This is a nice comprehensive roundup of the current crop of 16x DVD writers. it's a shame that there are still so many media compatibility issues in this otherwise mature area of technology. Also, I'm sure the review took some time to put together, so for example, the Sony 720 tested has been replaced by the 800 model.
We were really dissapointed in the NEC ND-3540A's performance when compared to drives like the BenQ DW1640, but hopefully their performance will improve as their BIOS matures.
The only drive we saw that could write to the majority of discs and quickly at that was BenQ's DW1640. It had average performance on most of the benchmarks. but always had a successful read to go with the successful write. The only disc that it could not write to was the MKM A03 8x DVD+RW.
Besides that single issue, the DW1640 has features to aid in successful writes, as well as bitsetting features to allow greater compatibility of the media to which it writes. The bitsetting utility can be downloaded from BenQ's website. Over these 6 DVDR units, we recommend the BenQ DW1640 for its performance and reliability in writing to various types of media. Expect this drive to start showing up on retail store shelves very soon.
Make mine a Benq! In the US, it's sold by Plextor as a rebadged model, the 740A.
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