16x DVD-RW burning at 4x?

Don't think so. Even my stock DVD writer on my Macbook doesn't give me the rated 'x' speed. That rated speed is highly ideal, there are several bottlenecks that are present that prevent that speed. All said... 4x is indeed radically low.

The drive will only right the speed that your disk can support. If it's righting at 4x perhaps the disk is only able to be written at 4x. Have a look on the disk

What Burning software u using ? Toast?

Talk about reviving an old thread...

I have a renewed interest in this problem since I am using the same drive in my newly acquired PowerMac G5 running Leopard. I also have a retail version of the drive in an external Firewire enclosure connected to my 2006 Mac mini running Snow Leopard.

I have 1.20 firmware in both drives and all I can get is 4x max. I am using 16x Kodak DVD+R media.

So what is the conclusion here....downgrade to 1.18 firmware? That seems odd that a bug this obvious would be introduced without a follow-up release to correct it. I believe 1.20 was the last firmware. I suspect Pioneer didn't care to fix it since new drives were quickly replacing older models.

OrangeSVTguy said:

Ok I rebooted and it shows my firmware is updated to 1.18. Like I mentioned before, my ripping speed has doubled if not tripled as that firmware patch removed the 4x ripping restriction to 12x+. I haven't burnt any discs yet to determine my burning speed but I think I will try tomorrow.

**edited**
Well I just popped in one of my blank Memorex 16x DVDs and after looking at the system profiler, it shows that it is no longer restricted to 4x. Guess it was just the 1.0 firmware all along Now I'm glad that I can now put this drive to it's fullest potential!

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jdryyz said:

Talk about reviving an old thread...

I have a renewed interest in this problem since I am using the same drive in my newly acquired PowerMac G5 running Leopard. ...

Click to expand...

That pretty much explains it. A G5 is way-old. The mac will write as fast as it can and will report that, Put that DVD drive on a new Mac and I bet it goes faster.

Not convinced that it is due to being used in a G5 since the 2006 intel-based Mac mini is seeing the same. Please also note the above poster's attached graphic. He is using a G5 and is getting 16x as being supported.

I downgraded to 1.18 using DVRFlash and I am still seeing the max 4x burn. But, thanks to the graphic above, I just realized something else. I am testing DVD+R media. Perhaps I need to test DVD-R at 16x to see if it makes a difference.

Just by changing from +R to -R 16x media, I was able get the higher burn rates. This seems strange because I have used DVD-R media many times before. Of course, 16x media wasn't immediately available after this drive introduced. Before that, I believe I was just trying to achieve 8x burns which weren't happening either. It could be simple economics that drove to me +R media and it never occurred to me to compare them. The drive is said to support both types equally.

I tested the media in my other DVR-108 that still has the 1.20 firmware and got these results.

Looks like I didn't have to downgrade my firmware in the G5 after all. I know that some were saying their read speed was reduce with 1.20 so maybe I will do some more tests.

OrangeSVTguy said:

Yes this is a way old thread. I think it was buried more than 6 feet too .

Anyways. I think it was the firmware of the drive. Upgrading/downgrading to the firmware I listed above should solve the problem. Check your media too. Do a reboot after flashing. It shouldn't matter with the OS or if it's a PPC or Intel. The firmware of the drive will determine the speed that it is capable of writing.

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