| BENQ DW1640 - The best DVD Writer of 2005 |
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| Friday, 16 December 2005 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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It's very difficult to find the best DVD writer, since the latest releases from many major manufacturers has created a pressing demand for a comparison. After a complete review we choose 'BENQ 1640' as the Best of the best. While once a relatively unknown company, the BenQ brand name is widely recognized throughout the world now. 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. By adding DVD-R Double Layer media support, this new burner can write almost any media available on the market. It is not a coincidence that many well known manufacturers chose this burner to use as their OEM device. The BenQ exclusive Dual Cooling System (DCS) features Anti-Dust Cooling System (ADCS) and Air Flow Cooling System (AFCS) to effectively reduce the potential for over-heating during high-speed reading and writing. With an integrated heat chimney design, ADCS redirects the heat flow out of the drive and still provides for protection from dust. AFCS accelerates the circulation inside the drive and speeds up the heat elimination through the drive's steel housing. Drive Specification:
Drive Features: The BenQ DW16xx series which of course includes the DW1640, supports the following unique features: Over-Speed burning technology (allows media to be burned at higher recording speeds than rated) Seamless Link: buffer under run protection as with all previous BenQ DVD burners. High-Speed Signal Algorithm: As the writing speed is increased, signal loss becomes the key cause for the significant decrease in writing quality. BenQ?s High-Speed Signal Algorithm manages the high EFM (Eight-to-Fourteen Modulation) frequency signal loss that often takes place at high-speed writing - ensuring superb writing quality. WOPC + BLER OPC: Unlike other drives which preset the writing power before the actual writing of data, the WOPC II (Walking Optimal Power Control) algorithm evaluates the writing quality constantly and adjusts the writing power accordingly in order to ensure the best possible writing quality over the entire disc. The BLER OPC (Block Error Rate Optimal Power Control) further enhances the writing quality near the end of the disc, where the risk of warping is higher. Tilt Control: BenQ's Tilt Control always keeps the writing angle at 90 degrees to the disc's surface to ensure uniform writing. Sliding Cone Mechanism: With Sliding Cone design, the disc position on the turntable is improved considerably. This greatly helps to reduce data access time and also to deliver superior reading and writing quality.
BenQ QSuite - Optimizing DVD ReWriter Control QSuite is an innovative application suite that compliments and enhances the convenience of DVD recording technology. Through the use of four built-in functions: Book Type Management, QScan, Test Write, WOPC enable / disable; you can easily adjust drive settings to gain greater control.
Air Flow Cooling System (AFCS): AFCS accelerates the circulation inside the drive and speeds up the heat elimination through the drive's steel housing.
Like BenQ's previous drives, the DW1620 and DW1625, the DW1640 has a remarkably different face plate then most DVD burners available on the market. The front bezel is flat and smooth, and the eject button is a very thin rectangular shape. The emergency eject button is located in the very middle of the drive, right below the bezel of the tray, and like previous 1600 series BenQ drives, there is no headphone jack. The front of the bezel itself has five logos on it. The most noticeable is the BenQ logo on the left hand side of the face plate. On the right hand side, you will see logo's depicting support for DVD+R DL, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, and CD-R/RW (Ultraspeed+). Interestingly enough, there appears to be no logo for DVD-R DL media support.
Unlike with the DW1620 where the LED would light up different colors depending on what it was doing, the DW1640 only has one colour for the multiple uses of the drive. When no disc is inserted in the drive, the LED remains off. When a disc is inserted into the drive, the LED will become a solid green, and remain so until the disc is removed, or the drive begins reading or writing to the disc. When either reading or writing to a disc begins, the LED will begin to blink. The back of the BenQ DW1640 is like just about any other standard ATAPI DVD writer. Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the DW1640's jumper comes set to master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.
The drive does not support Mount Rainier and it uses the well known RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. Below are the drive's main specs as given by NeroInfoTool:
Removing the screws and opening the drive's cover voids the drive's warranty. For reference reasons, we post the following pictures.
Software: BenQ's new DVD writer comes with a CD full of software. This disc contains a number of applications including BenQ's QSuite and QVideo utilities as well as the Nero Suite which includes Nero Express, NeroVision Express, Nero Showtime, and InCD. BenQ QSuite - While considered a "bonus feature", one of the most useful applications bundled with the DW1640 is BenQ's QSuite. This group of tools displays information about the drive and lets you adjust many of its functions. Along with the ability to set the booktype, you can enable/disable features like WOPC and Test Write. While not normally part of the DVD+R/RW spec, Test Write will let you run burn simulations on this type of media.
BenQ QVideo v5.2.3.23 - With QVideo, BenQ has made the process of transferring video to DVD as painless as possible. This small, easy to use program takes the video feed from a variety of TV, DV and AV sources and will burn it directly to disc in real time. No capturing, rendering or authoring of the video footage is needed.
What's in the box?:
BenQ DW1640 16x DVD?RW Drive Comparison: (Why BENQ is the Best)
SONY 810A:
Plextor 740A:
LiteOn 1693S:
Very good DVD-Writing and ReWriting quality. Cons: Only 2MB Buffer Recommended: Highly recommended for Home Users. For professional use, you can go with plextor 740A or 710A. Never buy Sony DVD or CD Writers, they don't have any service centres in India. (They are giving it to Rashi Peripherals - that guys simply return it without even opening the device). Lite-On is nothing but the OEM Version of Sony, No service in India. LG, Philips, HP, Samsung and Pioneer Drives are OK, But not excellent. Price Range: Rs. 2800 to Rs. 3500 Source: Benq, CD Labs, Freaks and Info. |
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| Last Updated ( Friday, 16 December 2005 ) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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