Does this drive actually support writing DVDs at below 8x? The manual says it can go as low as 2x but when I tried it just forced it to 8. Mine is in an OWC enclosure, does that just ignore what the drive in it is actually capable of?

i use an external bd writer
An lg one

Theoretically files burned at 8x should be identical to ones burned at 2x. If yours have errors then get a new burner but I would't blame the drive for doing things the way it was optimally made to. As long as the discs themselves are high quality there's almost no difference.

Depends on what software you use too

>>105772828
>Theoretically files burned at 8x should be identical to ones burned at 2x.

I burned many bootable DOS, BartPE, WinPE and Linux live CDs then DVDs since 1999 though the most recent was several years ago. Slower burn rates produced consistently better results on many different burners. I used Nero and later CDRWIN trialware which is limited to 1X.

Since I switched to Linux K3b works fine too.

>>105772828
The 8x burn got pretty much top tier results in Nero DiscSpeed and this is definitely my go to burner now but I'm specifically trying to go lower for PS2 backups.