DVD+/-RW Advice

[indyjones]

BenQ used to be called Acer and I have owned many Acer drives. I found them to be the most reliable of any drives I have owned. I have not owned a BenQ yet but I assume the same quality goes into the product as when the company was named Acer.

Thanks for the heads up

I also read that some of the BenQ drives have been used by Plextor, which definatly suggests that there is no shabby build quality

 

[ElementalDragon]

THAT'S the name that BenQ switched from!!!! god i couldn't remember it for the life of me. i knew they switched from a pretty common, fairly popular brand, but couldn't remember which brand. thanks for that refresher, indy.

 

[indyjones]

THAT'S the name that BenQ switched from!!!! god i couldn't remember it for the life of me. i knew they switched from a pretty common, fairly popular brand, but couldn't remember which brand. thanks for that refresher, indy.

Don't know about it personally so any credit is due to Ameriacan Zombie

But ACER are still going ???

 

[Tuffgong4]

I have the Benq 1655 and it is awesome!!!!

I have not updated my sig which says nec 2500 but the benq 1655 is head and shoulders better than any other drive I have used.

 

[indyjones]

Excellent
All I am worried about is burning single layer dvds, usually use ritek g5 dye ones, and burning audio cds with overburn, as the odd comp i make is just that bit too long

As I said my last drive was a NEC DVDRW 3520AW, and I thought its build quality, noise, and performance was aweful not a patch on the plextor i used to own or even the liteon.

 

[Tuffgong4]

well my last NEC drive would burn the ritek media with no problem...but I got a deal on fujifilm dvds and it wouldn't burn them at their rated speed. I had the most updated firmware but they would just burn at 4x...

so I went ahead and got the 1655 and it burns the fujifilms at 16x (their rated speed) and I have not had one problem burning a cd or a dvd yet. No Coasters!!

 

[ElementalDragon]

yeah..... think most companies have pretty much eliminated coaster burns..... for the past several years since Buffer Underrun protection has been integrated into just about every drive since the first one with it came out. think that's the main cause of coasters, other than maybe if your burning app decides to take a dump mid-burn.

 

[Rayski]

I've been having a problem with my Sony DRU-710A DVD-RW Dual Layer Drive. I've gotten a few coasters since buying 16X discs. First I tried 16X TDK DVD-R and then I tried Office Depot brand 16X DVD-R's and both are not working. The 8X work fine no matter what brand I use.

I tried updating the firmware and it did not do any good.

 

[ElementalDragon]

on my Lite-On SOHW-1693S 16x DVD+/-RW drive.... i don't think i've ever gotten a coaster besides for when the app decides to crash on rare occasions. even with these 16x Taiyo Yuden discs i got from the MarketPros Computer Show. haven't had a problem with a single one yet.... and there's only 1 or 2 left in the one spindel of 50 i got (still have another spindel of 50 of 'em)

 

[Tuffgong4]

oh to add...when I got my burner it had a firmware on it that would not let me update with the newest Benq firmware. A little searching and I found a program called bqflasher that flashed my drive with the newest benq firmware. a lot of benq drives are rebranded is the problem...the funny thing was that I received no performance boost as the drive worked very well with both firmware...

even with that I'm a benq buyer from now on.

 

[LeeJend]

Optical drive firmware flashes only add more supported blank disk brands.

Unless you are trying to flash a rebranded drive to get extra features there will be no speed change.

 

[Tuffgong4]

right but sometimes you do get errors fixed with the drives...either way more supported media is never a bad thing!