Problems with Mac Pro SuperDrive while ripping DVDs

[amphibious]

I've been ripping a bunch of DVDs I own to put on my new Archos 504. The DVDs are instructional videos and most of them are produced by pretty small companies that aren't video experts so a lot of them are on DVD-R discs. I am using HandBrake/MediaFork to rip the discs... the professionally pressed DVDs rip really quickly at 40+ fps, but the DVD-R discs rip really really slowly, sometimes as slow as 1 fps. Yesterday it took about 18 hours to rip four discs that had a total of two hours of video.

These discs have absolutely no problem at all being ripped by my significantly slower Windows laptop using DVD Decrypter. I also have several discs that won't rip via HandBrake/MediaFork and stall if I try to copy the VIDEO_TS folder to the hard drive. Again, no problem copying the VIDEO_TS folder with my Windows laptop.

I just rented a DVD from Blockbuster and the drive is having all sorts of problems reading it. There are no apparent scratches or blemishes on the disc at all. Once more, my Windows laptop has no problems with the disc.

So... I guess I have two questions... first, is ripping at 1 fps normal behavior for a SuperDrive trying to rip a poorly produced DVD-R disc? Second, what's the likelihood that this super slow ripping process messed up my drive?

Thanks.

 

[hayduke]

So... I guess I have two questions... first, is ripping at 1 fps normal behavior for a SuperDrive trying to rip a poorly produced DVD-R disc? Second, what's the likelihood that this super slow ripping process messed up my drive?

1) That sounds a *bit* slow. I don't have any experience with "poorly produced" DVDs though.

2) It seems that your drive isn't messed up if you can still rip one of your previously ripped DVDs at top speed. If you can't do that then I would say your drive is crapping out on you. This probably has nothing to do with the poorly made DVDs and is just coincidental with the onset of drive failure.

 

[yojitani]

You might try zapping your pram http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=2238 I'd be surprised if the drive itself is fried.

YT