What's in the box?:
- HP dvd640i 16x DVD±RW Drive
- Software CD
- SureThing CD/DVD Labeler CD
- Quick Start Guide
- Getting Help Guide
- LightScribe User Guide
- 1 Verbatim LightScribe 52x CD-R Disc
- Mounting Screws
Physical Features:
The drive HP sent us for this review was manufactured in January of 2005 and had firmware ES04.For this review the drive's firmware has been updated to version JS04.
There's no denying the dvd640i's origins. HP's new DVD writer is almost identical to the OEM version of the BenQ DW1625. The only real differences here are the "HP" and "dvd640i" logos. If you look closely you can see that the drive also has logos advertising support for DVD+R DL, DVD-R/RW and Ultra Speed CD-RW media as well as HP's LightScribe technology.
Like its BenQ counterpart, the dvd640i does not have a headphone jack or volume control. For most people, these little used features probably won't be missed. Looking at the front of the drive you can see that HP's new DVD writer has one LED. Depending on what the drive is doing this LED will light up green when reading and red when writing or erasing.
The rear of the dvd640i is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.
Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the dvd640i's jumper comes set to master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from HP's website and by running a few simple tests.
| HP dvd640i 16x DVD±RW | |
| CD Write Speeds | 40x (CAV) 32x, 24x (P-CAV) 16x, 12x, 8x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 24x (P-CAV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 16x (CAV) 8x (P-CAV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 8x, (P-CAV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 16x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 8x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 8x Max (DVD-R/RW) 8x Max (DVD+R/RW) 8x Max (DVD+R DL) |
| CD-ROM Read Speed | 40x Max |
| DAE Speed | 40x Max |
| Buffer Size | 2 MB |
| Random Access Times |
160 ms (CD) 160 ms (DVD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-R CD-RW CD-I Photo CD Video CD CD Extra CD-Text |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW DVD+R DL |
| CD Recording Modes | Track At Once Session At Once Disc At Once |
| DVD-R Recording Modes | Incremental Multi-Border |
| DVD-RW Recording Modes | Incremental Multi-Border Restricted Overwrite |
| DVD+R Recording Modes | Sequential Write Multi-Session |
| DVD+RW Recording Modes | Random Access Write Sequential Write |
LightScribe:
Note: We took a much closer look at LightScribe technology in our review of the BenQ DW1625. In this review we'll just go over some of the basics and see how the dvd640i performs with the bundled software.
The dvd640i is the one of the first drives to feature LightScribe technology. Developed by HP, LightScribe lets you burn durable, silk screen quality labels directly onto your CD's and DVD's using the same drive that burned the data. According to HP, it's as simple as burning the data, flipping the disc, and then burning the label.
Of course you can't do this with just any drive, media or software. While LightScribe capable drives use the same laser when burning both the data and label, they have to be able to accurately control the laser's focus and position as well as the spindle speed. They also must be able to recognize LightScribe media. These special discs have a thin dye coating on the label side that absorbs laser light. This triggers a chemical reaction that produces a color change, allowing the user to print text, artwork or graphics.
Even if you have a LightScribe capable drive and media, you will need software that supports it. Most major software companies have pledged support for the technology. However, at the time of this review, the list of compatible software is still relatively short. For the dvd640i, HP has turned to SureThing. Using the bundled software you can both create and burn LightScribe disc labels.
Once you've completed your LightScribe label, you're ready to print it. Before you can do this though, you will need to choose the quality. Keep in mind, this option not only changes the level of detail, it also affects the amount of time it takes to print the label. The better the quality, the longer the process will take.
How long does it take to print a label? For testing purposes, we created a few discs using Verbatim's new LightScribe CD-R and DVD+R media. In both cases, the quality was set to "best". The results are shown below.
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| Verbatim CD-R - 33 minutes | Verbatim DVD+R - 29 minutes |
While not part of the dvd640i's software bundle, I also printed a few LightScribe labels using Nero Express. Surprisingly enough, I found that the discs printed by the SureThing software did not look as good as those printed by Nero. Even after upgrading the LightScribe print engine, the black sections did not seem to be as dark nor was the text as sharp. Examples of this are shown below.
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| SureThing CD/DVD Labeler | Nero Express |
Keep in mind, this seems to be an issue with the bundled software and notthe dvd640i. Like the BenQ DW1625, it produces great results with Nero's software. Hopefully HP or SureThing can fix this in a software update.
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that HP's new DVD writer is identified as an "HP DVD Writer 640c".
Nero also shows that the dvd640i has a maximum CD writing speed of 40x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, HP's new DVD writer can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.
Like the BenQ DW1625, the dvd640i can do EFM encoding correctly. Using CloneCD version 4.2.0.2 with AWS disabled, Iwas able to reproduce older SafeDisc 2 protected titles like Max Payne along with some of the newer ones protected by SafeDisc 2.51 like Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.
Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the dvd640i's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the dvd640i is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. A patched RPC-1 firmware can be downloaded here. Just keep in mind that it is not supported by HP nor by CDRLabs. Use it at your own risk.
While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the dvd640i's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while BenQ's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL media, it does not support the DVD-R DL format.
The dvd640i also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using Nero, CD Speed or BenQ's QSuite utility you can set the book type for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media. By doing so, your recorded discs will identify themselves as "DVD-ROM." This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.
