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Posted: **Fri Jul 22, 2005 10:07 pm**

At least we now know what this message means:
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded

Posted: **Fri Jul 29, 2005 9:48 am**

Hello!

Have any problems with your 1640, Dolph?

Maybe the new Benq with DVD-RAM is out before your 1640-review is finished

Posted: **Fri Jul 29, 2005 10:53 am**

Scour wrote:Hello!

Have any problems with your 1640, Dolph?

Maybe the new Benq with DVD-RAM is out before your 1640-review is finished

Yeah... the drive has too many things to test!

On top of getting BSIB, and BSJB firmwares released while testing the drive, I've now gotten a beta to try out with ADDITIONAL FEATURES, and I'm still in the middle of my No WOPC vs. WOPC Active comparison (which is really small, but testing dual layer takes a lot of time!). I still need to do transfer rate tests, but it's hard to get there with new things appearing every week.

The fact is, BenQ has added nearly as many features to this drive as Plextor has with it's own line of drives... and I just don't feel enough has been done to show off some of these features. Like FE/TE testing, and how the results compare to burn quality/disc compatability.

But I knew this review would take a while... so I released all my quality testing, so people would know if they wanted to buy it or not, now that it's available.

Posted: **Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:07 pm**

Does the 1640 support DVD-R DL and/or litescribe?

Posted: **Mon Aug 01, 2005 9:16 pm**

no LightScribe - that's DW1625.

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:22 am**

Boba_Fett wrote:Does the 1640 support DVD-R DL and/or litescribe?

Only DVD-RDL, burns at 4x :wink:

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 1:59 am**

RJW wrote:
ala42 wrote:
RJW wrote:I think you make a small mistake here but hey I can be wrong.
DVD Infopro is wrong, it shows four extra bytes at the begin of the hexdump. DVD Identifier does not display this bytes.

Your right about this one. Hmm overlooked it. I normally only use DVD identifier. Sorry my fault. Good that you pointed out.

So the Mitubishi media has 2 errors.
For completeness I will post both blocks reported by DVD identifier on Benq 1640 as Dolphinius Rex e-mailed me.

RICOHJPNW21 real 8x DVD+RW
** INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 11h (Method 1) - ADIP Information
0000 : 93 0f 04 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3f 00 00 00 00 .........&.?....
0010 : 00 00 03 52 49 43 4f 48 4a 50 4e 57 32 31 01 20 ...RICOHJPNW21.
0020 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0030 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0040 : 02 00 01 2e 70 54 00 7e 7d 4e 03 1e 00 7c 91 2e ....pT.~}N...|..
0050 : 02 1c 00 80 84 26 02 1e 00 00 04 0a 09 00 00 00 .....&..........
0060 : 82 00 04 04 00 00 00 ff 01 ed ec eb 10 0f 02 01 ................
0070 : 02 01 02 03 02 04 10 0b 02 01 02 01 00 05 05 08 ................
0080 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0090 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00b0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00c0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00d0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00e0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00f0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

MCC supposed f 8x DVD+RW

* INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 11h (Method 1) - ADIP Information
0000 : 92 0f 04 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3f 00 00 00 00 .........&.?....
0010 : 00 00 01 4d 4b 4d 00 00 00 00 00 41 30 33 00 39 ...MKM.....A03.9
0020 : 23 00 94 79 64 02 20 00 9c 7a 6c 02 20 00 9a 7b #..yd. ..zl. ..{
0030 : 68 02 20 12 12 10 e0 00 f0 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 h. .............
0040 : 01 00 17 38 00 29 8b 3e 02 24 00 2d 8e 38 02 24 ...8.).>.$.-.8.$
0050 : 00 2c 90 3e 02 24 44 35 30 e0 f0 30 40 00 00 00 .,.>.$D50..0@...
0060 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0070 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0080 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
0090 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00b0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00c0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00d0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00e0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ................
00f0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 ........

As we see here extended block 1 (The bytes I said befor are missing data with the MCC disc's. That's in the line with 0060 and 0070. This line should decscribe information for burning higher as 4x up to 8x officially. (That's a official answer !)

The problem seems to have been fixed with later samples (samples I don't *HAVE* mind you). Thanks to BenQ for providing proof that Verbatim has found and solved this issue with their media!

