CDRLabs.com

Posted: **Mon Aug 22, 2005 11:42 pm**

After reading the review from ExtremeMhz on BenQ 1640 and the conclusion have been made about this drive standing tall among almost any other 16X DVD+/-R burner, base on our own experience with this drive so far, what is your in take about the evaluation ranking that this drive have Been given on this review?, its fair? Or over rated? I personally found the review to be very thorough, realistic and fair.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:04 am**

After reading Dolph's review, I'd say its a fair eval of the drive. I have a couple of DW1640 clones here and aside from their lack of support for Verb 8x DVD+RW media, I have no complaints so far.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:15 am**

It does have the solid burn bug with most minus media only doing 2.4 with that feature enabled. I'm sure that will get fixed by firmware shortly and it writes to most any media at rated speeds with great quality. I like mine and am waiting for the next round of firmwares to see how far they take this drive.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:21 am**

Brand: nexXtech DVD+R 8x (made in Taiwan)
Mediacode: CMC MAG E01
Burner: BenQ 1640 fw BSKB (WOPC on - overspeed On - Solidburn on)
Software: Nero Burning ROm
Burnspeed possible: 16x
Burnspeed selected: 16x
Booktype: -R
Burning time: 6:01

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:27 am**

Brand: Imation DVD+R 4X (made in Taiwan)
Mediacode: RICHOJPN R01
Burner: BenQ 1640 fw BSKB (WOPC on - overspeed On - Solidburn on)
Software: Nero Burning ROm
Burnspeed possible: 16x
Burnspeed selected: 12X
Booktype: DVD-ROM
Burning time: 5:34

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:54 am**

Following Post

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:54 am**

Brand: Imation DVD+R 4X (made in Taiwan)
Mediacode: RICHOJPN R01
Burner: BenQ 1640 fw BSKB (WOPC on - overspeed On - Solidburn on)
Software: Nero Burning ROm
Burnspeed possible: 16x
Burnspeed selected: 16X
Booktype: DVD-ROM
Burning time: 5:24

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 5:43 am**

Ian wrote:After reading Dolph's review, I'd say its a fair eval of the drive. I have a couple of DW1640 clones here and aside from their lack of support for Verb 8x DVD+RW media, I have no complaints so far.

I wouldn't blame benq. Blame Mitsubishi for shipping R&D disc's as samples.

The 8x write description was missing on these disc's and because Benq/ Philips require this info (No direct link on MID alone) the drive can not burn it.
I was told that these disc's never should have shipped.
The stuff that should hit the market will have the 8x write description and will be according to the standards and should work fine with the BENQ drive.

The reason why cdrinfo could burn it right was because they probally had the real correct sample media and not a early incomplete R&D version.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:55 am**

I noticed that on this page of the review:
http://www.extrememhz.com/dw1640-p8.shtml
concerning DVD+R DL he says that he burned several Ritek-D01 MID codes
but he only posts the scan of a Verbatim DVD+R DL and with the MID code MKM-003
His conclusions:
« Stick with Verbatim for double layer folks. You will not be disappointed! »

So, I know: Ritek-D01 is of "bad" quality, but why does he hide these scans ??

For information there are two Plextools scans of samples of the Ritek-D01 MID code
in a review of a BenQ DW1640 here:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews ... &PageId=18

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 10:51 am**

Is the SolidBurn feature necessary if the user sticks to quality media (fuji TY)?

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 12:24 pm**

RJW wrote:The 8x write description was missing on these disc's and because Benq/ Philips require this info (No direct link on MID alone) the drive can not burn it.
I was told that these disc's never should have shipped.

Yeah.. I just got some new samples last week. I haven't had a chance to check the MID's yet.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 1:50 pm**

Ian wrote:
RJW wrote:The 8x write description was missing on these disc's and because Benq/ Philips require this info (No direct link on MID alone) the drive can not burn it.
I was told that these disc's never should have shipped.

Yeah.. I just got some new samples last week. I haven't had a chance to check the MID's yet.

I gotta get me some of those!

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 4:56 pm**

frank1 wrote:I noticed that on this page of the review:
http://www.extrememhz.com/dw1640-p8.shtml
concerning DVD+R DL he says that he burned several Ritek-D01 MID codes
but he only posts the scan of a Verbatim DVD+R DL and with the MID code MKM-003
His conclusions:
« Stick with Verbatim for double layer folks. You will not be disappointed! »

So, I know: Ritek-D01 is of "bad" quality, but why does he hide these scans ??

