CDFreaks presents BenQ DW1670 Preview

Will this drive have EFM-decoding?
Recommend putting in enclosure?

Basically DW1670 is the same as Sony DRU-820, I suggest you to read that review by zevia.
Sony 820 is UDMA-4 capable and Sony manual mentions USB interface, so hopefully BenQ will also release a USB2 version by time.

Only time will tell.

EFM = Eight to Fourteen modulation.

stan412: The DW1670 supports UDMA4 so it will be good in an external enclosure. But the problem is, currently the drive is not available yet.

Interesting review, especially their mentioned lack in 12x strategy (which is definitely my favorite with my 1640 for important burns to be on the safe side), and the bad Minus R quality would prevent me from buying this drive. On the other hand, it also depends on firmware a lot, so I am very excited what BenQ engineers will be able to get from this babe

cu,

Jackie

The dvd+r dl burns were amongst the best ive ever seen.

I wanted to buy the dw1650, but the lack of dvd-ram has put me off it. If the dw1670 can come close the quality of the 1640/50, then i will certainly buy the dw1670.

Is that right, that the burner has no RAW-DAO support like the Sony?

There will probably be 6 drives released before this one, we have just begin to see the 1650, for some reason they release in the UK months before the USA, you would think that the USA market would be at least as important. With no 12X strats I doubt whether this drive will be very popular here.

It seems that BenQ corp is going though some top level shake up so that might be why BenQ is so slow on coming out with the 1650 and 1670. Anyways for now im very happy with my Sony 820A (Benq 1670) and maybe by the time things calm down at BenQ corp it will be time to get a new burner.

i think it is the same as Plex 750 and Teac DVW516E and DQ60, the so called notorious drive.

They run totally different from each other

The Sony 820 always has a good end product you don't need to adjust a thing.

The BenQ 1655 is vary fast at making coasters and bad scans

The BenQ 1655 performs like a bulldozer wen it scans and burns.
The Sony 820 performs like it's easing across a flower garden.


IV tested the Sony 820 it's always on the safe side compared to the BenQ 1655

They run totally different from each other

The Sony 820 always has a good end product you don't need to adjust a thing.

The BenQ 1655 is vary fast at making coasters and bad scans

The BenQ 1655 performs like a bulldozer wen it scans and burns.
The Sony 820 performs like it's easing across a flower garden.


I would use the BenQ 1655 for a rental movie player or bad disc recovery. It does this job great, with extremely scratched and dirty discs or corrupted data. The BenQ is good at filling in completely missing data.

I don't build them, I'm just telling it like it is.

In the USA you can get sony 820 at staples, bestbuy,walmart, so how come all the amateurs that don't know what there doing, don't join CDFreaks complaining about the problems there having with the Sony 820?
Just something to think about.

wingman, you're welcome to your views but they appear to be inconsistent with the views of the majority that I've read. Most people appear to suggest that the 1650 and I guess the 1655 performs nearly as well as the 1640, aka very well...

In practice, there are a lot of people recommending the 1655. So you would expect there are a lot of people of people here who buy the 1655. Therefore we would expect there to be a lot of people here having problems with the 1655 (since a lot of people have the drives).

The amateurs as you call them are probably mostly too stupid to even know what a quality scan is let alone know if their drive is producing crappy DVDs (I'm not saying this is necessarily the case for the Sony 820) until their backups don't work when they need it one month down the line. Even then, they'll probably believe it when someone tells them it's because they didn't store them properly or it's because they used Nero instead of Roxio or because Verbatim are crappy media.

Even those who do have problems, they're more likely to visit a generic forum like anandtech or pcper or some even more generic forum. Also, there tends to be IMHO what I call a collabaration effect. If there are a lot of people complaining about a drive on the forum, you tend to get a lot of people joining in.

Personally I have no idea how the Sony 820 compares to the Benq 1655. You're views on the Benq 1655 however appear inconsistent with the views of most other people... Also, although your language is very flowery, your claims lack substance. You haven't told us what media you've tried, what firmware you're using, what exactly you mean by bad quality scans etc. Saying something is bad, without explaining why or how it's bad isn't particularly informative. Definitely I have not had any problems like you specify with my 1640...

In any case since the Sony 820 is an OEM Benq 1670 clearly Benq is doing something right even if your claims are true. And history tells us the firmware of the Benq 1670 will be much better then the Sony 820.

As you can see from my sig I have a couple of Sony as well as Plextor and Benq. The BenQ drive is on par with my Plextor for half the cost.

