Benq 1620 Pro Firmware Question

[OneSickPup]

I own a Pioneer 108 burner and love it. I previously had a Sony dru510a that was bizarre at best! My son is going off to college this week and I wanted to get him a dvd-rw. Primarily will be used for periodic backups and occasional use for dvd collection backups(dvd decryptor and shrink). I am always the experimenter and have read many Pioneer vs Benq vs NEC vs whatever else threads in this forum. I decided on the 1620 Pro based on Newegg price and the fact that I wanted to try something new. Would have went with the 1640 - but not knowing much about it - decided against it. OKAY - here is my real question:

I am short on time based on expected delivery vs when he departs. Would like to hear from 1620 PRO owners on which firmware to use before he takes off. I plan to supply him with Fuji dvd+r (id=YUDEN000T02) media. Would just like to give him the best chance of success with his configuration.

As always - Thanks guys for all the valued responses.

[lantern]

I use B7V9 speedpatched with MCSE and have not produced any coasters. I only recently upgraded from B7T9 because you couldn't overspeed TYG01 4x rated discs (I generally write TYG01s at 8x). MCSE has been updated to allow this now. You can read all about the firmware patches at CDFREAKS in their Benq forum. I don't think that it has written a disc with a CDSpeed disc quality score of <95.

[BJ_M]

G7V9 firmware Plus the MediaCodeSpeedEdit tool

http://ala42.cdfreaks.com/MCSE/

[Denvers Dawgs]

I've got the Benq1620 running G7P9 firmware. This version allows for 4x burning. I've used fuji+r (100 flawless) and verbatim dvd+r/+r DL. It will burn the verbatim +r DL 2.4x @ 4x with this firmware. Used it with over 100 dvds & 7 +r DL, with no problems with playback or with the few scans that I have run after burning.

[fritzi93]

G7P9 has been satisfactory, so I haven't bothered with newer firmware. From "P" on up you can use BenQ's bitsetting tool and QScan. Good luck.

[budz]

I have (2) I/O MAGIC drives that are REBADGED BENQ 1620 drives. One came with the "G" firmware which I cross flashed to the "B" firmware and the other one came with "B" firmware. I have (3) BENQ 1620's, 2 use firmware B7V9 & the other one uses B7T9. In my experience with the BENQ 1620 drives the firmware that is best suited for you will depend on what brand of dvd media that you use. Check out the BENQ FORUM at CDFREAKS.COM for more information. Take a look at some of their scans that members have done with different dvd media. I use MAXELL 8x DVD+R (made in japan), 8x DVD+R TAIYO YUDEN (made in japan), 8x VERBATIM DVD+R media code is MCC and I use DVD-R 8x TAIYO YUDEN & MAXELL 8x DVD-R (made in japan). There really isn't one best/good firmware to use with the 1620. Use what suits you the best with the media that you use.

[OneSickPup]

Thanks everybody!!! Should get the 1620 today. Looked over at the Benq Forum at CDFREAKS for quite sometime. Wealth of information tucked away in there!!! From what I have gathered <assumption for sure> the shipped firmware will probably be fine. Scan posts over there seem to indicate great results with +R TY media with a wide array of firmwares. I also don't really see where the <Benq not good for -R> rap comes from based on posted scans. I admit I am a strong supporter of Pioneer and have witnessed several Benq bashings by forum heavyweights. But..... 99% of what I read says this is a great drive. For < $50 I just couldn't resist finding out for myself. If this thing works as well as I expect - may just get me one to do head-to-heads with my 108. Thanks again!

[budz]

Welx!!!!! You'll enjoy the BENQ 1620 drive.

[OneSickPup]

Followup notes - No problems what-so-ever!!!

Came with B7S9 firmware - I tried it - then bumped to V9. Experimented with several types of media and all I had on hand did well with very good scans. Even had good results with some "Benq branded" Daxon 16X +R media that came with the drive.

One curious note: This drive was giving excellent scan stat's that were way better than what I had seen from my Pioneer 108. I then took a test burn from my Pioneer and got way better stats than a previous check from the Liteon drive I normally use for all scans. For instance - Benq gave a TY +R burned at 12X a score of 98 while the Liteon gave the same disc a 90. Not a problem - maybe my Liteon just gives notoriously low marks...

[Hawseman]

.......

One curious note: This drive was giving excellent scan stat's that were way better than what I had seen from my Pioneer 108. I then took a test burn from my Pioneer and got way better stats than a previous check from the Liteon drive I normally use for all scans. For instance - Benq gave a TY +R burned at 12X a score of 98 while the Liteon gave the same disc a 90. Not a problem - maybe my Liteon just gives notoriously low marks...

Glad to here it's working well. I like my BenQ drive.

Personally, I don't put much credibility in quality scans from same drive as the media was burned in. It's like asking a salesman if what he sells is the best.

Way back, before quality scanning was available, testing (transfer & crc) was done on a dvd-rom drive. This was a good policy, as it was proof that the burn drive wasn't fubar. I think the same general principles should apply to quality scanning.

I have 4 drives with quality scanning capability. If I scan a burned disk in all drives, I find that my burners WITHOUT scanning show a more consistent result across the board. These include my LG, NEC2500, NEC3500 and Pioneer. Media burned in my scan drives almost always give much better results than if scanned in the other three.....like you see with your BenQ.

This kind of thing gives credibility to LordSmurf when he says that scanning is "voodoo".....too many reporting inconsistencies, and too often brushed off as a "no-no" comparison at cdfreaks (which I strongly disagree with).