BenQ Scam Hall of Shame

I've burned over 100 on my 1650 and not a single coaster. All at 8x and 12x. MCC-004 are some great discs. Sounds more like an issue on that newest fw BCGC update or his raid system not in dma mode. I've got BCFC in a folder,just haven't opened it up yet. I may just keep that BCDC fw for a while longer?

zebadee: Heads up for that newer Benq 1640 fw update. I'll have to do that one on my spare pc this weekend.

 

@creaky

The thread at CD freaks (which I cannot access right at the moment cause the server is too busy)that references the BCHC firmware (2nd page) shows the complete media array. MCC 004 is supported according to the printout. So is the Ritek P16. Sorry I could get there or I would have posted the link.

I have flashed to the BCHC as well and will burn with it tonight for the first time.

Managed to get on this time:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=178570&page=2

Cheers.

 

Burned at 8X with 1655 BCHB firmware

 

Same as above but burned at 8X with NEC 3540(Liggy and Dee's firmware) scaned with Ben-Q just to compare results.

 

I cannot believe it! After all the grief this drive has given me with MCC-004's, I finally get a good scan... with crappy media no less!

RICOHJPN R02 @ 4x

 

Just got my Benq 1650 and installed it in my computeralong with QSuite 2.1
My first burn was with at 8X with Yuden000 T02 with OS disabled, WOPC enabled and Solid Burn enabled. The quality score was 98%.

Some Questions:
1. Should I upgrade to firmware BCHC? I've heard rumors that it is unstable. True or False.
2. Concerning Solid Burn. Should I leave it at the default settings which is supported disks non-activated and supported disks activated?
I ask because I don't know what disks are supported and nonsupported. I plan to used TY T02 and Verbs MCC04 exclusively.

At any rate I am extremely pleased with results of my first burn and hope the trend will get better...

General Information
Drive: BENQ DVD DD DW1650
Firmware: BCFC
Disc: DVD+R (YUDEN000 T02)
Selected speed: 8 X
PI errors
Maximum: 28
Average: 3.25
Total: 29985
PI failures
Maximum: 4
Average: 0.15
Total: 804
PO failures: 0
Jitter
Maximum: 9.9 %
Average: 8.34 %
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 9:35
Number of samples: 17395
Average scanning interval: 8.00 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

 

I have flashed to the BCHC and have made a couple of burns with it and got QC scores of 95 on MCC 004 and 92 on Ritek P16. With your results I guess I would hesitate for a while to see if there are issues with the BCHC. I may flash back. CD freaks has an interesting thread on this. Link is posted above.

 

@9mmruger1

Thanks for your quick reply. I think I will waiton the firmware update. Just burned my first MCC04 and got a 97% quality score. See stats below.

One thing I noticed is that while I selected 8X in Nero to burn, it takes about 15 minutes which is more indicative of 4X burning. My DMA is enabled and hasn/t changed. Is this because of WOPC enabled?

General Information---97%
Drive: BENQ DVD DD DW1650
Firmware: BCFC
Disc: DVD+R (MCC 004)
Selected speed: 8 X
PI errors
Maximum: 14
Average: 3.27
Total: 34294
PI failures
Maximum: 6
Average: 0.06
Total: 576
PO failures: 0
Jitter
Maximum: 11.3 %
Average: 9.13 %
Scanning Statistics
Elapsed time: 9:32
Number of samples: 17401
Average scanning interval: 8.01 ECC
Glitches removed: 0

 

have burned about a dozen backups so far with the new BCHC firmware for the 1650~

while the initial few were about 95 quality score, i am getting consistent 97+ now after SB kicked in...

all my settings are identical as before, SB on, overspeed off, etc...





example of 8x Verb. dvd+r MCC003 burned @8x...my YUDEN000T02 is VERY close in terms of quality when scanned...burned @8x also, will post that up later...

i put about 60 burns using BCFC, so, i'm confident that BCHC will be just fine as it gets "broken in"

docTY~

 

@doc

How have your burns of the MCC004 been coming out? I have only burned a couple and the Quality scans are in the low 90's. I wish that I had more to backup, but am caught up at present so I can't go on a burning spree. I guess I will hold off on flashing back for a while and keep an eye on the boards to follow the progress of BCHC.

I wish that I had gotten the 8x verbs instead of the 16x at this point.

 

Anyone got one of those I/O Magic 16x lightscribes that's a rebadged benq 1655?

I just got through setting up a buddy's pc and he bought that drive a couple months ago.It was a 50-50 shot at either a rebadged Lite-on or Benq 1655.

