What distinguishes a cd/dvd speeds?

[b1gapl]

What makes the cd or a dvd at capable of burning at a specific speed. For example what makes a DVD burn at 16x or at 8x etc. Is it made with different material or the method of making them different?

 

[Ste]

Probably the Type of laser, the Motor to spin the CD and the motor to move the laser, Im guessing.

 

[talldude123]

I'm pretty sure that the speed is how fast the disc spins while the laser writes to the CD/DVD.

 

[The General]

It's relative. Let's say for example the first CD writers wrote CD's at an average speed of 1mb per second. That would make the baseline, so then if they made a CD writer that wrote at 8mb per second, it's 8x, 16mb per second, 16x, etc.

At least thats what I heard.