Khypermedia 8X DVD+RW Burner Drive $69.98 w/ free shipping

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Lifer
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: goons25
So if I get to a store and have my choice of Benq or Cyberdrive, which one should I pick up? I don't really care about flashing it to a DVD-R, nor do I care about the CD-R burn speed. Just want to know which mfr., Benq or Cyberdrive, has better history of quality products and will give me the smallest chance for trouble down the road? Thanks.

either one...leaning towards the Cyberdrive..
 

Hodaddy

Member
Jun 23, 2002
87
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Well, OM is starting to impress me with their rebates. Mailed my Khypermedia $50 rebate on 1-25 and today received e-mail confirmation that it has been received and is valid! Pretty scary.:Q
 

WallyKid

Senior member
Oct 10, 1999
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Originally posted by: Hodaddy
Well, OM is starting to impress me with their rebates. Mailed my Khypermedia $50 rebate on 1-25 and today received e-mail confirmation that it has been received and is valid! Pretty scary.:Q

Lucky you, i haven't got anything yet. I mailed out on the 23.
 

Modu

Junior Member
Feb 7, 2004
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I purchased the Khypermedia Model # KDVRW8X. It is the version made in China. Burned one Fujifilm DVD+R without problem. As ststed earlier, it appears to be the same as Cyberdrive DX082D. Has anyone tried to burn a DVD-R on this drive? The firmware version is 10sB. Has anyone tried upgrading the firmware? There is a 111B version available. Thanks.
 

IMarshal

Junior Member
Feb 8, 2004
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I bought the made-in-China Cyberdrive model last weekend. I just discovered that it can't handle burning audio CD's with the bundled Nero 6: when I try to burn a CD-R with a set of WAV files or a CUE + WAV pair, the drive either hangs or reboots my system. This is an XP installation that virtually never crashes, and the reboots are leaving no minidumps for analysis, which makes me suspect a hardware problem.

What's odd is that I can burn data CD-Rs just fine, as well as audio CD-RWs. But the hang/reboot syndrome is 100% reproducible. Today, I exchanged my drive for another one at the local OfficeMax, and the second drive has the same exact problem. I upgraded the original one to the latest 111B firmware, which I didn't do for the second one, so that's not a factor.

Has anyone else experienced any such problems?
 

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Lifer
Apr 14, 2001
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Originally posted by: IMarshal
I bought the made-in-China Cyberdrive model last weekend. I just discovered that it can't handle burning audio CD's with the bundled Nero 6: when I try to burn a CD-R with a set of WAV files or a CUE + WAV pair, the drive either hangs or reboots my system. This is an XP installation that virtually never crashes, and the reboots are leaving no minidumps for analysis, which makes me suspect a hardware problem.

What's odd is that I can burn data CD-Rs just fine, as well as audio CD-RWs. But the hang/reboot syndrome is 100% reproducible. Today, I exchanged my drive for another one at the local OfficeMax, and the second drive has the same exact problem. I upgraded the original one to the latest 111B firmware, which I didn't do for the second one, so that's not a factor.

Has anyone else experienced any such problems?
uhoh

 

kmcherry

Member
Dec 12, 2003
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I, unfortunately, got the Cyberdrive, not the Benq. As I am fine with the single + format, it's not a huge deal that I can't use +/- (I would hope, however, for that capability in the future). I am, however, trying to find the firmware upgrade for this drive, and I can't. It's listed on the drive as a KDVRW8X, and that doesn't seem to come up anywhere.

There's firmware for the DX082D, but it doesn't say what precisely the firmware is for.

So far, I've ripped and burned two DVDs without any problems at all (TDK discs for the burning, each took about 8 minutes).

Thanks for any help! And if anyone really thinks the Benq dual format is that much better, I'll happily try to hassle OM into working with me. Especialyl since I called yesterday to see what time they opened this morning, and they told me 8:00 when it wasn't till 10. That's two hours of sleep they owe me . . .

(First time posting, but I've been a longtime lurker . . .)
 

Hodaddy

Member
Jun 23, 2002
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(First time posting, but I've been a longtime lurker . . .)

Nice to see ya chime in there Cherry. As far as which burner, I think if the Cyberdrive works for you then keep it. A lot of people have been happy with it, but as you can tell reading this thread, some have had problems. Use it as much as you can in the first 30 days, cause I think OM will accept returns in that time frame. So far, I'm likeing my Benq dual, though I have yet to burn any -R's. I'm still waiting for good deal on those discs.:disgust: I really like using DVD Shrink. All burns with it have read perfectly with dvdinfopro. Nero 6.0 is my burn engine. Using dvd xcopy I got read errors near the end of each disc, though they played fine in an Apex set top player.

It's funny Cyberdrive's website doesn't list the firmware for the DX082D. However, you can find it at cdrinfo.com where you can also weigh the likes and dislikes of each drive.

