Media Question: speed vs. write strategy?
 

As I am planning to use "8X -R" media for my 8mm home movie to DVD project, I wanted to get some -RWs to "practice" on. My burner is a multi-format, so my choices are flexible, however I thought it might be good to stick with the "dash" formats for consistency. After going to several local stores (Best Buy, Office Max & Depot, Staples, etc.) the fastest name brand -RW blanks that I could find was 2X (several places had 4X in +RW though). After searching a bit online, I found some 4X -RW TDKs (DVD-RW47CBXS5). Having just received the shipment and looking at the media information using DVDInfoPro (V3.52) I notice that although the Manufacturer Rated Speed is listed as 4X, the write strategy is listed as 2X. The packaging as well as the DVD labels state "4X".

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My burner will write -RWs at 4X, so that is the speed I want to use. The media and packaging look official (doesn't look faked) and I believe the vendor is reputable (ANTOnline, found through Amazon.com). I read the media guides, but I guess I am still a little confused with speed vs. write strategy. My burner is LG GSA-4082B with firmware version A208 (latest).

Thanks for your help!

You see things like this from time to time. While often this can be a sign of fake media, there is another possibility. When you KNOW the media is legit and rated at a certain speed, 4x in this case, and the burner is known to burn at that speed, the culprit is either firmware related or "info software" related. Something is not being reported correctly. My Pioneer 103 used to report 2x MXLRG01 media as 1x write strategy, but it was just a goofy reading, it burned at 2x just fine. You should be fine. Go ahead and burn 4x on these 4x discs.

If you're really concerned about it, backup a DVD-Video you have (shrinking a commercial disc would be good) and be sure to use every last MB of the disc. Then run a scan disc in Nero CD-DVD Speed. That will test the media pretty well. Will take an hour or so of your time, but so goes the life of testing and safety.

Here is another example from a pack of Sony "-Rs" I bought at Staples. The package says "1x-8x", but the highest write strategy is listed as 4x. I plan to burn these at 8x. Like you said, probably a firmware or "info software" related issue...

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Ones of my newer drives refuses to even show media ID sometimes. That one is definitely a firmware issue, as well as an issue with the "ID" software being too old to properly talk to the burner.

I can only guess you're facing a similar issue.