detail information

Positive:

• Supports CD-R/RW writing at 48x/32x
• Supports DVD+RW/DVD-RW writing at 8x/6x
• Can write DVD±R certified media at higher speed
• Overall good writing quality
• Supports Bitsetting for DVD+R/+RW/+R DL (sets auto. BookType to DVD-ROM)
• 'Two sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Extracts CD-DA at high speed
• Can rip copy protected Audio-CDs
• Reads CD-ROM/CD-R/CD-DA at 48x
• Reads DVD-ROM/DVD-Video SL/DL at 16/16x/12x
• Reads DVD±RW/±R DL at 12x
• Can read GigaRec (1.3x) discs
• Can overburn CD-Rs up to 99 min
• Can overburn DVD+R media
• Can read 99 min CD-Rs
• Excellent documentation/Owner's Manual
• Drive LED will indicate when SolidBurn feature is being used (by flashing rapidly)
• SolidBurn and OverSpeed feature can be manually controlled in BenQ's Qsuite and Nero CD-DVD Speed
• Cooling solution
• Good Software package
• Nice Bezel design

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• Reads CD-RW only at 40x
• Reads DVD±R only at 12x
• Writing quality on DVD±R DL could be improved
• Green LED for both reading and writing
• 8x writing speed on both layers on DVD+R DL media was not accomplished

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points: The two features - SolidBurn and OverSpeed seems to be an excellent combination. If a DVD±R is good enough for 16x, it will write them at 16x. If not, it will adjust and lower the writing speed, until a new suitable speed has been found and learned.

One benefit of having to enable or disable the OverSpeed feature, is that users who do not need or want to OverSpeed do not need to worry about it, as it is disabled by default. However, power users who like to experiment, will have no problems enabling or disabling the SolidBurn and OverSpeed features through Nero CD-DVD Speed or BenQ's Qsuite.

The cooling solution seems to make the drive run cooler than previous Philips drives without this feature. The cooling solution will simply reduce the risk of over-heating during high-speed reading and writing.

Bitsetting on DVD+R/+RW/+R DL is also a welcome inclusion and ensures good compatibility with set top DVD players.

The printed 'How to…?" documentation was also of a high standard and should provide enough information for the beginner as well for the more experienced user.

The main negative points: There are few negative points about this drive, we would like to mention that other drives offer faster read speed on CD-DA and DVD±R media.

The DVD±R DL writing quality could be improved and our test drive did not manage to write at 8x on both layers on DVD+R DL media.

We would also like to see a dual coloured LED, with one colour used for read and a different colour used for writing, instead of the present single coloured green LED.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'Overall a good drive, that offers some really nice features, making it suitable for both beginners and advanced users".

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we did not find any offers, but at getprice the drive is listed at 48,99 €. (March 2005).

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