Slow DVD burning - how to reach maximum speed?

I've been trying to burn DVDs at the maximum speed that seems to be supported by my new MBP (8x).
However, the burn speeds seem to fluctuate around 4x-7x.
It seems that my system is fast enough to support 8x, and I'm burning large files that aren't fragmented (so no chance of the hard drive being the bottleneck imo).
Any ideas what may be slowing things down and for any workarounds?
Thanks!

I doubt it has to do with the media - I'm using quality Verbatim 16x certified DVD+R media.
Also, I'm not doing anything at the same time when it is maxing at 4-7x, but on the other hand when I am doing many things in parallel to burning (playing an mp3, decompressing a large zip, doing massive downloads, all at the same time), this maximum speed doesn't seem to be adversely affected.
Again, seems like the MBP is handling this 7x burn speed with complete leisure, so why not 8x?

Similar Messages

Slow DVD burn speed.

I'm having an issue, burning DVDs with K3b or most other software is slow. My LG DVD drive is capable of 16X speeds, I would have no problem burning at this speed under Windows XP. Under Arch I'm only burning at around 4X, you can imagine that it's quite slow. For comparison say a 4.3GB DVD takes me 3 times as long to burn, roughly 13-15min. I haven't tried burning CDs because I haven't bought them for a few years.
If this is of any help:
hdparm -I /dev/dvd | grep -i dma
DMA: sdma0 sdma1 sdma2 mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 *udma2 udma3 udma4
Thanks for any help, I really need to resolve this because I burn DVDs quite often.
Last edited by PrimoTurbo (2008-07-22 11:53:29)

Same brand. Also I've tried at least 3 good quality brands with the same results.
Last edited by PrimoTurbo (2008-07-22 23:03:13)

DVD burn doesn't offer correct speed

I have an iMac iSight (PowerMac12,1 PowerPC G5) with Matshita DVD-R UJ-846 SuperDrive. Mac OS X 10.4.8. According to the Tech Spec this iMac writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed.
If I use DVD-R media, and try to write using a burn folder, Finder says the maximum speed is 2x. Toast Titanium 5.2.3 also says the maximum burn speed is 2x, it correctly reports the disk size as 4.something GB, and offers Simulation mode burn.
If I use DVD+R media, and try to write using a burn folder, Finder says the maximum speed is 8x. Toast Titanium 5.2.3 also says the maximum burn speed is 8x, it incorrectly reports the disk size as 8 GB, and does not offers Simulation mode burn.
What on earth is going on?
I appreciate that Toast is not an Apple product, but I expect Toast is only reporting what Apple tells it, and similar faults appear in the Finder response.
Does burning from Finder verify the disk, because at the end of the process, there in no window visible saying that verification was successful?
(Note this does not seem to be related to the fault on SuperDrives relating to High-Speed media (Apple article 86130), because my drive is not a Pioneer drive).
iMac iSight G5 Mac OS X (10.4.8)

Note the phrase "up to". The maximum burning speed may be less than that specified on the disk blank, especially if the discs are faster than those available when the drive was manufactured. The drive make, model, and firmware version of the drive, and the brand of disc, may limit the speed to a lower value than that specified for the drive or the disc. For example, the first Quicksilver superdrive would burn 2X DVDs at 2X, but would only burn 4X DVDs (which didn't exist when the drive was made) at 1X. Try different brands of discs. I have good luck with Verbatim DVD-R. The newer Pioneer drives seem to be able to burn discs at their rated speed.
I don't know why Toast would report the wrong disc size. When using Finder's burn folders, you can click the small round button at the lower-right to see the disc size and space used. Does it show the correct size for the DVD+R discs? Are you sure they are not DVD+R DL discs, which are larger?
The Finder does verify discs it burns. If you look at the progress bar, you will see it change from "Writing" to "Verifying". If there is a verify error, it will eject the disc, rather than mount it, when finished. It will also display an error window. If the verify is successful, it will mount the disc, but not display a window. Disk Utility gives you a choice of what to do when the burn is complete, and always displays a window indicating success or failure.

