lower write speed = better quality?

[miccha81]

It seems that pretty much all the reviews try to get he fastest write speed and the quality at that speed. I don't mind slow burns, and want better quality writing, so in general would writing at a slower speed improve things?

[spryfly]

The easy answer is yes. Although, I have found at least one example where this in not the case. I had some 4x sony media that burned best at 6x and better at 8x than at 4x.

Others will correct me if I am wrong, but different burners use different writing meathods at different speeds. Also factors such as pairing a specific burner with specific media will affect burn quality at varring speeds......

[spryfly]

Your best bet is to use the reviews to find the best media for your burner and then play aroung to find the best balance between speed and quailty....

[code65536]

Here's something that I wrote in another forum...

That slowing down a burn will always improve quality is a myth. The answer is maybe. Often, burning at a slower speed can help. But sometimes, burning at a slower speed will actually produce worse results. This is because the quality of a burn depends on other factors in addition to the burn speed. The quality of a slower burn would depend on whether or not the disc was designed for lower speeds (16x media, for example, use chemicals optimized for high-speed burning) and whether or not the drive was designed to burn that particular media at lower speeds (i.e., whether or not the drive's hardware is optimized for lower speeds, whether or not the drive's firmware is optimized for lower speeds, and whether or not the drive has a good, optimized low-speed write strategy for that particular media type). All this varies between drive types and different media, so the only way to know for sure would be to try it out.

If you are considering the use of a hacked firmware to force slower burns: If a drive's firmware does not officially support a lower speed for a particular media type, forcing the drive to burn at an otherwise unsupported lower speed through the use of a hacked firmware will likely produce undesirable results.