Bug 242178 - Writing speed display in Burn Progress dialog inaccurate and confusing
Summary: Writing speed display in Burn Progress dialog inaccurate and confusing
Status: ASSIGNED
Alias: None
Product: k3b
Classification: Applications
Component: GUI/Usability (show other bugs)
Version: 1.92.0
Platform: Debian unstable Linux
: NOR minor
Target Milestone: 2.1
Assignee: k3b developers
URL:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2010-06-19 17:47 UTC by Stuart Balfour
Modified: 2021-03-09 06:28 UTC (History)
3 users (show)

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Description Stuart Balfour 2010-06-19 17:47:51 UTC
Version:           1.92.0 (using KDE 4.4.4) 
OS:                Linux

During a recent Blu-ray burn, I saw the following displayed in the Burn Progress
dialog:

(in the scrolling display)

Writing Speed: 8,448KB/s (6.10x)

(below):
            22,119MiB   81min.

Estimated writing speed = 4496KB/s (1.00x)

I have several issues:

1. 6.10x in the scrolling display is an incorrectly computed multiplier - it
should be 8448/4496 = 1.88x

2. The multipliers both above and below don't actually have 3 significant digits of precision as implied by the trailing zero in the hundredths position.
It's always a zero in the hundredths position. Either output three significant
digits or format the output as two significant digits, i.e. (6.1x).

3. Since the lower speed display says "Estimated writing speed", that
presumably means that the upper display which says "Writing speed" is the real
or actual writing speed.  Neither assumption is correct.  The speed in the
upper scrolling window display is the initially calibrated speed, when the 
drive writes a hidden test area of the media.  The lower display is real time,
an interval sampling computation, somewhat like the instantaneous MPG displayed
on an automobile odometer.  I think the scrolling window should say "Initial
calibrated writing speed" and the lower display should say "Sampled writing
speed".

4. How usable and meaningful is units KB/s?? when dealing with (usually) 
hundreds of MB or even GBs?  Mental gymnastics are necessary to get an answer
to the question "How many minutes (hours) will it take to burn this 4.7GB or 25GB media?"  Instead of 4496KB/s how much easier would it be to answer that question if the display said 270MB/min?  Nobody writes transmission speeds in baud anymore - it's Gbit/s now.  We need to scale up.

5. Whatever the units we use for reporting speed, I doubt that 4 significant
digits of precision represent 4 measurable and repeatable digits of accuracy.
We probably have two digits of accuracy, no more.  Trim the display to 2 digits
rounded, i.e. instead of 4496KB/s, show 4500KB/s (and 4.5MB/s or 270MB/min
would be better, as per #4 above).

Reproducible: Always
Comment 1 Michał Małek 2010-06-20 19:40:34 UTC
Hi, your comments are reasonable. Are you interested in writing a patch? I think it's a good starting point into K3b development :)
Comment 2 Stuart Balfour 2010-06-21 18:38:30 UTC
I have a clear idea of what's needed, so I'm best suited to fix this.  You
may assign the bug to me.  It's a UI issue, and not mission critical to 2.0, so it'll be deferred to 2.1.
Comment 3 Michał Małek 2010-06-21 20:54:47 UTC
I'm assigning it to you then.
Comment 4 Przemysław Kulczycki 2013-06-10 22:13:20 UTC
This bug is still present in k3b 2.0.2 (in Ubuntu).
It looks like K3B is showing DVD-sized speed in the scrolling display and Bluray-sized speed (correct) at the bottom of the burning window.
Comment 5 Justin Zobel 2021-03-09 06:28:25 UTC
Thank you for the bug report.

As this report hasn't seen any changes in 5 years or more, we ask if you can please confirm that the issue still persists.

If this bug is no longer persisting or relevant please change the status to resolved.