safe burn speeds

[jalicea77]

I just have a quick question. I've always been told the safest speed to burn a dvdr to avoid errors is at 4x or no more than 8x. I'm talking about just a standard burner in a pc. Now, would the same rule apply for a dvd duplicator, or is it safer to burn at max speed (16x) w/ a duplicator? Thanks!

[Ian]

As long as you're using quality media and a half way decent drive, you can burn at the fastest speed possible. If the media is low quality, you may want to slow it down to say 8x though.

Keep in mind that most 16x media is developed for high speeds. Writing at low speeds can actually yield poorer results.

The same should apply to duplicators. Most use a PC-based drive in them.

[jalicea77]

Thanks for the insight! I appreciate it!

[jalicea77]

One more question. I basically only use Verbatim 16x dvd+r, which are great quality dvdrs I've heard. If I burn an image off my hd at 16x it normally takes around 6 mins. But if I do a copy to copy on the fly at 16x it normally takes 15 mins. as if I burned it at 4x and sometimes longer than that. Why is that. I have decent burners (plextor 716a and a BenQ) and two lite on dvd roms. I've also heard that it may be beneficial NOT to have your rom and burner connected to the same ide cable...it that true?

[TCAS]

My experiences show the 8X and 12X are the safest speed in burning DVDs.

[Ian]

I've also heard that it may be beneficial NOT to have your rom and burner connected to the same ide cable...it that true?

Yep, you're seeing the reason why people say not to do that. If you want to do an on the fly copy, make sure the drives are on two separate IDE chains.