My short (p)review of the Benq 1640

[Gabe]

Benq 1640, FW BSHB and BSIB. If I don´t write aboiut the speed, the media was burned with certified speed.


Hyundai DVD-R 4x

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:INFOSMART01]

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=1hyu ... horste.png

Good for his cheap media.



Fuji DVD+R 8x

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:YUDEN000-T02-000

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=2fuj ... shb2sl.png

I would call it perfect. The Benq love these media.




Verbatim DVD-R 4x DataLifePlus Color


Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:MCC 01RG20 ]


http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=3ver ... 1640bs.png

Excellent.




Verbatim DVD-R 4x 4,7GB Pastel 5er Slimcase Nierle


Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:TYG01]

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=4ver ... o4benq.png

PI could be lower, PIF is very low


Primedisc DVD-R 8x 25er

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:RITEKG05]


http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=5pri ... vd11be.png

Very good, almost excellent.




TDK DVD-R 4x

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:TTG01]

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=6tdk ... nq1640.png

Again very good.






Sony DVD-R 8x 4,7GB 50er, burned 16x

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:SONY08D1]

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=7son ... sdvd14.png

A PIF-Spike and 2x-3x higher PI-average (compared with my other drives), but still good for overspeeding the 8x to 16x.




Sony DVD+R 8x 4,7GB 50er
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:SONY-D11-000]

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=8son ... nq1640.png

Very good, like I expect from this media.



Primedisc DVD+R 8x 4,7 GB 25er Spindel

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R:RITEK-R03-002]


http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=9365 ... arnben.png

PI is higher than I like, but PIF is good, almost very good.



X-Data DVD-R 4x 25er Spindel

Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-R:GSC001]

http://img147.echo.cx/my.php?image=10xd ... itedbe.png


Excellent! This Gigastorage-media is very rare in Germany, but I had very good results with all burners I used with this media.



Now with FW BSIB:

Verbatim DVD+R 16x [DVD+R:MCC-004-000]



That hurts! The Benq burns without any problems to 16x, but Nero reports errors.The 1640 shift down the speed while verify the burnt data; at the end it slowdown to 0,7x-speed and Nero reports some broken data, a scan with CDSpeed and 1640 shows some POF.
Not a convincing performance for the DVD+R-specialist Benq. I expect that the longest avaible 16x-media on the market should work better.



Verbatim DVD+R 16x [DVD+R:MCC-004-000]@12x



With 12x no problem, very good to excellent.



Verbatim DVD-R 16x [DVD-R:MCC 03RG20 ]



16x was chosen, but when the Benq reached 12,5 x-speed it slowdown to 12x and burnt with this speed til end. Two ugly spikes (maybe depend on the media?), but good PI and a low PIF-count.


Fuji DVD-R 8x [DVD-R:ProdiscF01]



Low PI, PIF total numbers are little higher than I like. No top-burn, but overall ok.


Philips DVD-R 8x:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2705#2705


Philips DVD+R 8x:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2499#2499


Verbatim DVD-R 8x:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2707#2707


TDK DVD-R 8:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2709#2709


MAM-E DVD-R 8x:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2710#2710


MAM-E DVD+R 8x:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2712#2712

HP DVD+R 8x:

http://apparat.ap.funpic.de/viewtopic.php?p=2714#2714



Conclusion:

+ Excellent burn-quality, even with DVD-R.

+ reads –R/+R at 16x

+ low noise-level

+ good processing

+ supports Quality-scans


- problems with recognize some media

- Sometimes very strange results with quality-scans. Shows high PIF and many POF with some media, although the 1640 can read it without problems at full speed.

- slow at 4x-burn-speed (DVD)


Some notices:

High spin-up-time with CDSpeed, over 10 seconds.

At the range of 132-136 MB Spindown with Nero CDSpeed (Quality scan); sometimes low scan-speed after the “break”

Nero CDSpeed-tests: After the tray Open/close-test some minutes no reaction from the drive. After I open tray with eject-button CDSpeed reports “No media” almost a minute later.




