Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

X-bit labs – Articles – BenQ DW1620A DVD±RW/R Drive Review: Joker in the Pack or a New Winner?. I just happen to have one of these drives. It does pretty well, but you have to get the B7T9 firmware update to solve lots of the bad DVD burning problems.
Naturally, you can’t just go to “Benq.us”:http://www.benq.us/ServiceAndSupport/Drivers/drivers.cfm?product=647 to get them, they appear to only have the older B7K9 update on the USA site, so you have to go to the completely separate “support.benq.com”:http://support.benq.com site to get the latest updates, this is the global site and I’m guessing maintained by a different group. Arrgh.
Here the latest at the “1620”:http://support.benq.com/front/BenqMain.asp?MenuHead=128&ShowType=program&FileURL=service/driverlist.asp&Dataid=16041&downloadclass=Driver&product=3731&langu=null&ops=null&GenMenu=&RootId=undefined subsite is B7U9 dated 22-Feb-2005, so even later than the B7T9 version mentioned in the review.
Here are what the various updates do:
* B7P9. 09-Nov-2004. This one adds 4x writing for DVD+R DL so it is a big deal. Was a major update.
* B7T9. 23-Dec-2004. This fixes writing errors and speed for DVD+R and DVD-R. Was a major update.
* B7U9. 22-Feb-2005. This improves WOPC (what ever that is)