And the bets chip is...............

[Arakon]

ps2 modding is ALOT harder than psx modding, especially for origa/messiah etc.. so better send it somewhere.

the best chip available is the messiah, although I'm not sure it works on US R systems. if not, the next best solution is the origa (or its clone, the nova chip).
both play cdr, dvd-r and original imports, as well as psx cdr, messiah without, origa with a single swap (with GS2/region X).