Just a warning to others...

I recently bought 200 BenQ discs from meritline and I have had abuot 2 out of every 5 discs fail to play in my standalone. I end up having to re-rip them to my PC and re-burn them with other media (whcih then plays fine). I have a 1620 and my firmware is B7V9 driver and this happens with both Nero and DVD Decryptor.

I did a scan the other day and the disc didn't seem ot have an outrageous amount of errors, but it still was a bad burn and unplayable.

Have you used the bitsetting tool and set the booktype for +R to DVD-ROM. What does the Nero CD-DVD Speed Benchmark or ScanDisc tests look like, on the discs that fail?

I got myself 2 spindles of 25 at CDfreaks Shop, and I have never had any media that bad...
Mines are -R 8X media code sony 08.

ricobico, revert your 1620's firmware back to B7U9. the same thing happened to me when i upgraded to b7v9. but when i went back to using b7u9, i never had a problem and i also use benq media.

thanks to both of you. I will try goping back to the B7U9

I didn't bitset because they are -Rs

I've burned hundreds of BenQ branded media, DAXON AZ2. It's garbage IME, and I've returned 100-stacks galore. Haven't found anything decent yet.
Try B7T9, it's the only one that's given me consistent reasonable burn quality with AZ2.

I've only burned a handful of DAXON AZ2's (BENQ 8x +R), but I noticed PIE/PIF improved somewhat when using B7U9 @ MBIPG101 R05 write strategy. Unfortunately, I haven't tried any other firmwares and/or write strategy combo's.

FYI:

B7U9 @ default write strat:
PIE's @ 40,585 - 46,878 (15-24 max) / PIF's @ 464-1,738 (6-7 max)

B7U9 @ MBIPG101 R05 write strat:
PIE's @ 22,719 - 29,396 (11-17 max) / PIF's @ 362-407 (5-6 max)

.... If the DAXON AZ2 media are anything like MBIPG101 R04's, then I'd expect a LOT of variation from disc to disc - even within the same spindle. I suppose that's the difference b/t good / consistent media like YUDEN000 T02's and the cheaper alternatives.

These are not labeled the Daxon AZ2. They are the labeled (SONY08 D1). I looked at the Benq site and read thorugh their "official" firmware notes and I found a couple that mention this brand specifically, so I will those that before I bug you anymore.
the B7T9 is mentioned, btw

B7T9 seems to be the best after tested five firware versions. The CDSPEED test shows 92% with the PI max at 14. Not the best burn ever, but I think they will work - I'll have to check tongiht whne I get home to see if they play in my Pioneer. I have t-Yudens ordered and they'll be here Tuesday, so these should work until then.

Plus I slowed down the burn to 8x instead of "Max" - seems to help.

puzzling, when I scpeed test in my 162-., I get decent results, but when I sped text in my lite-on ROM, I get bad results. I don't get it.

I've used the Daxon AZ2 media for some time now, they are not great discs, I tend to get high 80's in the scans, but never have I had a problem playing the DVDs in my Xbox, or my standalone Philips and other DVD players. I got them for dirt cheap, so for the cost, they were worth it.

Again, these ARE NOT Daxon AZ2

Like I told you above, you got exactly what I got from CDFREAKS SHOP, they are garbage!!! I tried with my two burners!!! I think I am going to dump them...
In fact I also have two spindles of MAM-E, which are million time better then BenQ -R Sony08

Got ya, well from my experience the Sony MID BenQs are quite good on a BenQ DW1625, so maybe you got yourself a batch batch?

yes a bad batch of 200. I will no longer buy these. Frist impressions are hard to overcome and this was not a good one. of course the folks at Meritline are sweethearts and are replacing them with Prodisks, whcih I have used in the past with no problems. And I have switched to Tayu Yudens (sp?) and I will just pay the extra $.05 a disk from here on out(or until they start to suck like Riteks did)
thanks for all of your suggestions.

Yesterday I gave 3 of mine to a friend who has an LG 4163, and he got the same coaster!!!

BYW, these are labeled - SONY08D1