Slow DVD Burning when using IDE card

I have a DVD burner plugged into an ide card and it only burns DVD-R at 2x. If I plug it straight into the board it burns at normal speed (12-16x). How do I configure the board to accept the ide card so that the drive burns at the proper speed?
During startup, raid detects the DVD drive model and indicates UltraDMA mode 4. For bios settings bus mastering is enabled and onboard ide is disabled. If I enable onboard IDE then the computer won't boot, so it is disabled. I am using dvd decrypter for burning and verbatim DVD-R's.
I will soon have 4 DVD burners all plugged into my 2 port raid card, so I can burn four discs at once. I will be burning hundreds of discs for a side job and need this to work asap. The IDE card is a Promose Ultra133 TX2. My board is the MSI K9N SLI Platinum and the burner Lite-On SOHW-1693S.

Quote from: Leroy_2000 on 13-November-07, 13:49:11
Hence what a forum is all about.
Sorry that I only now found this thread but glad to see you worked it all out. I have the same promise controller card laying in a drawer collecting dust right now for the same reason. I did get it to work but it was very unreliable on my K8N board. Because of this, I now only use 2 of my burners so that each can be a master connected to independent channels on the motherboard. I did away with all other IDE drives on this system and now have 4 SATA drives running happily. I may look into purchasing one of those controllers like yours, and reconfigure. I have having my 4 300GB PATA drives collecting dust.

Very slow DVD burning & any monitoring software?

Although I've owned my iMac for months I've only just tried burning some data DVDs from Finder and the speed is unbelievably slow - though successful. I'd estimate its running at 1x or 2x
I'm using 8x Ritek -R media which burns at 8x in other PC drives.
Any ideas on how to
1. speed it up
2. turn off verification
3. monitor/check the speed it's actually burning at?
Thanks
iMac Core Duo 1GB Mac OS X (10.4.8)

The area you are interested in is iMac > Intel-based iMac > Using DVDs and CDs with your Intel-based iMac.

Slow DVD burns & monitoring software?

Although I've owned my iMac for months I've only just tried burning some data DVDs from Finder and the speed is unbelievably slow - though successful. I'd estimate its running at 1x or 2x
I'm using 8x Ritek -R media which burns at 8x in other PC drives.
Any ideas on how to
1. speed it up
2. turn off verification
3. monitor/check the speed it's actually burning at?
Thanks

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
Most users are under the impression that there media is the best, when in fact more times than not it can be the root cause of there burning issues.
As you can see from the media guide above your media is not the top of the line media.
Many Apple computers just do not like poor media, there are many reaasons for this, Firmware, Software, the Media you use. the Speed of that Media, as well as the Format of that media.
The most widely recognised and overall compaible across the board is DVD-R
Yes many of the newer Mac's will burn and play DVD+R and RW media as well as DL. The problem is that many older computers and players can't.
http://www.videohelp.com/dvd
There have been occasions when changing media up to 3 times before you find the best high quality media for your Optical Drive. All are a little different. Your better higher quality media appears to have much better quality control than the lower priced bargin basement variety.
This should help, and remember when you burn it is best not to try running other applications and mail and surfing the web while burning.
If you are going to burn then just BURN and thats all.
Hope this helps
Don

E3000 wireless connections not reaching maximum speed

E3000 running 1.0.0.3 firmware on Cox premier 30mb pipe. 2 wireless dell laptops Inspiron 9100 and Vostro 1000running 1350 and 1390 mini wireless g network cards with latest drivers installed. Direct connect machines run at full 30mb connection speedtest.net and Cox's own speed test. Wireless machines sitting next to router with excellent connection showing 48 to 54Mbps capacity but only getting 3-10Mbps throughput on speedtests. Cust Support through level 1, 2 and HQ cannot find the problem. Originally thought it was bad hardware so original router replaced and doing the same thing.
Sincerely appreciate any clues, suggestions or ideas anyone may have. The laptops are both about 5 yrs old or more but they should reach the capacity available, even on G networks, shouldn't they?
Thank you kindly!

