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Several drive manufacturers have introduced 18 drives that can record at this speed on a few select Japanese MID codes, saving about 42 seconds of recording time of the disc is fully recorded to the outer edge. The drive manufacturers have told several Taiwanese media manufacturers that their discs WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO WRITE AT 18X until they develop new MID codes. These codes will have to be submitted for approval. Lite-on has already told one very respected Taiwanese media manufacturer (neither CMC nor Prodisc) that Sony (which now holds the majority share in a Sony/NEC/Lite-on consortium) that 18X firmware will be written ONLY FOR TAIYO YUDEN and SONY MID codes at first. Other Japanese MID codes will be intentionally delayed to give TY and Sony an advantage in the market (and in forums where we can expect to see "Maxell sux" or "Verbatim not recommended" because their 18X media only go to 16X.) Sony demanded that ALL TAIWANESE MID CODES BE PUT LAST.
Lite-on, a Taiwanese company, is not allowed to support any Taiwanese optical media manufacturers who are using their own MID codes for 18X or to allow any Taiwanese 16X media to write at 18X, no matter how good these media may be. Firmware updates will be issued to allow some Japanese MID codes to work at 18X, but all Taiwanese MID codes will be intentionally delayed or ignored until well after the other Japanese MID codes have been acepted.
This is exactly the behind-the-scenes politics that gives some media a very good reputation, some a lesser reputation, and others a black-eye. Just because a user updates his or her firmware does not mean that all discs will work properly--only those discs the the drive manufacturer wants to support. That's why some discs will still not work even after a firmware update. Updates don't cure all problems, only specific problems.
Digitalfaq will get information that Taiwanese 16X discs don't work at 18X in 18X drives. Japanese discs do. "Japan good; Taiwan bad." When 18X Taiwanese media hit the market, they won't work either. That's used as "proof" that Taiwanese manufacturers are "class 2, 3, or 4," even if they are producing the Japanese discs that are "class 1"! In time some Taiwanese 18X discs will work at 18X, but the impression of inferiority has already been made. There is nothing to prevent Sony from insisting that firmware for Taiwanese media be "detuned" to give poorer response for certain MID codes in favor of privileged Japanese MID codes. (This was common in the days of cassette tape where many Japanese recorder manufacturers violated international standards and fixed settings for Japanese brands. It was not until adjustable bias settings could be made that tapes made to the official standards would work properly--another story, another forum.)
This latest news reinforces what I have believed all along--that often good discs (based on sophisticated testing) can give poor performance in popular drives because the drive manufacturer/media brand conspiracy wants it that way for marketing reasons. This is a disservice to all consumers and a cause of much of the disagreement in this forum.
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