Burning at 8x or 4x

[JayT]

I have recently purchased some 8x DVD - R disks , and have recently had a few problems when playing films on several DVD players burned at that speed. My question is not with the media but the speed of the burn, i have read that it is always better to burn at 4 speed for best results , is this still correct with 8 speed disks to burn at 4 speed or stick to buying 4 speed disks.

Thanks

[sunderland]

you might be better of telling people what kind of media your using and what dye is on them before they can really help you

[Sabro]

I just recently ran in to the same problem. Always used FujiFilm 4x +R DVDs with never a problem and found a killer deal on some Memorex 8x +R.

The media codes on both seem to be atleast halfway decent media, RICOHJPN on the Fuji and PRODISC on the Memorex, and the burn seems to be fine.

Burning at 8x all 4 of my dvd units, 2 cpu devices, a ps2 and an APEX set top all glitch/freeze, but when I drop the speed to 4x no problems what so ever.

This occurs even after I updated the firmware on my Artec 12x/8x/4xdvd-48xcd burner so its either truely media related or the devices it's being played on just don't like the higher burn rates.

About all I know for now, but your not alone.

Sabro

[JayT]

Im using Ritek - i believe its purple dye , but im just trying to generalise with reference to Standalone DVD players recogniseing 8x or 4x DVD - Rs and is it the speed at which they are burned

[JayT]

Thanks Sabro, think i will stick to 4x burn with this batch of disks to see if my success rate increases, the same as you my disks will play but will freeze at some point during the movie playback

[dipstick]

If it's an 8x disk, it should burn correctly at 8x with no problems whatsoever. If you are experiencing problems burning them at 8x, then either the media sucks or you burner cant burn at 8x correctly.

[sunderland]

it might be down to you burning software what are you using

[JayT]

Im using Nero, latest version to burn and have also flashed my burner wiv the latest firmware, i guess i should redo some of my disks that were previously burned at 8x to now 4x and research my results, jsu wondered if this was a common prob, thanks all

[Sabro]

Not to treadjack, but I am using the newest version of Alcohol 120% here with ISOs created by DVDShrink.

Sabro

[fresco]

hmm...I burn at the speed of 8x using sony 8x dvd-rs and I have never had a problem with my discs. My burned movies play perfectly...I really don't think burning speeds matter that much; its usually the media or burning software...I use DVD Decrypter to burn...

[JayT]

ok, so a little change of subject, what would be the best recommendation for Burning, i use Nero and have only ever used Nero for burning my DVDs but what about you guys

[JayT]

i must also say that they all work fine on my DVD/DivX player but on many other peoples they dont

[RickTheRed]

You should let us know what is your burner.
Ritek G05 are known to give better burns at 8x.

[Sabro]

I think fresco may be on to something. I've had problems burning with eariler versions of DVDDecryptor but just went and downloaded the newest version.

Burnt an 8x Memorex with the same ISO files I've been using and hitting 8x speed the disc seems to work fine in all my players now.

Oddly enough Alcohol 120% and DVDDecryptor report the disc can be burnt up to 12x but with the max setting only hits 8x....non the less it seems to have fixed the problem along with updating the firmware on my burner.

Thanks for the memory refresh fresco.

Sabro

[SaSi]

Apart from the quality of the media, the burning s/w and the DVDRW drive, there is another element that is quite important. That is whether the HD was able to sustain the transfer rate to the DVDR during recording. If not, then the recorder will need to activate the buffer underrun protection mechanism, lower the recording speed and typically increase the recording speed when the buffer is full again (don't know if it is the burning s/w that does this or the burner itself).

I burned a couple of 8X +R media at 8X with a Samsung TSS552 and a NEC 3520. The media was 8x Tayo Yuden and I used Nero 6.6.0.1.

Some of the disks played fine on my standalone player, two of the DVDRs did not. Playback on the standalone would freeze at moments and then continue and at some point playback stops and the disk was ejected.

These particular disks were recorded with files from a very fragmented drive that had problems feeding the recorder at the required rate. (I must confess that the PC was also doing DVD Authoring at the time).

This resulted in the buffer getting empty, the recording speed dropped and then increased. I was able to visually verify this by looking at the recorded surface. It was full of different color bands - unlike the disks that were recorded without buffer underruns.

Clearly, 8x recording requires the PC doing nothing else during recording and a relatively unfragmented source disk. But with the time gain of only 5-6 minutes - which is sometimes not achieved - there is no real point to record at 8x.

Again, the disks produced may be playable on some drives and not on others.

[sunderland]

IMO nero is crap but that is just me. i use either dvddecrypter or i will use ONES PRASSI which is a good programme

[JayT]

Ok, my conclusion to this matter, i agree with SaSi, whilst trying to burn at max speed i am also downloading and converting films. I have now burned 5 DVD disks at a speed of 4x whilst my PC was doing nothing else and all is fine, so all factors taken into consideration, the Burner, the Software, the DVD-Rs etc etc its probably a little part of all mentioned affects the Burn Quality. Thanks to all for the input.. JayT