comparison DOCS/xml/en/cd-dvd.xml @ 15879:aa466b84b1d3

Slightly restructured, mention more tools, small fixes, cosmetics.

15878:564a1b5a6c06

<chapter id="cd-dvd">
<title>CD/DVD usage</title>

<sect1 id="drives">
<title>CD/DVD drives</title>
<para>
Linux documentation excerpt:
</para>

<para>
Modern CD-ROM drives can attain very high head speeds, yet some CD-ROM drives
are capable of running at reduced speeds. There are several reasons that might
make you consider changing the speed of a CD-ROM drive:

<listitem><para>
Many CD-ROM drives are annoyingly loud, a lower speed may reduce the noise.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<para>
You can reduce the speed of IDE CD-ROM drives with <command>hdparm</command> or a
program called <command>setcd</command>. It works like this:
<screen>hdparm -E <replaceable>[speed]</replaceable> <replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable></screen>
<screen>setcd -x <replaceable>[speed]</replaceable> <replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable></screen>
</para>

<para>
If you have root privileges the following command may also help:
<screen>echo file_readahead:2000000 &gt; /proc/ide/<replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable>/settings</screen>

<para>
This sets prefetched file reading to 2MB, which helps with scratched CD-ROMs.
If you set it to too high, the drive will continuously spin up and down, and
will dramatically decrease the performance.
It is recommended that you also tune your CD-ROM drive with <command>hdparm</command>:
<screen>hdparm -d1 -a8 -u1 <replaceable>cdrom device</replaceable></screen>
</para>

<para>
This enables DMA access, read-ahead, and IRQ unmasking (read the <command>hdparm</command>
man page for a detailed explanation).

SCSI drives do not have a uniform way of setting these parameters (Do you know one?
Tell us!) There is a tool that works for
<ulink url="http://das.ist.org/~georg/">Plextor SCSI drives</ulink>.
</para>

<para>FreeBSD:</para>
<para>Speed: <command>cdcontrol [-f <replaceable>device</replaceable>] speed <replaceable>speed</replaceable></command></para>
<para>DMA: <command>sysctl hw.ata.atapi_dma=1</command></para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="dvd">
<title>DVD playback</title>
<para>
For the complete list of available options, please read the man page.

<ulink url="http://linvdr.org/projects/regionset/">regionset tool</ulink>
to set the region code of your DVD drive (under Linux).
<emphasis role="bold">Warning</emphasis>: You can only set the region 5 times.
</para>
</sect1>

<sect1 id="vcd">
<title>VCD playback</title>
<para>
For the complete list of available options, please read the man page. The Syntax for a

15879:aa466b84b1d3

<chapter id="cd-dvd">
<title>CD/DVD usage</title>

<sect1 id="drives">
<title>CD/DVD drives</title>

<para>
Modern CD-ROM drives can attain very high head speeds, yet some CD-ROM drives
are capable of running at reduced speeds. There are several reasons that might
make you consider changing the speed of a CD-ROM drive:

<listitem><para>
Many CD-ROM drives are annoyingly loud, a lower speed may reduce the noise.
</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>

<sect2 id="drives_linux">
<title>Linux</title>

<para>
You can reduce the speed of IDE CD-ROM drives with <command>hdparm</command>,
<command>setcd</command> or <command>cdctl</command>. It works like this:
<screen>hdparm -E <replaceable>[speed]</replaceable> <replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable></screen>
<screen>setcd -x <replaceable>[speed]</replaceable> <replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable></screen>
<screen>cdctl -bS <replaceable>[speed]</replaceable></screen>
</para>

<para>
If you are using SCSI emulation, you might have to apply the settings to the
real IDE device, not the emulated SCSI device.
</para>

<para>
If you have root privileges the following command may also help:
<screen>echo file_readahead:2000000 &gt; /proc/ide/<replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable>/settings</screen>

<para>
This sets prefetched file reading to 2MB, which helps with scratched CD-ROMs.
If you set it to too high, the drive will continuously spin up and down, and
will dramatically decrease the performance.
It is recommended that you also tune your CD-ROM drive with <command>hdparm</command>:
<screen>hdparm -d1 -a8 -u1 <replaceable>[cdrom device]</replaceable></screen>
</para>

<para>
This enables DMA access, read-ahead, and IRQ unmasking (read the <command>hdparm</command>
man page for a detailed explanation).

SCSI drives do not have a uniform way of setting these parameters (Do you know one?
Tell us!) There is a tool that works for
<ulink url="http://das.ist.org/~georg/">Plextor SCSI drives</ulink>.
</para>

</sect2>


<sect2 id="drives_freebsd">
<title>FreeBSD</title>

<para>speed:
<screen>
cdcontrol [-f <replaceable>device</replaceable>] speed <replaceable>[speed]</replaceable>
</screen>
</para>

<para>DMA:
<screen>
sysctl hw.ata.atapi_dma=1
</screen>
</para>

</sect2>

</sect1>



<sect1 id="dvd">
<title>DVD playback</title>
<para>
For the complete list of available options, please read the man page.

<ulink url="http://linvdr.org/projects/regionset/">regionset tool</ulink>
to set the region code of your DVD drive (under Linux).
<emphasis role="bold">Warning</emphasis>: You can only set the region 5 times.
</para>
</sect1>



<sect1 id="vcd">
<title>VCD playback</title>
<para>
For the complete list of available options, please read the man page. The Syntax for a