[MacDV] Burning Speeds

[Gregg Gorrie]

on 10/6/04 9:20 AM, Neil Bennett at ibenz at mac.com wrote:

> Hi,
> So, I've made the iMovie and burned the DVD using iDVD.
> I now want to send ten copies of the same finished DVD to my family.
> Do I use Toast to save the DVD onto my hard drive as a disc image and
> burn my additional copies from this?
> If so, what speed should I burn my DVD-R's at ?
> Thanks

Yes, burning from the disk image (in Toast) will make things easy. As for
burning speed, I'm starting to read more and more anecdotal evidence that
burning CD/DVD-Rs at slower speeds gives you both more consistent burns (ie
fewer "coasters" being created) and also potential longevity. Keep in mind
that there are so many factors involved (CPU processor speed, size of
RAM/disk buffer, type/speed of DVD burner, brand/speed of media, etc.) that
it's difficult to analyze accurately, but the current logic is that the pits
(zeros and ones) being burned by the laser at faster speeds aren't as deep
as when burning at slower speeds.

Certainly this would make sense if one assumes that the laser power of the
CD/DVD burner remains the same at all speeds - the faster the speed, the
less "energy" is imbued onto the tracks at any given point. But I haven't
seen any "hard" scientific evidence to back this up.

As for personal experience, I experimented with my last DVD project (making
DVD's of home video for my family) using a Pioneer A05 (up to 4X speed) and
BMI DVD-Rs (supposedly capable of 4X speed). I had significantly higher
failure rate burning at 4X speed and the ones that did make it were not as
consistent playing back properly in everyone's set-top DVD player as when
burned at 1X. This may have do with poor quality media and/or other issues,
but I've also had problems in the past burning data CD-Rs at fast speeds and
then having problems reading them in certain CD-ROMs - there seems to be a
consistent pattern here. I have decided to err on the side of caution and
burn at X1 speed from now on, at least for the important stuff. YMMV.
-- 
Gregg