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I'm not sure if this is a reasonable request, but I'm looking for opinions on the best combo of Drive + media to burn reliably at 16x. Not worried about media price ( if i have to pay a few bucks more its not a big deal if it means no worries), honestly I understand the reasoning behind burning slower/cheaper media at 16x but kprobe results aside, does it really make a reliable disc? Speakign of kprobe, its used religously for testing results, but also there's a warning saying not to take these results as scientific, so then my original question would be, aside from learnings or mods that appear to make drives burn certain media at 16x, what would be the best choice?

Please don't flame me for my broken english and though process here. I'm just someone who's looking for 16x solution. I've been through alot of posts as of late and I find that results are varied for lots of things. So I'm just looking for some direction on what the recommended way to go would be.

theturtle wrote:I'm not sure if this is a reasonable request, but I'm looking for opinions on the best combo of Drive + media to burn reliably at 16x. Not worried about media price ( if i have to pay a few bucks more its not a big deal if it means no worries), honestly I understand the reasoning behind burning slower/cheaper media at 16x but kprobe results aside, does it really make a reliable disc?

My short list:
NEC ND-3500A, Pioneer 108/A08, BenQ DW1620 and Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+R media. I'd suggest Verbatim 16x DVD+R media, but the Pioneer won't write to it at 16x.

I've seen a lot of Variable results coming from Verbatim 16x DVD+Rs, so I would suggest Ian's list but stick with the Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs.

My personal favourite combo is the BenQ DW1620 w/Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs, but any of the 3 Ian mentioned will be good.

I wonder when Taiyo Yuden is going to get off its butt and start production of YUDEN000T03.

YUDEN000T03 is allready in production but not in mass production.
Some compannies do have samples.

About recommending TY over Mitsubishi.
Well TY 8x DVD+R quality is allmost just as variable .
Just pick up some FUJI 8x DVD+R TY disc's and see specially on Lite On's how big the variations can be. ( Still Plextor TY disc's do not seem to have this behaviour.)

RJW: Plextor discs better don't.... the price is beyond good and evil, as we say :p

Well I know that Plextor shouldn't start usseing lower media with the current prices. (11 euro's for a 5 pack in jewelcase of 8x DVD-R is really on the upside of todays market. And for the Dutch folks that is without our levy.)

Well if you have problems Plextor should replace them withouth much problems that's with normally used. I don't know how these compannies would react on Overspeeded media. Drive manufacturers claime that it should work but on the other end the brand rated it's own media at some selected speed. Yeah I specially said the brand with Vebatim 12x(MCC) and Speer 12x media(RICOH)

Ian gave the perfect answer as always! Many of us have discovered that the 3500 will burn 16x out of the box with ty+r8X. Use FW 2.18 and burn most other media at the rated speed.

Maxell 8x -R (costs 1/2 of TY 8x +R here, when it is available :p ) works at 16x as well

Good info! Thanks.

Alexnoe , i'm a bit concerned with your results on the 8x TY DVD+R with nec 3500a 2.16 , I imagine 2.18 solves such issues?

Haven't tried it again so far. You know, those taiyo yuden 8x +r are over 2 euro per disc here, which is twice as much as maxell 8x -r or verbatim 16x +r ....

I was under the impression Ian after reading fw 1.18 post for pio 108 , it's not able to burn TY +R's at 16x either.

Honestly, i think the only drive i've seen with nothing but good results with 16x +r's is benq :/

My pioneer a08 writes TY 8x +r them at 16x, with PIsum8 max = 9 !!
I think Ian's posting refered to TY 16x +R media

ALexnoe, your german, do you read c't mag?

by page 4 on that thread on their testing of 16x + 8x burners , it looks to me like the NEC did the best by far, for the most part being the only drive that made readable discs!

I could be reading it completely wrong.

I am and I do,

BUT: That test was done with, from today's point of view, obsolete firmwares and, in the case of verbatim 16x media, beta-state media... it is just out of date. For example, in their test, the NEC only wrote at 8x speed to maxell 8x -r media. Reason: firmware 2.16 .... their pioneer a08 had firmware 1.10, and their TY 8x +R media appearently was b0rked (it didn't work on any drive at 16x, which totally contradicts all my own scans and the scans of many other people)

In the test you are refering to, there was even much more wrong, e.g.:
They suggest to write ritek g05 at 2x in the lg 4160b because the result was bad at 4x. Problem: LG 4120B/4160B/4163B drives don't support 2x speed on 8x media.... and there was a bunch of errors which could make people think that the test was not done properly in some cases...