I've been successfully burning dvd's at 4x. The discs I use are Verbatim DVD+R DL (I do have a dual layer burner). The box says speed of 2.4x. When I ran one through DVD identifier, it gave me a recording speed of 2.4x. What does that mean? Am I burning them too fast at 4x?
Taiyo Yuden DVD+R, 8x media can be burned all the way up to 16x!! But do we need that kind of speed? Be safe, burn at slower speeds.... who cares how long it takes to burn...... when you think of the fact that you want the disk to last a life time then burn slower so players won't have a hard time reading them! It's worth the extra min or two!
It's not really a problem of the player reading, but it reading errors that were caused by burning too fast. Maybe we mean the same, but it can be construed to be a "weak burn" (a weak burn that fades quickly) that's gaining as a popular myth. Write errors can increase as speed increases, but ability to write at higher speeds depends on equipment and media quality. A lot of people on media like 8X start at 4X and work their way up until they notice problems. Something like a 2.4X DL, I'd burn at the rated speed. If I could get my hands on some, I'd burn 4X DVDs at 4X. A lot is in knowing the equipment and media and learning how far you can go with it. Till recently a lot of people were saying not to burn over 4X for video with DVD R media. You'll find a bunch who still do.
I used to burn at 8x when I first started. I started noticing skipping and pixelation on some of my backups and from reading things on here about burn speeds, I slowed down to 4x. I've been burning at 4x ever since and have had no problems whatsoever.
There's absolutely nothing wrong at all if you burn at 4X and get good quality output. I had an old 4X burner for the longest. When I got it, that was top of the line. So I burned at Max speed for the longest. Now that I have a newer drive, I've been burning consistently at 6X without a problem (no where near max now unless it's DL). To a degree burn speeds tend to be where we feel comfortable as well as what actually works reliably. I've accidentally burned some of my DVDs at 12X and some recording apps have no speed control. To date I've had no speed related failures. Though I must admit that most of the burns are at the 6X I mentioned previously. Times and equipment change and 4X is no longer a limit written in stone.
