Nero CD-DVD Speed, a great tool

[Cambion7]

I have been buying 16x Verb +R's ever since I discovered this forum. I downloaded this latest version of CD Speed and decided to check out the Disc Info (I've done it before... but what the heck).

I've attached a screenshot. Blu's Golden Rules were done for a reason, and a good one at that. Never burn faster than 4x! Why?

These Verbs are rated at 16X, but the write strategy is only 4X. <GASP!> No biggie, though I wonder how can these companies claim a write speed of that fast, yet the disc really be only 4X? It's my understanding that the 'Write Strategy' is the speed at which the media was manufactured to burn at.

Regards,
Cam

[soup]

If you are right about the write strategy, that is some great info I never knew. Thanks.

[Chewy]

you could ask erik, but I don't give it any mind at all

best way to test is burn at 8x and 4x and compare scans

[dmanshead]

now if i have a liteon that with a 16x disc will only allow me to write at 6x, 8x, 12x, or 16x, what would i do? I have learned from trial and error that to write at 6x is just asking for problems. or here yet, i put an 8x disc in and the only options are 6x or 8x but it list the write stragegy as 4x?

[Chewy]

ignore it and burn at 8x with good media

[Cambion7]

I read that there are two places where this write strategy is stored. One is physically embedded onto the media itself, the other is stored in your burners firmware. Plextor drives have the ability to 'learn' the best strategy for unknown media. And while it's not a good idea to burn DVD backups at faster than 4x, burning a DVD-DATA at max speed shouldn't be problematic. For those wanting more info, just google "Write strategies".

What originally prompted me to post my first on this thread was remembering that somewhere I had read that this Max Write Strategy speed was the 'true' speed of the media. Oh well =)

Best Regards,
Cam

[dmanshead]

here is some crappy imation media i did the test with, i just want to buy more of it here are the scans and even cmc mag media i have never had such results, the scandisc test was stopped after an hour and a half. Maybe i'll try another one, let me say it would not let me create a disc with an ISO image (mine have all been done with shrink, and when i tried to run a simulation it acyually burned to the disc, but hey it's garbage media anyway so who's complaining. any ideas for the next one would be helpful.

[Chewy]

your liteon doesn't seem to like that media at all

[Dan]

I have been buying 16x Verb +R's ever since I discovered this forum. I downloaded this latest version of CD Speed and decided to check out the Disc Info (I've done it before... but what the heck).

I've attached a screenshot. Blu's Golden Rules were done for a reason, and a good one at that. Never burn faster than 4x! Why?

These Verbs are rated at 16X, but the write strategy is only 4X. <gasp!> No biggie, though I wonder how can these companies claim a write speed of that fast, yet the disc really be only 4X? It's my understanding that the 'Write Strategy' is the speed at which the media was manufactured to burn at.

Regards,
Cam

I have tested 4x and 8x burns with good media on my NEC 3550 1Y6, and I get better scan results with 8x burns like Chewy suggests.
</gasp!>

[Chewy]

I tested 3 premium medias and 3 burners at 4x and 8x, there was more difference from disk to disk in the spindles than between burn speeds, so I chose to save 6-7 minutes a burn. Several times I tried to lower burn speed to 4x to get better burns with grade B and C media, never helped. In addition I never could get 12x burns to be as good as 8x on almost all combinations, forget 16x.

[geno888]

Blu's Golden Rules were done for a reason, and a good one at that. Never burn faster than 4x! Why?

These rules was written when 16x media wasn't available.

With high speed certified media is different. The best results are obtained burning around certified speed. Usually (not always) 16x media are burned better @12x. Some also @16x (verbatim and taiyo yuden mostly).

In my opinion GROB should be updated.

The main issue in determining the best burning speed is that it's impossible to state absolute rules. Too bad, dvd media have a so high variability that what is true for a media can be totally false for another media.

Sometimes (and it happened to me) media are so variable that in the same box there are good and bad media (I had a box of 25 RICOHJPN R03 media: about 1/3 of these discs are in my costers collection, even of were burned with the same burner that gave excellent results, aka my benq 1640).

The only way to determine optimal burning speed is to do some tests personally and analyze results.

To further complicate the situation, sometimes it occur that with different firmwares are obtained different results. For example, again with benq 1640, best results on +R media are obtained with BSLB firmware, whereas subsequent firmwares improved quality on -R media. So, theoretically to obtain best results an user should use a specific speed for each media and also a specific firmware for each specific media.

However, for the most of users, this is totally unpractical.

So my suggestion is to burn each media 16x certified starting from 12x, and eventually drop to 8x. In my experience very few times a 16x media give good results if burned @4x.

For 8x media basically is the same: start to burn to 8x, and if burn fails, then go to 4x. Again, the easier way is to start around the certified speed.

[Chewy]

geno,
I think you are putting too much faith in a lot of dare burns over at cdfreaks.
My verbatim and ricoh tests with 16x media yielded no best burns at 16x or
12x. I did the tests some time ago, so I will repeat with the benq 1650 and nec 3550. Using a premium media and a good batch is essential to discriminate between burn speeds as media inconsistency will ruin any results.
The time saved by increasing burn speed from 8x to 12x or 16x is just a couple of minutes. TYG01 is a good example of why your rule is flawed,
they burn at 8x or 12x better than TYG02 or TYG03.

too many physics classes

[geno888]

Actually I didn't watch many dare scans at cdfreaks.

I was referring to 16x certified media. I suggest to start a burn @12x media not because it require less time. For me quality is more important than burning time. In my personal experience I find that a 16x media most of time give best results @12x, or @8x.

Too bad dvd media variability make impossible to state more precise rules.

The only way is to do tests and see results. In fact, what can work for me can be wrong for other users, because I obtain my results with the media I have available, but other people have different media.

Until now, the only "reliable" rule I was able to find is that the best starting point to search optimal burning speed is around the certified speed.

Also firmware used influence the quality of a burn.

[Chewy]

way too complicated for any general rules, would be nice for a series of tests tho, not picking best scans but just doing random disks off a spindle and letting the cards fall where they may. My nec 3550 will always screw up a 12x or 16x burn tho.



just hoping to get the reccomended burn speed raised for optimal setups to 8x from 4x

optimal setup=good burner good media good computer

[geno888]

Media variability is so high that made me really angry. Even in the same box some media burn well and other are coaster

Take a look at these two verbatim +R (MCC 004) burned @16x with my LG 4167. These media come from the same box

This is the first disc