DVD-R Media and Drive Speed Ratings for DRU-500AX 2.0e

Help!!!

Okay so i have the DRU-500AX, "upgraded" to firmware 2.0e. I have read lately that sony has been messing around with certain companies and thier media, actually taking away speed from media made by certain companies.

i was testing out the drive capabilities when i read this, and using Nero InfoTool, i found that my plextor burner can have speeds selected from 4x to 40x, the DRU-500 only had 2x listed when DVD-R media was inserted....no 1x option, and no 4x option. when i remove the blank CD from the plextor drive, all the media options are shown. when i remove the DVD blank though, the 2x is the only option still

anyone know what's up? do i have to go out and actually buy a 4x media to see if the drive works with 4x media?

Lastly, i really don't know the speed of this media. it's the KHypermedia DVD-Rs that were on sale 2 weeks or so ago at OfficeMax

if someone can point me to a program or something that will let me querry the Drive and find out it's top speeds and to test a blank media and figure out it's top recording speed.

thanx all