dvd burning question

did u try upgrading nero and check if that works ?which version of nero r u using, might be its incompataible with ur burner?
http://www.nero.com/eng/index.html

it doesnt have an upgrade option.  and it came with my dvd burner.  i will have to check the model in about 2 hours when i get back home.  so... it sounds not normal?  i thought maybe there was a switch to go faster or something....

If it came with ur dvd burner then it has to be compatible with it.
there were issues when in nero u'd only 4x as selected when u  used TDK DVD-R 8 am not that sure about others
Other've faced these issues at
http://www.broadbandreports.com/forum/remark,13172082
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdmedia.php?selectmedia=2240&nextcomments=25

Hang around somebosy or the other at E-E would definitely be able to sort this out.

I am willing to bet that the DVD is in PIO only mode, Right click on My Computer, Click Properties, then click on Hardware, now Device Manager, and find the IDE controller that the burner is on, check if it is in DMA mode, or PIO only mode, if it is in PIO only mode, remove the DVD burner from Device Manager, and as long as it is on the secondary channel (I.E. not slaved off the HDD), remove the channel it is on, then restart and enter the BIOS, and disable the controller that the drive is on, now save and exit then let windows boot normally, and restart again AFTER the full bootup has completed, now go back into the BIOS, and re-enable the channel, save and exit again, and let windows re-detect the drive and IDE channel, now go back into Device Manager, and check the channel again, it should be in DMA mode now, and all should be well.

Are you certian that you are not using a 4x dvd disk?

i'd go with onedeej's  post

the mode is listed as ultra DMA 133.... i just got home and am tryign to test it out....

Greertings  alenknight!

Since we do not have much information on Nero that came with the drive, I advice you to download WinDVD Creator (trial version) and check if it can play DVD's. This can narrow down the issue on the software. You can download it from the link:

http://www.myzips.com/software/WinDVD-Creator-2-Gold.phtml

ok... trying to download windvd creator....
  by the way.. i downloaded DVD identifier... and... it stated that the DVD burner is only able to burn up to 4x... but when i put a 2x dvd-RW in... it said the burner can only go up to 2 x!!!!  i guess thats normal... but that means there is no way to test the actual speed of the dvd burner....
so far i am guessing its possible that its just a bad set of DVDs... got them kinda cheap... i am not worried about the dvds... i am worried about my dvd burner

Does your drive have the latest firmware?

I had the same problem - I have a stack of Ridata DVD-Rs that are rated for 8X, but Nero only let me burn at 4X. After updating the firmware I am able to burn the same disks at 8X (I had another brand of  8X disks that I was able to burn at 12X after the firmware update)

alenknight, can I have the exact line listed in the device manager under CD/DVD drives. Also the model number.

the model number is   HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B

and under device manager/ dvd/cdrom drives.... just the model number is written... same as above....

Thank you alenknight.

Check the link below:

http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/storage/display/lg-gsa-4163b_11.html

It states that DVD+RW and DVD-RW has the writing speed of 4X.

right... but this is DVD-R