NEC or BenQ

[ponzan]

yesterday was NEC or Pionner, now it seems the BenQ-Phillips DW1620 are the main NEC contenders

check http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=113670

[quote]
BenQ:
* DVD write quality: Good, with the latest firmware
* Reading: Good, but there is a riplock (no hacked firmware to remove riplock exists yet)
* Bitsetting: Yes
* PI/PIF scanning: Yes
* Misc: Good customer support/focus; official media overspeeding support (no need to use patched firmwares for overspeeding); the use of PCAV for 8x allows it to burn 8x discs very fast, good 12x and 16x speeds, too

NEC:
* DVD write quality: Good
* Reading: Picky, though fast (because riplock can be removed with a hacked firmware)
* Bitsetting: Yes (requires hacked firmware)
* PI/PIF scanning: No
* Misc: Very poor customer support/focus, though there is a strong die-hard community that makes up for it; media overspeeding is available through the use of hacked firmwares; the use of ZCLV for 8x makes it the slowest burner when burning at 8x (though its 12x and 16x speeds are up to par)

I went for the NEC with a Liggy hacked firmware
(can't stand riplock, don't care that much for PI/PIF scanning)
and I'm quite happy with it

[Seb]

Good choice

[soundforbjt]

NEC 35xx series will have disc quality scans in the next release of Nero CD\DVD Speed.

[LTR12101B]

And a new firmware, it looks like - and with that capability, NEC have a good chance to crack the "enthusiast" market, where such features are more in demand than by the average user who's never even thought of doing a basic read test on their burns, unless it means just ticking the "verify" box.

Of course, testing using consumer drives is by no means definitive, and drives of different make and model (or even the same make and model) often disagree.

Pioneer got questionable scan support in DVDInfoPro ONLY, the results are unconvincing compared to Liteon, Benq and Plextor scans, and the requirement to use the shareware/awkwardware program is another negative.

The initial scan results for the NEC are also being queried, as they appeared unexpectedly poor for the media - though if the NEC is a very sensitive scanning drive, that would increase the confidence level of a good scan

[soundforbjt]

BenQ 1620 now also has riplock removed hack available.