BenQ DW1620: An Elegant, Robust DVDR Surprise
by Kristopher Kubicki on September 29, 2004 10:32 AM EST- Posted in
- Storage
Final Thoughts
We had modest expectations for the BenQ drive. Generally, our BenQ products perform well, but lag behind the bigger players like Pioneer and NEC. We were excited to see a non-NEC based chipset design work so well with so many different types of media, and still outpace the Pioneer DVR-708D in several tests. This wasn't an out-of-the-box win for BenQ, though; we did have to update our firmware to a newer revision before the drive was even useable. We were disappointed in the lack of Mount Rainer and DVD-RAM support. The 16X writes looked particularly hairy when analyzed through Nero DVD Speed, but they were read back fine with very acceptable error levels.The $85 price tag of the BenQ drive stands exceptional. The drive supports book type management (bitsetting) for those who insist on it. We are not particularly impressed by some of the marketing terminology discussed with this drive, but we can't complain about the performance and quality. Excellent work, BenQ, for bringing us an affordable, high performance drive - and good luck in the upcoming roundup.
Generally, at this point of the analysis, we would claim the BenQ as our drive to beat in the next several reviews. To be fair to Toshiba, NEC, Pioneer and half a dozen other manufacturers, we will hold off on that decision for a couple weeks while we finish the testing for our massive 16X DVDR roundup. We have a new review format to debut in the upcoming roundup, as well.
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Compddd - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
Is the Pioneer DVR-A08XL still the best one though?lennylim - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
Firmware link is incorrect, although it doesn't take much to figure out what it should be.Fionavar - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
Did you say weeks on the round-up? I hope it is much sooner than that as I need a new DVD player and at the moment I am seriously considering the NEC ND-3500 ... the specs and the fact that it comes with the full Nero 6 package is a seeller - of course your round-up might tell me otherwise ...Resh - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
Why did you guys put this out before the round-up? Seems to indicate you think this one is better than the rest, which makes one wonder about the point of the round-up.Anyway, get the damn thing out so I can buy one already. :)
Basse - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
...and some are missing!Looking forward to reading the roundup :-)
Basse - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
Check the mouseover images, they seem a tad large.UlricT - Wednesday, September 29, 2004 - link
uuhhh... what is this here?Page 3:
"...Unfortunately, the drive lacks DVD-RAM and Mount Rainer support. The drive claims slightly quicker than average access times as well.
Make a special note of some of the neater capabilities of this drive, including DVD-RAM support,..."