Which uses more power? DVD or HD?

[Monobas]

On a late 2007 MacBook Pro 17"

Does it take more battery power to watch a movie as a DVD disk or as a ripped disk image played direct from the HD?

My instinct tells me the DVD will be more power hungry but I don't trust my instincts on this kind of thing!

Thanks

Monobas

 

[Sneakz]

Does it take more battery power to watch a movie as a DVD disk or as a ripped disk image played direct from the HD?

My instinct tells me the DVD will be more power hungry but I don't trust my instincts on this kind of thing!

Thanks

Monobas

DVD uses more power

 

[GoCubsGo]

Does it take more battery power to watch a movie as a DVD disk or as a ripped disk image played direct from the HD?

My instinct tells me the DVD will be more power hungry but I don't trust my instincts on this kind of thing!

Thanks

Monobas

Your instincts are correct. It takes more power to run the optical drive during an entire movie than it does to read from the standard hard drive. I say standard because people will upgrade their drives to something faster whereby they directly effect their battery life. Even still, a faster drive will most likely use less battery power than an optical drive. If I am wrong then I am wrong.

 

[felt.]

it was the chicken, obviously

 

[Salavat23]

I would assume that the DVD uses less power.

It does not need to spin as fast, and the disk is lighter compared to the magnetic disk in the HD, so less power is needed to rotate it.

 

[RKpro]

Optical drives use a shitton of energy, and they're louder and they vibrate. And also, even when you watch DVDs, the hard drive is still consuming some energy anyway.

 

[pyromaniaque]

Plus, it takes more power to have optical on , because no matter what your HD WILL BE ON. so thats two things sucking up power