How much speed do you get on a wired computer?
Speed test is not always accurate on most of the websites. You have Cox premier 30mb connection and you are getting 28-30 mbps speed on wireless computer. So I think the speed is pretty good.
If you are still getting slow speed then you can try changing the advanced wireless settings on the router.
Open the setup page of the router. Click on Wireless tab and go to Advanced wireless settings. Change the Beacon interval to 75, RTS threshold to 2307 and fragmentation threshold to 2306. Save the settings.
Go to the setup tab and change the MTU size to 1365. Save the settings. Power cycle the router and observe the speed.

Painfully slow DVD burning process with Toast .Tips welcome.

Just new to Mac,, and I am going crazy trying to burn/copy a DVD (legally). I do see that it is burning anywhere from 1-3 times rate (no wonder).I give instructions to do it on auto. And if I bring in a file to burn, which is the best type to import to Toast to burn(and less loss of quality)? Should I, or can I replace (upgrade) my 8 X drive (Matshutita?). Any programs (besides Toast)that will handle burning process faster? I used to grab an mpeg file on my PC, and have it burned within 25 minutes tops with TMPGenc for example. I don't think I can handle the slowness.

Even if you have a fully comliant MPEG-2 source, say EYE TV or a VOB file you still have to "author" the DVD with Toast (or DVD Studio Pro for $1000) to build the final DVD in the right format with VIDEO_TS folder, IFO and BUP files that guide the player. Use Toast. Most of the time a compliant MPEG-2 will not re-encode so the process is quite fast. Set the encoding option to "Never". If it needs to be re-encoded it will do that despite the "Never".
Waste of time paying anything to put a new DVD drive in an iMac. Leave it alone and get an external LaCie firewire as I advised already. The authoring time has zero to do with the drive since all the encoding is done by the mac and then you burn the final image to a DVD. A 1X or 20X won't affect the speed.
I just think the internal drives , iMac, MacBook Pro are slow and pokey and a hassle to use and $100-$150 is worth the expense. The D2 drives come with a full version of Toast as well or they did when I bought mine.

Slow DVD burns -- Solution!

I don't know how I missed this issue, but during the edit of this independent feature film, I popped in a TDK DVD-R to burn some footage for an actress, and BOOM -- it will only burn at 2x speed.
Under the serious deadline crunch (that's why we use macs, of course!), I scoured through some blank media in my briefcase, and low and behold, the VERBATIM INKJET PRINTABLE 94854 8x DVD-R showed up at the full speed.
I had purchased these from Newegg.com maybe a year ago...
... but I'm shocked to say the least about this, since the recent firmware update probably just removed the speed capabilities of the superdrive. Very odd move by Apple. Odd, the likes of which I haven't seen since the Lombard Powerbook graphics driver issue back when OS X was released -- they were a year old yet no longer supported, until a lawsuit, that is...
Well, I just purchased my parents an Intel iMac, and at least they are enjoying that. Hope the superdrive works fully on it!
PowerMac Dual 2 Gig G5 -- Waiting for Conroe... Mac OS X (10.4.6)

http://www.digitalfaq.com/media/dvdmedia.htm
Most users are under the impression that there media is the best, when in fact more times than not it can be the root cause of there burning issues.
As you can see from the media guide above your media is not the top of the line media.
Many Apple computers just do not like poor media, there are many reaasons for this, Firmware, Software, the Media you use. the Speed of that Media, as well as the Format of that media.
The most widely recognised and overall compaible across the board is DVD-R
Yes many of the newer Mac's will burn and play DVD+R and RW media as well as DL. The problem is that many older computers and players can't.
http://www.videohelp.com/dvd
There have been occasions when changing media up to 3 times before you find the best high quality media for your Optical Drive. All are a little different. Your better higher quality media appears to have much better quality control than the lower priced bargin basement variety.
This should help, and remember when you burn it is best not to try running other applications and mail and surfing the web while burning.
If you are going to burn then just BURN and thats all.
Hope this helps
Don

DVD burn how?

Where are accurate instructions on how to burn a data DVD?
Everywhere i search it comes up with crap that isnt even close to correct.
Please help. Im just trying to backup my TV shows to a DVD.

