BenQ DW1640 DVD-Writer

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This time BenQ sent us their latest and greatest DVD-Writer; the BenQ DW1640. Upon receiving the drive, BenQ promised us a newer firmware with extra functionality, but it was delayed so much that we decided to start the review with BSJB. By the time we were finalizing this review; firmware BSKB and later BSLB were released, and we have now included test results with BSKB, BSKC and BSLB on page 9 and 10 of this review.

Some BenQ history:

We took a quick look at the company information found at BenQ Europe's web pages:

The BenQ Group, formerly known as Acer Communications & Multimedia Group, is a global operation, employing over 14,760 people worldwide and with an annual turnover (2003) of US$ 3.6 billion. Its expertise encompasses: Communications, Imaging, Display technology, Digital media and Electro-optics products. As home, office, and entertainment merge with each other, BenQ will use these competencies to create networked digital lifestyle devices that will increasingly become part of our world.

BenQ is in a unique position to serve this newly emerging world. It owns more than 1,382 global patents. In addition to this, R&D is carried out in the Hsinchu Lab in Taiwan, the Suzhou Software Development Center in China, and the Wireless Technology Center in San Diego, USA. BenQ currently employs some 2,000 R&D specialists worldwide. It spends about 4% of its income on R&D.

For production, BenQ has facilities in Malaysia, Mexico, China, and Taiwan. BenQ Suzhou is the flagship facility covering 600,000 sq. meters and employing over 6,000 people. Today that centre boasts an annual output capacity of 4 million colour monitors, 8 million keyboards, and 4 million scanners.

As you could see it's a large company with long history. But it's time to look at the specifications of the drive.

Drive specifications:

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These are the specifications of this drive, found at the BenQ Global webpage:

The specifications seem very good, and we don't have anything to put our finger at. Oh well, if we should be REALLY picky; there are drives that support 6x DVD-R DL writing, while the BenQ DW1640 only supports 4x.

What's inside the box?

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The drive we received was a pre-release drive that came in a white box. The bundle is not complete either. But this is what we got:

Yes, we only got the installation CD and the drive. Plus one 6x DVD-RW and one 8x DVD+RW for use in the review.

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

 

Nothing new under the sun here, it uses almost the same front as the DW1620.

 

Our sample was produced in Malaysia and has a production date of April 2005.

 

Still no changes on the back either; from the left: digital audio connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features and program bundle of this drive on the next page…

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Test machine:

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For this review we will be using a
computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Abit IC-7 MAX3
  i875P
• Processor: Intel Pentium 4
  3,2GHz 800MHz FSB Prescott with Hyper Threading support.
• RAM: 1Gb PC4300
  DDR
• GFX: Asus GeForce 6800
  
• Sound: SB Audigy
  2
• Hard disks: 400Gb Seagate
  Barracuda 7200.8 S-ATA connected to the Intel i875P S-ATA
  controller.

System set-up:

 

The BenQ DW1640 was connected as
Primary Slave and identified itself as BENQ DVD DD DW1640. DMA (Direct
Memory Access) was enabled for all devices where it was
possible.

Software:

Windows XP Professional is
installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. We will be
using the following software in this review:

• Nero Burning ROM version
  6.6.0.13
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
  v4.01
• Nero InfoTool v3.10
• DVD-Identifier
  4.0.1
• K-Probe v2.4.3

Installation and supported features:

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We quickly installed the drive
without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

 

Our drive came shipped with
firmware BSGB, we updated the firmware to version BSJB for this review and later
to BSKB, BSKC and BSLB. The drawbacks we could see are the inability to read and
write DVD-RAM discs as well as missing Mt. Rainier support along with a slightly
small buffer. A larger buffer would at least smooth up the data transfer to the
drive a bit on stressed systems. It also looks like this drive doesn't support
reporting C2 errors.

Qsuite:

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BenQ DW1640 ships with the QSuite
application; let us take a look at the different features of Q-Suite:

The first tab tells you
information about the drive and about the media in the drive.

The second tab is for booktype
changing, the BenQ DW1640 sets all DVD+R/RW/DL discs to DVD-ROM booktype as
default, and we can't see why anyone would want to change this, but you
have the opportunity to do it at least.

Let us see if the discs are
correctly identified with DVD-ROM booktype:

No problems, the discs are
identified as having DVD-ROM booktype.

The third tab is the QScan feature
which checks if the media you have in the drive is suitable for the selected
speed. According to QScan our Optodisc R16 DVD+R disc is NOT suitable for 16x
writing at all. This could vary from disc to disc though.

The fourth tab is for disabling
the OPC function of the drive. We disabled the OPC function and tried three
different 16x DVDR discs. Take a look later in this review for results with WOPC
enabled.

Verbatim 16x DVD+R, MCC004 works
fine with WOPC off, the quality is about the same and you save around 20 seconds
on the total recording time.

ePro 16x DVD+R, Prodisc.R04: Again
same quality and 20 seconds saved.

Verbatim 16X DVD-R, MCC03RG20:
While looking at the write transfer graph it looks like WOPC is not fully
disabled. But again '“ the quality is about the same and you save 20
seconds.

Overall: Disabling WOPC doesn't
make the writing quality worse on high quality media, and it shaves off about 20
seconds on the total writing time at 16x speed.

The fifth and last tab is to
enable/disable test writing on DVD+R/RW/DL. By enabling it, the drive will first
try to simulate a write and if that succeeds write the actual data to the
disc.

Problems encountered: BenQ QSuite
doesn't work on all computers. Computer containing certain PCI add-on IDE
controllers with optical drives connected will cause the program to crash. The
same with BenQ firmware upgrades, they will also crash. BenQ programming team
should look into these issues.

Error scanning of written discs:

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The BenQ DW1640 supports error
scanning of written discs by using Nero CD/DVD speed.

