Best drive for ripping and quality scanning

Anyone got any opinions as to what's the best drive for ripping DVD-/+R (to a HDD) and quality scanning.

I currently use a NEC 4550 but it's crap at scanning and it's ripping abilities are questionable.

The LiteOn SHW-16H5S and BenQ DW-1640 seem fairly highly regarded, any opinions on them?

Or maybe a DVD-ROM would be best. Asus/LiteOn/Pioneer/Plextor?

Thanks alot

Some of the ROM drives may be slightly faster on some DL discs but I don't see it that often and they are not god at all for scanning. The BenQs seem to have a problem on some discs but not very often. Both the Liteons and the BenQs are nearly the same speed when you rip and the BenQ is an excellent reader so I would go for the BenQ.

As good an all round burner as the Liteon is, the BenQ would add something extra to your NEC and be a decent scanner.

Let's rule out "problems" with the drives because I believe all drives from all manufacturers may have problems either mechanically, quality control, or externally (environmental, your system etc).

Best drive for scanning (sorted by rank):
1. Plextor, no contest. It's a 1ECC scanner (hence more "accurate") and reports PIE, PIF, POF, Beta, Jitter, and TA.
2. BenQ. in particular 1620/1640. Although they are 8ECC scanners but report PIE, PIF, POF and Jitter which the last two are essential.
3. Lite-On. An 1ECC scanner but does not report POF and Jitter.
4. NEC. A 1ECC/8ECC scanner.

Ripping DVD+R/-R DL and DVD9
1. BenQ 1640. The fastest DL ripper, at least until now.
2. Lite-On, as mentioned by chas0039, this drive is only a friction behind BenQ 1640 regarding ripping speed.
3. Other drives with 12x max

Ripping DVD+R/-R and DVD5
- Most newer drives will rip this format at 16x. Some at 12x. See their specs.

Write quality:
- When you feed them with quality media and burn at rated speed (8x/12x for 16x media), basically they are comparable.

Price also needs to be considered, and you probably know that Plextor is ranked the last. Other drives are the same, about $40 a piece.

This seems to represent a change of direction for you, Charles. In the past, you have indicated a rather strong preference for Liteon scans over Benq scans. Might I ask what happened to change your mind? Or did I just misinterpret your posts?

As for my opinion, for whatever it's worth, I do most of my scanning with the Benq. I believe scanning with either the Liteon or the Benq will provide similar results, and the Benq is faster, therefore...

I didn't change my mind, I just keep it open. One of the benefits of owning many drives is I am able to remain (somewhat) impartial.

I still prefer Liteon over BenQ; you have me perfectly. In this case I am recommending the BenQ for two reasons. First, it is a better reader than the other choices and one of the requests was for the best reader. The second is that there are some media that the BenQ just burns better than either Liteon or NEC. If you are going to add a second drive I would feel that you should add to your burning ability as well. NEC and Liteon are very close on the media they do well so the Liteon wouldn't add much in burning options.

PART 2:

As to POF and Jitter, I have never been too concerned about Jitter because there is very little I can do to influence it; I have to trust the stability of the media. It also is much more critical in high speed transfers and many sources consider a transfer rate test a good indicator of any jitter problems. I play all my burns at 1X anyhow.

Parity Outer Failures, as I understand them, make the disc totally unreadable. Even though Liteons will not report POF, I usually have no problem determining that a disc is unreadable.

However, Zevia is correct in his very complete summary above and if these features are important, BenQ will be a better scanner than Liteon.

Of course you can always pay 3-4X as much for Plextor but I have decided that I have a better use for that money.

Thanks for asking.

I can influence jitter!

By swapping T02 with T03 on my Benq 1640, jitter is lowered by 0.5-1.0%, the jitter is around 7.5% !!

Maybe because of this?

Not even close. After the reflash to KC4B, the Liteon is beating the pants off any burns from BenQ. My TY and MCC have never looked this good.

I guess it just needed a little flush with the roto-rooter. We all can use a little plumbing clean out once in a while.

I might even try some R03.

Then share your results with us.
Can't see any post from you for the last two weeks in KC4B thread.

