BenQ DW822A 8X Dual - Page 14

Conclusion

The BenQ DW822A is a device that needs a lot of discussion. The advantages of the drive are very appealing for the end user while the negatives are very disappointing. Among the pros are very fast reading of all media and the writing speed for the plus format. On the cons, the restricted writing speed for minus DVD media and the inability to backup protected games. Let's examine each feature of the drive step by step.

The european retail package is very generous. There are multi language guides for software and hardware in pdf format and printed version. The user will also find software for CD/DVD writing, authoring and playback. On the negative, the package does not include any blank media.

The CD reading ability of BenQ was the first thing we tested. We used all types of CD media including pressed disc, CD-R disc and ReWritable CD. In all tests, the BenQ proved to be a really fast reading device. The drive read all media with CAV reading strategy and surpassed the 40x maximum reading speed in all tests.The drive managed to finish all tasks faster than the other two drives used in comparison, the LiteOn and AOpen, and reported very fast seek times.

Next, we tested the error correction capabilities of the BenQ with defective CD-R media. BenQ does not report C2 errors. The overall error correction performance of the tested writer was not the best we have seen but the total average score for the drive in the ABEX tests of 79.95 points out of 100 could be considered as satisfactory.

The DVD reading tests confirmed that BenQ is a fast reader. Just as with the CD reading tasks, the BenQ used CAV reading strategy and finished all tests faster than the other two comparison drives. The seek times were very fast with all tested media and among the fastest of the comparison. Moreover, the drive proved fast on DVD -Video ripping task

Another pro of the BenQ is its DVD error correction abilities. The drive managed to read and finish successfully all tested scratched and defective DVD media. As all software reported, the drive did not slow down speed on all defective areas and finished all tasks with high end speed although on two out of six tested media, a read error was reported.

One of the weakest points of the BenQ was its inability to backup protected games. Although the image making process of games was fast, although not the fastest, the backup capabilities of the drive are minimal. We used CloneCD for the burning processes but all images resulted in non working discs. We also used the Amplify Weak Sectors option of CloneCd but no game was playable.

Then we tested the DAE reading/ripping speed of the BenQ. We used pressed and CD-R media and the advanced DAE quality test of CDSpeed. The performance of the BenQ was very good with quite acceptable average reading speed and total score 100 (perfect) on the DAE quality test. Last but not least, the drive managed to recognize, playback and rip the two protected Audio discs without problem.

The writing tests with writable and rewritable CD-R media tested our patience. The 24x maximum writing speed of the BenQ under P-CAV, was by far the slowest in the comparison, while the rewritable speed at 10x couldn't be slower. Most current DVD writers support up to 40x while even writing 52x speed is supported by some CD-R writers. Each of BenQ's writing tasks finished in about 4:20 minutes while the LiteOn, which supports 40x writing, had completed the same task a whole minute faster. For the rewriting task the device needed 8:03 minutes and that time is similar to DVD+R writing time of the BenQ.

Since BenQ 822A supports only 24x maximum writing speed, the quality of all tested media was very good with no C2 errors and C1 errors at very acceptable levels. Moreover, Pit and Land Jitter measurements with almost all written media with BenQ were lower than the 35ns RedBook limit.

We finished the tests of the BenQ with DVD writing tasks and their quality measurements. The supported writing speeds of the drive are 8x for DVD+R, 4x for DVD-R/+RW and 2.4x for DVD-RW. The 8x for the plus writable format is the current maximum available and BenQ proved very fast, finishing its task in about 8:10 minutes.

The quality measurements for all written +R media were very acceptable and were readable with all drives, while the PI/PO values were very low. The writing speed of 4x for +RW media is also the maximum currently available while the the PI/PO measurements here were also very good, with KProbe reporting highest PI value slightly higher than 60 PI errors.

On the other hand, the BenQ is surely not a choice for those who are interested in the minus format. The drive supports 4x for -R while the current maximum is 8x, and only 2.4x for -RW while the current maximum is 4x. The PI/PO values for writable and rewritable minus format media was increased in comparison to the plus format but still readable with other devices.

Finally we have to mention that according to BenQ, the 822A 8X Dual writer is a dual layer firmware upgradable writer and that the firmware upgrade will be available at 30/9/04 on BenQ's website.