Tuesday, August 3, 2004
First Look at BenQ's 16x DVD Burner
Posted by Jason Dunn in "NEWS" @ 01:39 PM
"The already active DVD burner market is getting another speed upgrade, from 12X to 16X for write-once media. We looked at a drive with the new capability: BenQ's $149 DW1600 DVD+ReWriter double-layer DVD burner, a shipping IDE unit that can write DVD+R at 16X and does it with a few brands of 8X media. In PC World Test Center tests with bundled software, the device took a slothful 7 minutes, 45 seconds to write 4.35GB of data on preproduction 16X media. In our hands-on testing with Ahead Nero Burning ROM, however, the drive wrote a 4.35GB DVD movie structure in 6 minutes flat. Software and vagaries in preproduction discs are probably behind the speed difference. Alas, that 6 minutes represents only a 30-second boost over the speed of 12X drives."
A 16x DVD burner for $149 USD? Ye Gods man! Can they get any cheaper? I saw a local store selling a 52x CD-R for $39.99 CND (about $30 USD), but I don't know how much lower they can go. BenQ is certainly shaking the market up, that's for sure!
A 16x DVD burner for $149 USD? Ye Gods man! Can they get any cheaper? I saw a local store selling a 52x CD-R for $39.99 CND (about $30 USD), but I don't know how much lower they can go. BenQ is certainly shaking the market up, that's for sure!