Edit: Verbatim DVD-/+R 16x and Fuji DVD-R 8x added.

[Ian]

Yeah, Dolph has showed me some impressive results too. I think I'm seriously going to have to order one of these...

.. when they finally ship in the US. Where the hell are they?

[ItalianJob]

>>Sometimes very strange results with quality-scans. Shows high
>>PIF and many POF with some media, although the 1640 can read
>>it without problems at full speed.

It happens genraly when the disc is not ejected after the burn.

[RJW]

.. when they finally ship in the US. Where the hell are they?

Well here in Europe offcourse.
Don't you know we allways get good stuff first .

Enough jokeing.

I'm quite suprised seeing who of my local stores has it and who has it not but are still expecting it to come in one of these days or weeks.
Seems that they are shipping out on first in and first out when it comes to orders and not on the best deals they can make. (Which seems to be the normal behaviour I encounter.)

[dolphinius_rex]

Hrm, I don't like giving away TOO many details before the review, but so far I've seen that the drive is quite good with burning discs with excellent quality. Only a few discs have not had good or great results, and even my lower grade discs from Europe (BulkPaq and Datawrite) have been burning quite well (which impressed the heck out of me!). What this drive can do with CMCMAGE01 8x DVD+Rs puts every other drive on the market to shame, and I'm probably understating the results a bit.

One thing people WON'T like is that it doesn't overclock media almost at all! I think I've found 1 disc only (SONY08D1) which would over clock (8x->16x), and I've burned 36 DVDRs so far.

As always, my review will be long in the making still.... but totally worth it! I promise!!

And for anyone wondering, I'm including comparative testing between the DW1640 and DW1620

[Dartman]

The 1620 wouldn't OC either or do minus at all when I bought mine last year as a 1600. Does all that now so I'd bet it will get updates to do OC'ing soon, allready got minus dl I guess

[dolphinius_rex]

The 1620 wouldn't OC either or do minus at all when I bought mine last year as a 1600. Does all that now so I'd bet it will get updates to do OC'ing soon, allready got minus dl I guess

Actually, in the one firmware update we've seen, they've removed overclocking support for Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs

[Dartman]

Well, Maybe they thought the quality wasn't there at faster speeds or it might even be a mistake that got left in. I'm kinda waiting for the next round of super multi drives that also support Ram, can't find a 1640 yet here even if I want to try one.

[dolphinius_rex]

Well, Maybe they thought the quality wasn't there at faster speeds or it might even be a mistake that got left in. I'm kinda waiting for the next round of super multi drives that also support Ram, can't find a 1640 yet here even if I want to try one.

Well, the next BenQ drive after the DW1640 should support DVD-RAM, so I'm looking forward to that well

[Halc]

In my own testing:

Nec ND-3540A (fw.1.01) consistently burns better (more compatible to seven different readers) on quality discs like Maxell (MXL RG03/04), TY (T02) and MCC (03RG20) than BenQ DW1640A (fw. BSHB).

Prodisc (F01) is also clearly better on Nec, although it's not considered to be in the same quality class (by many) as the above discs.

The difference is not great, but it is clearly evident. BenQ does still burn good results on the aforementioned discs, not just as good as the Nec.

However, BenQ is better on CMC (MAG AE1) and Ritek (G05) producing still usable (although not good) quality on those discs. Nec produces sub-par results on these discs.

IMHO, with my very limited summary testing 1640 is a more consistent burner overall, but Nec produces the best results for quality discs.

By "burn quality" here I mean combined number of coasters, error rates and readability issues (or actually lack of). I do not mean single PIE/PIF scans from a single drive (I don't value scans like that very highly anymore).

The CD-R burning on BenQ is lacking, imho (serious c2 bursts even on TY discs, when scanned back at 24x speed on Plextor Premium and LiteOn 52327s). Burn at 16x.

