[MacGallant]

I have an internal Sony DRU-802A DVD burner connected to my ata33 bus on my MDD and it can burn DVD-Rs at 16x.

My brother has an external Mad Dog DVD burner connected to his iBook via firewire and it too can burn DVD-Rs at 16x.

For some reason my bro's external Mad Dog DVD burner seems to burn DVD-Rs at 16x at a faster pace than my internal Sony burner burning DVD-R at 16x.

I've checked the Disc Recording log file in the Console and both drives are burning at actual 16x speed.

Could it be the fact that the ata33 bus is 33Megabytes per second=264megabits
vs.
firewire is 50megabytes per second=400megabits
because 1 Megabyte=8megabits

I welcome all to respond to this thread. Thanks.

[mduell]

16x DVD is only about 20MBps, so it's not a bandwidth issue (unless you have the source drive on the same IDE chain).
Probably just a difference in the performance of the burners; some 16x burners are only 6-8x for most of the disk, reaching 16x at the outer edge while others ramp up to 16x sooner.

[vinster]

What he said... The drive's firmware and components can make a big difference. If you're interested in investigating further, try to find out the Mad Dog DVD's drive mechanism and swap the Mad Dog with the Sony and do some tests.

[Dr.Michael]

Burn speed can also depend on the dvd brand that you use.
Burners perform different with different dvds. If the error rate is too high, the burners reduce their speed.
So find a test for your burner that tells you which brand gives best results.

Find some tests here:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2004/11/...rs/page18.html

It can also be worth to check if the firmware of your burner is up to date.