BenQ 8x DVD+RW drive 168.99 Shipped!

[riceknight]

Linky

 

[Ranulf]

Not bad.. still gonna wait for novermber/december sales I think. How good are BenQ drives?

 

[LarryS]

Anyone know who makes this drive?

 

[imported_Mike]

arn't the benq drives just lite-ons? 😕

 

[GtPrOjEcTX]

I thought benq drives were benq drives. other drives relabel benqs as their own (ex. cyndyne)

 

[prudick]

You might wanta ck out Tiger direct. They got em for $89. 😱PPs: sorry that's the 4X's. :frown:

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: LarryS
Anyone know who makes this drive?

acer owns benq.

 

[Ian@CDRlabs]

Originally posted by: LarryS
Anyone know who makes this drive?

It was a joint venture between BenQ and Philips.

 

[balazer]

Acer now has just a minority stake in BenQ. BenQ is its own company.

BTW, I'm very happy with my BenQ 4x DVD+RW drive.

 

[Souka]

Nice price.

But personally, I'd rather have a 2x dual-layer burner than an 8x burner right now...... aka, making "backups" of DVD's would be a 1-1 process.

 

[skasibat]

Kypermedia uses benq drives atleast for the cd-rw, i have one of those cd-rw...never burnt a coaster as far as the cd-rw. not sure on the dvd +rw

 

[Tokar]

Writing Speed (KB/s)........1,200 DVD+R (8X Max)
..............................................3,600 CD-R (24X Max)

????

 

[Belzer]

A good thing about the Benq drive is that it supports book type changing aka bitsetting on DVD+R/RW media.

 

[Macro2]

Everything I've had that's Benq (optical drives) is been terrible. Maybe this is different.

BTW, Benq is a subsidiary or Acer. Haven't have much luck with AcerOpen optical drives either for that matter.

 

[superflysocal]

dual layer drives?

is that really coming out in the near future or are you just daydreaming?

 

[MysticMan1]

Originally posted by: superflysocal
dual layer drives?

is that really coming out in the near future or are you just daydreaming?

Dual layer drives (called DVD+R9) will be available next year.

Press Release:

(Philips will demonstrate its new dual-layer DVD recordable technology at the DVD+RW Alliance booth at the CEATEC* JAPAN 2003 exhibition in Makuhari (Chiba, Japan) from October 7 to 11. Developed by Philips Research in cooperation with MKM (Mitsubishi Kagaku Media)/Verbatim, the technology virtually doubles data storage capacity on DVD recordable discs from 4.7 Gbyte to 8.5 Gbyte while remaining compatible with existing DVD Video players and DVD-ROM drives.

Both Philips and MKM regard the introduction of dual-layer DVD+R technology as the next important milestone in the drive to continually improve and expand the optical data storage options available to consumers. Users will benefit from the additional storage capacity of the DVD+R disc as it will enable them to record 4 hours of DVD-quality video or 16 hours of VHS-quality video, without the need to turn over the disc. PC users will be able to archive up to 8.5 Gbytes of computer files on a single disc, which almost doubles the storage capacity compared with the 4.7Gbytes for the single-layer DVD+R discs currently available.

The DVD+RW Alliance is setting an aggressive feature and performance roadmap, and the dual-layer DVD+R format book is expected to be ready within this year. Recorders for both the PC and consumer electronics markets are expected to become available during the course of 2004.)

New dual-layer DVD+R technology developed by Philips

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: MysticMan1

Originally posted by: superflysocal
dual layer drives?

is that really coming out in the near future or are you just daydreaming?

Dual layer drives (called DVD+R9) will be available next year.

Press Release:

(Philips will demonstrate its new dual-layer DVD recordable technology at the DVD+RW Alliance booth at the CEATEC* JAPAN 2003 exhibition in Makuhari (Chiba, Japan) from October 7 to 11. Developed by Philips Research in cooperation with MKM (Mitsubishi Kagaku Media)/Verbatim, the technology virtually doubles data storage capacity on DVD recordable discs from 4.7 Gbyte to 8.5 Gbyte while remaining compatible with existing DVD Video players and DVD-ROM drives.

