I created this thread because it was mentioned in this thread
http://www.vgchartz.com/forum/thread.php?id=69027
As well as many others around the site. I didn't want to derail otehr threads so I created this one
The line in question is as follows
"BD read is only 2X on the PS3. the 360 has a 12X dvd drive"
So it may seem that the 360's disc drive reads data 6 times as fast!
This is incorrect though.
It turns out that the X in 2X is a multiplication symbol, and is pronounced 2 times, as in, the read speed of the PS3 is 2 times...
2 times what?
And in the case of the 360, 12 times what?
The answer is infact that the PS3's blu ray reads at 2 times the speed of the first (commercially available) Blu Ray player
And that the 360's 12X is 12 times as fast as the first commercially available DVD player.
Comparing a 1X CD, dvd and BR drive
CD The interwikis failed me. But I'm guessing pretty slow, cos even a 52X cd drive isn't exactly nippy
DVD 10.5 Mbit/s
BD 36 Mbit/s
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blu-ray_Disc
So to put it in a console perspective
360 = 12X 10.5 = 126 Mbit/s
PS3 = 2X 36 = 72 Mbit/s
PS2 = 4X 10.5 = 42 Mbit/s
Edit: - Scottie is learning things.
DVDs have a variable write speed, depending on where the data is located (near the centre or outside of the disk). The fastest speed of a DVD is faster than Blu Ray, but the slowest is slower than a 2X Blu Ray. So a DVD is still faster on the whole, as long as either the disk isn't full, or the slower part of the disk can be filled with data that does not need to be read quickly, leaving the faster part of the disk to load things that do need to be loaded quickly
