When burning a CD (data or audio), does it make any difference what speed is used? Is there ever a reason for not using the fastest speed; e.g. when burning at 16x rather than 4x, am I sacrificing accuracy for speed?
Not accuracy per se. The problem is that unless you use CD-Rs that are designed for high-speed use, the pigments may not be sensitive enough to change colour in the reduced burning time. Faster speed = less burn time for each bit of the disc.
I have heard many times about people that burn CDs that some devices can’t play but when they slow down the burning, it goes away. But I have never personally experienced that. In fact, I have seen just the opposite. The faster the burn, the better the devices handle them.
In short, just test it out and see how it works for you.
The faster you burn, the more jitter and the lower signal quality you’ll get on the final disc. Using a good burner, good discs, and a good reader, this should never cause problems on data discs. When using more marginal equipment, or burning audio, it’s a good idea to burn slower for optimal signal quality.
My burner (TDK) has never had a problem burning any music or data CD - but I’ve always forced it to burn at 8-12X because it works for me and I’d rather have a good CD than one more in the garbage.
Some burners are picky though, last week I used my mom’s HP burner to make some data CDs - the Maxell CD-Rs worked perfectly, as well as the FujiFilm CD-RWs, but it wouldn’t burn on Memorex CD-Rs no matter how hard I tried until I forced the burner to burn at 8X…then it was still a 50/50 shot whether or not the CD would turn out.
If you have lousy or outdated burning software, you are likely to experience buffer under-runs if you burn at maximum speed. If your buffer runs dry while the laser is burning, then it’s essentially burning nothing into your disk, and you’ll be left with a shiny coaster. Most of the newer software has all but eliminated the buffer under-run. If you’re still using the old stuff, then update. You’ll be very glad you did. In the meantime, burn at a slower speed and your disks should be fine.
My burner (a few years old - only goes up to 8x) has trouble making good audio discs at “high” (snicker) speeds. Audio discs burned at 8x won’t play properly (they skip) in almost any CD player. 4x speed, used with a the right brand of CD-R, makes discs that work in most players. 2x makes discs that play fine anywhere, with every brand of CD-R I’ve tried. So I burn all my audio discs at 2x. I can burn working data discs at any speed.
The problem isn’t strictly one of “accuracy” - all of the bits do get recorded on the CD properly - but the lower signal strength or the imprecision of the pit lengths or something else about the fast burning can screw up older audio CD players, which, after all, were never designed to play CD-R. This is a particularly common problem with in-car CD players.
So under some circumstances, there may be good reason to slow the burning down. But if you aren’t trying to solve a particular problem, the by all means, full steam ahead!
This may be slightly Off Topic, but here goes…
How many of you have seen CD burners for speeds up to 52X and then go over to the DVD burner aisle and only seen 2.4x or 4x DVD burners and thought to yourself, “These things must be really really slow!”?
The CD-ROM speed notation was based off a basline of 1x = 150 KB/sec (thats KiloByte) DVD speed notation is based off the baseline 1x = 1380 KB/sec (still KiloByte)
Therefore, DVD writing speed is “roughly” 10x that of CD-RW burners you can find for your computer. A 1X DVD burner is actually burning at near 10X speed for a CD-RW burner.