Optimize External DVD-R performance?

[Kenshin018]

Hey all,

I'm running a Lite-On DVD-RW SOHW-1673S in an INOI external enclosure (media tank) with an 80gig hard drive inside it as well. It is hooked up to a HP Pavilion zx5000 laptop with 3.4ghz p4 and 1gig of ram. I've tried to burn dvd's a few different ways and I've gotten less than stellar burn times. Ripping the originals onto the computer first, I've tried to burn it from the external hard drive inside the media tank with the burner, which at 16x took 26:35 minutes and from the laptops hard drive, which took 20:22 minutes. This is using Nero 6.0 by the way. Is there anything I can do to get something closer to the actual 16x results or is the best I can expect through this setup and from a USB 2.0?

Thanks in advance for any advice!
Nick

[Kenshin018]

Just an update: I've tried to burn with another program (DVDDecrypter) and since it monitors the burn speed in real time I can now say that the burner is not able to burn higher than 3.0x speeds. If this has come up and I missed the thread I'm sorry but after a thread search I've found nothing similar. Any suggestions or a point in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!
Nick

[EMPiRE]

16x speed burning does not mean that during the whole burning process the burn speed is 16x, it will startout with about 8x speed on the inside and 16x at the outside of the DVD+/-R, so in the end it should be an average of about 10-12x speed

You will never be able to truely burn @ 16x speed as your connected hd's can not burn @ 21MB/s (= 16x speed), so 8x/12x speed is about the max it can do, then it is weird that is can do only 3x (or was this measured at the beginning of the burn?)

But it does not explain the time difference between your 80gig & internal hd as a 7200 rpm disc connected to a usb2.0 port can do about 12-18 MB/s, even a 5400 rpm disc would do fine... so that would be more than enough to not notice any difference...

[DABhand]

Also dont forget that your external writer and HD are sharing the same bus.

This can affect burning speeds and buffer usage.

[Kenshin018]

Those were my thoughts exactly - I wasn't expecting anything close to 16x (my plan is to use this for now until I get a new tower to slide the burner into) but to burn slower than my old internal 4x Sony burning from 256mb ram and a 1.0ghz processor just doesn't seem right. The 3x max was through the entire 20+ minute process, it wavered between 2.3x and 3.0x throughout the entire burn.

Is there anything I can do to help build it up to at least an 8x or 12x burn? Is there any other info I can post about my system that might help figure out whats going on?

Thanks!
Nick

[Kenshin018]

Alright, I'm bumping my own thread...sue me. Any takers for an assist?

Thanks,
Nick

[Kenshin018]

Yet another update - I've removed the hard drive that was sharing the media tank with the Lite-On burner and attempted to burn a dvd without it in case it was causing some unknown trouble. It didn't help.

Argh.

Thanks!
Nick