This may be similar to the slow read problem mentioned on another thread for the Sony DRU510A, but the copy speed from the OptoRite 0203 DVD to hard drive appears to be much worse and extrapolates to about 5 hours for a full DVD. Although the OptoRite 0203 is very picky in terms of reliable X4 media recording, I can reliably record using Verbatim DataLife DVD+R 1-4X (DVDinfo says they are Ricoh brand), so why should it take 16 times longer to read the data back? I have tried using the OptoRite 0203 on two different computer systems (different brands)running XP with the same result. I have exchanged cables connections with Sony DRU510A and Sony DRU500AX drives, which read much faster than the OptoRite, although still not as fast as the burn speed. XCopy DOS takes just as long as the usual windows drag copy operation. Also Nero DVD verification takes only 15 minutes for a full DVD. Tech support at OptoRite does not seem to be aware of the problem. What I would like to know is if I am seeing a generic OptoRite 0203 problem, an XP problem, or is the problem merely a single defective unit. Does anyone else see the same problem? Can anyone else read at the spec rate using XP? Is the problem present with ME? Is there a fix?
You're not alone. I've a NEC ND1300A and have exactly the same problem. I use Nero Express to burn a DVD+R disc. It takes a long time to copy the data back from my DVD-ROM drive to the hard disk, while the disc cannot be read by my notebook DVD ROM.
Possibly this is a generic problem that most people don't notices if they are copying movies and playing them back on a different device. So far no one has said that they definitely don't have this problem using XP. I would really like to know if there is anyone out there who definitely does not have this problem using the Optorite 0203 with XP. Some background. I recorded a 100MB set of many files on a DVD using Nero in multisession mode. I found that the Optorite 0203 read back to any hard drive about 8 times slower than it recorded this same set of files to the DVD. By comparison, with Sony DRU510A or Sony DRU500AX the same set of files copied back to the hard drive at about half of the record speed rate. The factor of 2 difference between record speed and copy back to hard drive speed is apparently caused by Windows overhead, since using my Sony DVD burners, a single large file, such as a 4.7GB back file, copies back to the hard drive at the 4X record speed, i.e. in 15 minutes. For the 100MB set of files, it appeared that the Optorite was about 4 times slower when copying back to the hard drive than it ought to be. However I sent the Optorite back before testing it for copying back a single large file, so I don't know the results for that case. The above results apply for DVD-R X4 media. I also noticed that the Optorite read back speed was twice as fast for DVD+R as for DVD-R media. benli - I wonder if you could supply more information. Did you try copying back a single large file to a hard drive and how long did it (or would it) take? Are you also using XP? Do you have a more exact measure of how much slower the read speed is compared to the write speed?
