- CD Format

The BenQ DW1640 supports up to 48x reading speed for CD media.

With both ReWritable and Write-Once media, the DW1640 was the fastest burner in the comparison. While the drive can read up to 48x, the maximum reported speed for CDR media reached 49.63x. Of course, it would be very interesting to see what happens with CD error correction, since the higher the reading speed, the harder it is to read defective media. We will discuss CD error correction issues later on in this review.

- DVD Format

The speed reported by all three burners showed no significant differences. However, the DW1640 was slightly slower that the Sony burner.

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, progressing towards the outer range for each layer. The Sony DRU-800A was only slightly slower than the Pioneer DVR-109.

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks towards the inner part of the disc. Again, the Pioneer drive was the fastest.

Excellent performance with +R, -R, +RW and -RW media. Being able to read up to a maximum 16x, the BenQ DW1640 dominates, leaving the other two drives a good deal behind.

Goes like hell. The average ripping speed reported was 12795kb/sec. Such speeds are difficult to reach not only with the Sony and Pioneer burners, but with most DVD readers currently available. The DW1640 can rip DVD Video up to 16x. It should be noted that the only burners available on the market that can achieve such high ripping speeds are the Plextor 716A and the Plextor 740A burners.

-Appendix

Nero CD-DVD Speed Graphs

• CD Pressed / CD-R / US-RW
• DVD Pressed SL / DVD Pressed DL / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R / DVD+RW