For information there are two Plextools scans of samples of the Ritek-D01 MID code
in a review of a BenQ DW1640 here:
http://www.cdrinfo.com/Sections/Reviews ... &PageId=18

I know its terrible, all about making money. A "bad" review will hurt the pocket, while the consumer just wants an "honest" review.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 5:59 pm**

I hope we are not knocking down the work of others who spend their times, money and resources to provide us users with information we need in these reviews. We should be grateful to these people for helping us to get acquainted with our drives or systems by providing these valuable reviews and evaluations.

Remember they provide reviews and it iss up to us to take it as its face value and make decision to buy and use the drive or not but we should not down play their works and efforts.

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:05 pm**

dolphinius_rex wrote:I gotta get me some of those!

Yes, you do.

Old samples:

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@...

New samples:

0000 : 93 0f 04 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3f 00 00 00 00 .........&.?....
0010 : 00 00 03 4d 4b 4d 00 00 00 00 00 41 30 33 00 20 ...MKM.....A03.
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 48 ae 32 02 1f 00 50 a0 2c ....pT.H.2...P.,
0050 : 02 21 00 4b aa 2e 02 21 00 00 05 0b 09 00 00 00 .!.K...!........
0060 : 82 00 05 07 00 00 ff ff 01 f6 f4 f2 11 12 00 fd ................
0070 : 00 fe 01 05 01 06 10 0d 00 00 00 00 01 02 00 03 ................

Posted: **Tue Aug 23, 2005 6:51 pm**

Ian wrote:New samples:

0000 : 93 0f 04 00 00 03 00 00 00 26 05 3f 00 00 00 00 .........&.?....
0010 : 00 00 03 4d 4b 4d 00 00 00 00 00 41 30 33 00 20 ...MKM.....A03.
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 48 ae 32 02 1f 00 50 a0 2c ....pT.H.2...P.,
0050 : 02 21 00 4b aa 2e 02 21 00 00 05 0b 09 00 00 00 .!.K...!........
0060 : 82 00 05 07 00 00 ff ff 01 f6 f4 f2 11 12 00 fd ................
0070 : 00 fe 01 05 01 06 10 0d 00 00 00 00 01 02 00 03 ................

Posted: **Sat Aug 27, 2005 3:32 am**

Brand: Verbatim DVD-R 8x (made in Taiwan)
Mediacode: MCC 03RG20
Burner: BenQ 1640 fw BSKB (WOPC on - overspeed On - Solidburn on)
Software: Nero Burning ROm
Burnspeed possible: 16x
Burnspeed selected: 12x
Booktype: -R
Burning time: 7:01

The 1640 is not that unfriendly with DVD-R as some calim, may be to certain brand of -R not all of them.

Posted: **Sat Aug 27, 2005 11:02 am**

Darth wrote:Is the SolidBurn feature necessary if the user sticks to quality media (fuji TY)?

You don't require Solid burn unless you want to write the media at higher than rated speed. Example is YUDEN000 T02 will only write at 8x without Solid burn/ Overspeed turned on. Tried to burn TYG03 at 16x with Overspeed enabled and it wrote @2.4 x turned it off and it wrote @16x, so with 16x rated media it's not required. Beta FW BSKC is being tested now and it looks like they have fixed most of the -R bugs. Fuji TY T02 writes well at 8x but writes just as well with Solid burn @12x.

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.php?p ... tcount=418

Posted: **Sun Aug 28, 2005 11:02 pm**

It is not exaggerate to claim BenQ 1640 is faster ripper among all 16X burners as you can see from the following the protected DVD Video D/L has been ripped at 15.41X amazing isn't it?. Off course for this shining ripping speed credit goes to ala42 for his hard work and creativity.

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2005 3:04 am**

TCAS wrote:Off course for this shining ripping speed credit goes to ala42 for his hard work and creativity.

???
is this a hacked firmware ?

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:02 am**

The 1640 BSKB has been patched with ala42's MediaCodeSpeedEdit for the modified ripping capability of the BenQ drives including 1640.

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2005 11:31 am**

OK.
i thought MCSE was just for editing burning strategies (= control burn speed), not messing with read speads.
good to know.
i might try it out on my BenQ WD1620.

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2005 12:42 pm**

dodecahedron wrote:OK.
i thought MCSE was just for editing burning strategies (= control burn speed), not messing with read speads.
good to know.
i might try it out on my BenQ WD1620.

Yep, it will increase DVD+R DL rip speeds to 16X on the 1620 as well.

Posted: **Mon Aug 29, 2005 5:18 pm**

using MCSE does void your warranty. Here is a scan of some cheap Infome R20 media, and some T02. both burned at 8x.

Posted: **Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:06 am**

I rather to have improved performance on my drive than worry about voiding the warrenty, after all the drive cost only $40.

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Does BenQ 1640 Stands Tall?.

Does BenQ 1640 Stands Tall?.