DW1640 OEM vs Retail

Just got my dw1640 from Newegg.
Bare drive no box
BSHB
MIC
May 2005

Outdated OEM Nero disk 6.3.1.26

1640 is on top of tower 1620 below the Aopen.

The only physical difference is the eject button is smaller on the 1640.

Thanks...that answered my question...How long did the drive take to arrive?


Bob

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but MCSE is for changing writing strategies and burn speeds, isn't it?


dsdarli: Did you overnight that thing?

Speed Lock. =) Rip Lock is a reading speed limitation for the DVD Video disc only (either SL or DL).. Speed lock is an overall reading speed limitation for a DVD type present in almost any todays DVD drive. =)

Benq 1640 Retail = smooth shinny front with BENQ in bold letters. Their is also a thin eject button.

Benq 1640 OEM = matte plastic finish with no name on front and a big eject button. Hopefully a 20.00 price difference.


New Egg link:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827101649


I`m curious to see if it can be flashed as a Plextor drive.

This would be the first bargin available from Plextor and I think they will try to stop that from occuring.

carthoris

LoL!!!! The PLEXTOR 740A is a REBADGED BENQ 1640.

Ordered the drive on Monday at 2:17 pm pst. It shipped that day, which I wasn't expecting, from La Puente, CA. And since I'm in Spokane, Wa. I usually get Newegg stuff in 2 days even though it is scheduled to arrive tomorrow.

MCSE "Read Speed Settings" basically removes riplock most of the time.

I just got mine from newegg too. I ordered monday and it shipped that same day. It came with BSHB but I flashed it to BSJB. It also says MIC May 2005. Now to do some testing.

Cool... I think I ordered pretty late on Monday, didn't ship until yesterday. Oh well! It's in Newark already, getting closer...

here's mine in INDIANAPOLIS, IN .. i think it's going to arrive thursday or friday

Mine said coming from cali....wtf happened to NJ?, i'm from Ct, so monday delivery....THAT SUCKS!!

Ordered one today...shipped at 4:20PST today (8/3)...Fedex tracking says delivery on 8/8...oh well...bad timing I guess...

Bob

Got mine today. Now I just have to visit the BenQ site and figure out what software they have there for it. The NERO disc is all that came with my OEM beige drive... (yeah I know, I COULD HAVE HAD 2 MORE SCREWS!) -I like need any more screws LOL!

I just had a look at their site. What software do you download to use with the 1640? They have a bunch of stuff there it looks like.

Thanks.

I can personally gurantee that the BenQ 1640 with any firmware off the website will rip i pressed disc at upto 16x. Would send you a screenshot but i aint at home at the mo.

There are two types of pressed discs, single layer and dual layer. You need to specify which one you are refering to as DL is always slower than SL.

Out on vehicle for delivery, yay! Should be fun to play with in today's record setting, 95 degree heat.

Do you mean Made in CHina May 2005 with BSHB???


I thought all the drives in the US were made in Malyasia..

If you were referring to my message. Yes the 1640 is Made in China as was my 1620 I bought from Newegg almost a year ago. Both are the OEM/BULK breed.

I am talking about a regular DVD bought at Best Buy, to exact Goodfellas. I wanted to know the rip speed that the 1640 will read this at.

I bought a retail box 1640 today at circuit city. They wanted 89.00 for it ( the SAME price as the 1620 that they still have on the shelves.) but since I had a 50.00 gift card from my borthday a few months ago I only paid 39.00 + tax. It came witht he BSHB firmaware and I just downloaded the BSJB. going to try it out soon want to see how the verbatim 16X DVD+R burns witht he 1640 I just got some of them last night and gave me outstanding burns with the 1620. Better than what I have been getting with Taiyo Yuden.

Please post the rip speed and the times for that media for 4.3 gig.

Well I wont be testing anything with this drive. when I installed it there were no problems it is recognized correctly by windows and DMA is on. But it wont recognize any disk and it wont let me update the firmware. I was wrong about the firmware it wasnt BSHB it is BQH@ which isnt even listed on BenQ's site. I tried to flash the firmware to BSJB but it refuses to I get the message " This drive is not allowed to update."

needless to say I am more than a little ticked and this drive is going back to Circuit City tomorrow.

EDIT: ok this is a first for me I have installed alot of burners over the past several years and I have NEVER had one do like this. I was certain that when I installled the 1640 that the firmware showed up as BSHB but when I put a disk in and it didnt recognize any disk I checked again and the firmware showed up as BQH@. after thinking about it for a while I went ahead and uninstalled the IDE channel the drive was on and rebooted when the drive was reinstalled it again showed the firmware as BSHB and now it recognizes disks and it also allowed me to update the firmware to BSJB. and it's working fine.

---

Last edited by iss; 04-08-2005 at 23:54.

you want the rip speed for a pressed dual layer disc like a movie? I dont have any pressed 4.3 GB disc's only thing I have that size is movies I have backed up with CloneDVD2 with booktype set to DVD Rom.

Ok so far I have one Movie I backed up on a verbatim 16X DVD+R and it is only 3.48 GB.it wa s burned with the 1620 booktype DVD Rom.

the 1640 with Firmware BSHB ripped this disc at 14.71 so I would say that if it had been a full 4.3GB disc it would probably have hit 16X by the end of the rip. The burst rate was 23 MBPS.

Was that a SL or DL disc. Yes like a real movie that you would buy in Best Buy or anyplace.