His Firmware version is: GCAB which is similar to the actual benq 1655,except having the "G" instead of the "B"

I/O Magic uses rebadged benqs,and actual benqs. That "G" series usually means retail version for the Benq 1620-which would be the rebadge,while the "B" series is for the bulk series. You figure it would be the other way around!

When he purchased that drive,it was at Staple's sale for $50 or so. Those I/O Magic Lightscribes in the pink wrapper were the liteys,and the clear bags were the rebadged benqs.He still had the original box with that clear bag.

Any thoughts?

I did load up qsuite 2.0 on it and had 4 tabs available,so it's a benq-otherwise it wouldn't open up. He had the option to: Booktype/Solid Burn/Info/and Overspeed. No WOPC/Qscan/and test burn options.

 

@9mm

sorry, i wouldn't know as i ran out of my MCC004 early about 2 weeks ago, as i mentioned to creaky in a media thread, i only have 8x MCC003 and 8x YUDEN000T02 left at this point in the dvd+r variety~

i'm somewhat partial to the 8x dvd+r Verbs (MCC003), i feel that at least FOR ME personally, i've gotten better burns from them than i have the MCC004 16x flavor, this holds true for the dash format as well for me with Taiyo Yudens (TYG02 in MY OPINION are better than the TYG03s) i have long since STOPPED buying the 16x dvd-r TYs at this point, and am currently working on a deal directly with Taiyo Yuden to see if i can get the YUDEN000T03 (16x dvd+r) for a better price than what rima.com is currently offering them for ($0.48/disc)...btw, rima.com is the ONLY reputable online retailer at this point in the U.S. that even carries/sells the YUDEN000T03

so, with that being said, unfortunately, i won't be purchasing any more 16x dvd+r Verbatims any more...not that there is anything wrong with them, they are indeed fine discs, but since the TY 16x dvd+r have been released here in the states, i no longer need Verbatim as my "backup" media (just personal preference once again)

well, in all honesty, it's not like the MCC004s are inferior to the MCC003s, i think a lot of it comes down to individual preference...when the 8x rated media was HOT and the 16x rated media were just beginning to show up at the brick and mortar stores, i made a worthwhile effort to LOAD UP on the 8x media when i could...knowing that in the near future, most stores will shift their inventory to the 16x rated speeds...natural media speed progression with newer technologies being introduced...and the 8x speeds will eventually be no longer available (as we have seen the MCC002 4x rated become more and more scarce...) the 8x media will eventually share the same fate...

i have about 400 MCC003s left, if these are the ones you REALLY want to get your hands on...keep an eye on supermediastore's "CLEARANCE" section, i remember about a month ago, they were selling the 50pk Verbatim 8x dvd+r MCC003s for $9.99 after the 3-day coupon offering at the time...NO REBATE, but NO RETURN also, when i find these particular deals, i post them in my docTY Taiyo Yuden thread, also another informative thread you might want to peruse through from time to time~

i posted the info immediately after i found it, other members were telling me that within hours after they read it, they were no longer available...so, the early bird gets the worm in these rare cases~

i have confidence in this new firmware though, i'm always the guy who will try out the NEWEST firmwares available, i've flashed my various drives probably near 100 times total already, just to find out which firmware works the best for each one (be it modified firmware, cross-flashing, or official firmware by the drive manufacturer) i am USUALLY pretty pleased with the newest OFFICIAL firmwares most of the time, on the rare occassion have i ever had to flash back to an earlier revision because it was "that much better"

give ur benq some time to LEARN the media you plan on using, as my scans above are a testament of what is to come...95 scores up to consistent 97 after less than 6 burns THAT SAME DAY, i've gotten a few 99 scores using my YUDEN000T02s as well~ the fact that the newest BCHC has only been available since 5/2/06 (which is only 4 days ago) the earlier reports of "not so good" quality scores by people is somewhat preliminary/inaccurate as to how good the firmware actually is as time progresses and more burns/media are "learned"

i usually will put at least a dozen burns on 1 particular type of media in a given week's time to throughly "test" a firmware revision for MY OWN purposes before i pass judgement on how good a firmware is...a lot of people "jump to conclusions" and say a particular firmware is "bad" only after like 2-3 burns, 5 burns or less IN MY OPINION is NOT enough to accurately determine ANYTHING in the burning/media circles~ i would go as far to say that even 10 burns will not suffice to make an EDUCATED decision on whether a firmware "likes" your media of choice or not, that's just MY OPINION once again~

