Which DVD-RW drive?

alinache81 2012-10-05 01:53:27 UTC #1

Hello, i follow all your discussions regarding cd/dvd drives and cd/dvd media, great stuff there, but now i'm sort of stuck on what to buy.
I have in internal s-ata DVD-RW Asus 1814 blt, firm. 1.14, is really good, and now i want to buy another drive.
The problem is this, in my area i can choose from:
Asus drw 24b5 st
Liteon ihas 124, 624 or 524
Optiarc 7280-s OB and 7283
LG gh22ns50,70 and 90.
Please, kindly point out which is better and why? i mainly use it for burning audio cds, extract audio in wav or flac, and once in a while a dvd with some data.
Software used is IMG BURN , Nero 11.
i scan with nero info cd/dvd and opti drive control, however my asus drw doesn't show jitter.
The media was sony cd supremes i think, bought in a box of 20 and Verbatim.
For dvd i mainly used Verbatim, and now i have 5 Maxell, identified as Ritek.
The quality score of the burned media is 98-99% for sony, and 93-95-96% for Verbatim,
For the dvd is -93-95% for Maxell, and somewhere in that area for Verbatim.
Thank you, and sorry for the long post.

alinache81 2012-10-07 11:12:32 UTC #2

Also today something odd, it gave me PI errors about minute 10 on two audio cds, one burned with imgburn and one with nero, the quality score went to 97.

Albert 2012-10-07 11:24:32 UTC #3

[QUOTE=alinache81;2657911]
The problem is this, in my area i can choose from:
Asus drw 24b5 st
Liteon ihas 124, 624 or 524
Optiarc 7280-s OB and 7283
LG gh22ns50,70 and 90.[/QUOTE]

The Optiarc (either 7280 or 7283) can be a valuable tool in checking CD media (I’m not sure if Asus’s in-house DVD burner designs with MediaTek chipsets scanned better than LiteOn or Samsung drives, which underreport errors on CDs), and is said to be a quality writer. The new Asus would just be a rebadged LiteOn unlike your current Asus, and would be a good second choice. The LG drives are said to be more picky with their media, but are still also a good option (though they would be of no major benefit to you).

As for your CD burning woes: First, do you mean you get C2 errors? A few C2 errors might not be horrible. What you see might be easily corrected by most any drive, and many burns even with quality drives on quality media produce some small C2 errors. Now, a large number of C2 errors would be a problem, as it would indicate a real problem. What you see might be a small media flaw, or a small drive flaw.

alinache81 2012-10-07 11:28:20 UTC #4

Hi, thank you for your reply, i’ll try to put a scan on a post, but no, there are no C2 errors, i know the drive can detect them, but on none of the cds there were such errors.
I mean that on these 2 audio cds on minute 10, it shows a sudden high spike on C1 errors, and from quality score 100 it goes down to 97

Albert 2012-10-07 11:33:26 UTC #5

Oh, okay. Please do post a screenshot or two.

alinache81 2012-10-07 11:44:06 UTC #6

i put a scan with one of the two cds

Albert 2012-10-07 12:23:58 UTC #7

^That’s a good burn. But it looks like the Optiarc would be your best bet for getting a more complete view of CD quality. (The Asus seems to be like other drives with the same brand of chipset, reporting only the worst of each type of error).

alinache81 2012-10-07 12:25:26 UTC #8

Thank you so much, i’ll buy one very soon and see what it reports

alinache81 2012-10-09 08:35:06 UTC #9

Hi again, this is scan with asus on a sony cdr burned with optiarc 7280s, nero11 at 8x speed.
The same disc if scanned with optiarc gave from minute 2 a score of 94

alinache81 2012-10-09 08:42:14 UTC #10

this is the scan of the cd from the first post, so there is a big difference
burned and scanned with asus gives 97, and scanned with optiarc 94.

Albert 2012-10-09 10:59:49 UTC #11

[QUOTE=alinache81;2658600]this is the scan of the cd from the first post, so there is a big difference
burned and scanned with asus gives 97, and scanned with optiarc 94.[/QUOTE]

You see now a more complete picture. Still, this burn still isn’t bad.

alinache81 2012-10-09 11:02:19 UTC #12

Hi, it isn’t bad compared to what?
Still, the score it’s low, could it be from the media?unfortunately, in my area i have to dig very hard to find some quality cds.

Albert 2012-10-09 11:13:37 UTC #13

Really, unless the discs don’t work, it’s not bad. Or if you got a disc with a significant amount of C2 errors, that would be bad. Try scanning a bunch of pressed CDs you bought from the store, see how poorly those scan, and be surprised at what’s actually bad.

You can’t simply look at the quality score. Admittdly, a 94 is still pretty good (anything that scores above an 80 is decent), but the score only reflects the maximum peak C1 (or C2), so looking at the overall digital error count is important. You have to get a good gauge for yourself of what bad really is. Browse the blank media forum and look at the various CD scans.

alinache81 2012-10-09 11:15:50 UTC #14

Thanks, i got scared from those 98% score scans on other posts for optiarc

alinache81 2012-10-17 04:05:50 UTC #15

Hi Albert, i’m buying today a lite-on ihas 124 -19?? (don’t know what this means), hope it’s ok for scanning and ripping.
I bought another 25cd spindle from a shop near me, sony supreams, theese ones actually identified by cd/dvd speed as Moser Baer, :)))
The quality scan with both asus and optiarc gave the same result, 96-97%.I’m so damn curious what the lite-on reports.
Thanks for reading this