DVR-108 16X DVD burning problem

[MacMan2]

I upgraded my sister's computer with the Pioneer DVR-108 unit (after having gone from the original DVD-RAM unit to a DVR-106, which is now in my computer) a few months back, and she has been successfully burning at 8x ever since. We get name brand discs (usually Prodisc or Taiyo Yuden) from Supermedia when they are on sale. We also use other name brands (Verbatim, Memorex, Maxell, etc.) when on sale in stores. So far, no coasters at all. At 8x. Recently I found some Verbatim 16x discs in 25 packs at Micro Center on sale and thought it would be a good chance to test the units ability to burn at 16x. I set up a 4.2 GB file to burn, launched Toast 6.0.7 (which is OS 10.2.8 only, wont work in 9.2.2, she bought it expressly for burning at 16x.), set it to 16x burn and clicked the button. When the time came up it read 13:35 or so. An 8x burn is usually 6:40 or so which means that it had reverted to 4x. I waited for a bit to see if it would change but it didn't. I aborted and tried another disc, this time from the middle of the stack. Same result. I then tried a third disc (I'm a glutton for punishment!) from a different stack, again from the middle of the stack. Same result. I took them home to see how they would burn on my DVR-106 and they burn fine on it. The DVR-106 of course only burns at 4x. No coasters though. Toast 6.0.7 in OS 10.2.8 shows burn speeds of 1x, 2x, 4x, 8x, 12x & 16x available, with none greyed out or in italics. (We do have another version of Toast on the comp., 5.2.1, for burning in OS 9.2.2 but havent experienced any problems with that setup so far) I went to Pioneer and Roxio (or whoever it is now) to find help. None there. I searched the forums and did a "Google" on DVR-108 to see if I could find someone with a similar problem but nothing. I have also written to Supermedia about getting a couple of Prodisc or Taiyo Yuden 16x discs to try (no answer yet). So..
Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. Sorry I'm so long winded...

PowerMac G4 - "Sawtooth", Orig. 500Mhz upgraded to Sonnet 1Gz -
OS 10.2.8/9.2.2
1.5 GB RAM
Drives:
27 GB (Orig.) int.
80 GB int.
250 GB LaCie Ext.
Pioneer DVR-108 from OWC (firmware has not been upgraded as I saw a note in
the forums that said it had problems)
Zip drive - 100 MB (orig.) unit

Toast 6.0.7 (haven't tried the 6.1.1 upgrade)

Media:
Verbatim DVD-R, 16x, 4.7 GB (Taiwan)
DVD Inspector reports: MCC03..RG20 (I thought MCC was supposed to be real good?)

[terryj]

STF, this has been discussed before, just look for "willrob"
as author, he has talked/complained/pulled his hair out
trying to achieve what you are trying to do, and the answer
is simple.

ONLY the Pioneer DVR-110 will achieve the speed
you want, as it is a true 16x DVD burning drive. All others
will default to lower speeds ( the -108 and -109) when
burning anything but their native media ( 8x).

[MacMan2]

Thanks for the reply terryj. I admit it wasn't the answer I wanted to hear but it will keep me buying cheaper discs until we go to a faster drive. Odd that Pioneer advertises it as a 16x burner and gets away with it! Thanks again.