USB/Firewire/eSATA.

I find using an external enclosure works best. You can place it where you want it, even if that happens to be a spot where your PC wouldnt be able to fit. Or disconnect it and store it if your not using it. Or switch it from one PC to another, like say if you never use an optical drive on one PC, but use it everyday on another. Leave it on the one that uses it all the time, and just transfer it to the other when you need to. Also keeps space requirements for a PC enclosure lower, so you can use smaller cases.

On the topic of Pioneer's new DVR-115 (PATA) and DVR-215 (SATA) models, I'd like to point to a review at CD Freaks:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/Pioneer ... ner-Review

The review is on the DVR-115DBK model. The D suffix stands for "dual format," as opposed to "multi format," and means that the drive can't write to DVD-RAM media (otherwise it can) and BK or SV denotes a black or silver front (otherwise beige).

While it scored excellent results in the usual tests, there were a number of noteworthy user comments in the reactions section:

• "I got one. And when write, it's nice and quiet. But when insert a disc and it spins up. It's like a turbine. For that reason, i like my Pioneer DVR-110 better. It's quiet."
  
• "I got this one a week ago. I haven't tried for burning but while reading this burner makes extra-ordinary noise. Otherwise no complaints so far."
  
• "Sounds like a jet engine and seeks all the time when playing a DVD movie with PowerDVD 7.3 Ultra. "

Any thoughts on this?

I have an ASUS 20x SATA burner, and it makes horribly loud noises when you put a disc in, or when the PC turns on with a disc in.

I use a Pioneer DVR K06 slim drive in my main rig.

Its really slow, compared to standard sixe drives, but that doesnt bother me.

Its what makes it quiet and im not in a hurry anyway

ive heard some say the samsung drives are quiet, but i dont know if thats true, they are cheap tho... i just ordered myself a pioneer, fed up of my lite on, its noisey (including odd noises) and doesnt like dual layer media :\

Are you getting a 115/215 one or an older 112/212 one?

I have DVR-115D (PATA) and it actually doesn't spin up like a jet engine when I start playback of DVD-videos. That is, at least my unit does not sound bad. This is with fw.1.18. It is also fairly non-vibrating (relatively speaking, LiteOns are horrible in this regard).

Sure, with 16x burning it is very noisy and the same for reading back dvd data discs. That's how they are all, unless throttled down.

However, my Optiarc AD-7203A does sound like a jet engine, all through dvd video playback. The same for burning and reading dvd data discs.

Optiarc does seem to react to speed settings with Nero DriveSpeed. The lowest detected speed that I can set it to is 5x and it is relatively ok at this speed.

LiteOn or LH-20A4P is in-between in terms of playback noise: louder than Pioneer DVR-115D, not as loud as the Optiarc 7203A. LH-20A4P seems to default to c.6x playback, but does not seem to react to DriveSpeed settings.

However, it creates a world of vibration and this increases the noise in playback considerably. Not recommended for quiet(ish) dvd video playback.

I also tried my Samsung SH-S182M (same as Toshiba TS-H652M). This is another jet engine taking off, when dvd video disc is inserted. Upon playback it does not throttle down by itself, and is still clearly audible compared to Pioneer DVR-115D. Samsung provides it's own MagicSpeed utility, which enables throttling down the speed to more tolerable acoustic levels. I haven't tried it, but it supposedly works ok.

You guys (well those who need quiet burners) should look at Plextor drivers/burners...
Firstly, who do not know about Plextor Quality when it comes to drives/burners?!
I quickly read the thread and NO one did even mention Plextor burners!

Well, I am going to be quick.
Moreover to the good quality of those drives/burners, Plextor offers a great warranty with a "pick up" the day after the failure. Go to Plextor website for more details.

Secondly, PlextorToolsProfessionnal (PTP for the intimates) is included in the package. And PTP offers exclusive functionalities to Plextor burners.

Let's now talk about the main dish, well the topic.
That PTP tools offers severals possibilities: drive benches, tests (drives, CD, DVD and even BD!), audio rip (DD support...), multimedia player, burning... and of course a drive settings utility is included.
Drive settings is the main dish for tweaking, optimizing the drive... PTP offers the possibility to put you personal setting "directly to the firmware" that let you, in that way, to set speed limits for any task... You won't hear the drive anymore! Well you will if you want to finish your burnings in a few minutes. otherwise you are totally free to set whatever you want!

Well, it's been a while that i didnt hear a turbo machine spinning under my desk (:-.

But the thing is, a Plextor drive/burner is really expensive than the "shitty" (sorry for that) and cheappest Samsung drive. Tha's a fact. Be prepared to pay at least twice the price of a cheaper drive but you got for your monies!

Bye,
Toki.

I have three genuine Plextor drives (Premium, PX-716 and PX-760) and yes they can be throttled down with Plextools.

However, they are no longer being made and what few pieces remain in the retail channel are the last breed. For burn quality they are not perhaps the best of today's breed.

The rest of the Plextor drives since then are all rebadged drives made by other companies.

The same limitations considering noise and throttling down apply to them. They can NOT be throttled down with Plextools, because they are not genuine Plextor designs, but LG/Optiarc and other drives, just slapped with an extra Plextor paintjob.

