I just ran out of Verbatim 8x dvd+ medias and then bought some max disk dvd+ which says 8x on the box, but both growisofs and cdrecord-dvdhack will only burn at speed 1x even with the speed=8 option set. does anyone know why this is
Quoting growisofs manual page, -speed=N bullet: "Keep in mind that N essentially denotes speed closest to N*1385KBps among those offered by unit for currently mounted media. The list can be found in dvd+rw-mediainfo output."
Keyword is "offered by unit," meaning that it's your unit that limits recording speed for this particular brand, not recording software.
and whether something can be done?
Recording velocity issues is pure firmware domain. Stick to media brands that you already know to be correctly recognized and properly supported by your firmware or Turn to your hardware vendor. A.