Such thing as too much burst rate?

[HatchetMan]

I just burned a dl disc on my Pioneer 111 set to 4x but it never went above 2.2x. The thing is on a pci ide card and burst rate test for this +r dl media was 37 mb/sec, 39 mb/sec for sl +r media.

I tested same scenario on my benq 1620 connected to mobo ide and burst rate was 24, but it did burn at the selected speed of 4x. Lower burst rate but burning faster, I just don't get it. And I did check out the ide card thread at cdfreaks, problem is I do not believe my drive is stuck in Pio mode because of the higher burst rate. The people with probs with those cards reported like 13 mb/sec.

Took nearly 50 minutes just in writing, but I scored a 95 in Nero CD-DVD Speed v4.50. Hmmm... got a 97 with the 1620 in less than half the time but still not too bad I guess, any thoughts?

[smitbret]

Yeah, Nero CD/DVD speed scores really aren't that great of a benchmark. To answer your question, your drive is also probably running in PIO mode instead of Ultra DMA mode. Do a search of this forum and I'll bet you find your answer in 10 minutes or less.
-Brett

[OneSickPup]

I just burned a dl disc on my Pioneer 111 set to 4x but it never went above 2.2x. The thing is on a pci ide card and burst rate test for this +r dl media was 37 mb/sec, 39 mb/sec for sl +r media.

I tested same scenario on my benq 1620 connected to mobo ide and burst rate was 24, but it did burn at the selected speed of 4x. Lower burst rate but burning faster, I just don't get it. And I did check out the ide card thread at cdfreaks, problem is I do not believe my drive is stuck in Pio mode because of the higher burst rate. The people with probs with those cards reported like 13 mb/sec.

Took nearly 50 minutes just in writing, but I scored a 95 in Nero CD-DVD Speed v4.50. Hmmm... got a 97 with the 1620 in less than half the time but still not too bad I guess, any thoughts?

I can explain the burst rate issue. The Pioneer 111 is a udma 4 (ultra DMA mode 4) device which should record 37-40 mb/sec on a burst rate test. The Benq 1620 will run in DMA mode 2 which will show a slower burst rate of 23-24 mb/sec. Both your burst rates show as adequate for SL 16x burning. The issue of the different burn times is (IMO) a firmware support issue. What media were you burning? Verbatim MKM001 or MKM003 by chance. Someone reported a month or so ago that their Pioneer would not burn the newer MKM003 at anything but 2.4x - which would explain your avg of 2.2x burn speed. I suspect your issue is merely Pioneer firmware support (or lack there of) for the MKM003 media. The quality scan score difference is actually harder to discern without more data. Quality scores are less important than actual PIF peaks and average (again IMO). The Benq drives usually favor their own burns to burns from other brands. If the scans were conducted on the Pioneer 111 then I'm not sure as I have never seen a Pioneer scan I felt compelled to put much faith in. Good drive - just a suspect scanner. Hope this helps.