Beng 1650 and 1655 burners

[moen]

The www.beng.com site is not easy to get any info out of.
Are the Beng DW1650 and DW1655 same generation burners except for the Lightscribe in the DW1655?

THey seem to have many of the same features.
Anybody familiar with both of these?

Any othe rdifferences?

thanks
moen

[rikytik]

http://www.benq-eu.com/Products/storage/

You can see the differeces here. Yes the diff is 1655 is LightScribe. I have a DW 1620 and a DQ60 I recently bought. I was confused about the different models and the salesman was not familiar with the finer points and I took the DQ60 only because it was the most recent model on their shelves. If figured LightScribe was pointless, since the guy told me it only works on Benq discs, and not everybody stocks those around here.

[moen]

thanks for the site. I see a lot of reviews of the 1650 say the 1650 is very noisy, but reviews of the 1655 say that the 1655 is quiet. That is what made me think that the 2 are different in more than the lightscribe feature.

I see a lot of complaints about all the older BEnQs being noidy.

I have Yamaha, HP, Plextor and Teak and I consider then all to be quiet.

What is the DQ60? similar?

thanks moen

[rikytik]

The DQ60 looks the same outside and works the same as my older 1620, which is quiet. The marketing hype on the box is "Multiple Formats DVD REWriter, but I haven't taken the time to figure out what that means and how it differs from a typical DW 1600 series model. http://www.benq-eu.com/Products/stor...fm?product=621 is where the specs are. I have an old 8x Plextor I don't like and it's noisy, and is a warranty replacement for my first one that was putting a tiny scratch on the outside area of dvd's. Otherwise I have an LG 16X and it's quiet. I've had good luck with my Benqs.....so far!

[moen]

THanks rikytik
I did look up the site you gave in your first post.
I tried to order one today, but the dealer told me that Benq burners have a short and troubled working lifespan.
So I decided to find some other boards to see if its durability is discussed. Do you know of any other place where they may have discussed Benq burners?
How long have you used your Benq?

[rikytik]

Bought my 1620- July 2005 and the DQ60 October 2005.

I burn a lot of movies. So these units do not sit idle. And I use the Benq as the CD boot drive in both my pc's in the event I have problems, etc.

My first Plextor 8X only lasted 4 or 5 months before it began to produce coasters. Plextor replaced it no questions asked, but even the new one made funny noises which sounded to me like the kiss of death. Somehow I think all this stuff is disposable, given the prices which keep dropping.

[moen]

thanks...right, disposable rather than fixable.
Do you know whether the 1650 and 1655 are rebadges of some other brand...like one previous Benq was actually a Plextor. Just curious.
I am quite sure I will get either of the 1650 or 1655. They cost 55 and 75 Canadian respectively, so not n risking a lot. But still like to have something reliable.

NOTE: Do you burn DVD-R or DVD+R

[rikytik]

Generally DVD+R because in the early days they would burn faster on some burners, especially my first one, a 2.4X Sony. I did read all the + and -R forums some years ago, but have forgotten most of what I knew about the differences. Point is, I've never understoood if there is a specific advantage to one or the other depending on the application.

Just remembered: I began by using only -R because they were compatible with most DVD players (especially in Europe). But then I discovered that with a firmware update on my Sony 2.4 I could burn at 4X with +R discs. As more and more people got newer DVD players, the issue of compatibility became moot. I just saw a little comparison on HP's site that is interesing, more or less the points I'd forgotten http://www.hp.ca/portal/hho/dee/musi...vd_compare.php

Look at the features chart at the bottom.

[moen]

thanks again...you are a lot of help.
When you read the specs and included programs and features, the 1650 and 1655 sound a lot like the newert non-Benq Plextors.
I wonder is anyone has figured out whether the 1650 , 1655 is or is not a rebADGED pLEXTOR.

[rikytik]

It's July 2006 and my DQ60 is 9 momths old. It will no longer burn at 16X, omly 8X. MY older Benq still burns 16X, as does my older LG hooked to my DQ60 pc via an outboard USB adaptor.