Both Philips and MKM regard the introduction of dual-layer DVD+R technology as the next important milestone in the drive to continually improve and expand the optical data storage options available to consumers. Users will benefit from the additional storage capacity of the DVD+R disc as it will enable them to record 4 hours of DVD-quality video or 16 hours of VHS-quality video, without the need to turn over the disc. PC users will be able to archive up to 8.5 Gbytes of computer files on a single disc, which almost doubles the storage capacity compared with the 4.7Gbytes for the single-layer DVD+R discs currently available.

The DVD+RW Alliance is setting an aggressive feature and performance roadmap, and the dual-layer DVD+R format book is expected to be ready within this year. Recorders for both the PC and consumer electronics markets are expected to become available during the course of 2004.)

New dual-layer DVD+R technology developed by Philips

Interesting - I was under the impression that this would be impossible due to the sandwiching of layers used when making dual-layered DVDs. This is most definitely good news, and might actually be a great alternative to blu-ray (which I don't think is compatible with standard DVD drives).

 

[MysticMan1]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Originally posted by: MysticMan1

Originally posted by: superflysocal
dual layer drives?

is that really coming out in the near future or are you just daydreaming?

Dual layer drives (called DVD+R9) will be available next year.

Press Release:

(Philips will demonstrate its new dual-layer DVD recordable technology at the DVD+RW Alliance booth at the CEATEC* JAPAN 2003 exhibition in Makuhari (Chiba, Japan) from October 7 to 11. Developed by Philips Research in cooperation with MKM (Mitsubishi Kagaku Media)/Verbatim, the technology virtually doubles data storage capacity on DVD recordable discs from 4.7 Gbyte to 8.5 Gbyte while remaining compatible with existing DVD Video players and DVD-ROM drives.

Both Philips and MKM regard the introduction of dual-layer DVD+R technology as the next important milestone in the drive to continually improve and expand the optical data storage options available to consumers. Users will benefit from the additional storage capacity of the DVD+R disc as it will enable them to record 4 hours of DVD-quality video or 16 hours of VHS-quality video, without the need to turn over the disc. PC users will be able to archive up to 8.5 Gbytes of computer files on a single disc, which almost doubles the storage capacity compared with the 4.7Gbytes for the single-layer DVD+R discs currently available.

The DVD+RW Alliance is setting an aggressive feature and performance roadmap, and the dual-layer DVD+R format book is expected to be ready within this year. Recorders for both the PC and consumer electronics markets are expected to become available during the course of 2004.)

New dual-layer DVD+R technology developed by Philips

Interesting - I was under the impression that this would be impossible due to the sandwiching of layers used when making dual-layered DVDs. This is most definitely good news, and might actually be a great alternative to blu-ray (which I don't think is compatible with standard DVD drives).

The new DVD+R9 Dual layer drives will definitely make it easier to back up your DVD movies.

 

[MysticMan1]

New low Price on pricewatch.com, $155.00 shipped.


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[Lurker1]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky

Interesting - I was under the impression that this would be impossible due to the sandwiching of layers used when making dual-layered DVDs. This is most definitely good news, and might actually be a great alternative to blu-ray (which I don't think is compatible with standard DVD drives).

Blu-ray is most definitely incompatible with all of today's DVD players. It does, however, have the potential to have full HDTV movies in MPEG2 format. (Something like 27GB per layer, if I recall the specs correctly). There is currently an ongoing debate whether HDTV DVDs should be MPEG4 format on current DVD disc technology (only change needed is in decoder portion of DVD players, still currently unplayable on today's DVD players) or if something like blu-ray will be the chosen format, which requires new DVD players, and new manufacturing equipment (which explains why the better technology may not win - much more expensive, with the same amount of hassle for the consumer, as they still must buy a new DVD player)

While the "better" tech can be debated: MPEG2 on blu-ray vs MPEG4 on current DVD discs, I would hold that less compression is better, therefore MPEG2 on blu-ray wins in my view. I would not be surprised, however, if we initially see MPEG4 on current tech for HDTV movies, followed by blu-ray DVD players that can play both formats, followed by "Superbit" blu-ray MPEG2 versions of HDTV movies.