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Review: Lite-On LH-20A1L Reviewed by: Dee-27 Provided by: Lite-On (NL) Firmware: BL05 Manufactured: August 2007

Lite-On was kind enough to send us the Lite-On LH-20A1L for review. In this review we will be seeing how this drive from one the world's most respected electronics manufacturers performs in our tests.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L supports 20x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 8x DVD+R/DL-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written. In addition this drive also supports DVD-RAM at 12x. LightScribe direct to disc labelling is also supported.

Company Information

Let us take a look at some of the company information found at the Lite-On (Europe) Website:

Lite-On IT Corporation is part of the Taiwanese Lite-On Group, which consists of nine consolidated companies. Lite-On Group is a world leading company in digital convergence (3C: Computer, Communications, and Consumer electronics) employing 35,000 people worldwide. Lite-On Group has 45 factories, 29 branch offices, and 4 R&D centers worldwide and generated total revenue of 6 Billion USD in 2004.

 

The roots of Lite-On IT lie in Taipei, Taiwan, where Lite-On Electronics Inc. was founded in 1975. Back then the core business consisted of production of clock-display LEDs. Because LED (Light Emitting Diode) formed the mainstay of Lite-On in the early years, the English word "Light" inspired the corporate name.

In the twenty years that followed, Lite-On gradually expanded its business throughout the Asian Pacific region to become a respected Taiwanese manufacturer with various established subsidiaries that form Lite-On Group today.

Company Profile
Lite-On IT started of as a business unit within Lite-On Technology Corporation in 1995. By that time the market for Optical Disc Drives (ODD) was growing very fast, and to be able to play a significant role in this, Lite-On Technology decided to establish a dedicated business unit to produce high quality CD-ROM drives. A large manufacturing facility was established in China to meet all demands and Lite-On soon became Taiwan’s biggest CD-ROM drive manufacturer, and number three worldwide.

Due to the growing success in the ODD market, Lite-On IT transformed from a relatively small business unit to an independent subsidiary of Lite-On Group, producing over 1 million drives per month. In 1999, the foundation of Lite-On IT Corporation as the youngest member of the Lite-On Group was a fact. Besides headquarters in Taipei, branch offices were established in the United States (California) and Europe (The Netherlands).

In the years to follow, Lite-On IT continued its growth in the ODD business, by setting extensive distribution networks in Europe and the United States. With the introduction of more ODD products, like CD-RW, DVD-ROM, COMBO and DVD-RW drives, Lite-On IT increased it’s production from 1 million drives per month in 1999, to no less then 5 million drives per month in 2005. With this unique achievement Lite-On IT became the world’s second biggest ODD manufacturer.

Recognizing the convergence between computers and digital consumer electronics, Lite-On IT is now expanding its business making full use of its knowledge and core-technology in the ODD industry. In 2003 Lite-On introduced its first DVD recorder. With this product, the company made a successful entry in the consumer electronics market. Nowadays, Lite-On IT is not only aiming to provide high quality and high performance IT products, but also high-tech digital audio-video appliances. With more digital consumer products to follow in the future, Lite-On IT is resolute to become a worldwide supplier of digital solutions that promise to illuminate everyone’s life.

Historic Timeline Lite-On IT Corporation

1995                 Founded as a business unit in Lite-On Technology Corporation
1997                 Opening of production facility in China
1998                 No. 1 CD-ROM Manufacturer in Taiwan & No.4 Worldwide
                        Opening of branch offices in USA and Europe
1999                 Production capacity over 1 Million per Month
                        Spin-off from Lite-On Technology Corporation as
                        Lite-On IT Corporation
                        No. 3 CD-ROM Manufacturer Worldwide
2001                 Lite-On IT becomes a public listed company
                        Production capacity over 2 Million per Month
2002                 Production Capacity over 3 Million per Month
                        Slim type Combo starts production
                        Foundation of business unit “Digital Consumer"
2003                 Production Base moves from SJP to GZP (Science Park)
                        Production capacity over 4 Million per Month
                        DVD-Rewriter starts production
                        Launch of first Lite-On DVD Recorder
2005                 Production capacity over 5 Million pieces per Month
2006                 Opening of regional office in Germany
                        Lite-On IT becomes No. 2 ODD Manufacturer Worldwide

Management Philosophy

Vision
Lite-On leads the way in 3C convergence, bringing computers, communications, and consumer electronics together to expand the reach and value of technology, to foster new opportunities, and to ensure continued business success.

