The present invention prevents data underruns within an internal buffer of an optical media recording device while improving a recording rate by dynamically determining a time period to delay transferring data from a computer system to an optical media recording device. The time delay period may be set when an indication to delay data transfer from a source to an optical media recorder is received because the internal buffer is unable to hold or to receive additional data. The time delay period may then be set to a time less than a total time to empty the internal buffer given the total capacity of the internal buffer and the data transfer rate of the optical media recording device. Other factors also may be considered, such as the size and time for a single write to the optical media recorder.