Part of conclusion:

The 16x DVD±R discs from both Maxell and Verbatim's performed quite well in this regard, although even these premium brand name discs showed higher then normal levels of jitter, a sign that perhaps the media was being pushed a little too hard when recorded at maximum speed. Other 16x discs, from companies such as Fuji, Memorex, and RiData, showed even more signs that they were having trouble at that speed, as both their PIE/PIF and jitter rates were quite high.

On the bright side, the drive performed incredibly well on almost every disc recorded at 8x or lower. I have strong faith that with a little more firmware tweaking, 16x single layer, and even dual layer recording could be made quite stable and effective.