Differences Between DVD-R 4X & 16X

By Erick Kristian

Dual layer DVDs have a storage capacity of 8.5GB.
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DVD-R refers to a writable DVD; a DVD that can be authored at home using a burner. The descriptors 4x and 16x refer to the write speed the DVD supports. The write speed is the speed at which information/data is written to the DVD. DVD-Rs have a 4.71 GB storage capacity. The only differences between 4x and 16x DVD-Rs are the rate that data is written and the time it takes to write the data.

4x

For 4x DVD-Rs, the data is written to the DVD at 5.28 MB/s or 42.24 Mbit/s. It takes approximately 15 minutes to write a 4x DVD.

16x

The 16x DVD-Rs are written at a rate of 21.12 MB/s or 84.48 Mbit/s. The process is shorter than a 4x DVD-R and only takes 5.75 minutes.

DVD-R burners

The quality and speed of the DVD-R disc is impacted by the model of burner as well. A low quality burner may inhibit the speed of the DVD-R disc and it may not write data as quickly. The burner must be able to support the speed of the DVD-R disc as well. Most all new burners support 4x and 16x.

DVD-R Discs

The brand of DVD-R discs play an important role. Cheap discs may also inhibit the quality and speed of the burn. Cheaper discs can fail more often and may not work properly when the data is being read.

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