Yep, the new Plextor 800 series is just rebrands.

so far so nosiey, its a 215 (that does everything). very loud fan type noise, strange thing is i spotted some foam (soundproofing?) under the front screws. the tray looks cheap too :\

noise is quite balanced, but ive only tried 1 disk so far...

Samsung 203B here. Sounds like it's trying to shred the disc if I boot into OS with one in, especially bad is Battlefield 2142. In XP it calms down via Nero DriveSpeed, but keeps spinning for two minutes which I can't seem to lower. Seeks are reasonable, more muted clunks than whine or sharp squeals. In the end nice, but rather annoying - and sometimes gets out of DriveSpeed's control and revs up to max speed.

On the plus side it is short, but in use it is annoying from time to time. I'd rather get a Pioneer (as Plextors aren't Plextors these days).

guess that just leaves the sony/opti drives then :\
and the next gen expensive hd/blu drives

There's always Asus; they have some proprietary tech that claims to reduce vibrations and make it quieter [but so does everyone these days], so that might be an option... I haven't seen much mention of it around here, so I dunno. Take the risk and tell us how it goes

Sony's are Optiarc or (less often LiteOns) these days. Optiarc are not too quiet, as I stated above.

I haven't had the chance to test the very latest from Asus, but earlier they were equal to Pioneer's more quiet models, which is no surprise as they were based on Pioneer drives with just different casing. The honeycomb vibration reduction was also available on some higher end Pioneer models.

The latest Asus is DRW-2014S1T, which is not anymore a Pioneer made model. I've yet to find good info on it's acoustic performance and haven't had the chance to test it myself.

I just installed the Pioneer DVR215. It replaced a generic IDE DVD drive that was starting to make a rattling sound under use.
I'm quite impressed. When at full speed it sounds just like a loud fan and is a nicer sound than almost every other DVD drive ive heard (most of which sound like they might explode if they went any faster).
For watching DVD's i don't hear a thing even with my ear right up against it.
I havn't tried burning yet.
For less than £20 this is a great drive, and in fact cost 1/3rd as much as i paid for my old drive 3 years ago which was slower and louder.

One thing ive noticed that is probably more to do with XP than the drive is that it doesn't seem to recognise a DVD has been put in until i go into explorer or open up a program to view it. It doesn't have the normal pop up asking what id like to do with the disc until i try to access it then it pops up like normal. Not much a problem, i just thought it was weird. Maybe it does that so it doesn't spin up as much as soon as you put the disc in, i dunno.

Forgot to mention the Samsung "Magic Speed" function is a complete sham. NO real effect whatsoever on anything, regardless of whether I set it on or off! CDs start off slower with it on, but soon gain full attack speed. Utter bollocks.

Just got the 115D after the screamer NEC I had. Anyone who calls this drive a jet engine is absurd. It makes a quiet whooshing noise at worse.

yefi, glad to hear you like your unit.

I think maybe some people have too elevated expectations and they are hoping for a near silent noise load.

That will not happen with any of the modern dvd players - at any playback speed. At least no the tray loaders (haven't tried most of the slot loaders which have often firmware to throttle down the drive a lot, incl. rotational speed and seek speeds).

Purchase the unit you fancy (most are the very same under the shell anyways), install Nero Drive Speed…problem solved.


Cheers

I think what some people don't consider is that a CD is an unbalanced polycarbonate disc made for a nickel not a high-precision HD platter. You simply won't spin one up to 5000 rpm and have it stay quiet.

Had you actually bothered to read the whole thread, you would have noticed that most drives do NOT react to speed reductions commands given by Nero Drive Speed.

So, it's not a panacea :)

Yeah, to reiterate: DriveSpeed does fuckawl, pardon my French, until I have booted into OS, and by then it's too late to stop the BF2142 disc from starting its one-man buzzsaw show that lasts - you guessed it - for the two minutes which Nero is unable to trim down. DriveSpeed is nice, but hardly ideal or even working 100%.

I have tried both AnyDVD HD and Nero DriveSpeed to slow down my LG Blu-Ray drive but it doesn't seem to work. It doesnt make a loud spinning noise like my old Pioneer but like a screaching noise that repeats every second.

I also have a Samsung DVD drive and seems to be quiet noisy as well.

Such as shame as it can be very much heard over a lot of the scenes in the movie. Defeats the purpose of my silent PC until I can get it resolved!!

tried a no cd patch for the game cd/dvd problem?
or some image software..

the pioneer in my htpc seems fairly quiet so far , its the blu ray and dvd writer one..

same here.

Darn it sucks big time... There HAS to be any solution to that plane-engine-taking-off sound every time we insert a CD/DVD or just browsing our computer files.

Any idea?

I've moved my SATA drive to the JMicron controller (in IDE mode) on my Gigabyte and moved my HDDs to SATA-II/NCQ mode on the Intel.

I've updated the firmware on the LG to YL03.

Installed AnyDVD HD and PowerDVD 8 (upgraded from 7).

Now it would seem my LG is now quiet! I can hear it spin up when the disk is inserted or I goto a main menu on a DVD. But when I actually start playback of the movie, I hear the drive slow down.

So at the moment it seems to be working finally