BenQ DW1620 - only 16x on 40x VerbatimDLP ???

[dodecahedron]

i have some relatively old CD-R media - Verbatim DataLifePlus 40x Super AZO. made in India.

tried burning on my my BenQ DW1620 B7U9 (normally a 40x CD burner) it would only go up as fast as 16x (Nero gave me options of 8x; 12x; 16x).
DMA is enabled.
flashed to B7P9, same thing, same speeds.

why is this? could it be that this media is so old that it's not supported in the firmware ?

i've had no problems burning this media (from the same spindle) at faster speeds on a few drives: Plextor 40x, Liteon 52x to name just 2 that i can think of right now.

[MediumRare]

That's funny. What's the ATIP on these?

Personally, I still burn most of myCDs with my LTR-48246S. Of course CD burners will at some point be phased out- so we'll be forced to use DVD burners at some point in the future. I hope that this isn't typical for coming "legacy" support.

G

[dodecahedron]

not really funny.
not when you have to burn a 700MB CDR.

here's what CD-Speed had to say:

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

and here's Nero InfoTool:

Supported Speeds: 16X - 12X - 8X
...
Manufacturer ID: Verbatim (97m34s23f)

and SmartBurn 3.1.10:

Drive Type = COMBO
Disc Type = CDR
Material = Cyanine
Lead In = 97:34:23
Lead Out = 79:59:74
Nominal Capacity = 702.83MB
Manufacturer Maybe = Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
SMART-BURN Speed Limit = 16X (Write)

i'm not sure...what does SmartBurn report? the drive's max speed? even though it's not a Lite-On ?
media from this very spindle has burned at faster speeds...
variance inside the spindle?
degradation of media over time prior to burning ???

[dodecahedron]

Personally, I still burn most of myCDs with my LTR-48246S.

my case supports only 2 optical drives
so i removed the Plextor 40x burner and replaced it with the BenQ. and also kept the Toshiba SD-M1712 (w/ hacked firmware) as my main reader.

i'll see if i can find time to swap the plextor back in and check if the media will burn on it faster - see if it's really the media or BenQ-media interaction.

[MediumRare]

not really funny.
not when you have to burn a 700MB CDR.

I meant funny as in "strange" not "haha" .
I also had a spindle of these, but I used them all. SmartBurn, Nero and Info-Tool say 48x on a used one. CD-Speed doesn't seem to report burning speeds.

SmartBurn does pretty well the same as Info-Tool: it queries the drive as to supported speed.

What does your drive say about newer media?

The newer DLPs have the same manufacturer's code but a nominal capacity of 79:59.73 not 74. These are rated at 48x or 52x and my SOHW-1213S@1653S purports to write them @48x.

But I also have a CD writing problem: it really uses 32x PCAV when I pick 40x or 48x, as is does for all newer CDs I've tried (TY, MCC, RiTEK). I don't think I'm alone with this problem, but I didn't get much feedback when I posted it here or at CDFreaks.

G

[dodecahedron]

don't have any newer CD-R media (only older )

OK swapped out the Toshiba DVD-ROM and put in the Plextor PX-W4012A (40x burner) instead.
re-tested: same media (same disc!) as the one in the BenQ. now:

here's Nero InfoTool:

Supported Speeds: 40x - 32x - 24x - 20x - 16X - 12X - 8X
...
Manufacturer ID: Verbatim (97m34s23f)

and SmartBurn 3.1.10:

SMART-BURN Speed Limit = 40X (Write)

well, obviously this isn't the media's fault. it's the BenQ drive!

any idea why the BenQ DVDRW drive will only burn at 16x ?

[dodecahedron]

OK since the CD-RW forum is rather 'dead' and since this is obviously an issue with the DVDRW drive, i'm moving the topic to the DVD Recordable forum.
i hope some people will jump into the discussion...

[cfitz]

OK since the CD-RW forum is rather 'dead' and since this is obviously an issue with the DVDRW drive, i'm moving the topic to the DVD Recordable forum.
i hope some people will jump into the discussion...

Dang! Make him an admin and not even 24-hours later he is abusing his powers in order to attract more attention to his posts...

I would guess that manufacturers are concentrating on the DVD end of the firmware and just aren't putting the effort into the CD-R firmware like they used to, resulting in poor support for older or less popular CD-R media.

cfitz

[dolphinius_rex]

Yup, Cfitz is (as usual) 100% correct! Most DVD Burner manufacturers are focusing mostly on recording DVDRs, and not so much on CD-Rs any more.

BenQ's drive is probably one of the most finicky with CD-Rs that I've worked with... but it's still usuable with most media. Actually, most CD-Rs burn really slowly in the BenQ I noticed... I think only CMC ATIP discs burned at full speed, not even Taiyo Yuden!!

[RJW]

You could expect that the Benq will burn nice on CMC.
Because partner Philips uses CMC mostly for there cd-r's !!
So Philips does like some good support for there media.

Philips should have sticked to Taiyo Yuden. The day that Philips switched to other stuff they lost quite some customers.

[Bhairav]

One minus for Benq there. I have a bunch of Verb 52X DLP discs, which work just fine @ 40X in the 832S. Still, I have a 52327S hooked up, which is quite good for CD-Rs.