Nero CD-Speed gives you an
indication of the quality by giving a score. Higher score is better; a good
result should at least be over 80 in quality score.

Other features:

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Here
are the other features that BenQ promotes with this drive:

Write
Right Technology-- Best Quality in DVD BenQ's exclusive Write Right
Technology utilizes two powerful features: Tilt Control and WOPC II (Walking
Optimal Power Control II). By using these features, the DW1640 is able to
maintain perfect control over the laser beam angle and the power rate being
projected onto the disc, ensuring your data is written at the best possible
quality.

Dual
Cooling System

BenQ's exclusive Dual Cooling
System (DCS) features an Anti-Dust Cooling System (ADCS) and Air Flow Cooling
System (AFCS) to effectively reduce the risk of over-heating during high-speed
reading and writing.

Air Flow
Cooling System (AFCS)
AFCS accelerates the circulation
inside the drive and speeds up the heat elimination through the drive's steel
housing.

Anti-Dust Cooling System (ADCS)
With an integrated heat chimney
design, ADCS redirects the heat flow out of the drive, while still providing
protection from dust.

All-In-One Digital Media
Solution Digitally preserve your precious
photographs and home movies on DVD or CD, ready for playback on most DVD players
and computer CD/DVD drives. With the addition of Double Layer technology and
DVD+R DL media, you can take advantage of the increased storage capacity of
8.5GB per disc or up to 4 hours for DVD quality video.

Included
recording software:

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Now it's time to look at the
included software, and comment it if needed. Notice that we may not use the
included software in our performance testing part of the review.

Nero 6 OEM
Suite:

The well-known Nero
suite is also included and covers all tasks from creating the movie to writing
it to the disc. This is one of our favourite programs.

BenQ QVideo 2.0:

This is how BenQ presents their
QVideo 2.0 program:

Instant DV to DVD - QVideo
2.0
With BenQ's exclusive
QVideo 2.0 you can instantly transfer your digital video footage into a DVD disc
without spending hours completing capturing, rendering, authoring and burning
processes.

As you see QVideo is used to
transfer data from capturing devices directly to DVD-Discs with almost no
delays, this of course saves some time.

Now that we have finished
examining the drive and bundled programs '“ let us head on to the next page,
which is reading performance test…

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Reading performance:

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For these tests we will use Nero
CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD's, including audio discs and DVD-media.
As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive sports a specified read
speed of 16X for DVD's and 48X for CD's.

Pressed
discs:

For this test we used a pressed
CD-ROM disc containing PlexTools v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long. Below
you will see the produced result:

 

The BenQ DW1640 did almost reach
48x. To see how this compares to other drives, look below:

Among the faster drives and
average seek times.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we made a copy of
the original PlexTools v1.08 CD. The disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified
CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

 

No big differences compared to
reading the original pressed disc, but let us compare the result to some other
drives:

It was able to beat all the other
drives, but the difference is rather small. But it looks like it has a problem
with seek times on the CD-R discs.

CD-ReWritable discs:

Again we made a copy of the
original PlexTools v1.08 disc, this time we used a Verbatim High Speed (10X)
CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

 

The drive reads CD-RW discs at 40x
speed. Check how this compares to other drives below.

Among the faster drives, but we
would still like to see 48x reading like the AOpen drive. Seek times is better
again, although not perfect.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio
extraction performance of the BenQ DW1640, we again used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to
measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the
disc used for the other tests, to be exact it's about 78 minutes long
(77:56:57).

 

The drive had no problems with
reading the audio disc at full speed; let us compare the result with other
drives:

Among the faster drives, but there
is again some seek time issues.

Advanced
audio '“ DAE quality
test:

Before we move on to testing DVD
read speeds, we will take a last audio test. This time we used the 'Advanced DAE
Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed.

 

The extracting quality should be
excellent, but it doesn't support reading data from the lead-out. This could
affect the ability to extract audio from certain protected audio discs. The test
claims that it's too slow for 12x and 16x on the fly copying, this is not
correct.

DVD reading performance:

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Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed
to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs.
The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

DVD '“
DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance
tests we are going to start with single and dual layered DVD video discs. While
only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it's useful to be able to read
the discs at higher speeds if you're going to extract (rip) the content of the
disc to your hard drive.

 

 

This drive has no riplock and does
nearly reach 16x with the single layer disc. The double layer disc is only read
at 12x.

Very good, since it's the only
drive to read dual layer at 12x it outperforms all the other drives
easily.

 DVD+R/RW:

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For this test we used a Taiyo
Yuden 4X DVD+R and a Ricoh 4X DVD+RW with about 4,4Gb of data. Below are the
results:

No complaints at all, they finally
unlocked the full potential and the drive reads the DVD+R disc at 16x speed and
the DVD+RW disc at 12x speed.

Well, it simply outperformed all
the other drives, and we have no complaints.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

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For this test we used a Taiyo
Yuden 4X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 2X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4Gb of
data. Our test results are found below:

There are hardly any differences
compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

Again able to outperform all the
other drives, this is a plus in our book.

Overall
thoughts:

Very fast and stable reader which
outperforms most other drives. But the seek times are sometimes a bit
high.

But now it's time to head on to a
more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW
discs…

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The specifications of the BenQ
DW1640 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x. Let us find out
how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

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Let us first take a look at the
CD-R write technology used by the BenQ DW1640:

 

As we could see, the BenQ DW1640
uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 48x, this gives an average speed of 35.20x. Look below for comparison
with two other drives.

 

The Mad Dog MD-16XDVD9 uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its rated speed of
48x. This gives an average speed of 36.38x.

 

As we could see the Plextor
PX-712A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) writing
strategy to reach it rated speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 36.43x.

