Hi, could you help me decide which drive to choose? I have following requirements:
especially on rewritable;NEC AD-7170A, Samsung SH-S182D or Lite-ON SHM-165P6S which one should I take (or maybe something else)?
I have the LiteOn 160P6S (same as the 165P6S but w/o lightscribe and dvd-ram) and the Samsung SH-S182M (same as the āDā but w/ lightscribe). Iād say the LiteOnās probably your probably the best all around choice. Media from high quality to crummy burns great on the Samsung. However the LiteOn always seems to produce slightly higher better results. Disc quality scanning on my Samsung is fairly consistant and ārightā. Apparently some recent batches of the āDā apparantly are not reliable scanners. This may apply to the M, but nothing has been posted here in regards to that. The LiteOn also has the added advantage of jitter scanning now. In terms of rewritable media, I only have a few RICOHJPN W11 DVD+RWās that Iāve tried on both burners and the burn quality on those were about the same for each drive. With DVD-RAM, one nice advantage of the Samsung over the LiteOn is that it can write it can write at 12x over the 5x. Finally, a large number of disc quality scans posted of the NEC show seemingly random PIF spikes. In addition, NECās are not very good disc quality scanners. Hope that helps.
Iāve found a new candidate - Lite-ON LH-18A1P . Do you know whether it has jitter scanning too? I think itās cool to have it - if itās unique to LiteOn I would take it. And it has 12x DVD-RAM.
According to this thread (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=194419) the general feeling appears to be that itās a bit rushed and not as good. Maybe firmware updates in the future might make it better, I donāt know. The newest generation of LiteOnās are able to do jitter scanning. BenQ does as well, but theyāre closing up shop in US markets and I think Europe as well. Plextor also does jitter scanning, but it seems nowadays they are way overpriced for average quality drives. Oh, by the way, I think I read somewhere the LiteOn is somewhat CPU intensive when burning (or was it reading) at high speeds. I personally donāt notice this first hand because I usually leave the computer when Iām burning a disc.
I canāt find single scan showing that Lite-ON LH-18A1P does jitter scanning, Plextor - too expensive for me, BenQā¦ hmm yet another brandā¦ but itās only 5xDVD-RAM (DW1670) perhaps a bit old drive. I can see 18A1P actually at 1st place http://www.cdfreaks.com/devices/
Great, thanks. I think Iām convinced now, here are other jitter scans http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=197533
Do you really need 12X DVD-RAM? In my area, 12X DVD-RAM disc costs nearly USD$11! 3X/5X RAM is enough and reasonable for me.
I have a BenQ 1640/1655, Liteon 165P6S. Regarding burn quality, I would say they are marginally equal. Sometimes Liteon got better, and sometimes BenQ got better. I suspect this due to media variation. I prefer BenQ due to their enormous features. BenQ is a all-around burner, and Liteon is a less all-around burner. Donāt get me wrong, Liteon is a great burner as well. But Liteon just lacks some fun features.
I think you wonāt regret of getting one of both drives. They are both great drives.
Good point loimlo. Actually I havenāt seen yet 12xRAM discs at my place. So speaking of BenQ (DW1670 is most decent model where I live), do you mean it has those advanced scanning features?
BenQ 1670 is different with 1640/165x. 1670 is unable to scan CD/DVDs due to Panasonic chip inside. 1670 is still a decent burner just for burning CDs/DVDs. But I want some more funny toys from burner. You may call me freaks :o
If you canāt find any Philips-based BenQs, go for Liteon. I would suggest to get a 165P6S instead of 18A1P. 18A1P is a bit premature for firmware development. However, as one month or two goes by, 18A1Pāll be great.
By the way, 12X RAM disc is incompatible with 2X/3X/5X RAM burners. Only 12X drive compatible!
Hi, I bought 165H6S (HS0E) because it was a lot cheaper than other drives (I wanted 165P6S but the guy gave me H by mistake LOL). But I canāt make CDSpeed 4.7 do a jitter scan, I ticked āJitter (DVD)ā but still donāt work.
Another thing, KProbe v2.5.2 doesnāt scan CDs at all - it just starts and shows result instantly. Any ideas why?
Cheers
Hi,
Try scanning at 4x speed.
Another thing, KProbe v2.5.2 doesnāt scan CDs at all - it just starts and shows result instantly. Any ideas why?
Same here. Maybe a problem of Kprobe or the firmwares of the 6S series drives. But as Liteon DVDRW drives are useless for scanning CD media, this behaviour of Kprobe can be considered as āgoodā.
Michael
Itās even better! DVD-RAM+Lightscribe! Currently, Liteon supports only 4X scanning with jitter. Just be patient for 4X scanning and new CDSPEED release 
Use CDSPEED to scan CDs. Though Liteon drives tend to report optimistic results. For Scanning DVDs, Liteon is great. However, for CDs, BenQ&NEC are superior. 
Take a look at my sign, I have first hand experience.
Thanks guys, @4x the drive scans jitter. BTW what are good results for jitter? I canāt check that in wiki, it doesnāt loadā¦ I second that CD scans are optimistic with CDSpeed and this drive 
Well, officially jitter is not supposed to be over 9%. But pretty much everything under a maximum of 13% or so is fine.
Well, LH-A181P and LH-A181H are the same (except the LightScribe thing), right?
'Cause Iām planning to buy two SH-A181H, one for reading and one for writing. I donāt know much about those Jitters and that stuff. I just want to know if this drive is good at reading and burning. Doesnāt have to be perfect, should just burn nice, readable CD/DVDs/DVD9, etc. even on cheaper discs. And anyone knows how fast it is at ripping DVD/DVD9 and how fast disc access is?
Thanks
One more question: do you know why older version of CD-DVD Speed 4.04 does āScanDiscā with no problems (using my 165H6S (HS0E)) whereas 4.7 only does āRead testā and when I try āPI/PO testā it shows all sectors black.