I also have quite a number of Sony consumer products (DVC, etc.) but I will not purchase a Sony burner again. The DRU500A was a pretty good (not great) burner but the 710A (Liteon) was horrible with crippled FW coming from Sony. The Liteon version of the drive got better support and FW. The RMA / tech support coming from Sony Storage group is also horrible.

Everyone needs to make up their own mind.

Don't get me wrong the BenQ 1655 is a great drive but the Sony 820 made to Sony's specs and parts in the BenQ factory is what i trust now.

for scanning and reading i use this test.
CD-CHECK Test Disc
http://www.digital-recordings.com/cdcheck/cdcheck.html

820 at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827131016

wingman99: Good sum up of the Sony DRU820A. The only thing i would add to your post is that the dru820a imo is the best of the Benq made drives for DL burns @ 6x speed.

A pic of e retail box+drive in our shores in Singapore.

OMG it's got the cool bezel!

For once, I think the white model would look better here

After reading the 1670 preview and the above comment, it sounds like the fact BenQ changed the chipset from Philips to Panasonic may result in these future BenQ drives being unable to do quality scans? It sounds like there's a possibility BenQ may implement PIE/PIF quality scanning before the drive is released? It sounded like that info was expected by the end of this month... is that still correct?

To me the appeal of BenQ 1640 and 165x drives are the fact they are good burners and good scanners. Take away either of those and they lose their advantage over Pioneer or NEC (in my opinion).

My real bottomline is this: will the BenQ DW1650 still be available at Newegg by the time we find out if future BenQ drives will support quality scanning? I'd hate to find out BenQ has dropped quality scanning and all the older models are sold out. Surely BenQ must be aware how much we love our error scanning and that taking it away would cause a negative reaction? I have a 1640 and 1655, so I don't really need a 1650, but I'm wondering if I should buy a 1650 just in case? At $39 delivered for a OEM, it's tempting.

The DW1650 can be had for $35 with FREE shipping if you know the promo code trick
Mine arrives today, very excited to finally being able to overburn DVDs!

sapo: It's hard to say... Some people believe they aren't changing to the Panasonic for good just decided to produce both lines (e.g. Wingman). Personally I don't believe that but we don't really know. It's possible Benq may decide and be able to add quality scans then again perhaps they won't. One of the troubles is probably that I suspect it isn't really seen as an important feature. How many people who own or are likely to own a DVD writer in the near future know or will know what a quality scan even is? I suspect maybe 2-5% at most. Of those, how many care enough about it and don't have an existing reader supporting quality scans that it's going to make a difference? Maybe 20% of those who know about them. All this adds up to a not too significant factor sadly.

Obviously the percentage of Benq users who care enough about quality scans is going to be higher. But even if it is say 5%, this isn't too significant. Feature set and burn quality (and price and read speed) are going to be seen as more important factors. If your drive keeps making coasters or DVDs that dies very easily, some people are going to notice even if they don't know anything about quality scans. If another drive doesn't, they will also notice.

Personally disc quality scans are an important reason for me too (but not the only reason, others are important too). But the truth of the matter is, logic suggests it probably isn't the biggest thing on Benqs mind. We can only hope either it is possible and not too hard with the Panasonic chipset OR they'll be able to convince Pansonic to include support in the future without too much trouble. Else we'll just have to look elsewhere.

I just purchased a HiVal HDVD168DL at a 'Midnight Sale' at CompUSA last week for $29.95 after rebates. It is actually a DW1670, so of course I came here to see what anyone new about it before I decide whether to keep it or not. It is potentially replacing a LiteOn 411s.

Could you share the Newegg "promo code trick" or point me to it, or is it not allowed to be discussed because it's not a legitimate promo? All I know is I couldn't find anything on Google, and the $4.89 shipping makes or breaks the deal for me... at least until I hear definitive word that the 1670 doesn't support quality scanning.

I also would like to know that trick, if they give you free shipping with a "promo code" it must be okay because I think their computer would pick up a mistake like that.

dk: Well the word is "We just don't know". It's too new and given that Benq has never used Panasonic before/recently it's not surprising that it appears to be sporiadic in burn quality. However Benq's history suggests it will significantly improve. But we don't know for sure whether it'll be as good as the 1640/1650. Of course, if you want RAM then that's kind of irrelevant it only matters how it compares to other RAM drives.

I personally recommend you keep it unless you're planning to burn a lot of media in the immediate future. It should improve and would probably be a very good drive in the future. At the moment, just find some media that works decently well (preferbly TY or MCC/Verbatim) and it should be good enough.

when is the 1670 released worldwide?