Good luck and keep that drive spinning!;)
 

catnap1972

Platinum Member
Aug 10, 2000
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Anyone from the northeast come across any BenQ drives? The display boxes at all the OM stores here are "made in China" (and I doubt any of the sales drones want to be bothered with looking through the backstock for a Malaysia drive)
 

masterc

Senior member
Feb 6, 2000
429
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I tried my luck with this Cyberdrive... so far so good DVDshrink works well, very easy to use... I got some cheap Mitsumi 4X DVD+R media and it all seems to work fine with this drive, right out of the box.
Copy reads on my DVD drive and my JVC player ... This was a great thread

Thanks to all ;-)
 

CooperSlay

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2004
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Since Office Max has continued the sale of the Khypermedia 8X DVD writer, I will give a report (favorable) on my experience with it.

I bought mine about a week ago. The OfficeMax store (NW Houston) had a good inventory of them locked up (not out for display, and two of the clerks told me that they did not have any), so I selected the one made in Malaysia ? the Benq DW800A (the CyperDrive Dxo82D product is made in Taiwan) ? because of the report on this thread that for $10 I could buy firmware to convert it to +/- R/RW (dual).
(Another way to tell the two products apart in the box: The box with the Taiwanese CyperDrive has an ?explosion? above the photo of the drive that says ?Nero Express?. The Malaysian Benq says ?RecordNow!?.)

Note that there are LOTS of these products available right now on Ebay, both types, in the Kypermedia boxes ? with the UPC code having been removed to get the rebate. Some have starting bids of $75 and some say ?Buy Now for $110? etc. My guess is that all the Ebay units were bought at Office Max to get the rebates and then resell.

Upon opening the box I found that Nero software is NOT included with the BenQ. Instead you get Sonic Record Now and Intervideo WinCinema. The Sonic program is decidedly inferior to Roxio, Nero, et al. Cheap stuff ? so cheap that when you click on the tab for ?Slide Shows and Movies? you are offered the ?opportunity? to BUY software to allow you to record slide shows and movies! Now, why the h___ would anyone package software with a DVD burning drive that does not do video?
You must have the drive installed before the InterVideo software will install. The THREE PAGES of microscopically small print that constitute the totality of the instruction book for the program has nothing about installation/setup.

Brief comparison of the two products ? BenQ and CyberDrive (mostly per CDRInfo.com):

Both use the Philips design for the Philips Nexperia DVDR824P, based on the Nexperia PNX7850 chipset. Photos of the interior workings of all three units (on cdrinfo.com and themauritius.com) appear to show identical physical layouts.

Like the Philips drive, the Benq writes CD-R at 24X maximum, CD-RW at 10X; the CyberDrive does CD-Rs at 32X and rewrites at 24X. I have sent an inquiry to BenQ to try to find out whether they plan to offer firmware to increase the CD-R write speed. In any case, I plan to keep my existing CD-RW drive that I will be able to burn CD?s at faster paces with it.

The CyberDrive package includes the superior (in my opinion) Nero software, instead of the weak Sonic program in the box with the Benq.

So, why would I choose the Malayasian Benq? I did so in order to buy firmware for $10 that will give the Benq the power to write to DVD-R and DVD-RW discs, in case some friend or relative should happen to have a DVD Rom in his/her computer that will read only the negative-sign DVD?s. (DVD players connected to TV sets will generally read both types.) I have done that and the firmware installed successfully (to B3B7). I have downloaded firmware upgrade to B2I7.

Other slight differences:

The Benq has an earphone jack and volume control; the CyberDrive does not. (Does anyone us them? With an HP computer the door in front of the drive face complicates use of the plug.

The CyberDrive shows that it does Cue Sheets (which I get with my ProShow Super VCD shows); the BenQ stat shee does not display that capability. I find that this is a function of the software and that the BenQ does make Super VCDs from *.CUE/BIN files if you have software to do it, with one caveat: Programs such as Alcohol 120% and BurnAtOnce require that you select the burn type as RAW, not DAO (Disc-At-Once). Nero Rom Burning will do it without any modification from the default settings.

Using InterVideo WinDVD Creator 2, I have burned my first DVD, by stringing together six MPEG2 files.

BenQ also offers its Book Type software free on its website, to allow one optionally to burn discs as ROM types for maximum compatibility with older DVD players.

The Kypermedia BenQ cheapens the package from what is included in the BenQ retail box by omitting the two DVD media discs and the mounting screws. But then the BenQ DW800A sells for $148.95 at MP SuperStore and $199.77 at CDW, so we can do without a few such trivial things to save $80 to $110. (It?s as low as $123 at some lesser known on-line stores --- without the return policy and ease of transaction of Office Max.)

I am unable to find the CyberDrive DX082D for sale anywhere ? not even on Ebay ? except in Khybermedia boxes. They must have minimal distribution in the USA .. hence, their selling through Khypermedia.

The Philips Nexperia DVDR824P, of which both to the Khypermedia drives are copies, does not seem to be on the market in the USA, probably because of a joint venture between Philips and BenQ.

CONCLUSION: I am now satisfied. We buyers of this drive just have to learn some new tricks, such as using the RAW setting in some programs instead of Disc-at-Once, and we have to be satisfied, for now at least, with 24X burn speed for CD-R disks.
 

