Philips PBDV1628B/00, PBDV1628G/00 Inferior to DVDR1628K/00, DVDR1648K/00?

I recently bought a Philips 1628B, a black OEM version of Philips 1628K and a clone of BenQ DW1640 (or so I thought). Upon reviewing the firmwares available at philips.com, I notice that Philips 1628K / 1648K use a different firmware than 1628B / 1628G. The 1628B / 1628G firmware does not seem to support SolidBurn.

Does anyone know if the drive I bought is identical to 1628K, or an inferior product? Has anyone tried crossflashing 1628B / 1628G to any of the other firmwares? Does it work well, or work at all? Should I return it and get a 1628K or DW1640?

Thanks.

P.S. PBDV1628B/00 and PBDV1628G/00 are identified as DVDR1628P1, while DVDR1628K/00 and DVDR1648K/00 are identified as DVDR1648P1.

The 1648 P2.2 and 1628 Q2.2 firmwares differ in 25 bytes, half of them are a time stamp, the others are 'P'-'Q' and '4'-'2'.

the 1628G/1628B support solidburn!!!!

Would I be safe to flash 1628B with DW1640 firmware?

If you had a 1628B, which firmware would you flash on it right now -- make and model -- and why?

(It came with DVDR1628P1 Q1.1.)

Thanks.

I have a 1648P and I kept it as it is because it fully satisifies me!!!
Crossflashing drives is meant to fix some bugs or issues with the initial FW!!! What's wrong with your drive as it is?
If you want to scan with this drive, than you must crossflash it. If you don't need to scan than keep it as it is!!

I'd like to scan with it, sure. I understand that Philips firmwares have trouble scanning PIF.

I guess I'll go with the latest DW1640 firmware. I can always switch it back if necessary.

Thanks.

It doesn't have trouble, it just doen't support PIFs!!

I would like to know, bichonn, which firmware would get the drive to support PIF reporting. I have a 1628P1 (Q2.2 fw) [1628B/G] yet on the Philips page it says nothing about solidburn for this drive yet it does for the 1648. May I ask then how you know that they support overburn?

I ask because it is the only way to learn and I have found through experience that a lot of times people outside the companies know more than the people working for the company itself. For example a different piece of hardware, I have to Epson printers and want to try a Linux system so I asked if they know how to get them to work and they replied "we don't support Linux nor provide instructions for that OS", I went to the web site and low and behold instructions on how t oget both my printers working under Linux.

If you want to support PIF scanning you must convert your drive into BEnQ 1640 or Sony 810!!!
I know it support solidburn because I remember of a FW being released for that (Q2.2)!!!
You can see it being enabled or not in nero cd-dvd speed or by installing Qsuite!!!

It is strange that they don't mention it then on the firmware page, but saying that as I said earlier it woudn't suprise me either. The only thing showing in CD/DVD speed is overburning test, ofcourse this assumes it would be in the Extras menu, so off to BenQ site to look for QSuite and see what that says.

Is the conversion explained in the FAQ? If so which 1640 firmware version would be best/do you recommend?

I've read some reports on this forum that BenQ EW164B firmwares (produced for external DW1640's) give good results when used on internal drives as well. I wonder which one to go for?

I guess I'll make a new topic on this.

bichonn I downloaded Qsuite and it reports solid burn is activated. I suppose another instance of companies being lazy on their websites. Other than here is there anywhere else you would recommend that gives info on re-badging? I would like to learn more about it and about my burner.

Now all I have to find out is which 1640 firmware will be best for the 1628P1.

JayC30,

I'm currently considering BenQ DW1640 BSLB, BenQ EW164B BEFB, and BenQ EW164B BEGB as candidate firmwares for my Philips 1628B. All are compatible.

These three firmwares have gotten the best reviews of all BenQ firmwares on this board. Other BenQ firmwares have a variety of problems. I cannot consider nor recommend any other BenQ firmware at this point.

I invite you to the "Flashing an Internal Drive with External Firmware?" thread to investigate and furthermore invigorate this topic.

Bump.