At a very rough guess, i'm at somewhere between 2000 and 3000 in my current burner, which i've had for less than 2 years. The other burner in my PC is probably at around 1000 to 2000, and is 5 years old. The only reasons it gets less use are because it's slower and only does +R. Neither drive works any worse for wear now than when they were new.

When i pound on them with non-stop burning i do notice that each successive disc comes out of the tray a little warmer than the previous one, up to about 6 or so. After that they don't get any hotter. I don't think this is an indication of any problem. It just shows at which point the temperature gets high enough for radiation to cool it down as fast as it generates heat. I'm merely pointing it out so that in case you notice it you won't get too worried.

Thanks a lot for your answers!
Yes I´ve noticed that discs get warmer
and wormer when burning in a row.

Another question to you experienced guys:
I use to burn 4x speed for safety even if my burner
and discs (verbatim+R printable)can handle 16X.
I´ve read somewhere in this forum that its more secure
not to burn with max speed.
But today somebody told me that certain burners and/or
disc brands don´t burn so well when burning
in too low speed (much lower than they are built for).

Is this true?

Is it more accurate to burn with 8X on a 16X burner/disc
than 4X.
Thanks a lot once again!
/Aje

use to burn 4x speed for safety even if my burner and discs (verbatim+R printable)can handle 16X. I´ve read somewhere in this forum that its more secure

Man, the urban legends that get spread around the Internet.

Back in the early days of DVD recordable discs, Ralph LaBarge published the results of one of the few scientific studies every publicly released (lots of them have been conducted privately for companies in the industry). This study showed which brands of DVDs produced the most compatible results. One sentence out of that report stated:

"If you choose to use off-brand media, record them at the lowest speed possible-1x for DVD-R and DVD-RW, and 2.4x for DVD+RW. Using slower recording speeds increases the overall compatibility rating of off-brand media."

However, this was done at a time when 2x speeds were the maximum available. Also note that it refers to "off-brand" media. The "name-brand" media showed no improvement at slower speeds.

A lot has happened to both the recorders and to the media since then.

I cannot give you a link to any scientific study that either proves or disproves the notion that slower is better. However, I can tell you, from very limited tests I have performed myself, that I cannot detect any correlation between burn speeds and measured error rates. Therefore, it is my belief, based on these tests, that you are unnecessarily wasting a lot of time for zero gain, by burning at slow speed.

Fortunately, you can easily do this test yourself.

If you have to make multiple copies of the same disk for clients, using the identical media for all burns, burn the first one at the lowest speed, the next at the next highest speed, and so on. Then, download the Nero CD-DVD Speed V4.50 from this page:

Nero CD-DVD Speed V4.50

Use it to measure the actual error rates on each of the discs. This will tell you pretty accurately for your burner and for the media you are using, whether there is a difference between burn speeds. If you have LOTS of discs, then burn two or three at each speed. This is a scientific test, based on real measurements, not on urban legend. You might see a slight increase in error rate at the absolute highest speed, because of vibration, which is usually a bigger issue than the complexities of the shortened time for the laser to heat the dye when the disc is rotating faster.

For more information, you might want to click on this link and look at an older, but almost identical thread in this forum:

Does bitrate and burn speed affect DVD compatibility?

I will do that test today for sure.
Thanks for a your answer and links!
/Aje

I confirm also that the high speed doesn't decrease the burned DVD quality when tested with nero cd speed. Tests with Verbatim DVD-R X16.
Enjoy high speed burns !

But is there only the nero speed test to do ?

But is there only the nero speed test to do ?

There are many other programs that do this, and some actually can provide far more information, although only if your DVD reader/write supports it. Often you can get a wider range of results from a DVD reader (i.e., a drive that doesn't write, but only reads DVDs). Also, Pioneer and Sony drives provide less information than some other drives.

Place to go for more information include:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/
http://www.burnworld.com/
http://www.afterdawn.com/
http://www.videohelp.com/
http://www.digitalfaq.com/
http://forum.digital-digest.com/