I was all excited, I received my 1620 today ($108). There are definately some issues with the -R disks. Thought I'd throw my first experiances with this drive out to the group.

I installed the drive and updated the firmware to the B7H9 from the Benq.EU site. Unfortunately my Recordnow dx 4.06 wouldn't recognize the drive, so I installed the included Recordnow Deluxe (don't care for the new version). The drive shows up fine in the new version along with my pioneer 104 and liteon 411s@811s.

I use only the TDK 4x dvds (TTG01), I have been coasterless with these dvds on the pioneer and liteon drives. I was looking forward to the new drive as the pioneer and liteon will only burn the TTG01's at 2X. I figured I would test the drive by backing up a couple of my dvds. I burned both discs with the 1620 at 4x, both were verified by Record now. Having read about the drive having issues with -R, I then tested for errors with dvdinfo, it was error free.

Both discs played fine on all drives in the computer, but I cannot get them to play in my stand alone player. I wasn't confident in my use of the new Record now setup so I burned both movies again using the same data disc setting and the same setup but this time with the pioneer 104. It doesn't appear to be a problem with the Record now software, both movies play fine in the stand alone being burned from the pioneer.

I have compared the 2 sets of discs with dvdinfo, both show the same media info.
UDF 1.02
book type dvd-r
media type dvd-r

Any suggestions other then waiting for another firmware update to come along. I hate to have to switch to a different media.

Troy

i suggest you to contact benq to report this strange issue

Thought I would do a little follow up. I tried the two discs on my friends GE5803 and they played fine, when I get a chance I will try to run them on some players in the store.

I went ahead and picked up some TDK DVD+R 8X to try out, I'm happy to say the one disc I've made so far has worked just fine.

did a burn on verbatim -R media and this is what i got...

Verbatim -R 2.4x



Kprobe

Yucks!!! Horrid probe...


Doing another krpobe on 2nd verbatim disc..

Quailty Test

Troy,

Is there a reason you hate going to +?

I hate change.
I had read alot about compatability problems with the +R so I didn't want to have to make a change. I must say though, after the -R's failed, I tried the TDK +R 8x and I am loving it. They burn at 16X and I have not had a coaster yet ( 30 good burns ). Before this drive I was burning at 2X, what a difference.

I'll hang on to my Pioneer 104 should I have the need to burn any -R's. But the way it looks I won't have any.

Great and if you want cheaper media to try Prodisc 8x + that burns at 12x and rochjpnr01 that burns at 4x only, but good quality, both for under 50 cents a disk. TY 8x + burns at 16x and is top quality for 90 cents a disk at supermediastore.com or rima.com. If you have the latest firmware it defaults everything to dvd-rom so you shouldn't have any compatibility issues.

I do have the latest firmware. I tried the bitsetting program when I first installed the drive and it showed +R,+RW, & +DL preset for DVD-ROM. Thanks for the info on the other brands, maybe I'll try out the Prodisc when I run out of the TDK's.

Hi, all...I too just received my new BenQ 1620. I have updated to the latest official f/w (B7H9). However, I am having the same problem as Troys reported. DVD-R discs burned with the BenQ 1620 are not as compatible as the very same discs burned with my Pioneer 106D.

For example, I have tried BeAll (G40001) 4X rated DVD-R @ 4X and Prodisc (MCC 02RG20) 4X rated DVD-R @ 4X on both the BenQ 1620 and the Pioneer 106D. Although I have freezing problems on these discs when burned by the Pioneer, they are at least recognized and played by my Daewoo DVG-3000N. Philips DVP642 and Philips DVD711 have no problems with playing from both burners. I suspect this could be caused by a flawed session finalization or ? Probably could be fixed via f/w update...

There is one additional problem I have seen--I have noticed that DVD-R discs burned by the BenQ are not as compatible with the BenQ itself! When inserting these discs into the BenQ, it takes 30secs to recognize versus <5 secs for Pioneer burned discs. Additionally, when scanning for PI/PO/jitter, the BenQ discs are running at < 0.1 x instead of 0.6-1.1x for Pioneer burned discs!

Do I have a bad drive....or is this just further proof that the -R writing f/w is still flawed?

At any rate, I have contacted BenQ and will let you guys know what their response is.

Hi Gamedeus,
I'm glad you was able to submit the problem, I naver had the chance to contact BenQ, for some reason I was unable to submit the email after taking the time to type it all out. I have had the same thing happen on another site, It started after the SP2 XP update, go figure.

