How to burn at 16X

[bowers32]

I just upgraded my PC with a 16x speed burner. I went and downloaded all the workshop patches and the highest speed I can get it to recognize is 6.4x speed. Any ideas?

[GeorgeW]

do you have 16x discs

[bowers32]

Of course... TDK DVD-R, 16X

[DVDDoug]

From the reviews I've read, most burners don't acheive their rated speed... But you should be able to get 75%, and I would expect the firmware to report 16X to the OS, which should then report 16X Workshop.

Make sure that you've enabled DMA for your hard drive, and your burner. It depends on your version of Windows... on Win2K you go to the device manager and then to the IDE controller properties, not the drive properties. This shouldn't affect the reported speed, but it might improve the actual speed.

[sjj1805]

My advice is DONT.

anything I've tried above 4x results in a DVd that is not read by all stand alone DVD players.

[abrenz]

I know I had to update my drivers for my burner before I could move to 16X. However, I'm having problems with choppiness in the video and in the motion menus. I'm gonna try ssj1805's advice and move the burn speed to 4X. I've already tried going down to 8X with no success.

[Devil]

I've had a look at DVDs burnt with different speeds through a metallurgical microscope. There is no doubt that the slower the speed, the sharper are the "pits". At the time I did this, 8x was the fastest available. There was a distinct improvement with 4x compared to 8x and a slight further improvement at 2x. I also looked at 1x and 2x (on 2x blanks) burnt with an older burner and the 1x was distinctly better than 2x.

I conclude therefore that it is a mistake to burn at high speeds, especially for archival purposes.