Page 1 of 2

BenQ DW1640 BSKB Firmware - SolidBurn and Overspeed Support

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:51 am
by Ian
I know dolph has been hinting at this the last week or so.. but here it is:

http://support.benq.com/files/storage/F ... 0/BSKB.zip

1. Improved writing quality for DVD+R & DVD-R media.
2. Added SolidBurn Technology.
3. Added Overspeed ability. (Enable via QSuite 2.0)

New QSuite v2.0:

http://support.benq.com/files/Storage/S ... 0Setup.zip

1. Supported SolidBurn Technology
2. Supported Overspeed ability

Note:
1. ONLY DW1640 with BSKB supported above functions.
2. Above functions ONLY supported DVD+R and DVD-R media.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:57 am
by Ian
Image

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 12:06 pm
by jberry
is this solidburn a good thing.....it may mean less firmware updates....maybe quality issues in LR?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 12:12 pm
by Ian
It's good if you tend to use a lot of media where the quality varies from batch to batch or if you're using discs with fake MID's.

A replacement for firmware updates? Let's hope not.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 1:12 pm
by dolphinius_rex
as Ian said, it's good for media that has variable quality, and fake MID codes. I've had good results so far using OverSpeed and SolidBurn with Acro Circle 16x DVD-R, pushing them to 12x (normally they are supported up to 8x only!). Also, some Verbatim media has done a little better with SolidBurn.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 1:40 pm
by Gabe
Hm, the overspeeding-setting was intresting. But on the other hand, now you´re able to burn a 4x DVD-R @16x. I don´t know whether it´s good, you have to test the media and maybe get a lot of coasters. Looks not like the Benq have writing-strategies for the media you can overspeed.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 1:56 pm
by jberry
verbatim has done better?

Do you mean that if you put in 8x media and test it it will burn better at 8x or only if you push it to say 16x?

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:37 pm
by MadBurner
@ Ian

I noticed that the QSuite link that you provided wasn't working so here's the fixed link.

http://support.benq.com/files/Storage/S ... 0Setup.zip

Thanks again for the updates!!

MB

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:41 pm
by Ian
Thanks MB!

The stupid spaces in the file name screwed up my linkage. #-o

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 2:43 pm
by MadBurner
You're welcome Ian!!

I've had that happen many times 8)

Later,
MB

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 7:11 pm
by Gabe
Try to burn a X-data DVD-R 4x @4x after enabling overspeeding. The Benq break the operation after some seconds. The media is ok, maybe it happens when make the power-calibration.

After disabling the overspeeding the Benq burn the disc fine.

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:02 pm
by Dartman
Great, new toys for my new 1640, now to waste even more media. Actually I think thats a good thing making it optional as you can play it safe if your new to burning or go nuts if your a old pro at it and it's harder to blame the manufacturer if it doesn't do well at faster then rated speed the drive picks.
Hres hoping it as big and improvement as most of the 1620 updates were. I luv my 1620 drives \:D/

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:44 pm
by dolphinius_rex
Gabe wrote:Try to burn a X-data DVD-R 4x @4x after enabling overspeeding. The Benq break the operation after some seconds. The media is ok, maybe it happens when make the power-calibration.

After disabling the overspeeding the Benq burn the disc fine.


well, it plays with the write strategy a bit... try enabling SolidBurn as well and see what happens :wink:

PostPosted: Mon Aug 15, 2005 9:45 pm
by code65536
I'm happy to see the overspeeding ability. :) One of the things that I liked about the 1620 over the 1640 was the overspeeding... now time to see if the 1640's overspeeding can match that of the 1620.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 3:09 am
by Gabe
dolphinius_rex wrote:well, it plays with the write strategy a bit... try enabling SolidBurn as well and see what happens :wink:


When enabling overspeed is solidburn activated, too.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:30 am
by dolphinius_rex
Here's some questions I asked BenQ about their new features, and the answers I received back:

Q1: How many times should you burn a disc with SolidBurn before you can expect optimum results?

A1: It supposes to be ONE burn with Solid Burn can get expect optimum result, unless there is a big different in media quality between each disc from the same log.



Q2: How does SolidBurn work in conjunction with Over Speed? If you burn enough discs of one type with SolidBurn, will that disc type perform better when OverSpeed is enabled?

