dvd-r!

[Scarlett]

I have just bought some DVD-Rs, but it says on the box 1-16x. Does that mean they are no good to man nor beast? They were very cheap. I don't understand what tha 16x means. Help!

[Ethel]

16x is the speed they 'burn' at. If your dvd recorder is 16x speed it will download the recording 16 times faster than 'real time'.

[Scarlett]

Ok. Bearing in mind CDs burn at 52x, I have bought some crappy DVDs, no??!

[Machecoul]

Okay so what speed does your DVD recorder burn at?

It's unlikely you will be burning at 16x.

Of course all this doesn't mean they are any good - only time will tell.

[graftarian]

You can choose what speed to burn the disks at so there's no problem - it'll just take a bit longer than with other disks.

[alunrw]

DVDs are generally at 4x or 8x speed, much slower than CD-Rs - I would suggest that 16X are not at all crap if youre using them to burn films for example?

[Ralph]

A 1x DVD drive speed is equivalent to an 8x CD drive speed, 2x DVD = 16x CD etc etc. So 16x DVD is equivalent to 128x CD! Not bad discs at all, but you're unlikely to have a DVD burner that'll write that fast.

[ugly_bob]

my DVD burner will write at 16x, but I usually limit the speed to 8x burning because 16x seems to be more unreliable.