Can someone clear up my confusion? I have a spindle of TDK DVD-R media which the wrapper label says are 8X. Nero (6.6.0.15a) seems to think it can write them at 16X (and 12X, etc) - at least it offers those options after recognizing the discs. DVD Identifier says the media codes include 16X and 12X. Is it possible that these are in fact 16X media sold in older packaging? I haven't let Nero burn at its default (16X) speed, and have always manually reset the limit to 8X. Should I just let Nero do its thing at whatever speed it thinks is best?
Hello brapklak, that's the bad part about the newer 8x media. These 16x burners can burn them at the 12x and 16x speeds. Those tdk -8x should be very good,beware of the +8x because cmagnetics corp may be the manufacturer. Despite all my verbatim dlp,maxell,and sony dash 8x getting me max 12x burn speed,I still keep it at 4x-to prevent possible errors. Those fuji and sony +8x will get me to 16x,but still I keep it at 4x. 8x should be no problemo if you have a quality burner!
yes, i have that same "problem" too~ my 8x media i can easily burn @ 16x if i allow it...but, as saugmon stated, with a quality burner and quality media...8x should be good...manually preset it to burn @8x, that is what i do with my media using nero...flawless backups~ or if you are somewhat sketchy as many members are, keep the burn @4x if you have more confidence that way...i only burn ALL my backups @8x on quality media, it has never been a problem for me.
Regardless of what the media is capable of being burned at, I will only burn at 4x. I'm not in a race to see how fast I can burn a disc. I want them to play properly for me once it is done. Increasing the speed will only increase the chances of having problems. The reason you are seeing the speeds reported in Nero is the process they use to produce media nowadays is much better than it used to be. Of course this only pertains to quality media. Mike
[bold]Quality media[/bold] is the key word. I am with kivory666, my 8X TY's and Verbs can burn as high as 16X, but I stick with 8X. I am not a big fan of quality scans, BUT my personal comparisons have shown my 8X burns to be as good and BETTER than 4X on [bold]quality media[/bold] (TY's 8X-R and Verbs 8X+R) with MY setup.
All - thanks for the replies and info. I have been burning homemade DVDs for the better part of 2 years with various Plextor and Nero versions (currently using a PX-716A and 6.6.0.15a). Like everyone else, I try to stick to good media, and like everyone else, I am frustrated that the name on the shrink wrap doesn't guarantee the quality of the content. The only sure indicator is the manufacturer in the media code, and that, of course, is inaccessible until the spindle has been purchased and opened. Well, enough of that rant. Turning this back into a useful exercise, my original question was whether media are routinely mis-labeled. I assume someone at the factory is deliberately setting the "16X" mode when the media are produced, but why do that and then peddle the product as 8X? It makes no sense to me to stretch the spec internally and then not try to make some moola out of it.
After drive manufacturers do their own independent testing on media, if they find the product stable enough, they will release firmwares to "overburn" (burn higher than rated speed) certain media (or in some cases of less stable/untested media, not even burn as fast as the rated speed)... The media ID tells the drive the "rated" speeds, but it is the firmware that tells the drive how fast to actually burn it- unless the drive speed is overridden by a software setting (which can only slow the drive's speed down, not speed it past its firmware "max").
Hey Kivory, i saw you said to manually preset it to burn at 8x. How on NERO do you preset it to burn at a certain speed, such as 4x for example using an 8x disc. I've got the newest version of Nero out right now. thanks boz
You can set the speed in BurningROM under the burn tab. However, if u are using Recode2 with your source AND destination as the same drive, the option will not present itself. It's best to set destination as HD, and then encode and burn from there...
OK, one last try. The original question, and its follow-up, are focused on the media, NOT the drive. I realize that the drive manufacturer can tweak firmware and change the way a drive behaves, including whether it honors a media code for a particular burning speed. That is not the point. The point is - Why would a high-quality media company (TY) package a stack of DVD-Rs and label them as "8X" when the media codes on the discs themselves indicate "16X" capability? If you are going to manufacture the higher-speed media, why sell it at lower-speed prices? And if it is really lower-speed media, why run the risk of stamping it with higher-speed codes and getting a lot of bad publicity from the resulting rash of coasters? Now, back to the wandering thread - once upon a time, there were experts who claimed that burning any kind of recordable optical storage at any speed other than the one certified by the manufacturer was a bad idea. Slower than spec burns were said to be just as dangerous as higher speeds. The reason given was that the photochemistry was precisely tuned to the expected duration and intensity of the laser burn impulse. Burn too slow (ie, let the laser beam linger too long in one spot) and there could be a blossom effect which would ruin adjacent bits like an asteroid in the Yucatan. From what I read in this and related forums, it seems that no one gives this any thought now, so either it was urban myth, it has been fixed by new chemical miracles, or we have been attributing too-slow coasters to other diseases.
@abozich teflonmyk beat me to it~ yes, exactly as he so eloquently stated...i don't use recode myself, so, just follow his instructions as per stated...
@brapklak what are the ACTUAL media coding ID on those TDKS...you need to compare the actual ID coding which will generally give you an idea of what it is RATED for...not how fast nero CAN burn them at... for instance, YUDEN000T02 on my TY 8x dvd+r media is 99% generally regarded as a 8x media, while nero tells me i CAN burn them @12x or @16x, it doesn't mean that these are higher rated media...it is still 8x media that is POSSIBLE of "overburn". i THINK that is the question you are getting at...but, not completely sure...the bottom line is to compare the MEDIA ID CODING w/ what they are rated at by manufacturer, unless in your case you got a 16x media ID code when it in fact sold under the 8x label; in that case, i have no idea what the manufacturer is thinking other than just trying to get more of their newer media out into the market...whether deceptively or not, i don't know~