And as a last test we wrote a disc
containing 700Mb using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO
(Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non
multi-session disc with 'finalize disc" enabled.

 

The BenQ DW1640 used 2 minutes and
48 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other
drives:

Very good, but still lags 10
seconds or so behind most other 48x writers due to the walking OPC feature. But
maybe the walking OPC feature will be able to keep the writing quality good?

Write Quality:

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We will test CD-R discs from a
total of 8 different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we
used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at
the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe
2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and
works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different
reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used
a Lite-On LTR-52246S drive with firmware 6S0F and scanned the discs at 48X
speed.

A written CD-R disc will always
have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive's error
correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could
also be corrected by most drive's error correction capabilities; they are not
wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and
preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or
at least C1 average below 10.0 for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are
only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Why wait any longer? Below are the
obtained results:

 

Brand:	Infiniti, thanks to Medea EU for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:59s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.75
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The CMC Magnetics discs seem to be
pretty good; they work excellent with the BenQ DW1640 drive at least.

 

Brand:	MAM-E '“ thanks to MAM-E for providing it.
Manufacturer:	MAM-E (Mitsui)
Code:	97m27s58f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	3m:01s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.16
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

No problems with this
media.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India for Mitsubishi.
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.44
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Good quality with
Mitsubishi/Verbatim media, highly recommended.

 

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to conrexx for providing it
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.52
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

No problems with Ritek media
either.

 

Brand:	Emgeton '“ thanks to Bell Technology for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Fornet International Pte. Ltd
Code:	97m26s07f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	56x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	3m:00s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.68
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

First 56x certified media we've
ever seen, and the BenQ DW1640 works surprisingly well with this rather unknown
media.

 

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ Thanks to Miflop for providing it
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.10
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

Simply blows away the competition,
this scan is one of the better we have ever had!

 

Brand:	Infiniti '“ thanks to Medea EU for providing it.
Manufacturer:	SKC Co Ltd.
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	44x
Write Time:	2m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.27
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

Another good result with these
rather rare CD-R discs.

 

Brand:	Miflop Lite '“ thanks to Miflop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Digital Data Storage (using generic plasmon ID)
Code:	97m27s18f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:30s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.92
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

Not the highest quality media, but
the result is still good. BenQ may consider looking into adding support for this
media at 48x speed, but 40x may be a safer choice due to variable quality with
CD-R's using the Plasmon ATIP.

Brand:	BenQ, thanks to Daxon for providing it
Manufacturer:	Daxon (but with Hitachi Maxell ATIP)
Code:	97m25s29f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:58s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.02
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

No problems with this
media.

Brand:	eProformance
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	97m32s19f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:32s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.40
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The quality is good, but we are a
bit surprised to find this media only supported at 40x, BenQ should look into
this.

CD-ReWritable:

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The BenQ DW1640 supports a CD-ReWriting speed of 32x; let us see how this compares to other writers.
Let us start with taking a look at the writing strategy it uses:

 

The BenQ DW1640 uses P-CAV
(Partial-Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 32x, this gives an average
speed of 30.33x. This seems to be about average compared to other drives,
but let us include some other results for comparison.

 

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 32x, this gives an average speed of 29.75x.

 

The Plextor PX-712A, with its
P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) write
speed of 24X for Ultra Speed CD-RW discs is among the faster writers due to its
high starting speed of 21.12x.

Below are a comparison table with
results from other writers.

It holds the speed record along
with the Samsung drive, so we are satisfied with this result. But let us take a
look at the quality with three discs.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics, but with Mitsubishi dye and ATIP
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	US+ CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 5: Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:10s
C1 Average/Sec:	430.00
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

Not exactly excellent you may say,
clearly room for improvements.

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	97m22s60f
Disc Type:	US+ CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 0: Phase Change
Capacity:	74:41.50 (656MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:15s
C1 Average/Sec:	1005.00
C2 Average/Sec:	2.32

Well, the result is even worse
with this media, again; BenQ needs to look at the CD-RW writing
quality.

Brand:	Emgeton '“ thanks to Bell Technology for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Infodisc
Code:	97m25s31f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	4m:12s
C1 Average/Sec:	308.60
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

Better, but still far from
good.

Summary:

It's an outstanding CD-Writer,
the quality is excellent and most drives can't keep up with it in terms of
quality. BenQ should consider improving CD-R media further as two discs were
only supported at 40x. But for CD-RW writing the story is different, it's fast
enough, but the writing quality is very poor and BenQ should improve the CD-RW
writing quality '“ even their own CD-RW media gives very high error
levels.

But after all, it's a DVD-Writer,
so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media
compatibility…

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The specifications of this drive
tell us that it should write DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD-R discs at 16X speed. In
this part we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+/-R(W) discs.
We do also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

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We will start with taking a look
at the writing strategy used and compare it to other drives;

 

The BenQ DW1640 uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x speed. This
gives an average speed of 11.53x and a total writing time of 5m:44s. Let us also
take a look at writing a DVD-R disc:

As we could see it also uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. This
gives an average speed of about 11.41x and a writing time of 6 minutes and 06
seconds.

 

The BenQ DW1620 uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. This gives an
average writing speed of 11.51x and the lowest time we have obtained are 5
minutes and 47 seconds. The drive uses a bit longer time than ideally since it
uses running OPC technology when writing (shown as small dips in the transfer
curve above).

 

The LG GSA-5163D uses P-CAV
(Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x.
The average speed for the LG GSA-5163D is 12.82x and total writing time is 5
minutes and 19 seconds. This is the fastest result we have got with all tested
writers so far, and is thus the record to beat for other drives.

Let us see how long of a time it
needs to create a disc with Nero. We used Nero Burning Rom to set up a new
UDF/ISO compilation containing 4483Mb of data, and started the write process. We
used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

The DVD+R disc was finished in 6
minutes and 1 second, while the DVD-R disc was finished in 6 minutes and 11
seconds.