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:28 am**

Yep that's it a incident has become clear, however the size is still a bit questionable. However it seems that only R&D disc's were affected fact is that you got some of these early samples which never should have left factory.

I'm not so sure about what cds-speed is returning is proper.
In the output you do not see MKM A03.
which make me wonder how can it recognize it if it doesn't put the info out.

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 4:57 am**

RJW wrote:Yep that's it a incident has become clear, however the size is still a bit questionable. However it seems that only R&D disc's were affected fact is that you got some of these early samples which never should have left factory.

I'm not so sure about what cds-speed is returning is proper.
In the output you do not see MKM A03.
which make me wonder how can it recognize it if it doesn't put the info out.

While I'm not quite as some others, at getting things I shouldn't have, it's nice to know I pull it off from time to time :wink:

Interesting point about CD/DVD Speed though... I see what you mean! If I had the discs, and that version of the software currently installed, I'd try to reproduce it. Let's hope it's only a small bug that may already be fixed :-?

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:12 pm**

dolphinius_rex wrote:
Boba_Fett wrote:Does the 1640 support DVD-R DL and/or litescribe?

Only DVD-RDL, burns at 4x

Hmm... makes me think that Litescribe was a one trick pony. It makes no sense not to include the feature in all optical drive updates :-?

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:31 pm**

Boba_Fett wrote:
dolphinius_rex wrote:
Boba_Fett wrote:Does the 1640 support DVD-R DL and/or litescribe?

Only DVD-RDL, burns at 4x

Hmm... makes me think that Litescribe was a one trick pony. It makes no sense not to include the feature in all optical drive updates

Sure it does! Lightscribe licensing is expensive, and since most users have no interest in it at all, why would BenQ want to make their drive more expensive at no benefit for a majority of their customer base?

But on the consumer level, the licensing of the discs is FAR more of a problem then the drive :-?

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:32 pm**

Have sometimes strange behavior´s with my Benq 1640 when make quality-check. It seem normal when the Benq slowdown at 120-160MB-mark, but sometimes it slows down very often

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 12:45 pm**

The first image is 100% normal... both my drives do that every time. I've never seen anything like the second image though... except when testing dual layer media (which you aren't). Was something running in the background that accessed the HDD at VERY regular intervals?

Posted: **Tue Aug 02, 2005 7:58 pm**

dolphinius_rex wrote:The first image is 100% normal... both my drives do that every time. I've never seen anything like the second image though... except when testing dual layer media (which you aren't). Was something running in the background that accessed the HDD at VERY regular intervals?

No, my system was far away from being stressed. I tried it x-times, made new start of CDSpeed, eject and reload the tray, same thing.

This happened with a few discs, with the most discs I don´t have this problem. I thought that you have the same thing with some media because you test so much different media.

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 4:07 am**

Gabe wrote:
dolphinius_rex wrote:The first image is 100% normal... both my drives do that every time. I've never seen anything like the second image though... except when testing dual layer media (which you aren't). Was something running in the background that accessed the HDD at VERY regular intervals?

No, my system was far away from being stressed. I tried it x-times, made new start of CDSpeed, eject and reload the tray, same thing.

This happened with a few discs, with the most discs I don´t have this problem. I thought that you have the same thing with some media because you test so much different media.

Nope, not once that I can remember.... except for on dual layer media. Weird

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 7:46 pm**

dolphinius_rex wrote:
Boba_Fett wrote:Does the 1640 support DVD-R DL and/or litescribe?

Only DVD-RDL, burns at 4x

Are you sure? Newegg and BenQ's own web site say otherwise. I don't feel like getting (damn LG GSA-4163B
decided to die on me today) it if it doesn't support at least that...

Posted: **Wed Aug 03, 2005 10:45 pm**

Boba_Fett wrote:
dolphinius_rex wrote:
Boba_Fett wrote:Does the 1640 support DVD-R DL and/or litescribe?

Only DVD-RDL, burns at 4x

Are you sure? Newegg and BenQ's own web site say otherwise. I don't feel like getting (damn LG GSA-4163B
decided to die on me today) it if it doesn't support at least that...

It says it supports it on BenQ's global page... but it needs a firmware update:
http://www.benq.com/products/product.cf ... ifications

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BenQ DW1640 Pre-Review Test Data