detail information

DVD+R Double Layer writing speed and compatibility:

The BenQ DW1640 supports 8x DVD+R DL writing, as one of the first drives on the market capable of this it will be interesting to see how fast it actually is.

Testing procedure: We used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc, this way we could also see the writing strategy the drive uses.

BenQ DW1640 uses P-CAV to write the DVD+R DL disc at 8x. This gives a total recording time of 15 minutes and 36 seconds - and is thus the speed king for writing DVD+R DL media. Let us take a look at the writing quality with several DVD+R DL media types.

Considering that the disc is only certified for 2.4x and written at 8x - this result is excellent. And as we could see there are no problems reading the disc at 12x either. Good job BenQ!

With the previous experiences (which is about 80% failures with this media) with this media in mind this results is very good, the error levels are not excellent, but still within the limits, and the disc is fully readable - although the picky Plextor drive struggles a bit.

As we could see the BenQ DW1640 did fairly well with the Ricoh media, the picky Plextor drive still have serious slowdowns though.

It actually did pretty good with this rather rare Prodisc media too.

While the result is not exceptionally good it's still within limits and the disc is readable by both drives.

Here are some comparison results against other drives:

Summary: This time BenQ has done it right - most of it at least. It's the speed king for DVD+R DL writing and it does so with good quality too. And unlike most if not all other drives it does the job well with all other DL media types too.

DVD-R Dual Layer writing speed and compatibility:

The BenQ DW1640 supports 4x DVD-R dual layer writing speed; let us take a look at writing speed and writing quality.

Testing procedure: We used Nero CD-DVD Speed to create a test disc, this way we could also see the writing strategy the drive uses.

BenQ DW1640 uses CLV to write the DVD-R DL disc at 4x, not P-CAV as incorrectly reported by CD-DVD Speed. This gives a total recording time of 29 minutes and 56 seconds - as expected with 4x writing speed. We would still like to see 6x writing speed like Pioneer and NEC offers.

Pretty good, but as we know the DVD-R DL format has inferior compatibility compared to DVD+R DL.

Summary: Verbatim DVD-R DL works well with this drive, but we would like to see 6x DVD-R DL speed like Pioneer and NEC offers.

Before we complete this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next page…