Silence when watching DVD movie

Silencing hard drives, optical drives and other storage devices

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Goodguy
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Silence when watching DVD movie

Post by Goodguy » Fri Apr 08, 2005 1:46 pm

My HTPC is very close to totally silent. I use Panaflo fans and they run at 5v and Samsung SV1604N 5400rpm, you can't hear them @2M distance.

My last silencing problem is the DVD-burner Plextor PX708A, when watching DVD it makes a lot more noise than I possibly can accept.
Plextools doesn't make any difference.

I need advice for the most silent DVD-burner drive for DVD playback! It may make some noise during burning or data reading, but when watching a DVD it's very important for me that it's as silent as possible.
Those silent moments of a movie may not be disturbed! :)

Elixer
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Post by Elixer » Fri Apr 08, 2005 6:11 pm

Have you tried Nero DriveSpeed? Drivespeed lowers the maximum spin rate of some CD/DVD drives. Most dvds will play at 2x, so if you can use it to lower the spin rate it should be a quite noticable decrease in noise. It works really well on my Asus Quiet Track. I lowered the rate from 52x to 16x and that takes the noise level down to just a niche over a zalman 7700 at 5V. Good Luck.

Goodguy
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Post by Goodguy » Sat Apr 09, 2005 12:20 am

Plextools states that DVD playback is at 2X. I don't think that is true, my guess is 4X or maybe 8X.
No I did not try Nero Drivespeed. Anyone got better results controlling PX708A with Nero Drivespeed than with Plextools?

And still this drive is too noisy for me.
Any suggestions of a DVD-burner with the ability to playback DVD really silent would be very appreciated.

flyingsherpa
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Post by flyingsherpa » Sat Apr 09, 2005 5:03 am

well i only have two data points as i've only used 2 dvd drives. but i can say my NEC 3520 has always been silent while watching dvds. infinitely better than my old lite-on.

atomidude
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Post by atomidude » Sat Apr 09, 2005 5:28 am

want to watch the movie in silence? create an ISO image oft the DVD on the HDD, mount it and you are in business :) there's no optical drive to be as quiet as a quiet HDD

jldet5
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Post by jldet5 » Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:38 am

I use the sony DRU 500A. Its a slower burner by todays standard but is quiet.


This looks interesting but I'm wondering if it slows down.
http://www.endpcnoise.com/cgi-bin/e/samsung_combo.html

Reachable
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Post by Reachable » Sat Apr 09, 2005 7:20 am

In a thread not long ago MikeC mentioned BenQ DD DW1620 as a notably quiet drive. The Asus QuieTracks are also well thought of for quiet.

Here are some other recommendations I've picked up in various Forum threads (the NEC is apparently discontinued, as perhaps are some of the others):

Plextor PX-712A

NEC 2510

LG GSA-4120B

LG 4163B

I think you'll find that a quiet drive, even without being slowed, is fine to use.

Ramses
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Post by Ramses » Mon Apr 11, 2005 1:42 am

I can vouch for the Benq DD DW1620 drive. I have it and at normal DVD playing speed the drive is very quiet. It will make a obvious "wooshing" noise when you fast forward. atomidude's advice is solid: mounted ISO files are very convenient, slightly faster to seek through (no dvd spinning delays) and definitely quieter. :)

fouster
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Post by fouster » Mon Apr 11, 2005 3:51 am

I vote for the LG 4120B.
I have it half a year now and when playing dvds it is almost silent.Thus I can hear it from 1,5 meter.
In normal use of course it makes some noise but it's not important for me either.
I have realized that when it reads a CD it makes louder noise than when it reads a DVD Data.
Excellent drive no problem with any disk no name or scratched.
You can see my configuration below I have an almost silent system! :)
And I am very pleased with these DVDRAM .
Not to mention that I haven't try Nerospeed or similar software.

widman
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Post by widman » Mon Apr 11, 2005 7:52 am

i have this problem, anyway I use DVD Decrypter to copy from DVD disc to HDD and play it from HDD. DVD Decrypter is free.

el_
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Post by el_ » Fri Apr 15, 2005 10:34 pm

is plextools loading at startup? if not try read speed max and make sure the drive is run udma and not pio!!!! if pio in device manager just check your bios /double check it and retest.

Goodguy
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Post by Goodguy » Tue Apr 26, 2005 7:32 am

Thanks for all interesting adds to this topic! :D

My Plextor DVDR 708A will soon be replaced by one of your suggestions.
For now I will try and use DVD Decrypter to make a HDD copy before watching movies.

El_,
Plextools is not loading at startup.
I'm using UDMA mode 2.
DVD read speed cannot be set in Plextools for PX708A .

aidanjm2004
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Post by aidanjm2004 » Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:21 am

DVD Idle is a useful little program which reads ahead on the DVD, and buffers the movie on hard drive. The drive makes a lot of noise for the first 5-10 minutes or so as the program scans the drive, then the drive falls silent as the movie is being played off the hard drive buffer. The process is transparent or invisible to the user, just have DVD Idle running prior to loading your DVD player software.

t0ffluss
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Post by t0ffluss » Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:44 am

On my HTPC Nero Drivespeed works best for me...

when I press "silent" it runs silent .. but when I instert a new disc, it resets and spins up at max speed? .. am I overseeing something? .. I have to press "silent" in Nero Drivespeed EVERYTIME!!

anyone else experiencing this?


Richard
NORWAY
Last edited by t0ffluss on Thu Apr 28, 2005 7:11 am, edited 1 time in total.

m0002a
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Re: Silence when watching DVD movie

Post by m0002a » Thu Apr 28, 2005 6:58 am

Goodguy wrote:My HTPC is very close to totally silent. I use Panaflo fans and they run at 5v and Samsung SV1604N 5400rpm, you can't hear them @2M distance.

My last silencing problem is the DVD-burner Plextor PX708A, when watching DVD it makes a lot more noise than I possibly can accept.
Plextools doesn't make any difference.
Have you downloaded and installed the latest version of Plextools Professional? The latest is V2.21.

Go into Drive Settings, click on Silent Mode Tab, and make sure it Silent Mode is enabled (check box). You can lower your CD speeds to 16X max write speed, and 10-24 Max Read Speed, and try Slow for access time (this may help with DVD's). Set the tray speeds to the middle of the slidding bar. Then hit Save Changes to Drive to update your firmware.

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