Samsung has released FW TS05 for Sh-162L...

[MonsterMan]

...and all I can say is wow. I haven't seen this much improvement in a single FW release EVER.

TS04, Memorex 16x DVD+R (CMC MAG 01) @ 12x (16x was unusably bad):
http://i6.tinypic.com/1z17fo2.png

TS05, same batch of discs, @ 16x:
http://i6.tinypic.com/1z17h8k.png

Certianly not great but a hell of an improvement. Actually makes the things usable!

Granted that's just one type of media...for all I know everything else could've gone down the toliet

My old Samsung TS552 was junk...it couldn't produce a good burn even with MCC & TY media. This drive isn't the greatest, but for $35 it's quite usable if you stay away from the crap media brands (although Nexxtech DVD-Rs seem to produce some pretty good scans...not that those discs will last long).

Samsung seems to be putting some real effort into improving their products. A very good thing, indeed! Even the 18x drive looks promising. If it has better overall burn quality than this drive I may switch (although I'd hate to lose the Lightscribe ablity. I may rarely use it, but this thing does save some wear-and-tear on my precious 1655)...

Oh yeah...link:
http://www.samsungodd.com/Lib/popup/Dow ... L_TS05.BIN

[Ian]

Wow, that's quite the improvement. Samsung eventually gets it right. It just takes them a firmware update or two.. or 5 in this case.

[ala42]

They improved the quite high jitter a litte bit, which improves BENQ scans alot. On a liteon drive there is probably no difference, both burns should have much lower PIE values. The jitter is still too high.

[MonsterMan]

A couple more...

Nexxtech 8x DVD-R, UME01 media code (whatever that is).

TS04:
http://i6.tinypic.com/1z5iz3o.png

TS05:
http://i6.tinypic.com/1z5izcj.png

About the same...a little worse on the TS05, actually. But total, 100% junk media so who cares?

TDK 8x DVD+R (CMCMAG 01) - For CMC media, this stuff is remarkably consistent on my drives. All 5 drives produce almost identical scans. Weird. Good, but weird.

TS04:
http://i6.tinypic.com/1z5j2g5.png

TS05:
http://i6.tinypic.com/1z5kaas.png

Yikes...maybe I'll switch back after those Memorex discs are gone...

[MonsterMan]

Well, that was very quick...I missed this, so it's a bit "old" already, but TS06 is already out!

Link.

Haven't tried it yet, but will this weekend...