NERO says its writing at 8X (11,800 KB/s) but still slower than I think it should be

Newbie Forum
#1

Hello all. My name is Rob and I’m a burnaholic.
Seriously, been burning movies (DVD-5) for a few months with a LiteOn DVD-ROM and a NEC 2500 using a 1.8GHz P4 with Win98. Ripping times were adequate but even though the 2500A is rated at 8X, my writing times were more or less the same using 8X media as with 4X. Oh well.

Any, recently bought a new Dell, 2.8GHz P4 with WinXP Home, 512 MB DDR RAM and a NEC 3500A and a TSST (?) DVD-ROM.
Ripping Analysis times and encoding with DVDShrink are even faster. No complaints but I still cannot write a movie faster than 17-18 minutes using 8X media—all types. NERO says its writing at 8X (11,800 KB/s) but still slower than I think it should be.

Would appreciate any insight. In any event, from a 50+ YO, this burning technology (I also rip audio from DVD and .shn files to DVD to play on my home theater system) is fantastic.

#2

Is DMA enabled?

8x burning should take no more than about 9 min 30 sec to 10 min depending on the software used (e.g. Discjuggler generally takes about 30 sec longer than Dvd Decrypter but provides a better quality burn, at least on my system).

#3

Thanks philamber. Although DMA was enabled on my DVD writer and DVD drives, it wasn’t enabled on my hard drive. Since I usually Shrink to the hard drive first then burn, I guess that made all the difference. 4400 MB movie took 9:35. I’m impressed but according to my calculation, that is still only 5.5X-6X, not the 8X my NEC2500A is supposedly capable. Are the specs just hype? Is this result typical?

#4

8x burning doesn’t burn at 8x for the whole DVD. The beginning portion burns at 4x, then the burner increases to 6x and then again to 8x. (Sometimes the speed increase occurs gradually rather than in zones.) This is why 16x burners (6:00-ish) aren’t four times faster than 4x burners (14:00-ish). CD burners work similarly once you get above about 16x (bear in mind that 16x CD is way slower than 16x DVD).

#5

Yep, that’s typical for 8x burning.

Don’t know about your NEC (since I’ve got a Litey) but typically my writer will burn at 4x for about the first 10%, increase speed to 6x until about the 40% mark and then burn at 8x for the remainder of the disc.

#6

Thanks guys. I now know that my times are typical.