On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 05:37:04 GMT, Dan@post.replies (Dan) wrote:

I think the EW162I is the external equivalent to the 1620. The DQ60
is BenQ's "SuperMulti" drive. That's LG-Hitachi's spec and lame name
for a drive that does "all the above" + DVD-RAM. On paper, it looks
like basically 1640 + DVD-RAM capability. It's probably not as simple
as that, given the growing pains (see below).

The Latest Pioneer and NEC burners do error scanning now (ever since
the Pioneer 109 and NEC 3530). They lack the Jitter detection that
BenQ's drives do, but PIE/PIF scanning works. Pioneer and NEC's
latest drives (I'll let you look up the model numbers) are also
"SuperMulti".

Keep in mind that the non-LG SuperMulti drives are still relatively
new and they haven't worked out all the bugs. The one people keep
harping about is that the firmware burn speeds are much more
conservative than in previous drives (ie. fewer media allow
overspeeding in the stock firmware). So, unless DVD-RAM is a big deal
for you, going with the older non-SuperMulti drives isn't necessarily
a bad thing.
---------------------------------------------
Thanks.


MCheu

On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 16:38:48 GMT, Dan@post.replies (Dan) wrote:


LG is a company. LGE or "Lucky Goldstar Enterprises" (these names
don't sound nearly so lame in Chinese or Japanese). Other than
licensing the "SuperMulti" spec from the Hitachi-LG partnership like
everyone else, I don't know if there's any other relationship.

What the heck is a "real" BenQ? BenQ doesn't manufacture anything of
their own. Not their drives, not their scanners, not their cameras,
or even their disc media. Everything they sell is rebadged. Their
DW16xx drives are made by Philips (and if you check, you'll find the
DW1640 is still being made and sold). After doing a bit of research,
it seems the DW60 is made by TEAC. (don't ask me for details, until 1
minute ago, I didn't know TEAC still made optical burners). I don't
own one, I'm still using an old DW1620 and an NEC 3500A.

The 1655, by the way, is the lightscribe equivalent to the 1620. I'm
not sure, but I think the difference between the 1640 and 1620 is the
DVD-R DL burn speed.



---------------------------------------------
Thanks.


MCheu

On Thu, 09 Feb 2006 19:46:51 -0500, MCheu <mpcheu@yahoo.com> wrote:

Just goes to prove that the internet is the greatest source of
misinformation in the history of the world. Benq DOES manufacture
their own optical drives. The Benq 1620 and 1640 were "designed" in a
partnership with Phillips, and then manufactured by both companies,
each under it's own label. The "DQ60" (not "DW60") was designed by
Teac, and is generally considered by knowledgeable users at CDFreaks
to be quite a bit inferior to the 1620 and 1640. If you need a new
Benq drive, buy the 1655. Yes, it costs a bit more (+/- $55), but it
is very close to the 1640, with (in most users opinions) slightly
better burning at 16x speeds.

Dan wrote:

It doesn't seem to -- at least there aren't any more complaints about
it than with the regular DW1620. The main downside is that it adds to
the cost of the drive, and the media to use this special feature is
expensive, and in some areas, hard to find (nobody locally sells
Lightscribe DVDs, and only 2 shops that I'm aware of even stock
Lightscribe CDs of any brand).

It doesn't work that way, not exactly anyways. You burn the
lightscribe CD/DVD like normal, and then you flip it over and burn the
label. The technology doesn't "blast" anything off the disc, any more
burning on the data side does. The results look fairly good
considering it's mono-chrome but it takes a very long time to do even a
minimalist label. Basically, there's no real disadvantage to having
the feature (like DL and DVD-RAM burning capability, you can just
ignore it), I just don't think it's really worth paying extra for.