 

Our vision is maintained by the core values of our management philosophy:

Quality
High quality standards are the core of every activity and lead to customer loyalty and satisfaction.

Integrity
Integrity fosters trust. We place great value on creating technologies that incorporate the human touch.

Innovation
We honour the spirit of innovation while striving to be creative and responsive to customer needs. This in turn helps strengthen our competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

For more information about the core values of Lite-On Group, please refer to the corporate website: http://www.liteon.com/

Drive Specifications

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We found the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L at the Lite-On website

What’s inside the box

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Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself and what the drive came shipped with.

Our package was the bulk version and contained the Lite-On LH-20A1L drive, fixing screws, software CD-ROM, and manual.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

The bezel of the Lite-On LH-20A1L is nicely styled. We can also see various logos including the LightScribe logo, an emergency eject hole, single green LED and an eject button.

Drive top

Drive bottom

On the bottom of the drive we found two labels and we can see the drive was manufactured in China during August 2007.

On the rear of the drive we can see a SATA power and data connector.

Now let’s head on to the next page were we can take a look at the features of the drive….

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Test machine

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For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ASUSTeK P5K (Intel P35 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2)
• Case: ThermalTake Armor (silver)
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster CX226BW 22” widescreen (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit)

System setup:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was connected to a SATA channel on the motherboards ICH9 SATA controller. As we can see from the above screenshot, Nero InfoTool reports the Lite-On LH-20A1L as a UDMA5 device.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Lite-On LH-20A1L supports DVD-RAM read/write and LightScribe direct to disc labelling. The drive came shipped with firmware version BL05.

Installed software:

• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• KProbe
• SureThing Labeller

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed.

Features and techniques

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Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a look at the supplied software bundle. Please note, we may not use any of this software in this review.

The supplied software CD-ROM

Nero 7 Essentials offers, the following applications.

• Nero 7 Express Essentials
• Nero Showtime 3 Essentials
• Nero Vision 4 Essentials
• Nero Recode 2 Essentials
• Nero InCD 5 Essentials
• Drivers and drive manuals

The software bundle is very good, up to date and should provide a good starting point for any new user as well as the more advanced user.

Disc Quality Scanning:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L can be used along with KProbe or Nero CD-Speed for “Disc Quality Scanning”.

Disc Quality Scan at 4x scanning speed using CD-Speed.

Disc Quality Scan at 4x scanning speed using KProbe.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L could be considered a useful drive for Disc Quality Scanning. The results seem fairly consistent with those of other Lite-On drives scanning at 4x

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Lite-On LH-20A1L supports full bit-setting and supports Bit-Setting on DVD+R/RW/+R DL media types.

Here is how you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM

Another quick test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Lite-On LH-20A1L:

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 37.31x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 36 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1L was the fastest drive when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the LITE-ON LH-20A1L, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.99x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 43 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1L was one of the slowest drives when writing CD-RW media.

20x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 20x.

DVD+R

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.68x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 2 seconds.

DVD-R

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.70x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 4 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see from our table, the Lite-On LH-20A1L was one of the fastest drives when writing DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.23x and a total writing time of 8 minutes and 3 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was about average at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 5.75x and a total writing time of 11 minutes and 05 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.78x and a total writing time of 17 minutes and 56 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.79x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was about average when writing double layer media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.99x and a total writing time of 6 minutes and 27 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RAM media.

Summary:

There is no doubt that the Lite-On LH-20A1L has excellent writing performance. CD-R writing speed was the fastest we have seen and DVD R writing performance was also very good.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….

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For these tests we will use Nero Disc-Speed to read various CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• DVD-ROM 16x
• CD-ROM 48x

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD that is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced result:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L reached 47.40x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L proved to be one of the fastest drive at reading our test CD-ROM. Access and seek times were very good.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD. The disc we used was a Ricoh 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Moser Baer India.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L reached 47.71x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was among the fastest drives with our CD-R test disc.

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L reached 34.13x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was one of the slowest drives when reading CD-RW media.

100 minute CD-R:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L reached 52.69x when reading our test 100 minute CD-R and had no problems reading our 100 minute test CD.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the LITE-ON LH-20A1L, again we used Nero Disc-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it’s nearly 79 minutes in length (78:53:31).

