The BenQ did the burning a little bit faster using P-CAV against the LG’s Z-CLV at this burn speed. The difference isn’t as big as might have been expected (only 11 seconds) due to the time delays brought about by WOPC and BLER OPC technologies. We have seen already that they can improve the quality of the burned disc considerably or worsen it if the laser power correction is incorrect. What about the current case?

Both devices perform excellently in this test. The LG GSA-4160B has an outstanding result, but the new BenQ is even better than that (3,000 PI errors less, and thrice less PI failures). Of course, the drives had no problems reading the discs of that high quality.

The quality of the DVD+R disc written at 16x by BenQ DW1620

That’s the maximum burn speed for the DVD+R format. The BenQ DW1620 performs solo again, as the LG refused to burn the 8x blank at 16x speed, and I had no 16x blanks at my disposal at the time of my testing it. The burning was completed without problems, but as I mentioned above there’s practically no difference in time it takes to burn a disc at 12x and 16x. What about quality? The disc burned at 16x is good, save for the outermost tracks. When 16x speed was reached, the level of PI errors and failures grew up considerably, and the drive just couldn’t read up this part of the disc. I don’t think anyone needs such “16x”! Of course, the manufacturer will try to correct this defect, but there’s no sense in switching to 16x since the drive produces discs of ideal quality at 12x, taking about the same time to burn a blank. So, until the transition from CAV to P-CAV is made I see no sense in using 16x burn speed.