Finally finished!

Check out my BenQ DW1620A review here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/159

A personal thank to BenQ for being very helpful and actually fixing the problems I've reported - unlike most other companies I've had contact with.

Suggestions/comments welcomed

I did check my review against the review at CDRLabs as I've found their reviews to be trustworthy too unlike a lot of other reviews I've seen: http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=245

And I do notice that some test results are not identical. My drive do never have any problems writing DVD-R at 16x for example. I did also notice that the writing times posted over at CDRlabs was 10-15 seconds higher than what I got with my drive.

You may also request additional tests in this thread if you want.

nice

one thing about this drive. it wasn't made to write slow. 2x dvd-r is not good with this drive as it burns these at 2.4x and 2.4x dvd+r (prodiscr01) is worse than 4x dvd+r.

but i still love my benq 1620.

Awesome review on a awesome drive.

Great review!!



I love my Benq 2

I love my BenQ too. That's a excellent RITEKR03 graph. I'm impressed. I hear R03 can vary in quality.

good review !!!!!


BENQ DW620 is best choice buy ~~

The dye structure may vary and thus many drives will have problems writing it. But the BenQ is less affected by this due to the Walking OPC tech which calibrates the writing for every disc.

I've written close to 50 ritek.r03 (different brands) at 12x with this drive and I'm honestly impressed as the same discs fails badly at 8x on most other drives.

Big thanks to OC-Freak for all his time and effort on this review. (as well as all his other reviews).
Kudos to BenQ for resolving/fixing most of the issues that OC-Freak brought to their attention.

As requested by Pchilson in a PM: Test results with a Taiwan made MCC003.

Made in Taiwan - disc comes from a 25 spindle of 8x Verbatim DVD+R.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:MCC-003-000]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc Type : [DVD+R]
Manufacturer ID : [MCC]
Manufacturer Name : [Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.]
Media Type ID : [003]
Product Revision : [Not Specified]
Disc Application Code : [General Purpose]
Recording Speeds : [1x , 2.4x , 4x , 6x-8x]
Blank Disc Capacity : [2,295,104 Sectors = 4,482.6MB = 4.38GB (4.70GB)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------


0000 : 00 00 00 00 a1 0f 02 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3f .............&.?
0010 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 03 4d 43 43 00 00 00 00 00 30 .......MCC.....0
0020 : 30 33 00 38 23 54 37 12 02 42 6e 02 a8 6b 15 15 03.8#T7..Bn..k..
0030 : 0b 0b 08 08 01 19 1b 0c 0c 0c 0d 01 00 00 00 00 ................
0040 : 00 00 00 00 01 00 38 38 02 2d 65 1c 06 2e 23 10 ......88.-e...#.
0050 : 04 1e 1d 01 00 00 02 2d 65 1c 06 2e 23 10 04 1e .......-e...#...
0060 : 1d 01 00 00 02 00 54 70 02 2f 64 67 20 14 0b 0b ......Tp./dg ...
0070 : 01 20 00 00 00 00 02 42 5d 66 20 14 0b 0b 01 20 . .....B]f ....
0080 : 00 00 00 32 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ...2............

No problems found here. Written nicely at 12x, used 6 minutes and 28 seconds to write.

well this settles it for me I have been looking at this drive for the past week. I read the review and went ahead and ordered mine. for me it has no weaknesses I dont use CDRW or DVDRW media. I use DVD+R exclusively for DVD burning and I burn CDR's on my PlexWriter premium.

oops

Thank you for that OC-Freak.
Now I can feel safe getting these.
Rather good deal here on 50 for $29.99

That's for the DW1610. I'd stick with the OEM version DW1620 or go to Banana PC if you really need a retail version. NewEgg's OEM version does contain software - RecordNow.

yep I didnt look close enough. at least now I dont have to kick myself for ordering the retail version from Mwave for 76.00 PLUS shipping.

I have an OEM version (though it has the B-series firmware). I have B7L9 installed. I cannot duplicate your sheep test, though. I have tried on both CD-R and CD-RW media, and I cannot get even one sheep.

My faceplate looks different from yours - mine looks like the 1600. Is that the difference between the OEM and retail?

A quick question: does this drive allow overburning DVD+R media ?

regards, Stephen

Well after reading CDR Labs and CD Freaks reviews I've gone and ordered a DW1620A, I was getting tired of NEC's relaxed attitude towards firmware updates anyway, by the way good job on the review OC-Freak.

I cant wait for mine to arrive now though the only very small niggle for me at least is no silver version (aluminium case) and painting it isnt an option unless you want to wipe all the logos of the front, still I can live with that.

@ OC-Freak.
Do you think that BenQ is now the best choice in comparison to Nec, Pioneer, Plextor and LiteON?

I have NEC ND-3500AG and Pioneer DVR-A08XLA here and I have to honestly say that I prefer the BenQ over these two.

I do not have Plextor and Lite-On 16x drives - so I can't comment on them.

Drawbacks with the NEC/Pioneer:

-No bitsetting for +R/RW
-VERY poor media compatibility (wtf? philips 16x media has been available since late May and is still not supported at 16x. wtf? Ritek 8x DVD+R has been available for almost a year and is still supported at 4x only. wtf? Ritek 16x DVD+R is still not supported at 16x? an so on).
-BenQ supports writing at 16x to more 8x media.
-They are slower writers than benq for all DVD-R and DVD+R speeds above 4x. (CAV/P-CAV is the way to go! not Z-CLV!)

So the BenQ is a very good drive in my eyes - probably as close to perfect as I'll ever see a drive? I'm quite picky on what I want from a drive

Yes, Z-CLV is . I total agree.

In your review I don't see any burn/scan of Princo .
Please, kindly post one now. Only for curiosity because I don't use Princo.
Some days ago I burned a Princo with a NEC 3500 with an extraordinary result!

Here you go: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=106012

Written with B7J9, I do not have time to re-test now, but I guess it will not be worse than that.

Pretty good and few PI Failures. Reads back at almost full 16x in the NEC ND-3500AG too.

Yes, pretty good.
Thanks OC.

great review oc

I think i´ll sell my BTC and NEC drives and go for the BenQ

The WOPC system of BenQ change on the fly, for better burning quality, only the laser power or also the speed (if necessary)?