Apparently I have 200 TDK 8x DVD+R discs lying on my shelf. Never used. I opened up the spindle and there was this label with warranty information on it.

And then I saw this warning:
This disc conforms to DVD+R specifications for use in 8x and higher speed DVD+R/RW drives. Using this media in lower speed drives may result in product failure and damage to the hardware and media.

... In big bold letters.


Whoa. What does this technically mean? Does this also mean I can't use my 4x DVD+R Liteon?

I'm a complete n00b when it comes to media, so I'm probably missing something big.

Basically that older drives may not have the necessary firmware (f/w abbreviated) to burn the media successfully, or even in a readable manner. The only way to know if your burner and f/w will support that is to go to the manufacturer's page, find your burner, and see the media list that burner supports. If you don't find the media listed there, it's either b/c it's low-quality "avoid like the plague" media, or because the burner and f/w doesn't support burning it. Otherwise, a drive rated for 16x DVD media burning could burn media rated at 4x, 8x or 16x speeds, for example. If a drive is only rated for max 8x burning, then basically you could only use 8x rated DVD media as the 'fastest' rated media to burn on it.

Hmmm, this is not good. I guess my drive is incompatible.
My burn should go in the hall of shame.


(Sold as TDK 8x DVD+R Print-on)

it's time to upgrade

Haha yep. I just ordered a Liteon SOHW-1693S and 100-pack Taiyo Yuden from Rima.com. Here comes the long wait for the delivery.