The BenQ DW1640 is slightly faster
than average at 16x DVD+R, but is slightly slower at DVD-R 16x writing due to
longer OPC procedure. We have big expectations for the writing quality of this
drive, so let's see if it's as good as expected.

Write quality:

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You should first notice that this
is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our
testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link
between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the
disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different
amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers. So we recommend using a
DVD-Writer from Lite-On, in this test we use a
Lite-On SOHW-1693S DVD-Writer, as already
said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can't be compared with the
results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer.
Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum
settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result,
we use these settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to
summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures)
set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed:
4X CLV (Constant Linear
Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare
to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a
discussion that we don't think will end soon, as different drives report
different amount of errors, some players is more picky about media than others,
and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD
discs:

This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-ROM disc (Colin McRae Rally 2005).

 

This scan shows the result from a
pressed DVD-Video disk (Final Destination). Notice the error jump when shifting
to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end of the first
layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below you will see
that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.

Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org
if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the
ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random
errors:

A row of an ECC Block that has at
least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks
the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed
280.

Here we see what a PI error is
defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte
or more containing errors. And that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI
errors.

But what is a row and what is an
ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything
but if interested look in the ECMA standards.
A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity
Inner) information. An ECC block is 208
rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer)
information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per
block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher
giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PIE-8 errors. In practical use a disc
with 1664 PIE-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the
specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as
some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and
most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or
more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity
Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner
Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here are what ECMA 337 states:

'If a row of an ECC Block as
defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be
'PI-uncorrectable"."

In theory an ECC block may in the
worst case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337
standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures
(uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:

'- In any ECC Block the number of PI-uncorrectable rows should not exceed
4."  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1 the maximum error value should
not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable?
A POF (Parity Outer
Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not
display the POF's.

Notice that there are other
aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also
will affect the readability of a DVD disc '“ but for this we do not have
measuring equipment available.

And another note is that we have
scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering
the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may
drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due
to lower speeds taking to much time.

To see if there is a connection
between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also
include the reading curve from a NEC ND-3540A DVD-Writer. A small speed
reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading
problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Easier explanation on how to read the test
results.

---

Maybe this got too technical, and
you are wondering what to look for in KProbe
reports?

Use this as a guideline for good discs:

PI(Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc
should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes
that exceed 280.
PIF(Parity
Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should
exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that
exceed 4.

And as always; lower is better
😉

And look at the reading curve;
does it look clean with no dips? Then it should be good, a small slowdown near
the end is acceptable.

DVD+R
media compatibility and write quality:

---

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON.AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:44s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.13
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.09

A few PIE/PIF spikes near the end
but else a very good result with this media, it would have been strange if there
were problems, after all the media is BenQ branded.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ thanks to Verbatim UK for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics with Mitsubishi technology
Code:	MCC004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:44s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.53
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

Again some spikes near the end,
but not too bad and the reading curve shows no problems.

Brand:	ePro
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	Prodisc.R04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:44s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.36
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Again some spikes near the end,
but beside that an excellent result.

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	4x (16x selectable, but OPC control forced it to write at 4x)
Write Time:	15m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	16.37
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The OPC control of the drive
limited the writing speed to 4x; we tried two discs from different spindles '“
but the result were the same. But otherwise the result is acceptable.

Brand:	FreeSpace
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	Optodisc.R16
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	4x (16x selectable, but OPC control forced it to write at 4x)
Write Time:	15m:27s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.73
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.11

This media wrote at 4x only, and
as we could see there are some quality problems near the end, this is due to
very low disc quality. 

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Conrexx for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK.P16
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x (16x selectable, but OPC forced it to write at 12x)
Write Time:	6m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.88
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

An excellent result, but it wrote
the disc at 12x only.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Philips/CMC Magnetics
Code:	Philips.C16 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.48
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.25

Slightly worse at the end, but not
enough to cause any readback problems.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK / CMC Magnetics
Code:	TDK 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Another good result, but we would
like to see 16x writing speed with this media.

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R03 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:15s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

No problems at all.

Brand:	Emgeton '“ thanks to Bell technology for providing this media
Manufacturer:	Infomedia
Code:	Infome.R20
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:20s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.17
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

No problems with this rather rare
media either.

Brand:	Datawrite titanium '“ thanks to e-net for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC.R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.66
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The drive performed very well with
the Prodisc media and we have no problems recommending this media.

Brand:	Miflop extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.50
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

And Taiyo Yuden works excellent as
expected.

 

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	OPTODISC.OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	25m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	194.50
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.22

Well, Opto disc manufactures low
quality media, but other writers work much better with this media. It writes at
2.4x and the quality is horrible, BenQ should look into this issue.

Brand:	Prodye Video
Manufacturer:	Unknown
Code:	Plasmon1C01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:13s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.00
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.14

No problems with this rather rare
media either.

Brand:	ProDVD
Manufacturer:	UME Disc '“ Hong Kong.
Code:	AML 002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:35s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.46
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Low quality media, and as we could
see the result is not good at the end of the disc.

Brand:	Commodore
Manufacturer:	Interaxia AG
Code:	VDSPMSAB002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:27s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.68
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Another very low quality media
type and it fails to read back. Stay away from this media type.

Head on to next page and read
about DVD-R compatibility and write quality as well as DVD+/-RW writing quality
and speed...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write
quality:

---

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON016S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.690
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

No problems with this
media.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Conrexx for providing this media
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RitekF1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.27
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Looks like these Ritek discs are
pretty good with drives which are optimized for them, which the DW1640
is.

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	MCC03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.49
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

It looks like the BenQ DW1640 is
fully optimized for this media as the result is very good.

