Z96J/S96J DVD-RW Speeds

Hi,

Nero is only letting me select between 2x, 4x and 6x on my burner on my Z96JS. But when I bought it, it said it was an 8x burner and everything seems to correlate with that. I'm using the Nero Express that came with the burner and this is with a 16x Sony DVD-R in the drive.

Thanks,
Cat

 

What does it say when you go to Nero -> Tools -> Drive Speed rather than the Burning App?

 

I was going to suggest that your dvd was not designed to be burned past 6x, but you said it is a 16x dvd.

Considering that, perhaps you do not have the standard cd/dvd-ram super multi driver that Asus ships with the S/Z96J. Resellers can buy the barebones from Asus without an optical drive, and put their own in. Perhaps the drive in yours only goes up to 6x. Couldn't hurt to try another cd, or see what your actual burn speed is. Or try different software. Or do what heartbreaker said and check the drive speed.

 

I went to DriveSpeed and it just says 24x - CD Read speeds is all it's giving me. Edit: When I put in the DVD it says it has a maximum 8x Read Speed. According to the CanadaSys website it's a 8x DVD Burner, so I don't know why its not letting me use it up to that speed. I don't need it to go all the way now since I'm making long term archive DVDs so I just use 2 or 4, but sometimes I just want to burn something fast and I can't do that. Not sure if I need a firmware update or a software update for it to detect it properly.

Does anyone else use Nero to burn DVD-Rs with their Z96Js?

Peter

 

I got a 2.4x DVD burn speed on my S96J...so be happy with yours haha

 

It may be the DVDs, for some reason it's not detecting them properly it seems. They are Accucore, good Sonys that I just got the other day, definitely 16x and I'm using them for long term archival storage. If I remove the DVD from the drive while Nero is displaying the speeds it switches to 8x, 6x, 4x, 2x - when I put the DVD in though it goes to 6x, 4x, 2.4x, 2x.

I think it may be the burner is just not detecting the DVDs as it should. I've heard of firmware/software updates doing the fix. Has anyone tried that?

Thanks,
Cat

 

I got the exact same problem. I expected my 8x DVD-R's to be read properly but my Nero Express only detects them as 4x DVD-R's. My desktop burner detects them fine and burns at 8x, but not my notebook. Be great if someone could point us to the firmware/software which fixes this.

 

This is a media compatibility issue.

In an nutshell, each DVD-/+R blank has a media code which tells the burner what kind of disk it's dealing with and how to burn the disk. The problem lies in whether the burner recognizes that code or not, and what speeds they think will burn the disk properly. There are hacked firmwares which let you override this (this is called overspeeding the burner, as opposed to overburning which lets you burn more data than you should), but it really depends on the grade of media and how well the profile deals with it (ex: Taiyo Yuden from Fuji is clearly going to be better than Taiyo Yuden that you get from bulkpaks).

If you can get a firmware update for the burner, this usually provides greater media compatibility. The stock burners are TSSTCorp (Toshiba/Samsung), but I dunno what the firmware availability is like. With desktops, it's typically easier to find them (go to the manufacturer's website).

Laptop burners aren't really well-known for good quality burns. You might be better off getting an external enclosure and buying a desktop burner for it.

 

Thanks a lot. Quite interesting. Guess I learned something today.

+1 rep for you!

Edit: Odd, it won't let me give you a rep point.

 

True, I've got an LG 4163b in an external enclosure that I used to use with my G732 which only had a CDRW/DVD drive included. But I've heard that using USB can have negative effects on the quality of the burn due to a bunch of different factors.

I understand what you are saying, and that's precisely why I asked about the firmware here. I did a search a few weeks ago when I first got the laptop and found nothing - this was after I found one of the CDs I burned 3 years ago was now unreadable, so I went on a bit of a kick trying to find a good set for archive. The Sony's I got are SONY16D1 coded, with DRM5GG0001 written on the inside wheel. All the ratings I've gotten for them is that it's Grade AAA quality (highest) in terms of lifespan and burn quality - and I got it in consumer packs straight from Sony. I was going to go for some Fuji's but they only have home grade ones available where I am. I had a pack of RitekG05s under the Maxell brand, and I'm definitely not going to buy their brand again after reading about the issues with those and their horrible degredation times.

I'm quite suprised its reading them improperly, and I know that some burners have extremely bad strategies when they can't even detect the write speeds for the media properly which has me worried. If anyone does see an update for a TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-L632D please post it.

P.S. I tried the Nero 6.6.1.4 upgrade and it had no effect - which is expected since this is a firmware issue as AlexF and I mentioned, but I had to give it a shot.

 

I've had the same problem on all my notebook, and its always the same thing. Its the bundled Nero software v6. when i install nero 7 ultra, they all work at 8x no problem. (same 16x DVD's) Problem solved for me

Oh, I've noticed that DVD-R's dont always work at the speeds stated, but the DVD+R's always DO!

insane

 

Hmm, It's a DVD-R since I've always used those (first DVD player I had only played that type so I've kept my entire collection standard to it). I got Nero 7 Ultra to see if it worked there but it's exactly the same, as soon as the DVD is inserted it reverts to 6x max. Could be that it's a DVD-R, but - well that would suck, lol...