Philips 8701

Does anyone know the BenQ equivalent to this drive? It lists it as a BenQ, but I can't seem to find any info on which drive it's in. As far as I can find, it's only available from Dell, and there isn't much info on it.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to cdfreaks.

This link might give you some additional information.

BTW, the search button at top of page is your friend...

The only page that came up searching was the upcoming release:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....t=philips+8701

Didn't really say how to crossflash, etc. Thanks for the link though, and the warm welcome, even though I have had a few accounts here (keep losing the usernames/passwords). One problem is that when you look at the drive, it only lists BenQ as a manufacturer, no other model info (PBDV1628B/00 or PBDV1628G/00).

Would I be correct that I can crossflash it to a BenQ 1640 using the appropriate flasher and tools? I found this page:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....rossflash+1640,
but I don't speak Italian.

Use WinDWFlash (can be found in sticky post above... ) and a 1640.CVT firmware. Then update to any 1640 firmware of choice.
Quikee's BQFlasher can also come handy for operations like this. Never tested it on a "Dell" (8701) drive though, heh he.

BTW, there is babelfish helping you to translate many languages to english.
But then if you had searched you should be able to find quite many posts about "crossflashing".

pinto: I probably wrote a dozen crossflashing posts myself.

- Jie

I did search, but the babelfish tranlastion still wasn't too good. Anyway, I did flash it to a BenQ 1640 without issue. That was the whole problem this drive seems to be available only from Dell. If you had the drive, you would see what I'm talking about regarding no markings. I don't think I clarified enough, I was pretty sure it was the same, but I wanted to double-check with anyone here who may have done it. I was using the experience with the NEC 3100, where you had to do a couple extra steps before it functioned as a true NEC 3500. I read a post here that TBD's firmware should work, it did, but the drive still didn't burn -R. That situation is what I was trying to get the answer for.

Congratulation. You are the hero.

Happy burning with your "new" drive.

BTW, I think we all learned one thing; never to compare drives (and how they function) from different manufacturers.
Lite-On owners have OmniPatcher+ MTKFlash, NEC owners have Binflash+TDB's doze-flashers and BenQ owners have WinDWFlash+BQFlasher+BENQCVT.
What a lucky community.

The Voelk, did you use BQFlasher to crossflash the 8701? I also have this drive from Dell and I'd like to try flashing it.

What improvements did you get?

Dave

Curious here too...

Sorry, I was travelling for work for a while. I used WinDWflash to flash the drive. Didn't have a problem. Personally, I think it seems to write much better now as a BenQ than a Philips.

I took the plunge and cross-flashed my Philips 8701 to a Benq 1640 and updated to the latest firmware. So far so good. I'm still playing with Qsuite.

Dave

Did you notice any advantages of the new firmware? Any ability to burn double-layer disks rated at 2.4x at 4x?

The burn quality of SL media seems to be a bit better. But the big advantage to the cross-flash is that I can now use Qsuite tools to take advantage of some of the 1640's features that weren't available as a Philips, at least with Dell's firmware.

Sorry, I haven't burned any DL media.

Dave

I will do a full "what happend" as soon as i get my drive....

I'm new with a DVD8701 as well. Don't know why I would flash it?
Here's the specs page for the drive
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...6/en/intro.htm

As per the page, it's does
"Read/Write speed up to 8x on DVD+R Double layer media" (but no write on DVD-R Double Layer, just read)

Newbi question... what hardware equipment can read DVD+R Double layer media?? Regular DVD player? my new Sony DVP-CX777ES? The double layer would allow more space (less compression) for copied movies...?

Thanks!

hey i am new here but would like to ask i have a dell dimension e 510 which came with philips dvd rw 8701 it is working fine with the original burning software that came with my computre i.e. sonic but does not work so well with nero i want to know if my drive is working fine is there any advantage of upgrading it to benq's firmwire as listed in my specs it already supports dual layer dvd burning please senior members reply