1080p HD (codec) read from DL-DVD?

ssmacc · 1 Oct 2007 at 12:01

Hello,

I’ve got a media centre PC and have downloaded a load of HD media (WMV and .mkv containers), as I’m running out of drive space I’ve been backing up wherever possible, I’ve discovered that 720p films can be read form a DVD drive without any issues. However, 1080p films have ‘jerky’ playback, without too much knowledge I’m assuming either:

There is something wrong with my DVD-drive (unlikely as I have a total of 4 in 2 PC’s)

1080p films require too much info to be read on the fly from a DVD drive (I don’t know the bitrate but as the quality is superb I’m guessing its high – 8GB file size)

If I’m correct and 1080p films can’t be read on the fly, I’d guess my option’s are limited to a HD optical drive of some kind (too dear at present), or an external hard drive, my question is, are the USB external cases quick enough to be streamed through a USB port for a HD codec?

Unfortunately I don’t know the exact bitrates of the films but I’m guessing if you know the answer to the question you’ll know the standard rate for a 1080p ~2hour 8GB film anyway!

Thanks in advance.

Metallifux · 1 Oct 2007 at 12:15

You don't provide the spec of your PC, I'm guessing it's not powerful enough for 1080p playback. I had this issue with a single core 3700+ fine after the jump to 4200+ dual core.

ssmacc · 1 Oct 2007 at 13:26

Sorry, PC is fine for 1080p (well I say fine, it does still require a lot of the CPU) as I run the 1080p no problem from the hard drives:

Vista 64 bit
C2D @ 2.6
4GB Ram
8800 GTS 64meg

can you run 1080p fine form a DVD?

Cheers

BloodyL · 1 Oct 2007 at 17:50

ssmacc said:
1080p films require too much info to be read on the fly from a DVD drive (I don’t know the bitrate but as the quality is superb I’m guessing its high – 8GB file size).

Yup, 1080 HD films are typically 16megabits upwards, a standard DVD drive has a theoretical limit of 10megabits regardless of read speed.

ssmacc · 1 Oct 2007 at 19:07

BloodyL said:
Yup, 1080 HD films are typically 16megabits upwards, a standard DVD drive has a theoretical limit of 10megabits regardless of read speed.

So USB 2.0 with a speed of 40 MBytes/sec, sould be fine.

Thanks for the info.

Extrernal USB 2.0 case and new drive it is then.

RVF · 1 Oct 2007 at 19:12

Putting a standard dvd-rom drive in an external caddy wont make it read any quicker.

You quote the throughput of the usb interface not what the drive can actually read at.

Bigpops · 1 Oct 2007 at 20:33

There is nothing to stop you playing 1080p material from even a USB2 DVD-ROM.

The 10Mbit bitrate is the maximum for the DVD-Video standard (shared between video and audio), nothing to do with the speed the drive reads at. Even a 4x DVD-ROM reads at about 48Mbits per second. There's more than enough speed in a current DVD-ROM drive to stream a 1080p mvk or wmv from a DVD+/-R DL.

How fast is the DVD-ROM rated for reading DVD+R Dual Layers? For example, a Pioneer 112D will read them at 12x max.

Other than the drive running in PIO mode, i can't think of any reason why a 2.6GHz C2D would break come close to breaking a sweat playing such video.

no_1_dave · 1 Oct 2007 at 20:38

It does it for me too.
I have burned some HD stuff in 720p but 1080p is jumpy when read from the DVD

Bigpops · 2 Oct 2007 at 00:17

There might be something in this actually.

I just played a 1080p MKV from my aging 16x Lite on DVD-ROM on my HTPC. While it played fine, the disc was spinning at quite a speed at the start. This was only a single layer disc, as i don't have any 1080p stuff on DVD+R DL at the moment.

What i find hard to understand, is i can stream HD-DVD over a 100Mb ethernet link to PowerDVD 7.3 ultra, and have no framerate issues whatsoever.

ssmacc · 2 Oct 2007 at 10:46

RVF said:
Putting a standard dvd-rom drive in an external caddy wont make it read any quicker.

You quote the throughput of the usb interface not what the drive can actually read at.

sorry i should have made it clear i was refering to a External Hard Drive not an external DVD-ROM

ssmacc · 2 Oct 2007 at 10:49

Bigpops said:
There might be something in this actually.

I just played a 1080p MKV from my aging 16x Lite on DVD-ROM on my HTPC. While it played fine, the disc was spinning at quite a speed at the start. This was only a single layer disc, as i don't have any 1080p stuff on DVD+R DL at the moment.

What i find hard to understand, is i can stream HD-DVD over a 100Mb ethernet link to PowerDVD 7.3 ultra, and have no framerate issues whatsoever.

yep I can read 720p on the fly but 1080p is 'jerky'. Someone told me DVD-ROM can only be read at 10mb/sec and 1080p are ~15mb/sec, therefore problem. if this isn't the issue or there is a work around some please let me know before I start buying external hard drives (my 20mb connection is on overtime downloading HD content!)