BenQ 8x DVD-R media review

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Posted on 29 Nov 2004 by SirQUK

Conclusion

Where do we start with the conclusion on this media?

The BENQ 8x DVD-R media media burnt perfectly at speeds of 16x which is 100% past its rated speed on all 5 selected pieces of media tested using CD Speed v3.30s Create CD tests on our either our PIONEER DVR 108 or NEC 3500AG recording devices. The 16x results where so impressive that there should be no reason to doubt the media quality if recorded at its rated speed of 8x. Maybe you even have to look twice to believe these are actually 16x over speed recording to a media rated at 8x.

According to CD Speeds Quality test, the PIONEER DVR 108 actually over sped the media slightly better than the NEC 3500 and we hope this can be improved more in a future NEC firmware update. That said, the NEC recording is still well within accepted limits for a good recording and there where no problems reading back the media on any tested devices.

All the software and hardware DVD Players played the DVD without error including the Technics DVD Player which we find to be consistent with over similar tests on DVD-R media of high quality and the Technics device. No skipping or jerking of any kind was noticed on the BENQ 8x DVD-R media we used for the playback tests when placed in devices able to read it.

Most importantly with a recordable media, the BENQ 8x DVD-R media also passed all the verification tests we used during this review, meaning no uncorrectable errors where found and we had a reliable backup of our important records even at 16x recording speeds.

CD Speed gave similar scan results on all 5 pieces tested in each device, all scans showing to this reviewer that the BENQ 8x DVD-R was of a very high quality and no C2 failures where reported. Judging by these scans 16x seems a good optimised recording speed for this media and the scans are actually better than some of the true 16x media tests we have been doing. We can only praise both BENQ and the dye makers for producing and making available such a good quality dye.

The disc itself is of a very modern design. Being mainly white design with the now familiar BENQ artwork and the BENQ branding displayed in silver, the disc is very attractive and shows a growing trend towards making the media look good as well as record well.

During the review of this BENQ 8x DVD-R media the only thing we could find to actually complain about was that only one small line was available for writing on, which we feel is not adaquate for if you need to catalogue a long name, but it seem did fit in well with the general design and feel of the disc.

Constantly trying to source good quality media that can over speed this well until the widestream introduction of 16x media, CDR-Zone.COM can only say very good things about this media. We hope that all batches of this media live up to the great results we achieved and have no hesitation in recommending it highly for use at 16x especially in the PIONEER DVR 108 as of firmware 1.14.

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