I would like to share with you my experience re DVD's. I also own a DR8-A and have had it for a year now. I have a rather old Pioneer DV-444 player with my TV and a DVD ROM on my PC. I have had problems with reading on both drives from the back-ups I make (Both drives are approx 6 yrs old.). I finally found that some media work well on both drives, eg. RITEK G04, TDK 4X -R and prodisc. But when the 8X -R's started arriving I started with the problem you are having. I noted that the drive starts burning at 4X up to around 29%, then stops spins up and continues, I am assuming at 8X. The disc is perfectly readable up to 29% but then stops on DV-444. On the -ROM and must players they work fine. This is when using CloneDVD2. It also seems that CloneDVD ignores your selected speed and just starts burning at which speed it decides!! It does work well with eProformance 8X (Prodisc) and SmartBuy 8X though, and is perfectly readable on any player. Now I found that Nero does keep the selected speed throughout and the result is perfect on the same discs, so probably it something with the Software, and the DVD-writer burning at 8X that is wrong. Remember I bought it as a 4X -R and 8X+R and only by firmware it is now 8X -R, so I assume that keeping it at the original MAX 4X -R is best, especially for older players. I hope that this will be of any help!!
