I just got a Optiarc DVD RW AD-5170A and a Pioneer DVR-112D

This is strange, seeing about that other post... I have just got 2 new DVD drives in a 'lucky dip' sort of thing and one is a Pioneer DVR-112D and the other is an Optiarc DVD RW AD-5170A, I have just put in the Optiarc to give it a run thru.

The problem is that I want to keep the CDR drive because I do a bit of music with this, and I like the Asus for it so I dont know which one to keep in this box, the other drive is going to go in another computer, but I dont do a lot of my own work with it so IMO it will be a pain using it.

It will be in with the LG H42N which I will use for writing... unless one of these is a much better burner ?

The Optiarc can do 8 EEC quality scanning, can the Pio do any QS ?

I could always move my Hdds around and then run both with a ODD and a HDD on the primary PATA but it would be with a quick 'ish hard disk and I dont to put a ODD on with that.

There is also that fact that I work with Verbatim and TY disks for the most, so if one can work better with them... or not its another mark.

Any other info, ideas and or input from you people would be a help

I have the Sony version of the Optiarc and flashed it using leggy's firmware so it reads as an AD-5170A. I do not know how it matches against the Pioneer DVR112 BUT I Can tell you this. When I use TY O2 media I get great burns. They look on par with just about anything that is currently out there, INCLUDING my Benq DW1655.
Hope that helps you a little!

Yeah, thanks it does, I have just put in the opto and going to run it as per normal and then do the same with the Pio and see which one I like better.

I can only think that no one has any of these drives ?

Nope, just visit the regarding subforums!

I have spent the last few days going thru each drives subforums, and there is a lot about the Pio but I did not see much about the Optiarc.

Even after quite a few searches I only had a handful of posts, unless there are renamed drives I dont know about ?

I have flashed it up to the newest FW and burnt a few MCC 004's with it but I dont like the way it keeps recalibrating the power in the burn, an area that so far I dont think is its strong point (but I have only done 2, 8x burns as yet). I think the new firmware has help, but I have to do more either way to prove this, the Jitter as read by my Lite0n looks quite good, but TBH I do expect most drives to be ok with an 8x burn, more so as this is an 18x max speed burner so its not working at half its speed.

It can do 1 and 8 EEC quality scans, Better than the 8EEC only that I thought at first, there is no Jitter, but I did not expect that.
But, I have read a few people's posts where they say that their Optiarc is very good at TRT test's and finding the weak point in their disks, this is an area I am lacking in, because all of my other drives are very good when doing TR tests and can just read thru the harder points without showing any problems.

As for the captures, the top 2 are a burn (at 8x) and its test done on the Optiarc with the new (1.12) firmware, the last 2 are the above burn, but tested on my Lite0n, the botton it the same media and speed but with the 1.11 firmware.

That is Z-CLV writ emethod and will not affect the burning quality.

I was going off to read up on Z-CLV and the other write methods (any ideas on good reads ?) because that was what I was hoping. I have not used a drive much that uses this method, my other NEC does most of its work with CDr's.

You could keep all the drives in the system simply by getting a PCI adapter IDE card if you have available PCI slot.

Check this out: http://www.cdspeed2000.com/faq.html#4

I dont have the room in the case but its a good call.

Even though I have 4 5.25" slots, I have a fan controller in the lowest one as this is my encoding rig and I like to be able to turn the fans up when its overclocked above 2.6~7GHz and I have a long encoding run, but I have been looking at one that can fit into the spair floppy slot, but I also want the other computer to move to a DVD recorder as well

Some more testing of this drive has shown that it has a 6x CLV writing mode, so I got a TYG02 Datasafe and gave it a go, and thanks to _chef_ nice link for some quick info

Top is the burn, then the scan @5x (1 EEC) with the Optiarc and then with the Lite0n as with all my tests I only include a TRT if it is not perfect, as implied it was perfect with the Optiarc.

You are welcome!

I wouldnt count that much on the Optiarc scans, the Liteon scans look really reliable.

Thanks, sorry... I seemed to have missed your reply, but that was the sort of info I wanted to hear, I have got some Liggy and Dee FW and will be having a go with it. I must admit that I have not used any of the haXX0r3d firmwares in any of my drives and I could be missing out on some real good sheeet man, and the ability to do some better burns, but I just dont think I know enuff about FW stragities as yet to start with the editing them thing.

No worries, Lenny_Nero. Just make a backup of the current firmware first, then flash another one using Binflash. That firmwares are all tested and working, they are patched, not dead-haxxed.

I 'spose I should not of used the term hacked because of the way is has been misused by the press for crackers, but I use it in the real way, as in someone has looked at/taken anothers code and changed/bettered it.

I understand the Optiarc will not be the best scanner around, but I am trying to learn it in a hope that it just has problems in areas, but is still useable if I can learn them and they stay the same... yeah, I know its sort of a long shot.

I am also a bit lazy with the flashing as its best to pull the IDE cable is it not ?
This is easy with my DFI box, but a bit harder with my Asus as its in a cheap case
I have also had a bad flash with a motherbaord in the past that trashed the board as the chip was soldered

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Last edited by Lenny_Nero; 10-05-2007 at 04:05.

Just use Binflash carefully.

http://binflash.cdfreaks.com/

I did use binflash, and used a L&D version that had bitsetting and a mix and match of other FW's from the looks of it.
I have yet to use it for much burning, but I will do some side by side tests of the disks to see if there is much of an improvment over the added bitsetting bonus.

As for the use of its quality scanning, it seems to like working at 8x over 5x and gives better more stable and repeatable results at that speed, so I doubt its a total loss in that area.

The other thing is IMO its much better writing to TYG02 and MCC004 than the Pio 112D. I dont know if I was expecting too much from that drive because of what I have heard others say, and the fact that I use my LG's as a base line.

Either way for the price, even the normal price (as I got it cheap in a SVP deal) I am happy with it so far, and I did say that I would not have anything to do with an NEC made drive after my 3550, all that does is read disks now and check the odd CDr.

More on the scanning side of things, it seems to be better the faster I set it, 8x is better over 5x and so on up to 16x where it is almost on par with my Lite0n, so that is what I will be using it for.

As for the Liggy and Dee firmware I flashed it with, I want to do some more testing, but I would say that with the media I have used with it so far (Verbatim MCC004 and TY[G] 03 only) there is an improvment over the two sets of Optiarc FW I used.