Next goes the competing DVD-R format. In our earlier tests, with the previous version of the firmware, the drive had quite a lot of PI errors at the beginning of the disc written at 8x speed.

The read/graph graphs are the same, but what about the quality of the resulting disc? It’s easy to see the difference here. Although the overall distribution of errors (with a spike of them on innermost tracks) has remained the same, the total of PI errors is 40% smaller and the total of PI failures is 98% smaller with the newer firmware. They’ve done their homework well, again! Although the quality of burning DVD-R discs at 8x is good, not excellent, the manufacturer has seriously worked upon this speed in the new firmware. The outcome of this work is evident and we hope they will continue improving the firmware in this aspect. Now we can switch to 12x DVD-R burn speed.

Like at 8x speed, the distribution of errors across the surface of the disc has remained almost the same, but the totals of PI errors and PI failures have diminished by 30% and 90%, respectively, with firmware B7T9. Once again we admire the improvements brought by the new firmware, but the quality of the resulting disc is still just “good” rather than “excellent”. Anyway the manufacturer has done some progress with this burn speed over firmware B7P9, so we can hope for further improvements in upcoming versions of the drive’s firmware.

Summarizing the drive’s results at burning write-once DVD media we should admit the new firmware brings considerable changes both to DVD+R and DVD-R formats. The quality of the DVD+R disc was just perfect, but the DVD-R format, in spite of the evident progress, still needs improving upon. The BenQ DW1620 drive produces DVD-R discs of good, but not of excellent quality, but we would really want it to have the best possible results with any media type, considering the potential of the device.