# Why Doesn't My DVD Burner Doesn't Burn at Maximum Speed **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 22, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228 "2007-02-22T15:29:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nobody\_Special](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nobody\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody_Special)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228/1 "2007-02-22T15:29:58Z")
I just bought a DVD±RW burner which is rated to burn dual layer DVDs at 8X speeds, however, Toast 8 says that the burner is averaging 5X per disk. Why is this? What can I do to improve the speed? ---
**Author:** ![Szlater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@Szlater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Szlater)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228/2 "2007-02-22T15:31:24Z")
What kind of disks are you buying, and what speed are they rated for? ---
**Author:** ![crazyjoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f14d63/32.png) [@crazyjoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crazyjoe)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228/3 "2007-02-22T15:35:54Z")
Was it a cheap one? Often times they list the maximum theoretical speed the drive can burn at, even if it averages much less than this. This was often the case for a lot of CR-R drives back in the day as well. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody\_Special](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nobody\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody_Special)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228/4 "2007-02-22T15:50:13Z")
It’s a Sony DRU-830A DVD burner using Verbatim DVD+R DL disk that are rated “up to 6X speed”, but the person who sold them to me said they ought to work fine at 8X as well. Perviously, when I’ve used disks at speeds above what they were spec’d out at, they failed to burn, the drive didn’t slow down. Either way, since they’re capable of 6X speeds, why are they only burning at 5X? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![fishbicycle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aeb1de/32.png) [@fishbicycle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fishbicycle)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228/5 "2007-02-22T15:57:19Z")
The person who told you that discs rated at 6x would work at 8x was misinformed. I have an 8x DVD writer. I thought I was getting a bargain by buying discontinued DVD packs at CompUSA. Discs rated at 1x burn at 1x, and 2x at 2x, etc. Same for CD-Rs. If the’re only rated to 40x, they won’t write at 52x. It’s part of the information the drive reads when it loads up the disc. I don’t think it’s possible to make the drive work around that limitation. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2007, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-dvd-burner-doesnt-burn-at-maximum-speed/393228/6 "2007-02-22T16:48:40Z")
> [@](#): > > The DRU-830A also offers top-notch performance. It can burn a full DVD’s worth of data (4.7 Gbytes) to a DVD+R or DVD-R disc at 18X speed in about 5 minutes. **Of course, the recording speed varies depending on the type of media that’s being burned.** The maximum record speed for both DL formats is 8X, which also is the maximum record speed for rewritable DVD+RW media; it records a bit slower on DVD-RW media at 6X. The drive records at 12X in DVD-RAM mode for data backup. It also records on CD-R media at 48X and on CD-RW media at 32X. Source: [Not Found](http://www.techbuilder.org/views/197005249) Keep in mind tech stats are often defined by the manufacturer under optimum conditions (when the moon is full, it’s not a Tuesday, only during months not containing the letter “r,” etc.). In addition, “up to 6x speed” means just that. If it burns at 1x to 5.9x speed, it still falls within the criteria of “up to 6x speed.” FWIW, I would be more concerned that it burns properly and the disc will play back on a variety of disc reader drives.