The last linux setup DVD I tried to burn with the built in burn tool in W7 using standard settings was faulty, IIRC you can't define burn speed in the built in tool.
So you're saying that for some reason Windows won't optimize the speed of an optical drive but instead runs it at some lower speed? I really find this difficult to believe. I get that a drive might have borked an OS installation without throwing up an error. I've had that happen. How can you be sure it was because Microsoft decided to run your burn speed at something other than max and why, as the Linux devotee you are, were you using Windows to begin with?
(just as it's easy to mess up Windows if you follow instructions of a newer/older version).
Really? Every version of Window's I've installed gives on screen prompts from time to time. It's really pretty hard to follow any other kind of instructions. Care to elaborate on where one might mess up the Windows installation by following the "wrong instructions"?