Windows 7: What burn speed to use.

I thought i'd post this to help anyone who might be either confused about what speed to burn CD/DVDs or who is having issues installing software.

Although CD/DVD writers can write @ over 20x speed, it's not best practise to use high speed when burning large files (IMO 300MB+). It's best to use a slow, if not slowest speed when burning.

CD Audio - I've had no issues burning these at highest speed as you would be burning multiple small files (even after conversion to CDA audio format)

CD Data - Multiple small files, no issues. Larger files (300MB+) at half max speed. Again, this will greatly reduce write (and eventually read) errors.

DVD Data - Multiple small files will have no issues burning at high speed. ISO files on the other hand (e.g. installation ISO for Windows 7) should be burnt @ 2/4x as this greatly reduces the risk of burn errors (undetected) which will eventually lead to read errors during installation.

DVD Video - Due to the large files created when converting home videos or backing up existing DVDs i would recommend 2/4x as this greatly reduces errors (same as above) in video playback (e.g. pixellation, faild playback, read errors, jumping/skipping video.

Hope this helps

I suppose it would also depend on the quality of your hardware. Because my system is relatively new (2 months old) and expensive (£750) I have no problems burning everything from media to os isos at max speed, although on my last system because it was 2nd hand and cheap most had to be done at slow to medium, which I can only assume it was to do with quality of hardware and its age.

That's very true, although a lot of people (myself included) may well still be using slightly older machines.

Its a good post that you put in because like you say a lot of people are still using old(ish) machines, so I think it is a very valid couple of points you make and worth taking note of because as I stated I had issues regarding burn speed on my old system.

Yeah, much to our disliking LOL i'm hoping to upgrade (well, complete new system) sometime in the next few months. Gaming on a medium laptop just is not fun LOL

Gaming was my excuse as well.

It would be nice to hook my rig up to my 43" plasma tv properly, not just via s-video

That hopefully is my next port of call, 40 odd inch plasma with hdmi. Ive got a 22 inch hd acer screen now but one of those big beasts would take it to a whole new level.

I burn all OS images @ 1x speed, always have, better write quality and no random installation errors

how do you slopw the speed of windows7 built in cd burner?

whenever i right click an iso and choose burn with windows image burner, it does it at like 24X!