DVD burning speed still 8x?

[Warren Kawamoto]

16x burning speed has been around for quite awhile now, but many of us are still burning at 8x because of better compatibility. As we are about to enter 2009, is this still true? What are your experiences burning at 16x vs 8x?

[Allen Plowman]

Last year I purchased a case of 500 blank 16x media of the same brand as the 8x I normally use. I do all my burning in a robotic 16x burner. I thought the 16x would be a higher quality media. I usually set the burn speed at 4x regardless of media speed. I have about a 1% fail rate with 8x media, I had about a 15% fail rate with the 16x. I doubt I will try 16x again unless they stop making it in 8x. I know it might have simply been a bad batch, but I have not gotten a bad batch of the 8x yet.

[Tripp Woelfel]

I'm all 16x. I use the Verbatim hub printable DVDs (mfg part no. 95079) in either a TSST (TS-H653N) or an external Sony burner that I picked up at the office supply store that Carl Edwards doesn't shill for for US$100.

I've burned well over 100 DVDs since this past spring with no coasters. None. Nada. I've also not had any compatibility issues with customer delivered disks.

For me, it's all good at 16x.

[Warren Kawamoto]

Originally Posted by Allen Plowman

Last year I purchased a case of 500 blank 16x media of the same brand as the 8x I normally use.

Allen, thanks for your response. What brand of blanks did you use?

[Allen Plowman]

I use the hub printable Ridata Ritek DVD-R. I expect a few coasters due to not being the top of the line, and I have never had a compatibility issue with my customers. maybe it was a one time bad batch, but I would rather not find out.

[Warren Kawamoto]

I've been using Verbatim inkjet printables for some time now with great success. Last year, they upgraded their entire stock to 16x and I've been using those but burning at 8x. No problems. I just made a batch of dubs burned at 16x and sent them out to a customer, but she reported that she can't play them back on 2 of her dvd players! It plays back fine on a computer. The funny thing is that I tested those before sending them out, and they played ok on everything I have here. I guess I'm going back to burning at 8x.....

[Ervin Farkas]

The results depend on many things, including software and hardware quality. Generally it is not recommended to burn at max - my personal experience is that the lower you go, the least chances to burn coasters. I rarely go above 4x as most of the time I'm in no hurry, but even when I am, I only go to 8x because I had the same experience as you, I get errors when going 16x (I use TDK or Sony DVD+Rs from Costco).

[Gints Klimanis]

Originally Posted by Warren Kawamoto

I just made a batch of dubs burned at 16x and sent them out to a customer, but she reported that she can't play them back on 2 of her dvd players! It plays back fine on a computer.

There are a lot of variables there. It may well be the media, not the burn rate. If the formulation changes, I wouldn't expect the same results. DVD players were historically picky about various media. Your burner may be aging as they apparently have a real life of only a few hundred disks. Also, do you verify each burn?