New Apple USB Superdrive and XLD - detecting prep taking longer than previously

[blaven]

My CD/DVD drive just went in my older macbook Pro, so I bought a brand new Apple Superdrive for my iMac (this drive is more for room aesthetics vs other cheaper options) and noted that when ripping CD's, it seems to be taking longer to detect the Pregap then when I used the same XLD program on my 2009 Macbook Pro with internal CD drive?

 

Am I just imagining things or is there something to it.

 

I know the Superdrive is not the fastest drive available, but that should be a limiting factor for prep detection that would make that big of a difference would it?

 

Is this a hardware issue?

 

Thanks for any help

[Ultrarunner]

I didn't notice much difference between the internal drive on my MacBook Pro previously, and the SuperDrive / iMac Retina I use now. About 10 seconds from disc insertion to completion of Pregap detection.

[blaven]

seems to rip fine, and just as fast as I remember, just that the pregap detection takes a longer time than I recall -- at least 2-3 min minimum, sometimes 4-5 or more?

[Richard Dale]

My CD/DVD drive just went in my older macbook Pro, so I bought a brand new Apple Superdrive for my iMac (this drive is more for room aesthetics vs other cheaper options) and noted that when ripping CD's, it seems to be taking longer to detect the Pregap then when I used the same XLD program on my 2009 Macbook Pro with internal CD drive?

 

Am I just imagining things or is there something to it.

 

I know the Superdrive is not the fastest drive available, but that should be a limiting factor for prep detection that would make that big of a difference would it?

 

Is this a hardware issue?

 

Thanks for any help

 

My SuperDrive is the same with XLD, both on the 11 inch MacBook Air I used to have and attached to a 27 inch 2010 iMac. The internal drive on the iMac starts quicker, but has about the same number of errors

[blaven]

Sorry for the typing errors. Autocorrect screwed me again.

 

Not "prep". Pregap.

 

It's taking a few minutes to detect the pregap.

[tmtomh]

What you are experiencing is annoying but not at all unusual. I had the same issue - using the original internal Superdrive in my 2009 iMac, XLD would get through the "detecting pregap" phase in maybe 3 seconds. When that drive died and I started using the Apple external USB Superdrive, the "detecting pregap" phase took forever - at least a couple of minutes, maybe even 4 or 5 minutes.

 

I searched and asked around, and the best advice was go to into XLD's CD Ripping preferences and just turn off the "detect pregap" option. You don't really need it anyway - XLD will still detect pregap when it actually rips the CD.

 

Also, you might want to take a look at some of the ripping logs for CDs you've recently ripped with the new drive (assuming you are ripping them securely and using AccurateRip). If your rips say something like "track ripped accurately, using different offset," then XLD is still using the drive offset for your old internal drive, which could be different than the offset for your new one. My old one had an offset of (IIRC) 667 while my new one is only 6. XLD has its own internal database of drive offsets, but when I got my external USB Superdrive (maybe 8 months ago?) the model of the mechanism inside it had not yet been added to XLD's internal database. So I found the offset online and then manually changed the offset, again in XLD's CD ripping preferences.

 

If you don't see the "with different offset" notation in your rip logs, then you do not need to worry about this issue.

 

Oh, and finally, on ripping performance, I find the new external Superdrive the same or slightly better than my old drive. My guess is that this is because he new Superdrive sits horizontally while the old one, being in an iMac, was vertical which IMHO is not as optimal.

[blaven]

Thanks - I will investigate further. Your experience mimics mine exactly.