My new Benq 1620Pro just arrived this week
Bought myself a 50 pack spindle of TDK DVD-Rs today (TTG02). Here's my first scan... I'm new to all this, but it looks good to me What do you guys think?

Oddly enough, it came with the B7S9 firmware, which from what i've read here, is customised for the China market. I bought it in Australia btw. I'll flash to the T firmware sometime soon and post another scan.
Another thing, i've got it as a slave on the 2ndary IDE channel, with a Liteon CD-burner as master. Should I disconnect the Litey before I flash, or is it ok to just leave it on?

Cant see any need to disconnect the Lite-On, the BenQ flash tool should work with the drive as it is, if you really wanted to play it safe you could boot into safe mode and flash it from their.

That TTG02 looks good to me, also here is a B7T9 comparision.

I have upgraded to B7T9 firmware... looks good so far. But I have experienced a bunch of PIF errors around the 2GB mark in 2 of my burns like the one attached below... other burns seem normal. Is it anything to worry about?

Pick a random disk from the spindle and try to burn again. Maybe media variation. What software to burn?

Here's my TTG02 burn http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=194

Or try another media. If you like -R, I would suggest TYG02. My Benq loves it, especially @16x.

Here's TYG02 @16x 99% http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=188

Using Nero 6.6.0.6 to burn
Yeah, probably just media variation... will try another disk later.
Your scans look great btw!

Actually was gonna get some +R media for movies, but this -R spindle was on sale. I'll get some soon. How's CMC MAG E01 +Rs on the Benqs? The 50-spindle pack TDK branded ones are also on sale pretty cheap.

Any CMC Magnetic's media is going to vary in quality, although I will say that from scans I've seen of the E01's they look pretty decent on the BenQ. I also know that my F01's (4x CMC Mag's) burn off fairly well even at 8x especially after a write strategy swap to MBIPG101 R04 (It reduced the little spike I'd get at the very end of the burn). I use my BenQ for the cheaper media now since I can burn them at 8x with decent results and the NEC ND3500AG for everything else so both burners get love. And don't get me wrong the NEC burns the other media types well, it just doesn't overspeed them.