good luck my friend, give it some time, put a few more burns using BCHC before flashing back to BCFC if you choose to do so...(BCFC worked very well for me, but it took me about 25 pieces of media before it consistently spit out 98+ scores, i am willing to bet that using BCHC for me will take approximately the same amount of media before i am satisfied and confident with the results)

docTY~

edit p.s. hi Neph, long time since we've crossed paths, welcome to the Benq band-wagon, these drives are "THE BEST BANG FOR THE BUCK" available today, i am a loyal Benq user myself now thanks to catfreak, the [bold]Q[/bold] in BenQ truly DOES stand for quality~ i'm sure you will be well pleased with your new 1655~

 

Thanks doc, for the insights. I have to agree with you on more than one point. I have been following the media sales thread every week and picking up media where there is a good buy as I needed it. Yet, I have an unopened cake box of TY's on my desk for special occassions. A couple of weeks ago I got a box of the OD branded P16 media and 50 pc cake boxes of the MCC004's. So I sit here with 200 pcs of media and am not as happy with 3/4's of them. Makes one think of the logic if it all. I had to drive 40 miles to get them so that cost me $6.00 each trip. What did I really save?

NADA!

I told my wife that I would probably just order on line from here on in as I can trust the ty's.

Does that mean that I'll never buy from the store again, probably not, but I won't be waiting to jump every week.

I flashed my drive again, but to the TDB BCHC rpc1. It did not erase the learned media from Qsuite, I assume because it was the same firmware.

I ran the Qscan feature on several different discs of both the OD Ritek P16's and the MCC004. There really is quite a variable between the individual discs of each media type. Only one of the Ritek's resulted in an okay to burn at 12x, this 16x media wanted 8x burns or less. The Verbs, were a bit more forgiving, but I still had several that would only recommend 8x as a max. Only 1 that okayed the full 16x burn. Interesting feature this Qscan. Do you ever utilize it?

Cheers, and thanks again.

@Neph, welcome to the BenQ wagon.

 

@9mm

anytime i can be of service, just holla~

as to the Qscan, i've used it a few times, but for me, i do "real world testing," meaning, i just burn my backup onto the discs (at various speeds in the beginning with various medias) and run a quality test afterwards to see how each turned out i don't do this as often anymore as i'm pretty much "stuck" (in my own mind) of burning EVERYTHING @8x, regardless of rated speed or format~ that's just me~

i'm very excessive when it comes to media, i usually have 500+ "ready and waiting" at any given time; naturally, the local sales offer a significant savings in the dvd+r format compared to online prices, but when you consider the cost of gas and your time spent driving/searching through spindle after spindle, HOPING that a particular brand hasn't changed manufacturers overnite, it's worth the few cents more per piece to just order online~ that's my take on it anyways...

my wife has pretty much given up on me and my media obsession, i have an entire closet full with a seemingly endless supply of media~ there is barely any room to walk in there now

let me know how that TDB firmware works out for ya, i haven't had the chance to try it out myself as of yet, perhaps soon i will give it a go~ have a good one buddy.

docTY~

 

I just installed my New BenQ 1650 Burner last night and i did my first burn and this is how it turned out.

BenQ 1650 BCDC firmware (not sure if this is up to date)
Burned on 16x Verbatim MCC03RG20
Burned at 12x on latest Nero 6

Quality Score - 96
PI Errors Max - 28
PI Failures Max - 7

I'm quite happy as this being the first burn on the drive, i've been checking out other disks that i burned on my LG 4166B and most of them are crap now that i can check for disk quality. Needless to say i'm already now a big fan of the BenQ 1650 as to the LG i paid double for, well we all make mistakes.

 

Hi,
Been busy like most of you playing around with the 'new' f/w. So far my conclusion is that this latest batch is more critical than the f/w preceded by it. Hence mixed & often nsgative responses. Currently if you've not upgraded then I'd suggest to hold back for now at least. If you have flashed the new f/w (1640/1650/1655) then depending how many burns (or how far through the learning process) is up to you whether to return to previous f/w.
@ saugmon, yes the drive in question is/can be flashed to a full blooded BenQ.
@ 9mmrugger1, QScan is OK as far as it goes. However the thing to remember here is that QScan is testing a blank discs surface, but cnnot take into consideration the effect of either WOPC or SolidBurn will have on the precedings. Hence in the real world with decent media QScan results are not worth the screen image they take up. If using unknown/suspect media then QScan is useful in 'suggesting' a starting point for write speed.