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.18
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

While the result is good, there
are some issues near the end of the disc causing slowdowns. We are not yet sure
if this is a media issue or a drive issue.

Brand:	Unbranded silver media distributed by e-net distribution.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics / TDK
Code:	TTH02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.09

The discs shows problems near the
end and reading back the disc fails. This is most likely due to media issues as
we have experienced problems with this media in other drives as well, and when
looking at the disc the dye appears to be very uneven near the outer
edge.

Brand:	ePro
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	Prodisc.F02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.87
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

No real issues with this media,
but we think the writing strategy could be further improved to obtain even
better results '“ judging from results we have had with some other
drives.

Brand:	Emgeton '“ thanks to Bell technology for providing this media
Manufacturer:	Infomedia
Code:	Infomedia.R20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:35s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.33
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

This pretty rare media works very
well with this drive.

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to Advanced media USA for sending this media
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.16
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.23

Excellent, this Ridata media is
clearly among the best RitekG05 brands on the market.

Brand:	MiFlop Extreme '“ thanks to MiFlop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:32s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.18
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.08

Excellent '“ as expected with Taiyo
Yuden.

Brand:	Datawrite silver printable '“ thanks to E-net distribution for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscF01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:34s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	18.53
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.09

A bit high amount of PI Errors,
but still well within specifications and should not cause any problems in
practical use.

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Opto disc
Code:	OPTODISCR008
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	16m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.01
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The error levels appear to be
excellent, but the reading curve shows problems near the end '“ as usual with
Opto Disc media we may say. And it also wrote at 4x only.

Brand:	Datawrite Titanium '“ thanks to E-net distribution for providing this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics/TDK
Code:	TTG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:43s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	27.22
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

A bit high overall PIE level, but
still within acceptable levels.

Brand:	Princo
Manufacturer:	Princo
Code:	PRINCO8X02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:48s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	20.31
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.09

Poor quality discs, but the result
is surprisingly good. But you should still steer clear of these.

Brand:	Tuffdisc '“ thanks to E-Net distribution for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.AE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.73
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

No problems with this
media.

Overall
thoughts: Overall this drive is very good,
but having the DW1620 in mind we had expected even more. Let us point out how it
compares to the DW1620.

-Is it faster? Not much, but yes '“
it's faster.
-Is the writing quality better? For DVD-R, yes. For DVD+R, no '“
at 16x DVD+R writing it creates some unwanted PIE/PIF spikes which the DW1620
doesn't create. And BenQ/Philips is the designers and heaviest promoters of the
DVD+R format. So we did expect DVD+R writing to be 100% perfect '“ but it's
not.
-Is the media compatibility better? No, this drive doesn't support
overspeeding with the current firmware, and the OPC feature of the drive seems
to be too sensitive with some media types, even good brands like TDK is
speed-limited by the OPC feature.

But still, it's probably overall
the best drive on the market when it comes to media compatibility and writing
quality.

Re-Writing data:

---

The BenQ DW1640 supports rewriting
DVD-RW at 6x and DVD+RW at 8x speed; let us write two discs in Nero CD/DVD speed
and Nero Burning ROM to see how fast it is.

Here are the writing results for
writing the 6x DVD-RW disc:

BenQ DW1640 uses CLV writing
technology to write the DVD-RW disc at 6x. Total recording time is around 10
minutes and 30 seconds.

And here is the result with 8x
DVD+RW writing:

BenQ DW1640 uses Z-CLV writing
technology to write the DVD+RW disc at 8x. Total recording time is right below 8
minutes.

Writing Quality with DVD Re-Writable discs:

---

Due to request from our readers we
will add a few write quality tests with ReWritable media. Settings and testing
procedures are the same as used earlier in this review so you may want to go
back and read them if unsure. All discs used for these tests have been written
to before, but none have been written to more than 25 times.

DVD+ReWritable
media:

 

Brand:	Unbranded '“ thanks to BenQ for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek using Ricoh technology.
Code:	RICOHJPNW21
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:54s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.74
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

No problems with this
media.

Brand:	Traxdata
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK008
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.19
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Ritek 8x DVD+Rw was the first 8x
DVD+RW media to be officially approved, and there are no issues at all with this
media.

Brand:	Unbranded MKM '“ thanks to LG Korea for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM.A03
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	-
Write Time:	-
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	-
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	-

Looks like the BenQ DW1640 doesn't
support this media at all. We informed BenQ about this and they told us that the
reason is that our media is pre-release media and that the final version is
already supported. Oh well, we can't see any reasons not to support the
pre-release media as well as this media has been sent out to many reviewers and
beta testers for over a half year already.

DVD-ReWritable
media:

---

Brand:	Mitsubishi '“ thanks to BenQ for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi
Code:	MCC01RW6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.71
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Strange looking error curve, but
still a fairly good result. The disc had some detection problems in some drives,
but most drives did detect it after some time.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Conrexx for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.53
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.11

At first glance the result seems
to be acceptably good. But many drives like Plextor and NEC can't detect the
written disc. BenQ should look into this issue as well as adding support for
this media at 6x writing speed.

To sum it
up:
The DVD+/-RW writing quality is good, but BenQ should increase the media
compatibility as well as fixing the writing issues with '“RW media that makes the
discs unreadable in many drives.

But let us now look at another
aspect of this drive; double layer DVD+R and dual layer DVD-R
writing…

---

DVD+R
Double Layer writing speed and compatibility:

---

The BenQ DW1640 supports 8x DVD+R
DL writing, as one of the first drives on the market capable of this it will be
interesting to see how fast it actually is.

Testing
procedure: We used Nero CD-DVD Speed to
create a test disc, this way we could also see the writing strategy the drive
uses.

