Read it here

Been finished for over a week, but havn't been uploaded before now due to various things (waiting for BenQ comments + some personal thing from my side + upgrade on one of the cdfreaks servers).

As always; comments and constructive criticism is welcomed

Anyway - I have a pile of drives in the review queue so look forward to more reviews.......expecially some interesting dual layer capable drives, but that will take some time and it's no hurry as the technology is still "young".

Btw; thanks to Rdgrimes for looking over the review searching for spelling and grammar errors

it's there a big problem in Benq test.....about test Kprobe with liteon 832s who's give as a bad strategy read similar to Sony 700a firmware....must be improved with next firmware realeased!
i have a same pb when i test dvd's with Kprobe using Sony 700A firmware but solved when i try it with liteon 812s Usoj firmware.
ex the slowdowns at the end of disc ...witch never exists with 812s latest firmware...

so do you think that slowdowns at the end of several disks are due to the reader and not to the writer?

@OC-Freaks, your next review.... what drive?

The review is dead on. Anyone looking at an inexpensive drive will find it hard to ignore the Benq 822a. I'm curious, what (if any) issues future firmware revisions will resolve. Benq is apparently reaching out to the recording community, and that is a rather encouraging sign.

yes indeed

Don't know yet, my next review is soon finished - but I don't know if the company that provided the drive will allow me to publish it. Yes - there is not much positive to say about it......

and a next review is about : Liteon 832s or maybe Sony 700A (the same as Liteon)
i think!

Wrong. I do not have those drives yet......

...and, more important, you haven't any DL discs for burning tests!

The benq drive is a good drive if it has the correct writing strategy. ive found some newer 8x dvds dont burn well with it. A new firmware release would definatly fix this. because of it only writing dvd-rs at 4x id say its not as good as the nec nd2500A. Also the pioneer A07XL with firmware 1.13 is a great drive too escpecially with unknown media.

AhAh... ... ! So it's true : the Neroinfotool in your review shows
clearly a LiteOn 832s (slave from NEC 2500a).

You have the 832s is (was) in your system, right ?

i think it is a 812@832

Hi, Thanks for your review of the Benq DW822A. I bought one yesterday from novatech on the strenght of your review, even though it pointed out the 4x -R limitations and today a Benq DW822A plus turned up!! (wasn't advertised as such) and this creature is a DW822A with 8x -R recording capability. So it looks like Benq do listen to your comments. Plus any one considering buying a DW822A should make sure they get a DW822A plus. Also found the DVD on Benq's website hidden away under the spec for the DW822A.
http://www.benq-eu.com/Products/DVDR...specifications

@ratbag
what firmware do you have on that drive?

I wonder if the change is hardware related or just a fw change, anyone know about this?

The original DW822A w/B3BC was only DVD-R 4X
The Plus DW822A w/B3HC is a DVD-R 8X (select media)

Only difference between the DW822A and the DW822APlus is the FirmWare.