External drive with DVD-RAM and scanning support

Until now I've found several external drives (LG GSA-2164D, BenQ EW164B) supporting either DVD-RAM or Nero CD-DVD Speed scanning.
Are drives supporting both DVD-RAM and scanning on the market?
Is it better to wait until high speed DVD-RAM is released?
Should I buy an internal drive and a USB or Firewire enclosure instead?

Lots of questions, if anybody will answer some it would be cool

I'd go for buying them separate, and getting the enclosure you like, with at least 2 connect options. (Firewire preferred)

12x DVD-RAM isn't really going to be hugely faster, except at reading large files. Burning speed will always be slow on RAM.

Unfortunately, no one burner will meet all needs and do it all well. If RAM burning is important to you, you may wish to compromise on the scanning ability, and go for LG or NEC. If scanning is more important, the LiteOn is the clear choice IMO. But LiteOns are not very good at RAM writing based on trouble reports seen here.

But at least by buying them separate, you can choose whatever drive you wish.

Yes. Examples of this would be the following drives:

• LiteOn SHM-165P6S
• LiteOn SHM-165H6S (includes LightScribe)
• NEC ND-4550
• NEC ND-4551 (includes LabelFlash)
• NEC ND-4570
• NEC ND-4571 (includes LabelFlash)
• Pioneer DVR-111 (but be careful with the different versions of this drive, many versions don't support DVD-RAM writing)

LiteOn DVD drives can scan CD media for C1/C2, but they are completely untrustworthy for this purpose. LiteOn DVD drives can scan DVD media for PIE/PIF and they are the best drives for this purpose (along with Plextor drives).

NEC drives can scan CD media for C1/C1 and can scan DVD media for PIE/PIF. They are not considered very reliable scanners for PIE however, and sometimes they are even flaky for PIF scanning.

Pioneer drives in the past have been known to be very unreliably scanners. Whether the same applies to the DVR-111 remains to be seen.
Only you can decide that.

I think that's your best bet. The drives I mentioned are all internal drives.
I have tried the NEC ND-4551 in an external enclosure based on the Prolific PL-3507 chipset, and it can read at 16x using FireWire, but only about 15x with USB. Writing is also limited to approx. 14-15x using either USB or FireWire. The same is true for most other drives which use UDMA-2.

LiteOn drives use UDMA-4 and can run at full speed in an external enclosure (I have my LiteOn 1635S connected this way). I don't know how good their writing quality is with DVD-RAM media however. But if I had to make a single suggestion, it would be a LiteOn SHM-165P6S in an external enclosure with a Prolific PL-3507 chipset!

Hi
I would go with the Lite-On as well. The Nec 4571 just like its sister drive from Pioneer is UDMA. A first AFAIK.

**** JOKE *****

lie where???

Lie-On

Hi
What! I don't see no Lie-on. That's No-Lie.
As someone is always telling us gotta love that edit button.
I think I need to go & Lie-On the bed now.

There's also an external version of the LiteOn SHM-165P6S drive called the LiteOn SHM-165P6SX. Whether you can find it anyware is another matter.

LMAO