The Lite-On LH-20A1L reached 48.89x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L performed well above average when reading our audio test CD.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero Disc-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

Pressed DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD Video (single layer)

DVD Video (double layer OTP)

DVD Video (double layer PTP)

The Lite-On LH-20A1L is not riplocked and read our single layer disc at 16x and our double layer test discs at 12x

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was about average when reading pressed DVD-Video media.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a RICOH 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was one of the fastest drives when reading DVD+R media and about average when reading DVD+RW media.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4GB of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

DVD-RW

There are hardly any differences in the speed, compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

Once again the Lite-On LH-20A1L was one of the fastest drives when reading DVD-R media and about average when reading DVD-RW media.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L read our DVD+R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L read our DVD-R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L read our DVD-RAM disc at 12x using a P-CAV reading method.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L has excellent reading performance and is a very reliable reader

Now let’s head over to the next page where we will test CD-R/RW writing performance……

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The specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply burned a full disc using CD-Speed (create data disc) function and burned the discs at the maximum speed allowed.

Write quality:

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the obtained results:

An excellent result to start our CD-R quality tests, (highly recommended).

Our RICOH media manufactured by Moser Baer India has burned with good quality.

The HP media manufactured by CMC Magnetics has burned with very good quality.

Another very good result (recommended).

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

C1 errors are quite high at the start of the disc, but the result is still good.

Summary:

CD-R writing quality and media compatibility is very good to excellent with the Lite-On LH-20A1L and CD-RW writing quality is good.

Now let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD recordable performance….

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The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 20x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the writing times for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

Write quality:

You should first notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with Lite-On DVD-Writers, so we recommend using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In this test we use a Lite-On SOHW-1635S DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo drive can’t be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On DVD-Writer. Also remember that different PI/PO ECC sum settings along with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8 ECC blocks, PIF (Parity Inner Failures) set to summarize 1 ECC block, reading speed: 4X CLV (Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the PIF sum to 1 will give a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with a scan from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-Video disc (GoldenEye).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (The Green Mile). Notice the error jump when shifting to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below, you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the standards.

Download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org if you want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the ECMA standards (same for DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random errors:

A row of an ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed 280.

Here we see that a PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte or more containing errors and that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each other should not exceed 280 PI errors.

But what is a row and what is an ECC block? Again we refer to the ECMA standards. We do not copy and paste everything, but if you’re interested, look in the ECMA standards. A row is 182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner) information. An ECC block is 208 rows long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer) information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher, giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level reaches 600 or more.

But what are the PIF errors that K-Probe reports? They are Parity Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined? Here is what the ECMA 337 states:

“If a row of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than 5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be “PI-un-correctable”.”

In theory, an ECC block may in the worst-case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208 rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (un-correctable errors) allowed on a good disc:

“In any ECC Block the number of PI-un-correctable rows should not exceed 4.”  

This means that when the PIF sum is set to 1, the maximum error value should not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for PIF is 208 errors.

But what makes a disc unreadable? A POF (Parity Outer Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe does not display the POF’s.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc – but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X CLV speed, by lowering the speed to 2X(DVD-R/RW)/2.4X(DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a Optiarc AD-7173A DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed the reader is that some companies disliked that we used a modified firmware to obtain 16x reading speed. So to please them, we are now using a drive that reads DVD+R/-R media at 16x as default. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Easier explanation on how to read the test results.

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in KProbe reports?

Use this as a guideline for good discs:

• PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
• PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.

And as always; lower is better

And look at the reading curve; if it looks clean with no dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1L with firmware BL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-O3 along with Nero Disc-Speed and CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

The result is very good but for some reason when burning the disc, the lead-out took a long time to complete. We include a screenshot below for reference.

There are problems at the end of the disc, where PIF errors are out of specification and our read-back test fails. A poor result.

The result is excellent considering this disc was burned faster than its rated speed.

No surprises here, an excellent result from the Verbatim 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

The writing quality is very good, however, 18x was the selected writing speed and the drive burned the disc at 12x. We include a screenshot for reference.

The result is good considering the disc was burned at faster than its rated speed.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

We used the same test procedures as in our DVD+R tests.

Below are our obtained results.

The result is excellent.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L can write DVD+R with excellent/very good quality and is able to burn selected media at higher than its rated speed. However, the drive did have problems with a couple of our tested discs, where the burn quality was poor and in another case the drive failed to write the disc at the selected speed. The Lite-On LH-20A1L wrote our test DVD+RW our tested media with excellent quality.

