Everytime I backup a movie I have noticed in the details box that I get a
Write speed requested 16x effective 6x. No matter what speed of media I use, I always get the "effective 6x" dialog. It also seems that my final overall burn speed comes in at around 6x after the burn is complete. If I watch the burn speeds, it will jump to 12x - 14x but then back down so that It will not go over that 6x effective number. It seems that my burn speeds could be faster if not for this problem

If you are using a NEC, my NEC 3540A always shows 6X even when it's burning faster. Look at the burn log after a copy and you'll what your effective write speed really was. Not all media is created equal, despite its rated speed. If your firmware is not up-to-date your drive might not be recognizing your media's capability. Alan1476 is a guru on these matters, so maybe he'll weigh in.

Well, maybe I should try to update my firmware then. I haven't done that in quite awhile. The problem is that I have trouble figuring out what each firmware package is designed to do. Is there a resource where I could go to learn more about the whole process and how to decide what firmware load is best for me? I have read some of the threads associated with firmware, but those commenting usually are talking about things over my head.

Safest thing to do is go to your drive manufacturer's official site and download the latest chronologically. There are some nice hacks that do things like remove riplock, allow bitsetting, etc. If your problem is a media recognition issue, you don't need that, and the latest authorized firmware should be fine.

Bigboard is correct! All Nec drives will always show effective speed of x6 regardles of what you request in copytodvd.
As stated if you look at the end of your log it will list the average speed for thr burn and the amount of time taken.

Thanks alot for the info, that makes me feel better!

A good burn speed is 4X -6X.
For me it just makes more sence that the slower the burn the better quality the back-up will be.