CDRLabs.com

Well, good results there with only a con in final that may be solved with a newer firmware. Yet I haven't burned anything with it but I feel confident I made a good choice for my 1st DVD writer.

I'm anxious to read the review here. I remember reading something weird was noticed but some more tests were needed before finishing up the review.

BenQ admits the DVD+R DL MKM001 issue (only 2.4X speed) and could be working on a firmware. No DVD-RAM support is a bit surprising too, knowing NEC & Pioneer moves.

But the drive is impressive

It doesn't sound like they're going to enabled 8x writing on Verbatim's 2.4x media. Here's part of an email Miguel sent me:

Regarding to the 2.4x DL issue, I'm afraid there is a reason not to
support 2.4x Verbatim DL media record as higher speed. In fact, we found
that the quality of that media is not stable enough for high speed
recording.

Well, here I read a different sound :

"Recieved a reply back from BenQ, it is ackowledged as a firmware problem and should be fixed in the next update. They did not release an expected date though."

There is a new firmware in the works, and will be released soon

Well.. that's what Miquel from Extreme Mhz got from BenQ. I didn't talk to them myself. I would not be surprised if they didn't support 8x burning on 2.4x media though. A number of drive manufacturers seem to have decided not to do this.

why ?

dodecahedron wrote:why ?

So that you buy 8x DL media? They did the same kinda crap with 16x DVD+R/-R media.

dodecahedron wrote:why ?

It's *MUCH* less stable! Look at my Pioneer DVR-110D review's results!

It's not that some models can do it well, and other models can't... it's that the normal variation within a single model will greatly throw of consistant results with 8x recording on MKM001. That doesn't mean it won't work with certain drives of certain models, but it DOES mean they can't offer it with security. Smart drive makers will limit their max burn speeds based on this, instead of giving newbies too much power. Smarter YET manufacturers will release tools that allow power users to overclock without hacking (*COUGH*BenQ*COUGH*)... although this has not happened yet for DVD±RDL media yet that I'm aware of.

It isn't *ALWAYS* about making more money you know (although the cynic in me points that direction often as well!).