Best DVD-RW for scanning

[cougfan]

So is there such thing as the best (or most accurate) drive for scanning media? Is there a difference between the various generations of Lite-on drives for instance or would the latest be as good as any? I currently have a Pioneer 209 Bluray burner, LG GGC-H20L bluray/ HD-DVD Lightscribe player that makes nice DVD''s and an Optiarc 7203s with Labelflash that I use for CD's currently. Only the Sony is capable of scanning of the three but it doesn't get high marks in that area. I also have an older 5.25 IDE external enclosure that I could use if the best drive were to be IDE. Hope everyone is doing well!

[Ian]

You won't get the same accuracy from a consumer grade DVD writer as you would with dedicated test equipment. However, there are a few that will give you a pretty good idea of the quality.

I'm still a big fan of the older BenQ drives (1640, 1655, etc) but they're hard to find now. Most people, including myself, just use Lite-On's newer DVD writers, which will measure the PI/PIF errors as well as the jitter levels when used with CD Speed.

Isn't the Optiarc 7203S based on a Lite-On design? I can't remember...

[cougfan]

The 7203s that I have is based on an NEC chipset I believe....

So it sounds like all Lite-on drives are about the same so I think I have an old ihas120 around here that will work if that is the case. Otherwise I could find an old BenQ if I want to play around a bit for fun. I am just more or less tinkering around and verifying as best I can which media I have will perform best in which drive. I figured that I woudn't mind throwing a few bucks at getting the best consumer grade option if I am going to bother anyway.

Thanks!

[cougfan]

So it would appear that the following drive (like new, old Dell stock)can be crossflashed to a BenQ 1650 if I have read other sites correctly...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/CH545-Dell-Phil ... 2349b2dd37

For $15 I might try it for fun since I dont have any old Lite-on drives around to scan with....