BenQ has the production facilities, while Philips designs the chipset/electronic components.

/OFF TOPIC

The Philips DVDR1640P and the *REAL* BenQ DW1620 have the same intern code - “DVD8631/11”

The BenQ DW1600 can be upgraded to BenQ DW1620 and it got another intern code (DVD8601).

So it could be that the BenQ DW1600 and the BenQ DW1600@DW1620 may contain differences, compared to the Philips DVDR1640P and the *REAL* BenQ DW1620.

If I should be mistaken in these matters listed above, then somebody please correct me.

Malaysia made Philips DVDR1640P, DVD8631/11


China made Philips DVDR1620 , DVD8631/15


early DW1600 batch (cannot see the intern code)

Then of course the next question is the 1620 crossflashable to the phillips firmware? Can it be modded to do so if not? Also i am a little dissapointed that the 1640 does not do 4x dual layer..the nec and pioneer do right?

The “real” BenQ 1620 can be crossflashed with the Philips DVDR1640P firmware. But you will need the Philips firmware as a *.cvt file (extracted and decoded) and a BenQ/Philips uniflasher to crossflash it. You will also need a BenQ 1620 *.cvt firmware file (extracted and decoded) if you want to go bring the drive back as a BenQ. Meaning – the official firmware flash tool/program does a drive check before it start the flash process and will refuse to flash if the drive check fails.

It is also possible to crossflash BenQ 1620 and Philips 1640P to other rebagged/OEM drives as well – with the codename “DVD8631”. I will not name those drive yet, since it is considered as confidential information at the moment. I can only say that I have played around with some of those firmwares with the Philips 1640P.


Yes, that is right - they (nec & pioneer) can burn DVD+R9 DL 2.4x certified media at 4x. (But in some cases “quality comes before speed”). I would wait - to comment this, until any DVD+R9 DL media certified at 4x (8x?) comes official on the marked. Besides the DVD+R9 DL writing technology is “still young” and the media “expensive”.

thanks Jan,

Codeguys get to work!

what is this intern code for and what kind of differences could that be?
is different intern code a good thing or bad thing?
is there any hope at all of converting these to any upcoming benq drive and getting 4x dl write speed?

I understood that the 2.4x Writing was "always" going to create a compatibility problem for different DVD Readers. Yes? No? And that the 12x Burning was a non-Standards-Observant issue as well?

Without nameing names. Are you seeing any significant differences with these other firmwares?

Hi, I loved the review and have bought a dvdr1640p. I've found it to be a bit choosy when it comes to media but it's otherwise a good writer. I have a question regarding the review though. It mentions firmware version 2.2 and I have 2.0 on my drive, I have searched the phillips site and have even been told by an engineer that there is no firmware available. I'm just wondering where you guys got the firmware?

I hope you can help as I'm tearing my hair out (and don't have too much to spare!)

;-)

Hi,

I have recently purchased this drive. There are some problems with it. I was able to play Colin McRae 2005 on my previous Pioneer 109. Now the game fails to start on copy protection check phase. I think the drive fails on this. I have submitted the problem to Codemasters, and they have mentioned a firmware upgrade. Now I am waiting a response from Philips. I would give 2.2 a try but I can't find it. Anyone?

Thank you.

Yep the BenQ DW1620 had the same problem (the drive is the same). BenQ released firmware B7J9 that fixed this problem (that fix is also included in B7K9 and newer of course).

P2.2 is not yet released by Philips I think. I'll ask philips when they will release it.

can I flash mi Philips drive with BenQ b7k9 to fix those issues?
Will it work after flashing it with another manufacturer firmware?
I know that is the same model but I don't want to crash mi drive the same week I have bought it :-P

Yes, I was just going to ask the same. I have not been able to get a satisfactionary answer from Philips. I think they are completely ignoring the problem, or that the drive is pretty new.

I thought TDB was working on a flasher/extractor for BenQ... ?

My drive identifies itself as PHILIPS PBDV1640P with firmware B2.0. It's the same drive?

It is the same drive, but your drive is a bulk version of the DVDR1640P and uses another firmware.

Theoretically you can flash your bulk drive with the retail firmware, but you need the firmware as a *.cvt file together with the cvt flashtool.

The major differences with the other (OEM/rebagged) firmwares I have tried are: some media will not burn at higher speed then certified (8x certified media will only burn at 8x). But this may change since the developing of these firmwares may be in an early stage. So we just have to wait and see…..

The intern code (Intern model number) could be i.e hardware differences etc. And the number behind the “/” could be the revision number or the location where it was made. (Guessing)
Normaly a higer number in the intern code (Intern model number) should be better, but this needs to be proved though. (Maybe somebody could comment this?)
There will be hope until the opposite are proved. I guess we just have to wait and see what happens.

I have obtained a flasher for PBDV1640P to upgrade this drive to firmware B2.2 (comes directly from Philips). Maybe it's useful for someone else. I can post attachments but I don't know how If someone wants it, just ask for it.

Ok, I can't post such a "large" attachment. If it is interesting for you, I'll send it to a forum moderator so he can post it for everyone.

Thank you for your offer, but there is no need to send it to us (forum moderator's), since we already got it.

And the reason why we have not posted it yet, is that the firmware is at the time being not official released by Philips.

well, if someone wants the "official" flasher just ask Philips support and they will send you a copy
I forgot to mention that PBDV1640P requires a different flasher than DVDR1640P. The one that I have is the one which works with PBDV1640P.

Great review.

And what about those LED's Very cool!!
Talk about form and function. With this drive's capabilities of over speeding media, and it's good looks.......
It looks to me that Philips has a winner here.

the bulk version doesn't have the cool leds, just in case someone is wondering about buying it.

Dear jan70,
I got a Philips DVDR1640 for testing purposes, with firmware P2.0, and I find this drive very disappointing especially when it comes to (re)write 2x DVD-RW discs (the drive is burning them at 2.5x (WTF?), but the result is very bad). If I erase a 2x DVD-RW disc with the Philips DVDR1640, other burners do not even recognize the disc correctly anymore (fortunately the full erase can "heal" the disc). I think all new Philips 1640 burner on the market contains the firmware P2.0 by default, and there are serious problems with this firmware version. Very bad burning performance on some 4x DVD-R discs, even the TYG01 Maxell DVD-R 4x disc is burned at very poor quality. The drive cant write to 4x DVD-R blanks at 1x or 2x, only at 4x. There are serious reading problems too. All of these errors are similar to the bugs I found in another BenQ/Philips based 16x burner (MSI DR16-B), but the BenQ 1620 and the MSI drive already got the fixes with new firmwares. I wouldn't say a bad word if I could find the P2.2 firmware at the Philips support page, but their product database do not shows the drive at all. Altogether, I believe you, this drive can be a good burner with the fw P2.2, but the average customer will be in trouble with the 2.0 crap...