A2: SolidBurn must activate if turn on Overspeed. No, it won’t have much different result.
<Dolphin's note: I'm not sure this is right, I need to test it more!>


Q3: Are there ANY advantages to enabling SolidBurn for media already supported by the firmware? (I haven’t seen any so far… but I’ve only tried one disc that was supported in the firmware, using SolidBurn, so far)

A3: There are several situations cause different results.

- For popular brand media (e.g MKM), enable Solidburn may not be provided a better result since the fine tune strategy is more precise than self-learning strategy. Also, famous brand normally owns good QC control to provide good quality disc with small variance.

- For small brand media, enable SolidBurn may provide better performance even it is supported by the firmware. Again, the QC control issue; small brand media vendor usually doesn’t own tight QC control which causes large variance between sample and MP discs.

- For the fake media (same MID code supported by firmware) which supposes with bad quality, enable SolidBurn may provide better result as it depends on the disc quality to find out the optimal strategy for the insert media.



Q4: Is there any way of being able to check if the media is supported by the firmware, or if it’ll be supported by default under SolidBurn? Right now I’m using Media Code Speed Edit to open the firmware (only up to BSIB is supported currently though)

A4: In fact, we have been planned to add this function into the tool. But, I don’t know if it can merge to the tool on time as QSuite (With SolidBurn & Overspeed) is going to be released officially soon.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 4:55 am
by dodecahedron
that would be cool - if you could tell which media are supported by firmware and which not (and so you need SolidBurn).

Dolph, have you played with it alread?
what's you opinion, is this any better then Plextor's AutoStrategy ?

PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 7:00 am
by ItalianJob
dolphinius_rex wrote:Q3: Are there ANY advantages to enabling SolidBurn for media already supported by the firmware? (I haven’t seen any so far… but I’ve only tried one disc that was supported in the firmware, using SolidBurn, so far)

A3: There are several situations cause different results.

- For popular brand media (e.g MKM), enable Solidburn may not be provided a better result since the fine tune strategy is more precise than self-learning strategy. Also, famous brand normally owns good QC control to provide good quality disc with small variance.


That's what we can see in first tests @CDF. The 1640 solidburn at various speed gives not better results than 1620 B7V9 on most known and good media.

Thanks you dolphinius_rex for the info =D>

dolphinius_rex wrote:Q4: Is there any way of being able to check if the media is supported by the firmware, or if it’ll be supported by default under SolidBurn? Right now I’m using Media Code Speed Edit to open the firmware (only up to BSIB is supported currently though)


By the way, a new MCSE is available supporting BENQ 1640 BSGB, BSHB, BSIB, BSKB.

PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:50 pm
by dolphinius_rex
dodecahedron wrote:that would be cool - if you could tell which media are supported by firmware and which not (and so you need SolidBurn).

Dolph, have you played with it alread?
what's you opinion, is this any better then Plextor's AutoStrategy ?


I haven't played with my PX-716SA enough to make a comparative opinion really... and I'm going on vacation soon, so ask me again at the end of next week :wink:

Don't worry, I'm on a strict 2 hour of sleep diet until the DW1640 review is finished!! :wink:

PostPosted: Tue Aug 16, 2005 12:51 pm
by dolphinius_rex
ItalianJob wrote:By the way, a new MCSE is available supporting BENQ 1640 BSGB, BSHB, BSIB, BSKB.


Yup! But it wasn't when I made that e-mail :wink:

PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:32 am
by Boba_Fett
dolphinius_rex wrote:
Don't worry, I'm on a strict 2 hour of sleep diet until the DW1640 review is finished!! :wink:


Curious on how many man hours you are putting into this baby. Me thinks you need a girlfriend or something :wink:

PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 2:06 pm
by dodecahedron
he has a girlfriend.
maybe he need another one :lol: :wink:

PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 6:12 pm
by dolphinius_rex
Boba_Fett wrote:
dolphinius_rex wrote:
Don't worry, I'm on a strict 2 hour of sleep diet until the DW1640 review is finished!! :wink:


Curious on how many man hours you are putting into this baby. Me thinks you need a girlfriend or something :wink:


close to 30-40 hours a week easily, almost since I've had the drive. almost done....

PostPosted: Wed Aug 17, 2005 11:59 pm
by Boba_Fett
Wow... just wow. Talk about "For the love of the game"...

PostPosted: Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:51 am
by dolphinius_rex
Boba_Fett wrote:Wow... just wow. Talk about "For the love of the game"...


I *HOPE* you're not comparing me to Kevin Costner.... :o