Nec is unproblematic in this regard.

rgds,
halcy

[Scour]

In my own testing:

Nec ND-3540A (fw.1.01) consistently burns better (more compatible to seven different readers) on quality discs like Maxell (MXL RG03/04), TY (T02) and MCC (03RG20) than BenQ DW1640A (fw. BSHB).

Prodisc (F01) is also clearly better on Nec, although it's not considered to be in the same quality class (by many) as the above discs.

The difference is not great, but it is clearly evident. BenQ does still burn good results on the aforementioned discs, not just as good as the Nec.

However, BenQ is better on CMC (MAG AE1) and Ritek (G05) producing still usable (although not good) quality on those discs. Nec produces sub-par results on these discs.

IMHO, with my very limited summary testing 1640 is a more consistent burner overall, but Nec produces the best results for quality discs.

By "burn quality" here I mean combined number of coasters, error rates and readability issues (or actually lack of). I do not mean single PIE/PIF scans from a single drive (I don't value scans like that very highly anymore).

The CD-R burning on BenQ is lacking, imho (serious c2 bursts even on TY discs, when scanned back at 24x speed on Plextor Premium and LiteOn 52327s). Burn at 16x.

Nec is unproblematic in this regard.

rgds,
halcy

Which drive do you use for scan DVD? I see often that NEC-burned DVD-media shows PIF-spikes when scanned with Liteon-drives, also so the Memorex-OEM tested at CDfreaks

Which TY CD-R do you burn @16x? Maybe you burn higher certified media to slow?

[dodecahedron]

Which TY CD-R do you burn @16x? Maybe you burn higher certified media to slow?

i can't comment on the BenQ 1640, but my 1620 burns TY 48x CDRs at 16x only!

[Scour]

Which TY CD-R do you burn @16x? Maybe you burn higher certified media to slow?

i can't comment on the BenQ 1640, but my 1620 burns TY 48x CDRs at 16x only!

TY 48x @16x?

[dodecahedron]

yeah, sucks doesn't it ?
no proper firmware support for CD burning

[Scour]

yeah, sucks doesn't it ?
no proper firmware support for CD burning

That´s very disappointing.

Other manufacturers do it better, maybe I should wait for LG GSA 4167

[RJW]

Then I hope that LG doesn't need 3 firmwares to get decent jitter levels on most media it oversspeeds.

Really all drives have it's highs and lows and well as long as my writers still can burn cd-r's decent then I'm willing to forgive bad cd-r burning for the first firmwares that is that if the rest works (includeing Rewritables) as should.
Still I do think that Benq/ Philips has some work to do and should solve it with one the next releases quite soon. However these days cd-r burning seems to have ultra low priority for dvd burners.

[dolphinius_rex]

Then I hope that LG doesn't need 3 firmwares to get decent jitter levels on most media it oversspeeds.

Really all drives have it's highs and lows and well as long as my writers still can burn cd-r's decent then I'm willing to forgive bad cd-r burning for the first firmwares that is that if the rest works (includeing Rewritables) as should.
Still I do think that Benq/ Philips has some work to do and should solve it with one the next releases quite soon. However these days cd-r burning seems to have ultra low priority for dvd burners.

Yeah, it's not just BenQ that has been ignoring CDR burning... but since I still have my Plextor Premium, it doesn't bother me much.

[dodecahedron]

Then I hope that LG doesn't need 3 firmwares to get decent jitter levels on most media it oversspeeds.

Really all drives have it's highs and lows and well as long as my writers still can burn cd-r's decent then I'm willing to forgive bad cd-r burning for the first firmwares that is that if the rest works (includeing Rewritables) as should.
Still I do think that Benq/ Philips has some work to do and should solve it with one the next releases quite soon. However these days cd-r burning seems to have ultra low priority for dvd burners.

i agree.
it's not old firmware that my BenQ DW1620 burns 48x TY at 16x: B7P9 !
in any case, i burn CDs on my Plextor 40x.

