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My DVD drive/writer won't write to some recordable DVDs - DVD-R and DVD+R discs - at their rated speed

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CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive/writer problem: DVD drive/writer won't write to DVD-R and DVD+R discs at their rated speed

I buy DVD-R and DVD+R discs in spindles of 25 for my LG GSA-4082B DVD-RAM writer. The drive has been able to write successfully to most of the brand-name discs that I've bought at their top-rated speeds. However, with DVD-R discs made by Datawrite, the drive doesn't recognise them to be as fast as their highest rating; they write at about half that speed. An 8x disc writes at 4x, a 4x disc writes at 2x, etc. However, 8x DVD+R discs made by Datawrite write at 8x.

Answer

It isn't uncommon for DVD writers to fail to write to some brands of disc at their full rated speed. The drive's firmware has to be able to recognise the make of disc. Moreover, 8x DVD-R discs were relatively new when your drive became available. That means that some brands of disc probably are not included in the drive's compatible media list that is in its firmware, so, updating it might fix the problem.

There is a firmware update for that drive available from the LG site: http://www.lge.com/. The firmware's update version is .A208. Installing it is supposed to improve writing performance. Note well that you must read the instructions carefully before you install the update. Firmware is region-specific, so only use the download for your country.

Even with the latest firmware installed, some brands of disc just aren't compatible with some brands of drive. Either buy only the most expensive, top-quality brands that tend to be the most compatible, or find out by trial-and-error if a brand is compatible. Note that in its extensive testing of CD/DVD drives, Tom's Hardware Guide has discovered that discs made by Verbatim are the most compatible with most brands of drive/writer.

Note that Datawrite (and some other brands) don't make their own discs. The company uses its name on discs made by several manufacturers. That is why some of its discs work at full speed with the drive and others don't. If writing speed is important to you and you don't want to be disappointed, it's best to buy discs made by companies that manufacture their own discs, such as Verbatim.

DVDINF Pro - is a free utility that provides all the details you might want to know about an installed DVD drive, including the driver and version of firmware being used - http://www.dvdinfopro.com/.

The Firmware Page - Update Your CD/DVD Drive Firmware. Most users know that they can update their BIOS but not many know that they can also update the firmware of (most) CD and DVD drives. This website has full details plus some handy tips for overcoming the region locking on your DVD drive. - http://forum.rpc1.org/portal.php