BenQ DW1640 uses P-CAV to write
the DVD+R DL disc at 8x. This gives a total recording time of 15 minutes and 36
seconds '“ and is thus the speed king for writing DVD+R DL media. Let us take a
look at the writing quality with several DVD+R DL media types.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Singapore)
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	15m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.26
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Considering that the disc is only
certified for 2.4x and written at 8x - this result is excellent. And as we could
see there are no problems reading the disc at 12x either. Good job
BenQ!

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Traxdata for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	46m:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	48.11
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.19

With the previous experiences
(which is about 80% failures with this media) with this media in mind this
results is very good, the error levels are not excellent, but still within the
limits, and the disc is fully readable '“ although the picky Plextor drive
struggles a bit.

Brand:	Imation
Manufacturer:	Ritek/Ricoh
Code:	RICOHJPND00
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	46m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	12.60
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

As we could see the BenQ DW1640
did fairly well with the Ricoh media, the picky Plextor drive still have serious
slowdowns though.

Brand:	eProformance
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	47m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.57
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

It actually did pretty good with
this rather rare Prodisc media too.

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	Philips.CD2
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	46m:52s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	32.34
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.12

While the result is not
exceptionally good it's still within limits and the disc is readable by both
drives.

Here are some comparison results
against other drives:

Summary: This time BenQ has done
it right '“ most of it at least. It's the speed king for DVD+R DL writing and it
does so with good quality too. And unlike most if not all other drives it does
the job well with all other DL media types too.

DVD-R
Dual Layer writing speed and compatibility:

---

The BenQ DW1640 supports 4x DVD-R
dual layer writing speed; let us take a look at writing speed and writing
quality.

Testing
procedure: We used Nero CD-DVD Speed to
create a test disc, this way we could also see the writing strategy the drive
uses.

BenQ DW1640 uses CLV to write the
DVD-R DL disc at 4x, not P-CAV as incorrectly reported by CD-DVD Speed. This
gives a total recording time of 29 minutes and 56 seconds '“ as expected with 4x
writing speed. We would still like to see 6x writing speed like Pioneer and NEC
offers.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim UK for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Singapore)
Code:	MKM01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8148MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	29m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.34
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Pretty good, but as we know the
DVD-R DL format has inferior compatibility compared to DVD+R DL.

Summary: Verbatim DVD-R DL works
well with this drive, but we would like to see 6x DVD-R DL speed like Pioneer
and NEC offers.

Before we complete this review,
let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next
page…

---

The 'Sheep test":

---

For this test, we will use the
Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called
Sheep Test? That is because the symbol of the first 1 to 1 copy program called
CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the
feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this
case we are interested in the writer's ability to backup/write weak sectors.
Also called: 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns".

⋅
No
sheep: Can't backup any Safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
⋅
1
Sheep: Can backup Safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks

⋅
2
Sheep: Can backup Safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
⋅
3
Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators,
Womble, has written a guide concerning
the 'Sheep Test" that could be found here.

In the screenshot below we see
that the BenQ DW1640 supports all available write and read features in
CloneCD:

The BenQ DW1640 supports DAO-RAW96
recording mode. This means that it can write uncorrected data and subchannel
data.

Below are our results from the
'Sheep Tests":

The BenQ DW1640 qualifies as a two
sheep writer and is thus an average writer for backing up protected
games.

Copy protected Audio:

---

For our protected audio test we
used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if
the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to
the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this
test:

 

Westlife: World of our own is
protected with Cactus data shield 100.

 

Natalie Imbruglias White Lilies
Island.
This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200

 

Shakira: Laundry Service, which is
protected with Key2Audio version 2.

 

And finally Celine Dion: A New Day
Has Come, which is protected with Key2Audio version 3

Results:

The BenQ DW1640 did well and reads
all the protected audio discs without any problems.

Overburning:

---

To test the CD overburning
capabilities of the BenQ DW1640 we used the overburning test in Nero
CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to more than
99 minutes.

 

Media used is Ritek 99-minute
media. And we also tried to write a disc in Nero, but it locked up the whole
computer while writing the lead-out. We then tried the create data disc option
in CD-Speed with overburn enabled:

 

There are no problems with
CD-Speed and it wrote the disc all the way up to almost 100 minutes! Looks like
the problem might be with Nero then.

 

There are no problems with reading
the 99-minute disc.

Now, this would normally be the
end of the review, but instead head over to read about SolidBurn and
OverSpeeding!...

---

Finally BenQ
released the new firmware they originally told us would be ready in the end of
June, unfortunately too late to make it into our full review, thus we have added
this update to the end of our review.

BSKB Change
log:

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

QSuite 2.0
Change log:

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.

SolidBurn:

---

This is how
Philips describes the SolidBurn feature:

Philips
introduces SolidBurn, a new self-learning feature that will ensure optimal
writing conditions for any recordable DVD media. This advanced writer feature
executes a series of tests on an 'unknown' DVD media to determine the optimal
writing strategy. Without SolidBurn, new DVD media and media that are not in the
media list of the drive, are written using a less optimal standard write
strategy. This could result in lower recording speeds than specified or lower
quality recordings jeopardizing disc playability or lifetime.

 The
write strategy of a DVD drive is the way in which it writes to a blank DVD
media.  Normally these write strategies are determined by extensive media
tests at the drive manufacturer and listed in the firmware of the drive. But
unfortunately these media lists are not complete. And with new DVD media
regularly coming to market, consumers need to update their DVD writers with the
latest firmware to ensure an up-to-date media list for best recording quality.

Nevertheless, statistics indicate
that only a limited number of consumers update their DVD burners and most never
upgrade the firmware at all. Now with SolidBurn the drive automatically
determines the optimal writing strategy for specific DVD media and stores this
information in the drive. So there is no need for the consumer to update the
media list in their DVD drive or worry about in-complete media lists. SolidBurn
enables the drive to keep itself up-to-date and ensures best writing quality on
all recordable DVD media.

