DVD Burn Speed question

[Sequoyan]

I've looked around and have not found an answer to this question:

How long should burning a FULL DVD-R take at 1X and at 2X?

I use Prassi PrimoDVD and am timing a burn currently at what is supposed to be 2X and so far its taken 39 minutes and is at 70%. But even when it hits 100% it takes several more minutes to finalize the disc. I believe when all is said and done I am burning a full DVD-R at 2X in about 1hr20min. [UPDATE: it finished in 58 minutes] It that really 2X?

Thanks for any info.

- The Sequoyan

[rinkel]

that's not 2x
are you using A03 with no-name DVD-R's
Pioneer will burn them at 1x, even you have chosen for 2x

there are a lot of threads about that

[Sequoyan]

I didn't choose 2X, the drive and software chose 2X.

I thought 58min was ok if not great. So it should really be taking around 29min to burn a full (4.32GB) DVD at 2X??

- Thanks

[TRILIGHT]

Originally posted by Sequoyan
How long should burning a FULL DVD-R take at 1X and at 2X?

1X: ~60min
2X: ~30min

[Sequoyan]

So what's the trick to get 2X?

I am using "cheap" DVDs (about $2.98 each). Should I try $5/ea Apples or Pioneers?

I am running the A03 in PIO mode. Is that correct?

I updated to the latest firmware for the A03 (1.68). Was that wrong?

Is there anything else I should try other then the expensive discs?

Thanks for any help, I am looking forward to 1/2 hour burns...

-The Sequoyan

[TRILIGHT]

I can all but guarantee you won't get 2X in PIO mode. I'm surprised XP did not automatically set your IDE bus to DMA. Go to the Device Manager and to the properties of your Primary and Secondary IDE controllers. Under the "Advanced Settings" tab, you will have the option of setting it to DMA.

I'm not sure if you will get the cheaper media to burn at 2X on the DVR-103 drive. It does not work at 2X with as much media as the DVR-104 does. Also, it seems that any time anyone has said they've had problems burning to the cheaper media, they had a 103 drive. Those with 104 drives don't seem to have any problems at all. Check this page (http://www.pioneeraus.com.au/multimedia/dvd/dvd-r_2x-recording.htm) from Pioneer for info on the 103/104 drives and 2X recording.

[Sequoyan]

thanks for the info.

It was actually Pioneer support who told me to set the drive to PIO mode.

...knew I should have waited for the A04.

-The Sequoyan

[TRILIGHT]

hmm... I actually looked up the transfer rates for PIO mode and I may be mistaken. Even the lowest transfer rate of PIO Mode 0 is higher than 2X recording. Of course, that's not to say that is the sustained transfer rate of the bus. Many times it is an estimation at burst transfer on the bus. For instance, my Ultra160 SCSI drive does not really transfer at 160MB/s, it's just the bandwidth available on the bus.

That being said, I'm still unsure why they would have suggested you switch to a slower transfer mode if you were trying to get faster recording. As was mentioned by someone else here, the media is going to record at whatever the drive decides to record it at. The newer firmware for your 103 drive probably enabled it to work with more media at 2X speeds than it would have otherwise but probably still doesn't include all the cheaper media available right now. Hang in there! The media will only get cheaper over time. At least it's still cheaper than CDR's were when I first started recording on them at $20 a pop!

[Sequoyan]

I called Pioneer again and they told me the following:

PIO is the way to go. No explanation but they had me talk to some engineers and they told me the PIO is correct.

They told me that the newest firmware (1.8) will NOT add any media compatibility for the A03. And the list on their support page of media supported for 2X continues to be accurate. (It's all $5 media as far as I can tell)

They confirmed that Prassi will often say 2X but then really record at 1X. They are working with Veritas (or whoever) with that problem.

Hope this helps out.

- Tom

[TRILIGHT]

Originally posted by Sequoyan
PIO is the way to go. No explanation but they had me talk to some engineers and they told me the PIO is correct.

Strange they would say that. Correct for what? I'm using XP as well and mine is happily running as UltraDMA Mode 2 with no problems. Actually, I think the last time I actually had a device still running in PIO mode was back in 1994.