I have a LiteOn HD-A760GX DVR with Hard Disk and DVD burner.

The DVD burner will only burn DVD-R and DVD+R at 4X speed even when using 16X discs.

I've tried several different brands of discs, all max out at 4X speed in this unit even though the discs are marked 16X.

This means if I want to save a 2hr. program from Hard Disk to DVD it takes 30 minutes to burn the DVD.

Are all of the Hard Disk + DVD burners out there only as fast as 4X speed?

Why are they using such slow drives when PC DVD burners are running at 16X and 18X for DVD-R and DVD+R?

Thanks for your input.

On a PC you can throttle back a DVD Writer if you know it won't burn a disc successfully at full speed - you have no way of doing this on a DVD recorder so they must set it to a safe speed that will give minimum failures.

PB

Also, even if the drive is capable of burning at a higher speed,
it will burn slower if the particular disc MID is not in it's firmware.

I did update the firmware to the latest. The response of the unit to remote commands is faster, but copying to and from dvd-r or dvd+r remains at 4X speed.
 
There is no value given in the manual or literature for dubbing/reading speed.  Only a list of approved dvd-r and dvd+r for 8X and 16X. I am using dvd's on the approved list.

Very recently I discovered that PC World added dubbing speed values to it's review of the HD-A760GX and 4 other Hard Disk Drive DVD Burner Set Top units. The LiteON was listed as 4X, the Panasonic was 8X and the Pioneer, Philips, and Toshiba were all 16X. They did not review the Sony nor the JVC, probably because of their high prices.

I contacted LiteOn. They tell me that the drive is a 16X, but does not really work at 16X. They claim it will work at 8X if I use 8X dvd-r or dvd+r. But they say that if I use 16X discs it will default to 4X. I can not even find 8X dvd-r or dvd+r anymore. My store shelves only have the 16X discs. Also it only reads my discs at 4X when copying from dvd-r or dvd+r back to the Hard Disk Drive.

Has anyone ever heard of a drive rejecting a disc certified for a faster speed and defaulting to a minimal value for both read and write?

Chuck44, you list the 760 at your sig line. Have you been able to copy in either direction at 8X or 16X ?

No, but I didn't really buy it for speed.
Mostly I use it to record day to day TV programs
to the HD, only occasionally transferring to DVD.

Thanks for your reply.

I have not found anyone so far who can get 8X or 16X !

I suspect it is just a 4X reader and 4X writer and no body bothered to tell their tech support staff.

Just a thought.

Well, I bought 8X dvd+r's and gave them a try.

They still burn and read at 4X speed.

I am convinced that the firmware is telling this drive to run no faster than 4X speed.

Actually, 4x is not so bad. I tried burning a disc
that was not in the fw (8x +RW) and it only burned
at 2.4x.
Personally, I care more about quality than speed.
Even with my 16x burners (see my sig) I burn
most discs @ 8x.

I agree that quality is the most important aspect of a burn,

but waiting 30 min while burning a 2 hr. show from the hard disk
(sp mode original) is somewhat frustrating when you've paid well over $300 for a modern recorder.

15 minutes (or less) would be much more tolerable at that price.

Actually, the DVD+RW blank that came with my machine
(If I remember it's a Ricoh 4x) will burn in about 15 min.
Other discs I've tried seem to take longer.

So, their 4X DVD+RW burned at 8X ?

Bizarre !

Okay, I'll try it. It's about the only thing I haven't tried yet. :-)

Will report back after experiment.

Thanks.

Actually, an 8x burn only takes about 9 munites (or less)
and a 4x takes about 15.
In most case the burning speed can be determine from the following chart:

1X Full disc burning = Approximately 45 minutes
2X Full disc burning = Approximately 30 minutes
2.4X Full disc burning = Approximately 25 minutes
4X Full disc burning = Approximately 15 minutes
8X Full disc burning = Approximately 9 minutes
12X Full disc burning = Approximately 6.5 minutes
16X Full disc burning = Approximately 6 minutes

Thank you for printing this table. I did not realize that 1X mean't half of the original time.

My material on the hard disk is recorded at SP speed and 2 hrs of video takes 30 minutes to copy to dvd. Therefore,

MY 760GX IS ONLY BURNING AT 2X !!!

Now I am really annoyed !!!

This is bad.

One thing - The above table is really for computer burners.
If you're recording to a disc that has to be finalized it would
add time to the process on a standalone recorder.
I usually copy from the HD to a DVD+RW disc (which does
not need to be finalized) then use my burners to make
a permanent copy.

Okay, I've learned more.

I downloaded copies of the owner's manual s for:
JVC DR-DX5S
Sony RDR-HX715
Pioneer DVR-640H-S
Panasonic DMR-EH55S
Philips DVDR3455H/37B and
Toshiba RDXS55

Obviously, I have my own LiteOn HD-A760GX manual.

The LiteOn, JVC, Philips, and Toshiba manuals do NOT specify their dubbing / copy speeds.

I know now from hard experimentation that the speed of the LiteOn unit is only 2X from HDD to any kind of DVD that is recordable or rewriteable.

I did discover that Sony, Pioneer, and Panasonic were nice enough to print a table of times / speeds.

The fastest speeds for copy from HDD to -R and / or +R are as follows:
Sony RDR-HX715 approximately 8X speed to -R or +R
Pioneer DVR-640H-S 5.5X to -R or +R
Panasonic DMR-EH55S 10X ~ 12X to -R and 7X to +R

From what I've read, the Sony does not have a great reputation for reliability and is very expensive.

The Toshiba is very expensive and only works with -R, -RW, and -RAM.

The JVC is amazingly expensive probably because it has a built-in Mini DV unit as well as HDD and DVD.

Over the years the Philips and Panasonic units have been buggy I remember.

I do not know whether I felt more frustrated before or now. :-)