Nero Burning Speed Tool - What the heck?

[presto]

I bought 16x DVD+R instead of my usual 8x. The result is that one of my burners errors out when I try to burn. My other burner in my other computer burns them ok.

I noticed that the second computer burns at 4x.

The first computer doesn't offer me 4x.

I discovered the strange issue (to me) that I am offered one set of speeds when the drive is empty and one set of speeds when there is a disk in the drive. Neither gives me the 4x option.

I want to force computer one to burn at 4x. I had a vague recall of a tool to do this. I found a tool on Nero's site which says the following:

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Download DynWrSpeed_Off.zip and extract the zipped files onto your hard disk using WinZip or WinRar.

Run the registry patch contained in the zipped file by double-clicking it. It modifies Nero so that the speeds supported by the recorder can no longer be calculated dynamically but is derived from a table in the burner's firmware.

Nero should now, at the latest, display all speeds supported by the burner provided that there is no recordable CD in the burner.

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Now, that is pretty awful attemp at explaing exactly what this tool is for.

So what is the issue here? Why do they provide a tool to fix what is displayed before a recordable CD is in the burner? I need something that fixes the speeds that are displayed AFTER the CD (in this case DVD) is in the burner.

[guns1inger]

Each burner has a write strategy for a given manufacturer and disc ID. this is held in the firmware, and is specific to that model or burner and version of firmware. That is why firmware upgrades can allow increased burning speeds.

I guess what nero is saying is that without this registry hack, nero will get the speeds from the disc, rather than the firmware. The disc might say 16 speed, but the firmware might have write strategies for 4x and 8x burning as well. It does seem though that if a blank is in the drive, the firmware speeds can't be read. Does this affect the outcome - don't know.

[presto]

I decided to try again and chose "maximum" as the speed. This seemed counter intuitive since 16x failed but I decided to try any way. Well it finished with no errors and I was momentarily happy only to find that the disk would not play in my set top. The disks I usually burn play in my set top and on my computer. Now I use the same procedure accept for choosing "maximum" as the speed and I get a disk that won't play on my set top but does play on my computer.

This all feels voodoo. There is no rhyme or reason to it.

[mikiem]

Check out the Writer, player lists etc, here at videohelp. Could be your player or writer has prob. with the brand of disc, or could be like many folks, have better success writing at less then 16x.

[presto]

To clarify, I have no particular desire to burn at 16x. I just want to be able to use these 16x disks I bought by mistake. I usually by 8x and have no problems. One of my computers burns these 16x with not problems the other doesn't. The one that burns successfully does it at 4x but the other computer doesn't offer me 4x as a choice.

I don't get it.

[Denvers Dawgs]

Are these older burners that you are trying to burn these newer discs on? Have you tried updating the firmware on the drives, the firmwares usually add newer discs to the burners list so I can burn them (sorry if that sounds confusing)