|
hoebag has the right idea here.
As the DVD writing technology matures, writing quality is improving immeasurably, to the effect that a Pioneer 107 can write an old Ritek G03 1x disc at 4x with hacked firmware, with better quality than the old 103 could at 1x.
4x is now a very stable and proven speed to be writing at. I write at this speed on an 8x 107 for the following reasons:
1) If you're copying a disc, it's actually just as fast to do so at 4x as 8x a lot of the time. Reason being that most DVD-ROM drives can't rip a DVDR at more than 8x, which means a starting speed of just under 4x. So with 4x you can copy on the fly (reliably); with 8x or particularly 16x, you'll have difficulty finding a ROM that'll keep up at these speeds, so you end up having to copy to HDD first, meaning that you end up taking 12-13 minutes to copy the disc in any case.
2) It's always best to use a burner a couple of notches slower than its rated speed, especially when you're also using budget media that is also being run to tolerance at the rated speed. Typically writers are rushed to market, and although the 4x is well proven, the 8x is often more error-prone. With a 16x writer, the tolerances are tighter so an 8x burn will probably be of a higher standard on these than the 8x drives, so then 8x is then viable.
3) I am distrustful of Z-CLV and/or PCAV technology with DVD writing. Recall that early 16/20x CD writers could be horrendous for burn quality in these modes. With a budget disc it is often hard enough for the drive to keep the disc calibrated, without having to keep track of an increasing data rate as well. Result? Particularly with cheaper drives, poor burn quality in the last 25% of the disc. This means that the 107 should be good up to 6x. This is confirmed in tests, where a cheap (even 1x) disc will burn nicely at 6x but give trouble at 8x.
|
