Posted Write Speeds

[wild4trv30]

I was looking for a certain write speed CD at Best Buy the other day, and a sales person told me that even though the box listed a lower speed than I wanted, it would write at the higher speed. Was he accurate, or was he just trying to clear inventory? When I asked him why they put the speed on the box, he couldn't really give an answer.

Will an 8X CD burn at 10X? Will a 4X DVD-R burn at 16X (if your burner is capable)?

Thanks.

[hech54]

IMO....Speed Kills(discs).
I still burn my CD's at the lowest rate I can....and 8x is FAST for me with DVD burning...4x is my usual.
The Best Buy "kid" is only going by what he has learned(though not officially) from other BB Geeks who work there spouting off their mouths about how fast they burn discs with their awesome system that nobody is allowed to see(or doesn't really exist...you be the judge).
Burning at higher than the rated speed is common but nothing to brag about....in the end a successful burn is what you really wanted.

[Rich86]

Sometimes "yes" - sometmes "no". It very much depends on the media, your burner and the firmware used in your burner.

For example . . my specific experience

my old Sony 510a 4x burner - would not burn anything higher than its rated speed. It would not even burn at the highest speed with most media very reliably. It would not burn to 8x Ritek media at all at any speed. I expect these are firmware issues and Sony could not be bothered to update firmware for this drive for newer media.

Benq 1620 - seems to burn anything I throw at it just fine. Benq has made firmware updates available pretty consistently. It burns that Ritek 8x media that the Sony barfed on just fine. It burns Benq 8x +R media (manufacturer = Daxon) at 16x, although I do not burn at that speed.

Unless you have some major volume burning needs to accomplish in a short time period, I would suggest you NOT push your burner/media to it highest speed ratings. I stay comfortably below the highest rated speed for the media and my drive and burn 100% reliably with lots of different media. I suggest you make sure your burner firmware is up to date and experiment a bit to select media that burns reliably with your system and stick with that and not worry about pushing media beyond its rated speed.