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Lifer
Apr 14, 2001
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Welcome to AnandTech forums, CooperSlay !very informative first post :) ..using the 800 as well with Nero 5.5.10.54 ..tried Roxio's latest(trial demo)..didn't like it..haven't tried the RecordNow yet..
 

Hodaddy

Member
Jun 23, 2002
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Thanks and welcome CooperSlay and thanks to all who have contributed and praised this thread and to Rasputinj for getting it going. Please keep your results and comments coming. It looks like OM has a never ending supply of drives!

And, just to update all of you who have the Benq dual writer, they have released yet another firmware update B3C7. Nice to see Benq concerned with the performance of their drives. :)
 

CooperSlay

Junior Member
Feb 4, 2004
4
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This is a PS to my previous post about my BenQ version of the "Khypermedia" drive.

It's a good thing that I had read somewhere about the existence of the Book Type Management 6.0 available on the BenQ site

Text

DVD+RW disks worked fine after burning .. with WinDVD on my computer and in my Memorex DVD player. Then I started using Memorex DVD+R disks and the Memorex DVD player just reported "No Disk". I was baffled for a time because up this experience I had been able to play everything that I had ever burned - on that DVD player. Then I remembered about Book Type Management. I used it to modify the BenQ DW800A to DVD-Rom, and bingo, that fixed it. Disks burned by DVDShrink and Nero now play just fine in the Memorex.

So, keep Book Type Management in mind. It MIGHT even work with the CyberDrive.


 

hedpe

Junior Member
Feb 14, 2004
1
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Hey guys, first post...

Anyways, so i get home from school a couple days ago, and my dad is like i got something for your new computer, i'm like awesome. And he whips out a dvd-burner. I'm like sweet, except...its some no name brand. I'm like why does he always settle for the cheap crap. So i'm like fine, you know, i'll take what I can get.

So i decided to do some research on it to see if it would atleast not make 100 coasters for me. And I started hearing talk on forums that there was some heavy discussion of here about this drive. So I decided to take a look. So I read and read all the posts and started to get really excited about this drive. Then I saw the difference between the china and malaysia models. I ran over to my box. Malaysia!!! Woohoo!!!

I love this drive :) :) :)

I like ran home to tell my dad, and i'm 20 years old...thats sad. Thanks guys! You're awesome!
 

megamike

Junior Member
Feb 16, 2004
1
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Some device I used once was similar to another and someone figured out a way to modify the bios update header so that the bios of one worked with the other. Sort of like how these two drives are simialar but have different features enabled. I cannot rember what object it was, DVD player (standalone) or CDRW drive. Does anyone else recall this? I have one of each drive to experiment with...

Mega
 

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Lifer
Apr 14, 2001
13,625
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Originally posted by: Chrono
htf do you burn at 2.4x with dvd-r?
no such thing.

the Sony dru510a would do that on certain 2x rated -R media I had... as always ..ymmv... even some peeps drives' only do 6x on 8x rated media..like I'd said and seem to always say.... ymmv.. :) <edit>and Welcome to AnandTech forums ! hedpe :)
 

Hodaddy

Member
Jun 23, 2002
87
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Received Khypermedia $50 rebate check today. Probably the fastest of all time - a total of 25 days! Very impressive.:)
 

KaGee

Member
Nov 30, 2002
89
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:D Picked up mine over the weekend, installed today. i was lucky enough to get the BenQ model. Have not flashed the firmware yet. First burn went great. No problems. I only want this drive for burning and playing DVD's. The lack of great burning software was no issue to me as I already have the full-blown version of Pinnacle Studio 8. The slower CD-RW speeds were also no concern because I already have a competent drive there in the Samsung 48x.

I bought this drive because of the value it offerred. The BenQ and Cyberdrive are both knock-offs of the Phillips anyway, so either one you would get is a good deal for $70.00. Both take full advantage of the Nexperia chipset, unlocking some features that Phillips chose not to.

Unfortunetly, the deal is over... for now. If (when) it comes up again, don't be afraid to give the KHypermedia a spin. The extra $$ savings can sure buy a lot of recordable media!
 

Drizzy

Golden Member
Dec 12, 2003
1,229
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Originally posted by: hedpe
Hey guys, first post...

Anyways, so i get home from school a couple days ago, and my dad is like i got something for your new computer, i'm like awesome. And he whips out a dvd-burner. I'm like sweet, except...its some no name brand. I'm like why does he always settle for the cheap crap. So i'm like fine, you know, i'll take what I can get.

So i decided to do some research on it to see if it would atleast not make 100 coasters for me. And I started hearing talk on forums that there was some heavy discussion of here about this drive. So I decided to take a look. So I read and read all the posts and started to get really excited about this drive. Then I saw the difference between the china and malaysia models. I ran over to my box. Malaysia!!! Woohoo!!!

I love this drive :) :) :)

I like ran home to tell my dad, and i'm 20 years old...thats sad. Thanks guys! You're awesome!

HAHAH I've never seen anyone type "like" so much in a post or email or anything. Usually its something that you say when youa re pausing to think... do you do that when you are typing? :) just -like-jokin around with ya