Should I burn 16x discs at 8x?

[sky captain]

I was told once that even though a DVD is labeled 16x, it's safer to burn content at 8x or 4x.

Now I'm starting to doubt that -- someone else told me 16x discs should be burned at 16.

Since I'm not sure what's meant by "write speed" and "read speed," I'm at a loss.

What's the truth?

[redwudz]

Mostly opinion either way. I burned 16X TYs at 16X for some time with no problems. But I decided to be a bit conservative and now I use 12X. Not much difference in burning time, though. With a good quality disc, which is all you should be using, that's as slow as I will go.

[aedipuss]

it depends.... on the drive and the blank. most current drives auto adjust their speed down if poor burning results are being detected, so selecting the rated speed is usually a safe bet. but, if it's a nasty dvdr brand to begin with you should burn slowly to try and minimize errors.

for best results always use verbatim if you can get it. second choice would be taiyo yuden. there really isn't anything else close in quality. burning then at their rated speed is effective and will give nice results.

[Rich86]

You will hear lots of varying opinions on this subject. The answer is - whatever works best on your system.
My philosophy is to NOT tempt fate by pushing the limits of my burner or media to its upper rated capabilities.
I have never bought onto the notion that it is automatically best to burn media at its max rated speed.
So I would generally advocate burning a 16x media in a 16x burner at 8x. I burn 8x media at 4x.
I can't remember the last time I made a coaster - and my burned media always works perfectly - so I'm sticking to my philosophy and approach.

[Noahtuck]

You will hear lots of varying opinions on this subject. The answer is - whatever works best on your system.
My philosophy is to NOT tempt fate by pushing the limits of my burner or media to its upper rated capabilities.
I have never bought onto the notion that it is automatically best to burn media at its max rated speed.
So I would generally advocate burning a 16x media in a 16x burner at 8x. I burn 8x media at 4x.
I can't remember the last time I made a coaster - and my burned media always works perfectly - so I'm sticking to my philosophy and approach.

What he said 8)

[aedipuss]

it's not just opinions. if you go do some reading at cdfreaks and check out the data on what is actually produced by different burners and brands of media then you would be able to speak some truth and not perpetuate rumors.

[pepegot1]

I always burn at 16X-no problems, ever.

[Almost Human]

Depends on the drive and the media. I use TDK 16X -R (I can hear you snickering) from Costco - 200 for $26. I burned the same movie at 16X, 12X, 8X, and 4X. The 4X burn had the most PIO errors, while the 12X had the fewest. Just try all the speeds out, then check with Nero CD-DVD Speed to see which is the best - You will only be out about a buck and a little time.

[TimA-C]

I find that all the DVD players in the house like the disks burnt at 8x (usually Verbatim). They'll usually play those disks burnt at 12x but take a lot longer to bring up the menus and make a lot more noise while they're doing it, and that several of the players here really struggle with disks burnt at 16x and often just give up. so I'm with Rich86 and NoahTuck on this one.

[otpw1]

I've bought many 16x discs that my burner will turn to coasters at that speed but burns properly at 4x.

[aedipuss]

just what good are cheap discs?? after throwing away the bad ones and wasting all that time burning at 4x praying for it to not be a coaster, are you saving any money? buy quality and pay the same and in the end, you'll be happier and have your computer for other things more of the time.

otpw1 - how many is "many", i have over 2600 dvdrs burnt here. the vast majority are verbatims but some of the early ones are riteks from the 1x-2x era, back when they were decent quality. taiyo yuden are usually good but i had a couple bad 100 pack spindles where 20-25% failed. i can honestly not recall a single bad verbatim out of the 1800 or so i have used. there are 500 more verbatim blanks here waiting i pick them up when they are on special or there's a rebate and the price is around $20 delivered.

[marioval]

I use 16x 3rd and 4th class media. Crappy discs that are dirt cheap. I burn them at 8x no matter what I am doing and I have never had a problem with playback. I have been doing this for years and all those old disks still work fine. Just my story thats all, take it for what it's worth.

[oldandinthe way]

The reason for so many differing opinions is very clear, the quality of burns is a function of both the burner and the media being burned.

Some burners will burn just about any media, some will not. Some will burn reliably at the maximum rated speeds, some will not.

Media varies in quality, but so do burners and not all burners are tested with all media by the manufacturer.

From OSTA's report on media quality

Conclusions

Overall results improving over time
Edge effect in failures is very clear Accounted for the vast majority of playback problems
When recording, avoid filling up the disc for best compatibility
Media quality matters: Significant variation in media quality
Media-Burner combinations matter
Consumer should update firmware on burners
Underscores importance in media/drive mfr relations
Updated firmware important.




http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:d4L78ozmeoAJ:www.itl.nist.gov/iad/894.05/gipwog/ma...lnk&cd=1&gl=us

[noki]

personally, burn 16x media @6x. Then Nero never exercises buffer underrun feature of the burner. noticed that @8x the cache goes to zero, then a brief wait for things to catch up. maybe just my system. then again never had a burner-related coaster.

