2 Speed or Not 2 Speed (Burning at 4x is the Question)

[kwebster]

At what speed are the majority of you burning your DVD backups? I've been able to burn both at 2x and 4x, but have had more problems at 4x -- and with various media.

I'm trying to determine if the media is the problem or if backing up a DVD at 4x is just asking too much. I've tried 4x backups with Princo, Ritek/Ridata G04, Prodisc, and Platinum (sold only at MicroCenter) and have had mostly negative results. Now let me qualify the term "negative." By negative, I mean that the burn occurs successfully, but playback/verification fails.

Platinum is utter garbage -- although my first 25 burned wonderfully at 4x. The next 25 presented 18 duds. The Princos performed the best of all, yielding a 85-90% success rate. Probably the most surprising to me was the poor performance of the much heralded Ritek and Prodisc brands. Testing on both yielded a 100% failure rate at 4x! None of the burned discs would test successfully. I even tried burning one of the Prodisc 4x's at 2x to no avail.

However, when it comes to 2x media, my burns are flawless (99% success rate). I use Verbatim Datalife 2x media. Unfortunately, I'm not sure if my success with 2x is due to the superior Verbatim product, or if 4x is too fast for video backup. Evidence would suggest not, since I'm able to get good results with Princo 4x's.

Opinions, please.

[DTSL06]

RiData (Ritek G04) 4x bulk pac (50) with the red RiData cover shrink wrap.

Memorex (Ricohjpn) +R 5packs 4x @ 8x on Plex and @ 6x on NEC with no probms.

Burns at -R 4x on Plextor 708a, NEC 2500a and Pioneer A05 with no probms. Burn ~200+ so far of the G04, mostly on the NEC and Pioneer.

[Kingnog]

I've used 1x princos, but my LG-4040b burns them at 2x. No problems. I havent found media that burns at 4x, tho, so i cant say that i've had success

[4smiley20]

If you are reffering to a negative result as any type of pixelation or artifacting on the movie please share what programs you use to back up that you can determine media quality based on the backup quality being 100%.

[DTSL06]

Using the G04 I have no artifacts other then from the compression itself. The disks play on many brands of DVD players (Pioneer, Panasonic, Citizen, APEX, SONY, JVC , Norcent, and newer Toshiba's). There is no pix's or stutters or what ever. I even use paper labels on all the disks.

I use DVDDecrypter, DVDShrink or CloneDVD/2 and Nero.
Labels are applied after the disk have been burned and then printed on an Epson.

So far I had good success with the G04, but my prefer media is the Memorex +R's.

I review the disks on a 53" HI-def TV

[VicodiN]

TDK+R (RicohJpn) at 4x, no probs thusfar. I utilize the DVDdecrypter rip to HD, shrink with DVDshrink 3.13, burn with Nero method.

[northcat_8]

Only burn RitekG04, only burn at 4x...

coaster total = 0
pixelation issues = 0
compatability issues = 0 (sold better than 1000 discs all over the country, never had one that wouldn't play)

[aggies11]

A 4x burn saves you about 15mins over 2x. Reducing the time to 15mins.

To me, thats the acceptable time threshold (30mins per disc is just too much )

Going further to 8x only saves you another 7minutes or so, so thats not too big a deal.

4x is definitely the sweetspot for me.

I dont' mind paying a bit more for the saved time, so I go with

Maxell 4x DVD-R, for most of my burns

Memorex 4x DVD+R (RICOHJPN) and 4x -R Ritek (Shiny top) for the rest.

Aggies

[kwebster]

Thank you all for your insightful responses.

I'm beginning to think that part of my issue regarding the Riteks and Prodiscs is firmware. I'm using a Lite-On 451S with original firmware. I'm strongly considering upgrading it, but I must admit to a fair amount of trepidation over the process. Finding the latest firmware hasn't been the easiest feat in the world, although there are various tools to install them once I do find them.

[Jayhawk]

Firmware could be the answer in your case however you should also take note of the brands mentioned by the respoders. Maxell, TDK, Memorex. I would add Verbatim to that list. I use TDX, Maxell, and Verbatim with both a Plextor 708A (burn at 6X) and a Sony DRU500A (burn at 4X). Not one coaster over the last couple hundred burns.

I've had good burns with Verbatim 4X burning at 8X but feel safer with the 4X or 6X burns.

[gmatov]

kwebster,

Finding the latest firmware is the easiest thing in the world. www.liteonit.com

DL your copy, unzip, doubleclick to flash, as it is a Windows executable file.

Finding previous versions is where you have to hunt, as LiteOn greys them out with each update. Suggest you go there regularly and save the latest in case one time you have to flash back, as the buggy version a few months back shows, up for a couple days, yanked, replaced a week or so later, but early adopters stuck with the buggy version till then.

I DL, save them all, less than a meg per, no prob.

Chers,

George

[bdf24]

I've got some Ritek G04's and if burned at 4x it wont play reliable in my player. I'll get skips and stutters. Worse on some movies then others. But they seem to play on everybody elses player fine go figure!
So for me it's more or less a compatibility issue with my player.

[dafreak]

burn with riteks at 4x, no coasters after 200+ dvd's