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BenQ DW1640 DVD-Writer
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Posted by Tor Magne
Posted on 07/09/05 23:46
Number of views 15741
Menu
 Conclusion
 Introduction and specifications
 Features and bundle
 Reading performance
 CD-Writing and Re-Writing performance
 DVD-Writing performance
 More DVD-Writing performance, and DVD+/-RW writing performance.
 Double layer writing performance
 Advanced tests
 SolidBurn and OverSpeed features - the introduction
 OverSpeed and SolidBurn test results.
Text Size  Text Size
OverSpeed and SolidBurn test results.
 

Practical tests with OverSpeed and SolidBurn enabled.

That was the theory; now let us do practical tests. J All discs will be written with OverSpeed and SolidBurn enabled. Now we will see what speeds we could obtain with various media types and how the quality is. Notice that all results here are the best results we were able to obtain, what speeds and results you may experience greatly depends on the quality of the actual disc you are using. They may be worse or better. Using discs of the same brands and/or same media codes as shown here is no warranty to obtain the same results.

We will show the write transfer graphs as well as error results from both K-Probe/Lite-On and CD-Speed/BenQ. And of course do a reading test with our NEC ND-3540A DVD-Writer.

DVD+R:




Brand:

Traxdata - thanks to Conrexx for providing it

Manufacturer:

Ritek

Code:

RITEK R03 (Revision 002)

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

6m:32s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

7.47

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.05

No problems with this media, and it overspeeds nicely to 12x.

 


Brand:

Datawrite titanium - thanks to e-net for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Prodisc

Code:

PRODISC.R03

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:02s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

0.85

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.16

We are honestly impressed, 16x was more than we were hoping for. And the result is good as well.




Brand:

Miflop extreme - thanks to Miflop media for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden

Code:

YUDEN000T02

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:04s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1.68

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.04

And Taiyo Yuden works well at 16x as expected.

 


Brand:

Acro Circle - thanks to Optodisc America for providing this media

Manufacturer:

Optodisc

Code:

OPTODISC.OR8

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

6m:36s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

0.53

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.03

A new surprise, this Optodisc media wrote at 12x with very good results. But keep in mind that this is really good Optodisc media, the majority of Optodisc media seems to be a lot worse than this media.

 


Brand:

Verbatim

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics using Mitsubishi technology.

Code:

MCC003

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:06s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

0.41

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.05

And Verbatim MCC003 media works excellent at 16x as well. Notice that different batches and manufacturers will give different results.

 


Brand:

Datawrite classic - thanks to E-net UK for providing this media.

Manufacturer:

Ritek using Ricoh technology.

Code:

RICOHJPNR01

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

6m:36s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1.68

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.05

Just for fun we tried a 4x disc with RICOHJPNR01 dye as well, and it worked fine at 12x. We think that even 16x may be possible with this media, if you have media from a perfect quality batch. Oh well, a 200% overspeed is still not bad.

DVD-R:




Brand:

RiData - thanks to Advanced media USA for sending this media

Manufacturer:

Ritek

Code:

RITEKG05

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:31s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1.40

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.00

Another surprise! This RitekG05 media wrote at a whopping 16x speed, but have in mind that the majority of RitekG05 media on the market is probably lower quality than the media we used here.




Brand:

MiFlop Extreme - thanks to MiFlop for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden

Code:

TYG02

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:36s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

24.20

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.00

And Taiyo Yuden wrote at 16x as expected. The PIE level is a bit higher than we were hoping for, but it's still a very good result.

 


Brand:

Datawrite silver printable - thanks to E-net distribution for providing this media.

Manufacturer:

Prodisc

Code:

ProdiscF01

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

7m:03s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1.29

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.01

Another disc that it wrote at 12x. The quality is again within acceptable levels. Interesting to see that the result at 12x now is better than our 8x result in the review. The media is from the same spindle. 




Brand:

Acro Circle - thanks to Optodisc USA for providing this media.

Manufacturer:

Optodisc

Code:

OPTODISCR008

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

7m:45s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.08

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.01

As with the +R media we got 12x writing speed. This is thanks to Optodisc media of above average quality provided by Optodisc America. Our general experience with Optodisc is much worse than shown here. We could also see that the WOPC II feature is working very actively and the total writing time is pretty long. But the result is very good.





Brand:

Datawrite titanium - thanks to E-Net distribution for providing this media.

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics

Code:

CMC.MAG.AE1

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

9m:05s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

7.09

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.03

No problems with this media, although we were only able to obtain 8x writing speed. Maybe media of higher quality could reach higher speeds.




Brand:

Verbatim

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics with Mitsubishi technology

Code:

MCC02RG20

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:31s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1.90

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.00

And we were able to reach 16x with Verbatim 8x DVD-R as well. But quality and manufacturer greatly depends on what results you will get.

Conclusion:

Overspeeding works as expected. And it works well in combination with SolidBurn. The drive allows 16x Writing to all DVD+/-R media now, the only limiting factor is SolidBurn, which turns out to do the job very well. We have played around with this firmware for several days now and if we feed the drive with low quality media, SolidBurn will limit the speed, sometimes as low as 4x or even 2.4x if the media is really bad. But with good media we have seen that we could get some really outstanding results. Notice that enabling SolidBurn will add about 10-30 seconds to the total writing time depending on disc and disc condition.

Now it's time to finish off this review, so head over to the last page and read our conclusion…
SolidBurn and OverSpeed features - the introduction
Conclusion
Want to submit your own review? Click here
Reactions on this item
Posted by thef on Wednesday 07 September 2005 21:52
at usual, wonderful review, thanks
Posted by Juhuslik on Wednesday 07 September 2005 23:23
Thanx OC for review.
Damn our BENQ distributor is not selling any DVD writers here:r
Posted by ricoman on Thursday 08 September 2005 00:22
Very happy to read your review. You verify the reviews given by cdrlab and cdrinfo that this is an exceptional burner. I am happy to say that I bought one last week from newegg for $40. Was going to buy another NEC (I love my 3500), but changed my mind after reading their reviews. So far, a very good performer and Qsuite is a surprise bonus.
Posted by Gallardo on Saturday 10 September 2005 11:10
Regarding the overburning capabilities of this drive I could find only CD overburning in this review, but no mention on DVD-R/+R.
Posted by headquarter84 on Wednesday 28 December 2005 03:24
@Juhuslik... BenQ Distributors not selling this drive here too... i had to import it !!!!:c
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