Benq 16x48x DVD

[reboot]

Anyone ever heard of/used one of these?
Just picked it up locally for $49 CDN.
Looks to be a rebadged Asus...???
Comes with WinDVD4...any opinions?
Checked out the windvd website, and got windvd4 platinum (demo).
Is it worth paying for the platinum version?

[RJ]

Benq was formerly Acer. I see alot of their CD-burners and DVD-drives in the stores. Haven't used one of them, though.

RJ

[audiyoda]

If you're going to spend the money, get PowerDVD -- better than WinDVD in most ways.

And RJ is right -- Ben-Q was formerly Acer. But I've heard pretty decent things about thier DVD-Rom's.

-Craig

[Tuf]

POxwerDVD seems to be more popular. I have WinDVD on my notebook(it came with it) and it works fine for me. Most of the time I just use MediaPlayer for XP. It shows movies as well as any player I have seen. I doesn't have as many options but I just watch the movie and it does that fine.

[HAL9000]

Stores around my area have been selling them for a little while now and the people that I have heard buying them have not been very happy with them. Generally, high failure rates.

[Jenni]

I haven't had good look with CD drives in general. I bought a 52x Sony CDROM, recommended as the best at the time, and it died within 6 months. I bought a 24x Acer burner (not because it was the best, but because it was a good deal) and it died within a year. My 40x Lite-On burner has been great so far, but I haven't had it that long. But other than that, my longest lasting drives have been from brands that usually don't even get mentioned. My 24x Samsung (OEM for Compaq) CDROM reads discs better than my new drives. My 16x Yamaha burner still works fine after several years. And the DVD drive I have now is an old Hitachi GD-2500 that was made in 1998.