When a new
disc is inserted into the drive, SolidBurn executes automatically a series of
tests on the 'unknown' DVD media. Based on the DVD writer's measurements
capabilities such as jitter and PiSum-8, the SolidBurn algorithm delivers a
multiple of unique parameter settings that control the drive during the normal
writing process. Measurements at Philips Standards & Format Verification
Laboratories showed a dramatic improvement in write quality of the new discs
written with SolidBurn. These recorded discs had an average lowest jitter, best
PiSum-8 results and the least uncorrectable errors compared to the same discs
written with a standard writing strategy of the drive. Moreover, on average the
discs were recorded with the SolidBurn drive at higher recording speed than
drives without the SolidBurn feature.

Basically it
all sums together: If SolidBurn is enabled it will write a small area in the
Power Calibration area at maximum speed, then measure the error level, if the
error level is ok it will start writing the disc, if not it will write a new
area at lower speed, measure the error level, and start to write if the error
level is ok, if not it will continue to repeat this process until the measured
error level is ok or that the lowest speed (2x/2.4x) is reached and write the
disc at that speed.

When starting
up Qsuite 2.0 and selecting the newly updated BenQ DW1640 we find two new tabs
for the two new features.

The first is
the SolidBurn tab:

The default
setting will be Non-activated for supported media and activated for unknown
media (as noted in QSuite as well).

In the lower
half of the image you will see the media codes of the discs that you have
written with SolidBurn enabled, this list may be emptied by pressing the clean
button. You may choose to enable/disable SolidBurn temporarily (until next
reboot) or permanent. As default will SolidBurn be disabled for supported media,
and activated for unsupported media.

When the drive
has learnt some media it will look like this:

As we could
see our drive has now learned 6 pieces of media.

OverSpeed:

---

The second new
feature is OverSpeed.

Enabling
overspeed will basically allow any DVD+/-R media to be written at 16x '“ but that
is only the theory.  By enabling OverSpeed writing you will automatically
enable SolidBurn for all media, regardless of what setting you had previously
chosen. Thus SolidBurn limits the writing speed, even if you choose 16x. When
starting to write the disc SolidBurn limits the writing speed if needed (if the
media is too low quality or has defects).

All in all
some real useful additions, but head over to next page to see some overspeeding
results…

---

Practical tests with OverSpeed and SolidBurn
enabled.

---

That was the
theory; now let us do practical tests. J All discs will be written with
OverSpeed and SolidBurn enabled. Now we will see what speeds we could obtain
with various media types and how the quality is. Notice that all results here
are the best results we were able to obtain, what speeds and results you may
experience greatly depends on the quality of the actual disc you are using. They
may be worse or better. Using discs of the same brands and/or same media codes
as shown here is no warranty to obtain the same results.

We will show
the write transfer graphs as well as error results from both K-Probe/Lite-On and
CD-Speed/BenQ. And of course do a reading test with our NEC ND-3540A
DVD-Writer.

DVD+R:

---

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Conrexx for providing it
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R03 (Revision 002)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:32s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.47
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

No problems with this media, and
it overspeeds nicely to 12x.

Brand:	Datawrite titanium '“ thanks to e-net for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC.R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.85
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.16

We are honestly impressed, 16x was
more than we were hoping for. And the result is good as well.

Brand:	Miflop extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.68
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

And Taiyo Yuden works well at 16x
as expected.

Brand:	Acro Circle '“ thanks to Optodisc America for providing this media
Manufacturer:	Optodisc
Code:	OPTODISC.OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.53
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

A new surprise, this Optodisc
media wrote at 12x with very good results. But keep in mind that this is really
good Optodisc media, the majority of Optodisc media seems to be a lot worse than
this media.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics using Mitsubishi technology.
Code:	MCC003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.41
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

And Verbatim MCC003 media works
excellent at 16x as well. Notice that different batches and manufacturers will
give different results.

Brand:	Datawrite classic '“ thanks to E-net UK for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek using Ricoh technology.
Code:	RICOHJPNR01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.68
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Just for fun we tried a 4x disc
with RICOHJPNR01 dye as well, and it worked fine at 12x. We think that even 16x
may be possible with this media, if you have media from a perfect quality batch.
Oh well, a 200% overspeed is still not bad.

DVD-R:

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to Advanced media USA for sending this media
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:31s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.40
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

Another surprise! This RitekG05
media wrote at a whopping 16x speed, but have in mind that the majority of
RitekG05 media on the market is probably lower quality than the media we used
here.

Brand:	MiFlop Extreme '“ thanks to MiFlop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	24.20
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

And Taiyo Yuden wrote at 16x as
expected. The PIE level is a bit higher than we were hoping for, but it's still
a very good result.

Brand:	Datawrite silver printable '“ thanks to E-net distribution for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscF01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.29
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Another disc that it wrote at 12x.
The quality is again within acceptable levels. Interesting to see that the
result at 12x now is better than our 8x result in the review. The media is from
the same spindle. 

Brand:	Acro Circle '“ thanks to Optodisc USA for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Optodisc
Code:	OPTODISCR008
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:45s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.08
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

As with the +R media we got 12x
writing speed. This is thanks to Optodisc media of above average quality
provided by Optodisc America. Our general experience with Optodisc is much worse
than shown here. We could also see that the WOPC II feature is working very
actively and the total writing time is pretty long. But the result is very
good.

Brand:	Datawrite titanium '“ thanks to E-Net distribution for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.AE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:05s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.09
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

No problems with this media,
although we were only able to obtain 8x writing speed. Maybe media of higher
quality could reach higher speeds.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics with Mitsubishi technology
Code:	MCC02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:31s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.90
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

And we were able to reach 16x with
Verbatim 8x DVD-R as well. But quality and manufacturer greatly depends on what
results you will get.