[oldandinthe way]

personally, burn 16x media @6x. Then Nero never exercises buffer underrun feature of the burner. noticed that @8x the cache goes to zero, then a brief wait for things to catch up. maybe just my system. then again never had a burner-related coaster.

An older, underpowered (by today's standards) system like yours probably should not be burning at maximum rated speed. If you are seeing underruns you should also be certain nothing else is running while you are burning.

[Rich86]

just what good are cheap discs?? after throwing away the bad ones and wasting all that time burning at 4x praying for it to not be a coaster, are you saving any money? buy quality and pay the same and in the end, you'll be happier and have your computer for other things more of the time.

otpw1 - how many is "many", i have over 2600 dvdrs burnt here. the vast majority are verbatims but some of the early ones are riteks from the 1x-2x era, back when they were decent quality. taiyo yuden are usually good but i had a couple bad 100 pack spindles where 20-25% failed. i can honestly not recall a single bad verbatim out of the 1800 or so i have used. there are 500 more verbatim blanks here waiting i pick them up when they are on special or there's a rebate and the price is around $20 delivered.

I also am working my way through a pair of 100 pack Costco TDK (CMC) DVD+R 16x dvd media - purchased on a 2 for 1 coupon driving the unit cost below $.15/disc - and they work perfectly 100% of the time, so far. But then my "middle of the road" approach to burning dvd's nets me very very few problems burning them - or using them years after they have been burned (using Benq 16x burners mostly). Burning at a slightly slower speed doesn't waste my time - because I don't sit there and watch it . . . I walk away . . .
I think the folks advocating a bit of experimenting to determine the approach that works best in your own personal environment is the best advice.

[sky captain]

This is all very interesting, and frustrating.

I work in a business where we use 7 different computers with a variety of burners to produce discs. We usually use Sony discs, although my boss buys various other media too.

Anyway, it's hard to do my own series of scientific data gathering, since there are so many variables to account for.

Aedipuss, do you have any links for the CDFreaks articles you mentioned?

[harley2ride]

I've been around CDFREAKS for a long time. The general concensus has always been to burn media "at or near" it's rated speed. That said, there are variables between media, drives, and firmware. I have not heard of anyone having problems burning quality media on 16x burners anywhere from 8x to 16x. Personally, I burn all of my media at just below it's rated speed (usually 12x), but I have never had a problem burning my Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden media at 16x on any of my 4 burners.

[CBC]

Depends on the drive and the media. I use TDK 16X -R (I can hear you snickering) from Costco - 200 for $26. I burned the same movie at 16X, 12X, 8X, and 4X. The 4X burn had the most PIO errors, while the 12X had the fewest. Just try all the speeds out, then check with Nero CD-DVD Speed to see which is the best - You will only be out about a buck and a little time.

200 DVD-Rs for $26? U sure about that?

[Almost Human]

CBC wrote 200 DVD-Rs for $26? U sure about that?

Yeah! 2 for price of 1 coupon.

[CBC]

whoa! nice!

[DarrellS]

I agree with what harley2ride said. According to the tests that they ran, that was the consesus also. Using a Liteon burner with Ty media, the fewest errors came at 16x speed.

For users who only use 4x, 6x, or 8x, do you use an 8x burner or do you own a 16x, 18x or 20x burner. It males no sense to me to pay for a 16x, 18x or 20x burner and buy 16x media if I'm only going to burn at low speeds.

From what I understand, an 18x or 20x burner can burn at those speeds with 16x media if you let the burner choose the speed. My 16x burner seems to use varible speed when I let it choose the speed which I always do. Since I stopped using Ritek and Ridata about three years ago, I haven't had a bad DVD burn.

[budz]

To the OP: As already mentioned it would really depend on the dvd burner you have as well as the dvd media you're using and lastly the type/brand of standalone dvd player. BTW what brand is your current dvd burner? It would be easier to help you if you posted your computer specs in your profile.

If you want 16x speeds then buy the latest 18x - 20x dvd burners on the market at this time. They would be the only drives that could burn 16x without any playback problems. I've burned 16x speed using my SATA SAMSUNG S203B drive without any problems in the disc playing back. IMHO if you're looking for a correct answer, it's gonna be like finding a needle in a haystack! You'll have to test out 16x burns on the dvd players you have. Trial and error is the only way you'll know if 16x speed burns will work for you. Just my 2 cents!