[Ian]

dodecahedron, what are the codes for that media?

[Scour]

Really all drives have it's highs and lows and well as long as my writers still can burn cd-r's decent then I'm willing to forgive bad cd-r burning for the first firmwares that is that if the rest works (includeing Rewritables) as should.
Still I do think that Benq/ Philips has some work to do and should solve it with one the next releases quite soon. However these days cd-r burning seems to have ultra low priority for dvd burners.

I don´t talk about writing-quality with cheapest CDR-media, I talk about TY.

And for the best media on market it´s very disappointing what Benq do.

[dodecahedron]

OK i must apologize, i made a mistake.
it's not TY media but Verbatim media.

Manufacturer : Verbatim
Code : 97m34s23f
Disc Type : CD-R
Usage : General
Recording Layer : Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Recording Speed : n/a
Capacity : 79:59.74
703 MB
Additional Capacity : n/a
Overburn Capacity : not tested

this is Verbatim DataLifePlus 40x media, on BenQ DW1620 B7U9.
40x on the Plextor, only 16x on the BenQ.
all the details here: http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=19323

however the BenQ is still not quite OK.
TDK Reflex ULTRA 24x certified made by TY

Manufacturer : Taiyo Yuden
Code : 97m24s01f
Disc Type : CD-R
Usage : General
Recording Layer : Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Recording Speed : n/a
Capacity : 74:43.01
656 MB
Additional Capacity : n/a
Overburn Capacity : not tested

40x on the Plextor, only 32x on the BenQ.
note that this ATIP is for 40x TY !!!


BTW:

Nero CD-DVD Speed: Disc Info
Basic Information
Disc Type: : CD-R
Manufacturer: : Taiyo Yuden
MID : 97m24s01f
Write speeds: : 8 X - 12 X - 16 X - 24 X - 32 X
Capacity: : 74:43.01
: 656 MB
Extended Information
Usage : General
Disc Status : Empty

note how the new CDSpeed 4.00 doesn't show the dye type any more. ashame.

[Halc]

Which drive do you use for scan DVD?

Which TY CD-R do you burn @16x? Maybe you burn higher certified media to slow?

I use seven different drives for scanning and I combine the results.

Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R 48x I burned intentionally at 16x, because most drives in the world are not able to keep the jitter down to acceptable level at higher burn speeds.

Nec can manage that up-to 24x on many discs though.

It is possible that burning at 16x on an 48x disc messes up the BenQ laser calibration decision.

However, Nec, Plextor & LG (dvd-burners) have absolutely no problems in this regard. And neither have the better cd-r burners (52327s, Premium, etc.)

Hence, I tend to think it's the failure of the drive more than anything else.

cheers,
halcyon

[Bhairav]

Which drive do you use for scan DVD?

Which TY CD-R do you burn @16x? Maybe you burn higher certified media to slow?

I use seven different drives for scanning and I combine the results.

Verbatim DataLifePlus CD-R 48x I burned intentionally at 16x, because most drives in the world are not able to keep the jitter down to acceptable level at higher burn speeds.

Nec can manage that up-to 24x on many discs though.

It is possible that burning at 16x on an 48x disc messes up the BenQ laser calibration decision.

However, Nec, Plextor & LG (dvd-burners) have absolutely no problems in this regard. And neither have the better cd-r burners (52327s, Premium, etc.)

Hence, I tend to think it's the failure of the drive more than anything else.

cheers,
halcyon

My 832S worked fine with DLP52X discs as well.

[Gabe]

Edit: Verbatim DVD-/+R 16x and Fuji DVD-R 8x added.

[Gabe]

Edit : Scans added Philips DVD-/+R 8x, Verbatim DVD-R 8x, TDK DVD-R 8x, MAM-E DVD-/+R 8x, HP DVD+R 8x