"...beating the pants off any burns from BenQ" Heh, he... Big words chas, big words. Prove it!

But I have to agree with chas0039, Lite-On 1693 IS a good ripping/scanning drive.

Will do this PM when I get to the other computer. I just flashed yesterday.

YUDEN000 T02 scan is here:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...8&postcount=13

Why PM? Anyway, nice burn chas0039, and I believed it's a 8x burn? I'm sure pinto2 is trying to find his BenQ burns, but to be more interesting, let me chip in with a Sony DRU-810A 1.01a (OEM DW1640) on YUDEN000T02 @8x, and also scanned on 1693S to compare with chas0039 burn.

I really am not trying to start a BenQ-Liteon feud. They both do a great job. The BenQ did so with stock firmware and the Liteon with codeguys help.

In any case, I own both so I guess I win either way.

you just did start a feud!!!! *starts browsing through scans archive*

FujiFilm 8x dvd+r @ 12X with the BenQ dw1640 BSLB





PEACE!!!!

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Last edited by swifty7; 05-12-2005 at 04:23.

here's a DL burn for you!!! @4X

please take this statement back!!!!

by the way, your LiteOn scans are excellent!!!!

at what speed did you burn them? cuz I never burn 8X media slower than 12X!!!

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Last edited by swifty7; 05-12-2005 at 04:25.

Sorry, we all know BenQs are very inconsistent from drive to drive. My Liteon 1693 still beats my BenQ 1620 even though there are some other BenQs out there that will do better.

I burn 8X at 8X or 4X and I burn 16X at 12X except for MCC 03RG20 which only seems very good on my LG 4163 which will only burn it at 16X. Even though 8X will burn at 12X, I go for quality over speed every time.

And here some another fued; I don't trust BenQ scans with TY media. They look better than they are on other scanning drives.

well! if that's the case then we BenQ lovers can say the same for LiteOn's!!!!

I have the LiteOn 411s, a pretty old drive for today's standards, but I remember it always giving the nastiest scans, no matter how good you burned a media. My BenQ 1620 never performed as good as some others I've seen in these threads, but by my 1640 is something else, a truly remarkable burner, reader, scanner!!!!

as for BenQ not being constant from drive to drive......well!! I give you that!!!!

And I will give you that the 1640 is most likely a better drive than the 1620 and may well be better than my 1693.

Of course they are usually out of stock and seem to be discontinued or nearly so. That has to be the shortest run of a burner yet; although I see NEC is also trying to set a record with the 3540. Maybe not as they still seem to have plenty to sell.

Just wait for BenQ's dw-1655 with lightscribe, I know I can't wait to get one. The drive itself looks amazing!!!!

Oh Oh. There goes my 100% accuracy in identifying a burner by its eject button.

I have a Benq 1640 and it's a crappy burner and reader. From what i read here many ppl have good experience with it. I just might recommend it over a NEC as scanner. I think it will be the drive with the shortest lifespan in my pc and i'll go get a new LiteOn instead bc i like to have 2 scanners (and just a + if new LiteOns can actually be used as writers too)

Here's 3 scans of same disc and i should say that after a few 100 tdk02 burns there's been no playback issues

I'm pretty sure I know your problem.

Your 2x rated DVD-R TDKG02 is supported by LG 4163 firmwares (see pic) thus you can burn the media at 2x (30 mins??) very nicely as shown.

On the other hand, BenQ 1640 does not support TDKG02 (and all other 1x, 2x, and even 4x DVD+/- Rs) so that's probably why you are getting bad burns with this media. Did you try to enable Solidburn and let the drive learn on a couple of burns?

Thanks but i only burn these with LG (and sometimes the 1653). I rarely burn anything with the Benq knowing the LGs are perfect with my main media (TY) and the 1640 is dubious. My point above was that my Benq isn't a good reader either. My problem is that i cannot understand why i see so many examples of how good the 1640 is and why mine is so different - by that i mean it's clearly below my LGs and on same level as my NECs in in writing quality - and for scanning it's better than NEC but much harder to interpret than the LiteOn. (And i took a NEC out to make room for the 1640) -No doubt i have to get a new LiteOn soon

Is that any plextor or would you recommend a model ?