Best Drive to Test with CDSpeed

[bicomputational]

I would appreciate any suggestions as to the best currently available drive for doing the advanced tests with CDSpeed. I am using a BenQ 1650, which does an amazing job, but would rather save it for burning duties as it is
now irreplaceable. What drives work well with CDSpeed - both cd and dvd -
the drive doesn't have to do anything else well but quality testing. I do a lot of burning and a lot of testing, and don't want to prematurely wear out the 1650.
Also, please, I really only want to use CDSpeed, love those advanced tests now that I finally understand them. Thanks in advance.

[Wesociety]

Generally speaking, any LiteOn DVD burner will work fine as a dedicated scanner, if you don't want to use a BenQ...

I should note that for CD-R scanning, a dedicated CD-R burner is recommended as DVD burners tend to produce unuseful results when scanning CD's.

[bicomputational]

Thanks for the reply. The amazing thing about the BenQ is that it gives
superb cd scans. I was getting great c1 and c2 scans with both Plextools and CDSpeed and yet sometimes the cds would skip in my player. When I began using the advanced CDSpeed tools, there was an exact correlation
between E22 and E32 errors and the skips. It was driving me crazy, with C1 levels at .3 -.6 and no c2, and still at times skipping, but after reading Dolphinus Rex great explanation (many thanks) of the advanced tests, I was able to understand why.
Just to clarify, will the LiteOn be able to do all of CDSpeed's advanced tests?
Thanks again.

[DrageMester]

The "Advanced Disc Quality" tab is only available for drives using Nexperia chipset, which include some BenQ and Philips drives. I'm not sure if the Advanced Disc Quality scan will actually work on a Philips drive.

For CD-R scanning it's my opinion that the BenQ drives supporting the Advanced Disc Quality scanning are among the best, only equaled by Plextor drives with PxScan or PlexTools.

For DVD scanning, I find that there are some drives that produce burns which look awful when scanned in BenQ drives but read without any problem in the same drive and which scan beatifully in other drives.

For that reason I wouldn't recommend BenQ drives as the best general purpose drive for DVD scanning, but rather recommend LiteOn drives instead. Plextor drives with PxScan or PlexTools are perhaps even better, but far too slow for daily use for my taste.

[Ian]

Yeah, the BenQ's are very sensitive in regards to jitter. If there are high jitter levels, it can throw off the error rates. Then again, if a disc tests fine on a BenQ, thre's a pretty good chance its going to work fine elsewhere.

[Scour]

Then again, if a disc tests fine on a BenQ, thre's a pretty good chance its going to work fine elsewhere.

Full agree

Nice smily

[DrageMester]

Yeah, the BenQ's are very sensitive in regards to jitter. If there are high jitter levels, it can throw off the error rates. Then again, if a disc tests fine on a BenQ, thre's a pretty good chance its going to work fine elsewhere.

High PIE/PIF reported for "foreign" burns when scanning in a BenQ drive is very often but not always linked to high jitter as reported by the same BenQ drive. I have enough examples myself and have seen other examples as well where this also happens with decent jitter levels (significantly below 12% which seems to be the tolerance level for these drives).

There are few examples I can think of with good scans in a BenQ drive where the same discs scans poorly in e.g. a LiteOn drive. And I do mean "few" but not zero.

Unfortunately, a good scan in a BenQ DW1655 (and presumably DW1650) drive is no guarantee that the disc can actually be read in the same drive, as these drives have a problem with some relinking points. An example can be found here at CDFreaks.

[Halc]

My own findings:

NO dvd drive is very accurate for cd-scanning (results are too optimistic, if you are looking to generalize the results to overall cd playback compatibility)

My picks for cd scanning are LiteOn LTR-52327S and Plextor Premium.

Both give much higher c1/c2 levels than dvd-drives and are more in line with the discs actually being readable in other drives.

I think the modern equivalent for my unit would be LiteOn LH-52R1P, but I'm not sure as I haven't tested it.

For DVD-scanning accurate and reliable units seem to be:

- Plextor PX-716 and 760 (if you can still source them)
- LiteOn (several units, I use an older 1693s)
- BenQ models (I use 1640 and 1655)

You can also use Samsung, Pioneer (tested: 109/111) and Nec (tested:4550/4551), but you have to know how to avoid their pitfalls.

Overall, I'm not a great believer in single drive scanning. I won't go to reasons anymore, I've bored people enough on this issue earlier.

So, based on above, I'd still probably pick a LiteOn model myself, if I though single drive scans gave me enough of useful data.

[DrageMester]

... if I though single drive scans gave me enough of useful data.

There's no way a single drive can give you as much information about a DVD/CD as you can get by performing tests in multiple drives.

You might be forced to use a single drive for testing because you only have a single drive or because of time contraints, or because you can't be bothered to spend so much time scanning, but a single drive scan won't tell you as much as multiple drive scans.

[TCAS]

I go for BenQ drives 1640 & 1655.

[bicomputational]

[quote="Halc"]My own findings:

NO dvd drive is very accurate for cd-scanning (results are too optimistic, if you are looking to generalize the results to overall cd playback compatibility)

My picks for cd scanning are LiteOn LTR-52327S and Plextor Premium.

I have 2 LiteOn 52327's and a Plextor Premium and they were my primary scanners for cd's until i mastered the Advanced Tests with the BenQ. And as I posted earlier, their results did not in my case correspond to playability as well as the 1650 scans. I agree with you on the 716, I use one for my dvd scans and it gives me very reliable results. I used to believe cd burners for cd burning and scanning and dvd burners for dvd burning and scanning, but the excellent cd burns I get from my LG 10H and Pioneer 111, and the great scan correlation I get with the Benq have changed my mind.