DVD write speeds?

[Anthony]

what is the difference between a 1x & a 2x & 4x dvd?

obviously it takes longer to write to a 1x dvd, but 1x dvd's are much cheaper to purchase. no one can tell me what the difference is. is there any quality compromise? what is the physical difference in the disc that enables the write speed? should i be concerned about the brand & write speed?

tia

[Bluetiereign]

The best I can gather is that a CD's burn speed rating is designed to be compatible with the CD burners that burn them. The intensity of a laser that does the burning remains constant throughout CD burners ( they are regulated due to the fact that lasers can burn anything and can be dangerous ) The ability to cache memory for burning and deal with data varies with each CD burner.

It takes so long for the laser to start the grooves , make the grooves and shut off ( the 'grooves' it burns being the digital data or on\off data it is reading ). The CD needs to be made of the proper materials to burn with the higher speed \ quicker on-off times of the faster CD burner's laser burning cycles.

Put another way - a 2X cd burner's laser has half as long to make a groove as a 1X spinning at half the speed. If the 1X CD is made of a 'hard' material... the groove would not be completely cut on a 2X burning cycle because the laser needed more time to burn the groove. The 'softer' - 2X CD won't need that extra time to be burned.

( If tia still doesn't understand this Anthony - tell him\her to think of it this way. Anthony is a 2X rated CD and Bluetiereign is a 1X CD. Both have to be taught the same lesson. Bluetiereign, being the denser of the two, will require twice as long to learn the lesson and will require the teacher to teach at a slower speed.) :)

[Anthony]

tia = thanks in advance

I get the writer portion of your explanation, just not the cd/dvd difference. what is different in the dvd that makes it's ability to "burn" slower/faster. it's a plastic disc, why is a 1x blank piece of plastic so much cheaper, & am I losing quality in using the cheaper disc?

[Bluetiereign]

I guess I misunderstood your question....and so I kinda mislead you.

Most DVD burners use a red laser to burn their grooves. A CD uses a wider, infrared one.... so a DVD will allow more tracks or grooves, thus larger data storage. Its' pit and reflecting markings on the disk are smaller too. Blue lasers are on the way, and even smaller - but not a standard yet.

Can you use a regular CD in a DVD burner ? I wouldn't. Seems to me they are two different animals. It might work, but you might damage the equipment in the process.

[Anthony]

Originally posted by Bluetiereign
I guess I misunderstood your question....

Even more so this time.
I'm sorry, let me be more specific...

DVD blanks are sold at different speeds... 1x, 2x, 4x etc.
4x DVD's are much more expensive than say a 1x DVD. What I was asking is, what is the physical difference in the piece of plastic that I am buying, aside from the Dollar or so in price.

A 1x DVD takes much longer to write to, but it is much cheaper. Am I saving money & sacrificing time, or am I sacrificing quality as well?

More specifically, what exactly is the physical difference between a 1x & a 4x piece of plastic?

[Bluetiereign]

From everything I've seen and read - (and you know I don't even own one)- you are not sacrificing quality - just the hour it takes to burn one - (vs. the 15 min on a 4X).

Check these guys (http://www.dvdrhelp.com/) out, if you haven't already..

[Chad]

1x media geeze i remember when cdr media was 1x as well hehe they way we suffered and then 8x media came out WOW!! and we thought that was fast and now we using 40x cdrw COOL

in my opinion the slower you burn a disc the better the image on disc and can be read by all devices as i've found when you burn to fast some devices struggle to read media!

If you have the time 1x media is fine