Conclusion:

Overspeeding works as expected.
And it works well in combination with SolidBurn. The drive allows 16x Writing to
all DVD+/-R media now, the only limiting factor is SolidBurn, which turns out to
do the job very well. We have played around with this firmware for several days
now and if we feed the drive with low quality media, SolidBurn will limit the
speed, sometimes as low as 4x or even 2.4x if the media is really bad. But with
good media we have seen that we could get some really outstanding results.
Notice that enabling SolidBurn will add about 10-30 seconds to the total writing
time depending on disc and disc condition.

Now it's time to finish off this
review, so head over to the last page and read our
conclusion…

 Positive:

---

• Very good
  specifications.
• Very good
  DVD-Writing and ReWriting quality.
• SolidBurn
  technology that works
• Supports
  overspeeding of all DVD+/-R if the media is good enough.
• Currently
  the speed king for writing DVD+R DL media.
• Excellent DVD+/-R DL writing
  quality and compatibility.
• Superb
  CD-Writing quality.
• Many extra
  features in QSuite.
• Supports
  disc quality checking.
• Supports
  bitsetting for DVD+R/RW/R9 DL.
• Good media
  compatibility.
• Supports
  writing/reading 99 minutes CD-R media.
• Drive has
  no riplock.
• Stable
  reader that rarely slows down when hitting scratches.
• Reads
  DVD+/-R media at 16x and DVD+/-RW media at 12x.
• Reads both
  pressed and recorded DL media at 12x.
• Working cooling solution.

Negative:

---

• CD-R media
  compatibility could be further improved.
• SolidBurn/OPC could be further improved to give even
  better results.
• Poor CD-RW
  writing quality.
• Some DVD-RW
  discs written by the BenQ DW1640 has compatibility issues with other
  drives.
• Poorly
  programmed tools and firmware updates '“ doesn't work on some systems with
  extra PCI IDE controllers.
• 16x DVD+R
  writing create PIE/PIF spikes near the end of the disc.
• 8x DVD+RW
  and 6x DVD-RW media compatibility needs improving.
• Other drives offer 6x DVD-R DL writing speed.

Conclusion:

---

How does this BenQ drive perform? The last BenQ drive we reviewed '“ the DW1625 '“ did not please us at all. But maybe BenQ has got it right this time? Mostly '“ yes. But let us summarize the most positive and negative points with this drive.

The main positive points: The most positive point will probably be that this drive is a very good all-rounder with almost no noticeable issues. The media compatibility is good, the writing quality is good to excellent with most media types and it offers very good reading speeds. QSuite also makes a nice addition to the drive as it offers many extra features. Overall it is one of the best '“ if not the best drive on the market right now. The drive also have a good cooling solution that seems to work, as it appears to operate a lot cooler than previous BenQ drives. The two new features added by firmware BSKB and later give the final touch. It supports overspeeding and in combination with SolidBurn this seems to make an excellent combination. If a disc is good enough for 16x, it will write at 16x. If not it will try next lower speed, than next speed and so on until it finds a suitable speed or the lowest writing speed is reached. A benefit of having to enable overspeeding and SolidBurn through QSuite is that newbie's and users that do not need or want to overspeeding don't need to worry about it as it's disabled by default. But power users that like to experiment will have no problems enabling these features through QSuite.

The main negative points: But as usual there are some negative points that we will like to mention. First point is not a serious issue, but a surprising issue; the drive creates PIE/PIF error spikes when writing DVD+R media at 16x, as one of the main promoters of the DVD+R format we had expected the DVD+R writing to be perfect. But the error spikes don't seem to be large enough to cause any reading issues. The OPC feature also seems to be a bit over-sensitive as some media did not write at certified speed. And like many other drives; the CD-RW writing quality is very poor and needs improving. We would also like to see support for Ritek 6x DVD-RW and MKM 8x DVD+RW media. For the MKM 8x DVD+RW media we were informed that it was not supported since it was pre-release media, so we could probably blame that problem on Mitsubishi.

To sum it all
up, this is the best we could say: 'An unpolished diamond, the drive performs excellent in almost every area and offers features that really puts it ahead of the competition" We will probably never find a perfect drive, but this drive is among the better if not the best drive we have reviewed and we hand out our 'Editors Choice" award to it.

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread. This forum thread may also be used to ask questions around this drive or request additional tests.

Thanks to:

 Conrexx for providing the Traxdata media used in this review. Conrexx technology is the supplier of Traxdata media as well as other Ritek media brands for whole Europe, Africa and Middle East.

 For providing some of the That's Write media used in this review. That's Write focus on providing quality media at reduced prices in Europe.

 For providing some of the Memorex media used in this review. Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

 For providing us with Miflop Extreme and Lite media. Miflop media aims at providing both chea and expensive (Taiyo Yuden) quality media.

For providing the RiData media used in this review. RiData is a Ritek brand and thus you are sure to get Ritek manufactured discs when buying RiData media.

 For providing the Daxon and BenQ media used in this review. Daxon manufacture high quality media for many large OEM customers lke BenQ and Sony.

 For providing the Verbatim DVD+R9 double layer media used in this review. Verbatim provides high quality media almost over the whole world.

 For providing the Infiniti media used in this review. Medea is a long time player in the optical disc market.

 E-Net Distribution '“ United Kingdom for providing the DVD+R 8x and DVD-R 8x media used in this review. E-Net Distribution is currently Europe's largest supplier of CD and DVD media.

Bell Technology spol s.r.o. '“ Czech Republic for providing some of the media used in this review.

 Optodisc USA for sending the Acro Circle media used in this review.

Looking for CD and DVD-Media in Norway? Visit www.norwaydisc.no the Norwegian specialist on CD and DVD Media!