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First 16x DVD+R Recording Tests Available

Posted by timothy on from the buncha-freaks dept.

An anonymous reader submits "CD Freaks.com has made a first preview of 16x DVD recording. Many people wondered if 16x DVD recording would be too fast and data could not be delivered by the hard disk. The first tests show that this is not a real problem. 16x DVD recording means that a DVD disk is written in about 6 minutes . The test drive, a BenQ DW1600, also supports dual layer writing and writing at 16x to 8x media."

10 of 236 comments (clear)

  1. Yes, but.... by ikkonoishi · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I doubt I could play UT while burning to a DVD at 16x.

    You would need basically a dedicated machine for DVD burning at that speed.

  2. Good for them by huber · · Score: 5, Interesting

    they had an SATA raid 0 array. What about us people whos boxen still only has a single ata 100 or 133?

    1. Re:Good for them by forkazoo · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, first off, "boxen have" .. "a box has." But, I'm not a grammar nazi. :)

      Only ATA 133? I work at a computer store, and I get plenty of people with PII's and low spec PIII's coming in all the time who want to make DVD's. The salesman five years ago told them that the computer was very fast, so they typically accuse me of being just a damned liar when I tell them it may not work very well. Oh, and most home users have HP Pavillions and E-Machines and shit like that. You ever benchmark the drives in the super-cheap consumer systems? The drive diagnostic program we use at the shop can usually get ~5 MB/sec out of an E-machines. That's going to RAM, not another drive.

      A lot of people won't be able to use the 16 X features of this drive. OTOH, it probably has a larger buffer than a cheap 2.4x drive, so it will probably burn better at 1x than the old drives.

  3. Re:8x vs 16x by wo1verin3 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Actually there is a little more then that when it comes to CD-RW (most) and DVD discs. Drives actually detect what speed the media is rated at, so if you have a 1x DVD-R disc, you can only write to it at 1x, other speed options will be unavailable.

  4. Physical limits of the medium a factor. by cascino · · Score: 4, Interesting

    With CDs having reached (essentially) the physical limits of the media at 52x burning speed - it is my understanding the discs will destruct at higher RPM's - has the speed of DVD burning neared its physical limit as well?
    A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation tells me that DVDs shouldn't be burnable much faster than 16x... does anyone know anything more about this? Maybe DVDs are more durable than CDs?

  5. Re:Ahem by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting
    I wonder how hard would it be to do something to that nature by putting in a better motor and tweaking the firmware? There probobly a good reason it wouldn't work ... anyone know?
    • Tracking (jitter)
    • Linearity (timing)
    • Laser intensity per unit time
    Those three should be enough.
  6. Average write speed under 12x? by Guspaz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The average write speed on this drive barely qualifies it as a 12x drive. Claiming this is a 16x drive is silly.

    8x drives typically pull in average write speeds of 0.4 to 0.6 x lower than their rated spec (Like the 7.44x quoted in this article)... but THIS drive is pulling 4.7x lower than it's rated spec. It's burning at 11.32x... In my mind, that classifies this drive as a 12x, NOT a 16x.

  7. Re:I think I speak for many when I say by the_bard17 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    how often do people burn an entire DVD?

    Any time anybody wants to back up a sizeable portion of their system. Which people ought to be doing fairly regularly, right? ;o)
    If you burn so many that speed matters you probably shouldn't be using a consumer solution anyway.

    You might have a point here... though it's not that "lost time" that matters. It's the perception of that lost time that matters. Nobody I know says "Oh, it's 'bout time I backed up my system. Let's go eat lunch while the DVD burns." Instead, they stare down that little progress bar. Then that additional burning time makes a difference.

  8. DVDs aren't more durable, but... by drewhearle · · Score: 4, Interesting
    The physical limits of CD burning (the speeds that often cause shattering) aren't because CDs are easily breakable. It's because CDs are imperfectly manufactured, and therefore imbalanced - a CD spinning at 52x that isn't perfectly round will be wobbling with an incredible amount of force.

    So... for DVDs to be able to spin at faster speeds, the discs (and drives) will have to be manufactured to very high specs. Very slight variations in the roundness of the disc would cause enough vibration to break the disc. A non-round or off-center hole in the middle would also cause this problem.

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  9. Re:Grandparent is *not* an isolated incident. by Alioth · · Score: 3, Interesting

    IIRC, the reason your old CD drive might not read a CD-R burned at high speed is because the new high speed writers use CAV (constant angular velocity - i.e. the disk RPM remains the same regardless of whether you're writing a track near the hub or near the edge). Older CD drives may not be able to do CAV since the CD standard is for CLV (constant linear velocity - the bit of disk right over the head is always going the same speed relative to the read head, hence the disk is spun faster on tracks near the hub and spun slower on tracks near the edge).

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