DVD Copy 8.0.2.2 -- is it supposed to be this slow?

[jaydvdfab]

Hi,

I have been using DVD to DVD since 5x, now am on 8.0.2.2.

Running on Windows XP Professional 5.1, Service Pack 2 (very much on purpose!!!).... and it is running under VMWARE Player 3.01. The XP has access to 392 MB of RAM. This us all running on Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy" Linux (in a couple more months, we will be on 10.04).

I do not have access (at this moment) to the DVD drive information, but the workstation/PC it is a 1-year-old machine that is BIG and FAST that has very high grade components. It has dual 4-core processor, 4 GB of RAM, etc., etc. I can run multiple VMWARE sessions each with multiple applications, and a dozen more Linux applications all at once with not indication of slowing down (but when I am doing DVD to ISO FILE copy, I do not do anything else in XP and I usually don't have any other significant activity on the workstation).

My primary function is to copy from DVD (video/movie) to ISO FILE. I am NOT making DVDs!!! I am making ISO files of the DVDs.

The ISO files are being created on a local hard drive that is located in this workstation. It is a big, fast 2 TB SATA drive that is NOT the primary drive.

Normal access to and from this 2 TB HD drive is blazing fast. I frequently make multiple GB file copies to/from that drive locally and across our network, all very quick.

When I BURN a DVD (using Linux's k3b program), I can burn one of the ISO files I have created from DVDFAB in perhaps 8-10 minutes. (So why should making the ISO take so long?)

But, to CREATE the ISO is taking a very, very long time.....

Typically (if the DVD has no errors), the creation time for a 7 GB (dvd9 -> dvd9) video/movie DVD is:

- Analyze DVD: 20-30 seconds

- Read DVD "step 1 of 2": 25-30 **MINUTES**

- Create ISO "step 2 of 2": 50-60 **MINUTES**

A friend of mine who originally recommended DVDFAB to me uses it on Windows XP (both native on hardware and virtual under VMWARE on Linux like I do) and he says his speed is much, much faster.

Is my slow speed normal?

Is 392 MB not enough memory for the XP doing this process? (I can allocate much more memory to it, but that requires re-initializing the XP registration, which is a big pain.)

Is this problem related to the VMWARE aspect of it? I don't have any noticeable speed problems of any sort with any other software on the XP under VMWARE.

Is there some configuration change I can make? Or is there something that I might be doing wrong that would slow it down?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

[90312]

What is your CPU load during these long writes?

[jaydvdfab]

Your question about CPU usage may be the key .... on WinXP Service Pack 2.

When I use DVDFab, I don't normally do anything else (that is all that I _personally_ use Win XP for). When I tried to check on the CPU usage while DVDFab was running, the XP quickly became sluggish and unresponsive and soon crashed.

(We do not have any speed or crashing problems with the few other programs that we must run on XP.)

That sent me on a search and I discovered that (more than usual) XP Professional 5.1, Service Pack 2 has a DEFECT regarding CPU usage.

There is/was a hotfix for it. The title is: "CPU utilization reaches 100 percent when you run programs after you install Windows XP Service Pack 2"

The URL is http://support.microsoft.com/kb/896256

Frankly, I am not sure I want to get into this can of worms. When you fix one thing like this, another can break.

We only use the Win XP because a particular program that we have to use requires it. We specifically use nothing later than SP2 because I am told that was the last one before "phone home" became part of the system. Yes, we have a proper license for it, properly activated, but how we use an o/s is none of MS's business. (That's one reason we primarily use Linux -- I sure wish DVDFab was written in Java so it could run on any o/s.)

Soon another program we must use will require us to install whatever the latest version of Windoze is at that time and then I will try DVDFab on it.

[90312]

Can you post your logs from your last attempt? The only thing that I can think of is your drive my have rolled back to PIO only mode, that would explain the heavy CPU load during a rip/burn.

[jaydvdfab]

I appreciate the thought on this. The next time I copy a DVD to a ISO file, I can post the logs.

However, I suspect that this is too much of an "edge case" to pursue. First of all, the XP is SP2. And there lots of problems right there. Secondly, the XP is running under VMWARE (which is on Ubuntu Linux) and who knows what Vmware is doing between the XP and the hardware. Even if the type of problem is identified, a solution is not likely to be found for an older o/s with Vmware "in the way".

My original and fundimental question was -- and has not yet been answered -- is DVDFab supposed to be (on Win XP) as slow as the times I provided in my original post? If not, what is an approximate typical time for a "7 GB (dvd9 -> dvd9) video/movie DVD ... TO ISO FILE". There are two stages: the original read of the DVD (I guess to the temp files) and then the making of the ISO file.

Thanks.

[CBR929]

jaydvdfab

That is your choice to not stay current with all Micro$oft updates

And to answer your question about speed, I have Vista not Xp and I can do what you are asking ( read dvd and create ISO) in less than 25 minutes
CBR929

[AGJ]

No compression straight to ISO should be about 10 to 15 minutes but I use ImgBurn with DVDFab but my times are on a XP computer and not VMware on linux

[jaydvdfab]

PROBLEM SOLVED!

The cause of the problem had to do with my misunderstanding of our network topography _and_ network problems.

The WinXP Pro is running under VMware on Ubuntu Linux 8.0.4. I was creating ISO files. The ISO files were being created on a second disk (does not really matter) on my LINUX workstation. The ISO files were _NOT_ being created in the XP's own operating system virtual space under vmware (not big enough).

That is all well and good, except...

I foolishly thought that the fact that the disk was on my workstation and the XP/vmware was on my workstation meant that the file transfer was being done on the local machine. WRONG!

The file was going from XP -> network via NFS on older RedHat 8 server -> drive on my local workstation.

Again, by itself, other than my misunderstanding, that is fundimentally okay.

However, the NFS on RedHat 8 really slows down file transfers. Compared to today's standards, it is really bad. That was the biggest part of the problem.

I have now installed a new really big & fast server (dual 8-core 2 GB processors for a total of 16 logical processors; 16 GB of RAM; dual 1GB ethernet, etc.). It is running Ubuntu Linux 10.0.4.

I am still on my same workstation with the same XP.

However, the drive I am writing to is on the server, not on the workstation, thus cutting out half the transmission distance/hops.

The DVD read-to-temp files time (for a 7 GB DVD) has been cut from about 40 minutes to about 10 minutes. The create ISO time has been cut from about 40 minutes to about 8 minutes.

All is wonderful. All the speed problems were due to my network topography and the slow/old NFS version.

Jay