A few questions on DVD burners

[shira]

When it comes to DVD burners, I'm a noob, so forgive the basic questions:

I've read quite a few reviews, and it seems as though it's quite common that a given DVD burner may not be able to handle all DVD media, even mainstream media. For example, in a review Anandtech did late last year, the then-current NEC 16x burner (3500a) couldn't write to Mitsubishi or Ritek 16X media. I understand that this has something to do with the burner's firmware not containing particular MIDs. But I'd been kind of assuming that if I purchased the media of one of the main manufacturers (Ritek, Mitsubishi, Taiyo Yuden) that I'd be "safe". Is this not true?

If I purchase a 16x burner, is there any reason I should NOT purchase 16X media? I notice that a lot of people with NEC 3520as purchase 8X or even 4x media. I realize that the lower-rated media is cheaper, but is that the ONLY reason to purchase it (assuming your burner is rated to handle the speed of faster media)?

The combination I've been thinking of going with is the NEC 3540a and Taiyo Yuden CD-R 16X media. Is this a good combination? Is third-party firmware support fully in place for the 3540a?

Is there any reason to buy a separate DVD reader, or is just the burner sufficient?

 

[shortylickens]

As a general rule, slower burns come out better. Regardless of burner speeds or the media's rated speed.
If I were to buy a new, top-of-the-line burner it would have to be 16x. But I would still buy slower-rated media to save money.
Since my game computer is seperate from my office computer, I usually set my burn speed to 1x and leave it alone until finished.

Also, as a general rule, name brand media has fewer bad burns than generic crap. But since I always burn slow I can get by with mid-range stuff.


http://www.meritline.com/dvd-plus-r-blank-media.html

On the top half of the page, you'll notice it says " Standard Grade, Premium Grade, Professional Grade".
I can use the Accu brand stuff with no problems. I just cant write directly on the disc with a magic marker.

You only need a seperate DVD reader if you plan on backing up many discs in real-time.
I normally use DVDshrink to make an ISO file and then burn it at my leisure.

 

[n7]

Burners like the BenQ DW1620 Pro actually are capable of burning most 8x media @ 12x or 16x.

There's nothing wrong with getting 16x media, it's just more expensive is all.

 

[furballi]

The NEC 3500/3520 is a very good burner. I always burn movies at 4x (more sensitive to burn quality issues), and 8x to 12x for data.