Should I buy a Benq 1620, Philips 1640 or Nec 3500 and where?

I have bought a Sanyo (TSST) TS-H552B OEM model 16X DVD burner at a retail store and am very disapointed with 2 - 3 hour burns and 40-50% coasters with Verbatum 8x R-. I have been burning movies in avi and mpg to DVD.

I have narrowed the choice of DVD burner down to Benq 1620, Philips 1640 or Nec 3500.

I am leaning towards the Benq because of its ability to check media with its utility software.

Any sugestions and who has the lowest prices on the internet?

Thank you

If your burns are taking 2-3 hours you may have issues that will be present with any drive you buy. Have you tried trouble shooting the sanyo at all? First check your dma settings in windows and in the bios and make sure that dma are enabled. Second try to determine how long it is actually taking to burn. My guess is that the majority of that 2-3 hours is the computer converting the avi/mpeg files to dvd compliant mpeg2. Converting is strictlly dependant on your computers speed and getting another burner will not speed up that part of the process. If the files are mpeg2 I believe that thier is software that can make a dvd without transcoding the files which will make it take a lot less time. If they are mpeg1 or avi thier is no way to get around the long transcoding time other than a faster computer (though some software can transcode faster that other software). Again this is not the drives fault.
The 40-50% coasters is however an issue that might be the drive. Verbatium is good media but your drive or firmware might not like it (or dma problems etc. may be preventing the drive from burning properlly). Have you updated your firmware? Try downloading cdspeed (free) and do a burst rate test. That will tell you if your computer is able to transfer to and from your drive fast enough for it to function properlly. Post the speed you get.

I have 2 BenQ1620 and am very happy with the results they give using Taiyo Yuden +R ( Fuji ). I tried an NEC 3520 ( couldn't get a 3500) and returned it as it could not compete with the BenQ1620's.

You may be right about the transcoding. I am using Nero 6.
If I convert avi's to mpg's using a diferent converter, it seems to work. But, it still takes over an hour to 1 1/2 hours to burn.

DMA's are fine. It took me a week to solve that. I had to install XP Pro on an other partitian and then upgraded to the latest Intel chipset driver. Now getting DMA 5 on my Hard Disks and DMA 2 on CD/DVD's. My aspi layer is also fine.

I'll try the cd test.

I am also going to pick up another brand DVD drive locally to see if it is the drive.

What software transcodes fastest?

Thank you.

I'm not sure what is the fastest (I was under the impression nero was suposed to be fast and it seems to be the fastest of the all in one programs I have tried). I think tmpgenc was a little faster but it is designed to be used with other programs (it does the conversion only). If you are using nero thier should be a log that comes up on the screen giving the time that various parts of it started and stoped. Try to determine how long the actual burning took (an 8x burn should take about 8-10 minutes).
Keep something in mind though, thier are two ways to convert various media files to a dvd. The first are all in one programs that basically do the whole process for you from start to finish like nero. I have tried a few other like the film machine, DIKO, dvd movie factory (only works with mpeg I think) etc. Personally, based on what I have tried, I would stick with nero if it is working well. It's kind of like doing movie backups though. Thier is more than one software that does it right and diffrent people will have diffrent opinions on which they like best. Dvd santa is suposed to be good but I havent tried it yet. Their are some free ones out thier if you would like to try them.
The other way is to use several diffrent programs and go through each step of the conversion yourself. This is suposed to be a beter way of doing it and gives beter results (I think it might be faster too) but thier is a lot more to learn. Personally I have stuck with the all in one approach (since it's lots easier).
Either way, here are some diffrent softwares that do this kind of thing. These are the all in one programs.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=35#35
As far as doing it the hard way, it is usally best to find a tutorial and use the diffrent software that it recomends. Here are some tutorials.
http://www.videohelp.com/guides
Just click on format conversion and select the one you want to do (such as avi to dvd or xvid to dvd). Then click search or list guides.
Also, here is the forum on cdfreaks that deals with this kind of stuff.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/forumdisplay.php?f=32
This thread looks like it has a little bit of usefull info.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=126089
Thier should be several other threads about it too.
Sorry I couldn't be of more help but I have tried to stick to the easiest way possible of doing it (which has seemed to be nero for me). I prefer the point and click approach to doing it the hard way. The above links should point out some other all in one programs you can try including free ones and at least point you in the right direction if you want to go further than that.

Edit
Fyi, one other point. some programs may be a little faster or slower but the truth of the matter is, transcoding takes a long time no matter how you do it or what software you use. The only way to really speed things up is to upgrade the speed of your computer (processor, memory etc). Transcoding is very dependant on the speed of your computer. My main rig has an athlon 2500 overclocked to a 3200 with 512mb of pc3200, fsb running 400mhz on a good quality abit motherboard (not the fastest computer out thier but defanatlly decent) and it still take me a long time to transcode. I have 3 diffrent dvd burners and it just takes a long time, even if you burn at 16x with 16x media. Its not the burning that takes so long, its the rest of it.

Curious as to how it "could not compete". Could you be a little more specific? I just received my second NEC 3520A yesterday and have been happy with the drive and the results it produces. I will say the new firmware for the BenQ has increased burn speed on certain media that I use, but I really haven't noticed a great difference between the BenQ and the NEC.


10 septillionths of a second is close to my attention sp...OOH, shiny! /.

I cannot speak about the 3520 but my 3500 has turned out to be a pretty sweet drive.

I am in the process of migrating my machines to dual burners and have decided to use the BenQ 1620 and NEC 3520 as my drives of choice. Both drives provide the quality that i require and with current pricing I don't see much use for a dedicated DVD reader. When the NEC 3540 comes out I will probably take a look at it. Until then I am satisfied with my current selections.


"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world;
the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself.
Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man."
-- George Bernard Shaw

BenQ

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Thanks People!!!