On to the 1620. I also noticed that while the drive is very good at overcoming errors, much better then my Liteon 411, when it does finally fail to read the Pioneer handles the errors with no problems.

I didn't want to change from the media I was use to using. I did stay with the same brand and just moved to the +R. The TDK's aren't the cheapest at around a dollar a disc, but I have yet to have one fail. The fact that the 8X burns every time at 16X makes it that much better. I would definately recommend this as an alternative to the -R for now.

the 1620 is not a good -r burner. new firmware is still needed to see if benq can improve on this.

Just though I would show some good DVD-R results using a new firmware version B7J9

Cheapo Datawrite 8x -R grey FUJUFILM03 written at 12x. Reads back perfect at 16x using my picky DVD-ROM.

BenQ 8x -R SONY08D1 written at 16x. Reads back almost perfect on my picky DVD-ROM.

So improvements is on the way......

how about sharing a bit more

Another answer from Henry Peeters (Benq's support)

"Some of my old DVD-R or DVD-RW don't go with my "new " 1620A, it wants
just to burn them at the speed of 2,4X that isn't a speed for -R technology.
Of course , result is a coaster... :-(

Answer: This is a problem that will always exist, not only BenQ but also
other manufactureres encounter this.
We do our best to support as many media as possible, but unfortunately this
is not always possible since there is a limited space available in the
drives memory to store all media support available on the market. We will
have to make a decision about what older media we are going to support on
what speed so all the newer media still fits in the memory of the drive."

OC-Freak

That new fw you tested B7J9 looks like real help to -R media burning, I sure hope BenQ releases it soon, or maybe you will be allowed to do so. very nice

That won't be any fun - nobody will read my review then

okay then - one more result.

Princo 4x -R. These came out as coasters EVERY time using firmware B7H9.

This reading curve is one of the better reding curves I've ever seen with princo discs! Not even pioneer/NEC burns will give better curves!

OC-Freak

I want this fw!!!!!

I guess many want this firmware

I have been testing pretty much for BenQ the past two months , and to be honest - they have listened to me as well And they have improved too.

I suggested that ricohjpnr01 and prodisc.r03 might work at 12x/16x and sure enough - next fw I got had implemented these changes.

I suggested that MCC02RG20 8x -R might work at 12x - and sure enough, with B7J9 it works at 12x

Not sure if it were my feedback that made them do these changes though - but it happened at least I've been feeding them with feedback and test results for a loong time now - so let's hope for improvements.

I'm not sure if B7J9 will be released - they mentioned some more slight polishing for a releasable B7K9 soon - but I'm not sure about anything

KenW: I see your drive is a 1600@1620.

Unfortunately 1600@1620 is not quite as good as a real 1620 to my experience - and when I asked BenQ they mentioned some hardware optimizing too on the real 1620.

The 1600@1620 seems to be pickier about media, the OPC control is more strict.

Examples:

Sony.d11 +R = 12x with 1600@1620, 16x with 1620.
MCC003 (First version only!!) = 4x!!! with 1600@1620, 12x with 1620.
Plasmon1C1 = 4x!!! with 1600@1620, 12x with 1620.

Also DVD-R discs seems to have slightly less errors with the real 1620. And writing time seems to be slightly better with the real 1620 due to less "running OPC dips" in the transfer graph.

Just thought I'd let you know

OC-Freak

Thank you, that's very helpful. I will be looking forward to doing some testing on release fw, I will post results, maybe we could compare scans on same media. At the moment I have yuden000T02, fujifilm03, cmc E01, some ttG01, and tyg01, and a few ricohR01, R02

I to have not got the fuji -R 8x to burn with B7H9 fw.

Oh, guess that explains the whole deal of me getting 12x max overspeed.

Thanks

kekeke....OC-Freak ..how about the stability/consistency of burning at 16x consistently....i have contacted the local singapore Benq support and they said they are working closely with their taiwan R&D guys......


i want more consistent 16x burnning speeds.....if always max at 12x i might as well go for a 12x burner...

I think its RMA time and hope they send me a real 1620 drive.
Hey Mr. OC-Freak if KenW and I had that firmware we could try it out and confirm if the 1600@1620 is realy not as good as original 1620.

BTW thanks whether it be good or bad for our 1600@1620 drives

Any speed increase of Optodisc 8x DVD+R from 8x?