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Hi.

For about couple of weeks ive been trying to figure out what dvd burner to buy and i need little help on deciding which to choose.

Yes i tried to make up my mind but little help would be appreciated...

At the moment im leaning towards the NEC drive but only thing i miss are some features like bitsetting and error checking that i could really want to have on my drive. Thou ive read that theres hacked firmware which im little doubtful. Also ive read that the drive is pretty good (the best?) at writing and reading so which is good thing.

Another one is the Philips drive. Firstly i tryed to find Benq 1620 drive but it seems theres not a single retailer that sells Benq drive here in Finland so the alternative is the Philips, which i presure is equal to Benq 1620? or buying the Benq drive abroad, but thats too tricky.

Im most likely going to use DVD-R TY (Verbatim pastels) discs, 4x speed, and there was some criticism about the DVD-R burning quality in some review(Benq), possibly the one thats featured in this site. Anyone have experience how good it is with newer firmware?

Thanks in advance!

Hi!

The NEC and the Benq prefers DVD+R. For DVD-R is a LG or Pioneer better.

I use the Verbatim Pastel with TYG01-code with a LG GSA 4082, it works great.

But the Philips drive = Benq drive? the 1620 one that is.

From hardware site
Benq=Philips
From firmware site there different.
If you want higher speed more supported media -> BENQ
Philips is more conservative in the speeds and for that reason would burn the media at lower speed giveing it better quality -> Philips.

What I would suggest is buy the Benq but stay in the safe speed regions if you care about writing quality that is.
2.4x -> Dual Layer
8x -> DVD-R/DVD+R
12x -> GOOD DVD+R

In the speed case just go with the benq.

i think you can flash a benq firmware in a philips drive
check the cdfreaks benq forum for details