In the following tests, we check the drive's behavior when reading scratched / defective audio discs. The test discs used were the ABEX series from ALMEDIO.

- ABEX TCD-721R

The HP DVD1035i drive achieved a good score with the ABEX TCD-721R test disc. The total error count is low as is the maximum error loudness level and there were no skipped samples.

- ABEX TCD-726

The HP DVD1035i drive read the ABEX TCD-726 test disc perfectly, achieving a score of 100 out of 100. The specific disc defects, which are artificial black dots and fingerprints, seem to be easily handled by this HP's Multiformat drive.

- CD-Check Audio Test Disc

The CD-Check Test Disc is a very useful tool for evaluating the Sound Reproduction / Error correction capabilities of a CD player. The disc offers a signal combination with disc error patterns to rate the drive's abilities to read music and reproduce it completely. Five tracks on the disc contain a sequence of progressively more difficult tests. These tracks are referred to as Check Level-1 through Check Level-5.

The tracks are reproduced through a software multimedia player (e.g. Windows Media Player). Each level is considered as passed, if the tone is smooth, continuous without interruptions, skipping or looping. The higher the Check Level passed, the more reliable the sound reproduction of the tested drive.

The drive achieved flawless reading with the first 3 tracks. Playing the fourth and fifth tracks produced lots of disturbing noise and clicks on our speakers.

- Summary

Concluding, the HP dvd1035i drive seems to behave slightly better than average when reading/ripping defective audio CDs.