1. Insert a blank DVD-R disc in the drive. DONE
2. In the dialog box that appears, enter a name for the disc and choose the format you want to create. An icon for the DVD appears on the desktop.
theres no place in this dialog to put any name.
3. Drag files and folders to the icon. The space available will not completely update until all items have been copied.
Never got to this because the previous steps are inaccurate.

IPhoto DVD Burn, How much extra space is needed?

I did a few tests, and each time, I found the same result.
If I filled a disc (DVD or CD) to nearly capacity, iPhoto couldn't burn the disc, saying that there was an error. When I burn a 4.7 gig DVD to 4.0 gigs, the disc burns successfully. How much 'extra' space do I need to leave for iPhoto to burn correctly?
TIA

Benson:
Welcome to the Apple Discussions. What you're running into it the disparity between what iPhoto reports as the size of the select photos and what it needs to burn an iPhoto disk. As you know there's a big difference. Check the iPhoto Library folder size in the Finder and compare that to what iPhoto indicates when you click on the main library icon. The difference will be all the thumbnails, original files, modified files, data and database files. My test library is 74 via iPhoto and 98MB via the finder. That's a lot of overhead.
I guess I would keep the iPhoto reported size to about 4.2G max. when burning to a DVD disk. Of course it would vary depending on the number of edited photos are in the batch you selected.

Slow DVD burning on Tecra A9

I have found that when burning DVD's my burner is running at about 1X. I have checked this out on the web and found other forums suggesting to check to make sure that I am set to DMA if available on transfer mode.
I have done this on the "primary IDE channel" the transfer mode on device 0 is set at DMA if available but below it in the "current transfer mode" box it says PIO mode.
on device 1 the transfer mode is set at DMA if available but in the current transfer modeit says not available.
Please help.

Another thing is, that it often depends on what DVD/CD medium you are using. Some brands are only supported to be built at different speed settings, like blank double layer DVDs.
I always create my DVDs/CDs at low speed to help keeping up compatibility with other devices like DVD/CD-Players or lowering the risk of errors during creation process.

Slow DVD burn

I saw one posting complaining of slow burning in XP mode. I'm getting slow burning using iDVD - several hours to burn a 1-hr DVD. What's wrong?

Same brand. Also I've tried at least 3 good quality brands with the same results.
Last edited by PrimoTurbo (2008-07-22 23:03:13)

Excruciatingly Slow DVD Burning...MS-7142 ( K8mm-V )

I have two DVD burners one is IDE and the other is Sata. Either one takes forever to try to burn a disk.
When I go to "My Computer and right-click, it is about 3 minutes before the pop-up menu comes up, and then
another 5 minutes after I click format or whatever.
Any suggestions?
Thanks,
DD
MS-7142 with AMD Athlon64 3400+ 2.2ghz
2 gb Ram
Sapphire HD3850 AGP 512mb
Windows XP Home SP3

Try diminishing DMA for the burning devices, to for example DMA2. Also check if there are firmware updates for the burners.
Speculating in the memory you got are two sticks of very different origins, but maybe one shouldn't speculate.
Please mention your PSU.

Prebuy Ques: External DVD - Burner Burn Time?

I have a ton of files on CDs & ZIP disks. They take up a LOT of physical space. I want to categorize and burn them to DVD's so I can discard the ZIP disks, wipe most off my external LaCie HD and regain some storage space.
I've read several comments here about oh-so-slow DVD burning times.
So I have several related questions. I have a LaCie Burner on Order.
It comes with Toast.
Must a DVD be burnt in one session?
Or is multi-session burning possible?
Hopw much free space do I need when burning DVDs?
How long does it take to burn a DVD given my system's configuration?
Thanks in advance for responses.

1. If you buy DVD-R or DVD-RW media, yes. DVD-R media doesn't support multisession burning.
3. If you're using the Finder, you may need up to 9.4GB available on your hard disk to burn a DVD. Toast has a lower requirement.
4. As long as the DVD burner is connected through FireWire and you're burning a data DVD, you can burn a DVD in approximately one or two hours. Burning a DVD over the USB port on your machine will take much longer(and may not be possible at all), and trying to burn a video DVD will take several hours or days on a G3-based system.
(8815)

Slow DVD burning - how to reach maximum speed?

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