Strange K3B behavour

[Evincar]

I have recorded a DVD and I have noticed a rather weird thing in K3B. It detects my max DVD write speed correctly (8x), but it starts recording at 2x, with the DVD writer itself sounding very low, like it is spinning slowly. Then, after 15% or so is completed, it switches to 4x, a while later, to 6x, (no problems writing at those speeds whatsoever) and, only after 85% has been completed, it jumps to the 8X speed! 8x is not very constant due to running out of buffer from time to time, but it still works fine.

Why the hell does that? I have searched the configuration options and I can't find any reason it should do such a stupid thing. I mean, why not start at 6x, if it works perfectly. That "warm-up" writing wastes a ton of time, it takes 13 min to write a full DVD, while it could be done in 7~8.

Also, the device buffer is not shown, but I think that only works with K3B-1.0 or greater.
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<@Chin^> My sister caught me jacking off the other week and calls me a pervert
<@Chin^> just the other day i walked into my room and caught my sister masturbating
<@Chin^> So she calls me a pervert again?!?
<@Chin^> there is no justice in the world...

[Spectere]

If K3B's speed display works the way I think it does (i.e. reporting the actual write speed at a given time), it's a hardware limitation as opposed to a software one.

You see, when playing audio CDs (or using an old drive), the disc will physically spin faster when it gets closer to the center of the disc to ensure that it continues to read data at the same rate. This is called constant linear velocity, or CLV.

I believe CD-ROM drive manufacturers started switching to constant angular velocity (CAV) around the 8x mark. When using CAV, the motor will spin at a constant rate as the disc is read or written to, allowing for higher theoretical read/write speeds. The tradeoff with using that method is that while your drive may read the outer edge of the disc at, say, 48x, it might only be able to read data from the inner ring at 24x. This disadvantage doesn't seem to be advertised at all anymore (I seem to remember drives being advertised as "20-32x" years ago, but I haven't seen anything like that now), unfortunately, which does make things confusing and misleading. The fact that very few burning packages show the actual write speed in real-time helps to mask that fact as well.

Anyhoo, long story short, because CDs and DVDs are written from the inner ring to the outer edge, you will see a much-reduced write speed at the beginning of the write. There's nothing you can do about that.