Bundled Software

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For those of you in the USA fortunate enough to find a retail version of the DW1640, it does come bundled with some software.  Let's have a closer look at was is included.

Nero 6 OEM

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Unfortunately, although this was the retail model, it includes only an OEM version of the popular Nero 6 Suite.  However, considering a majority of online shops carrying the OEM version do not include software, it makes it somewhat acceptable.

BenQ QSuite

The QSuite included with the DW1640 happens to be the same version that was included with their LightScribe model, the DW1625. It basically consists of four different tools: Booktype Management, QScan, WOPC Management and Test Write Utility. Let's take a closer look at each of these.

 

The Booktype Menu will allow you to change the booktype of all +R media to DVD-ROM, including DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL discs. This is certainly a very important feature many look for in a new drive, and will provide the highest level of compatibility with standalone DVD players.  Also, keep in mind that the drive will automatically set the booktype to DVD-ROM when you write to one of these discs when using the proper burning software. The QScan feature is basically a tool that will help determine the quality of the disc used. This is done by measuring TE/FE signal of blank media in order to determine the disc quality in a clear graphical description. Although this is certainly a nice tool for those who are unfamiliar with what brands of media are indeed of the highest quality, I'm not particularly fond of it.  For one, it gave me some odd results when testing with high quality media.

The WOPC tab is where you can enable/disable its WOPC feature. While this is not recommended, it offers you the flexibility to further control how to write to certain discs based on quality. While you can reduce write times by disabling this feature, I don't recommend it if you are unsure of the discs you have on hand plus the difference in write times is minimal. The last tab is the Test Write feature which is basically a tool to simulate writing to a disc. This also didn't work too well when testing with Nero 6. 

Note:  Along with the recently released firmware revision BSKB, BenQ did release a new version of QSuite along with it.  Version 2 offers the following new features...

The additional two menus above are only accessible if you have the new firmware revision BSKB installed.  Attempting to download and run QSuite 2 with older firmware will display only the four menus we showed you earlier.  Now, there is so much to say on them, but I'll try to keep it short.  The first feature added was overspeed support.  Enabling this feature will allow you to write to lower speed media at 12x or higher.  However, please keep in mind that you should only take advantage of it if you have high quality media on hand.  Considering it did give me the option of writing as high as 16x to mostly all media tested, I would use caution when using it, especially if you are not really familiar with what brands are indeed of the highest quality.  This feature can be either temporarily or permanently activated via software.  The second feature is Solid Burn Technology.  Solid Burn is a feature originally introduced by Philips.  It is basically a self-learning feature that will provide optimal writing conditions on the particular media being used.  The information is stored on an EPROM chip, which can actually be cleared out via the software BenQ provides.  This is a feature that would generally be used when writing to lower quality media.

BenQ QVideo
 

Also bundled with the retail version is a small, yet practical application called QVideo. It will basically allow you to record video from different sources, including TV if you do have a tuner card installed.   Now something I would personally use, but certainly a nice addition.

Next: CD Read Tests