Now let’s look at DVD-R/RW performance and quality on the next page…..

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DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-20A1P with firmware BL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-O3 along with Nero Disc Speed and CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

PIF errors are high and out of specification at the end of the disc, although our read-back test is perfect. The result could be improved.

Again PIF errors are out of specification at the end of the disc and our read-back test shows a hint of reading problems with this disc. The writing quality could be improved.

PI errors are high at the end of the disc but are within specification. PIF errors are once again out of specification at the end of the disc. The writing quality could be better.

The result is good. The available speed for writing this media was 20x. 20x was selected as the write speed, but the drive only burned the media at 18x, with a slowdown at the end of the disc. We include a screenshot below for reference.

The result is excellent.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

For this test we used the same testing procedures as in our DVD-R tests.

The result is excellent.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L has in most cases, written our DVD-R media with good quality. However, the drive did display some problems with quality on media that was written at high speed (18x – 20x). Writing quality on our tested DVD-RW media was excellent.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD R DL writing performance and quality……

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The Lite-On LH-20A1L supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 8x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we wrote a full disc with CD-Speed. We then used the Lite-On LH-20A1L along with KProbe to test the discs quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our Optiarc AD-7173A using Nero CD-Speed.

PI and PIF errors are extremely high on the second layer and our read-back drive had problems reading the disc. The writing quality could be improved.

DVD-R DL:

PI and PIF errors are extremely high and out of specification. Our read-back drive was unable to fully read the disc. A poor result.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L writing quality with our tested DVD DL media was very disappointing and requires some improvement.

Let’s head onto the next page where we will take a look at DVD-RAM performance….

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DVD-RAM writing performance:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L is a so-called Multi drive, meaning it also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also supports the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it has differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

We can see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots. These tick marks are "address information" ("Pre-mastered Pit Header Field") which are embedded onto the disc. This is header information in front of data sector area, and is the same format as HDD and MO.

A DVD-RAM’s disc can be formatted in the following formats:

• FAT32
• UDF 1.02
• UDF 1.50
• UDF 2.00
• UDF 2.01
• UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done as “background processes”. Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish, you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any “hangs” or CPU slowdowns.

DVD-RAM has error correction, but also has error replacement to spare sectors as a "defect management" function. This gives higher reliability than other DVD format.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100.000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors. Let’s try to read back the 2 discs that we wrote:

Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests.

Maxell 12x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1L wrote our 12x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 12x in 6 minutes and 27 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Lite-On LH-20A1L can read our test disc.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L had a few problems in reading our test disc at 12x.

Summary:

Although the Lite-On LH-20A1L had a slight problem in reading back our test disc, this should not cause to much concern. When using 12x media the drive completed a full disc in 6 minutes and 27 seconds, which should be fast enough for every day backups.

Now let’s head to the final page where we will check out LightScribe….

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  LightScribe:

On January 4, 2004, HP announced an innovative new technology to address the problem of labelling CD’s and DVD’s. LightScribe technology allows consumers to create silk-screen quality labels on their CDs or DVDs by burning text and graphics directly onto a disc, eliminating the need for adhesive labels.

But, before we continue - Let us first take a look at some information found at the LightScribe site:

CREATE SILKSCREEN-QUALITY LABELS FOR ALL YOUR CDS AND DVDS, RIGHT FROM YOUR COMPUTER.

Until now there hasn't been much choice when it comes to creating labels for your CDs and DVDs. Messy markers or sticky adhesive labels were pretty much the only affordable option. But imagine creating professional-looking labels using the same laser that burns your data-right inside your CD/DVD drive! Well, now it's easy with LightScribe Direct Disc Labelling technology.

LABEL-MAKING REDEFINED.

LightScribe technology is an integrated system that combines the CD or DVD drive of your LightScribe-enabled computer with specially coated discs and enhanced disc-burning software to produce precise, laser-etched labels. You can design and produce labels to express your creativity and personality-the sky's the limit!

With LightScribe, the disc is the label. This amazing technology is the no-hassle way to create elegant labels for all your CDs and DVDs. Simply burn your music mix, digital-video/photo archives, or business application. Then flip the disc and burn your own unique label.

LightScribe Direct Disc Labelling technology is now available in PCs, external USB optical DVD writers, labelling software, and a variety of brand name discs. Remember, the LightScribe logo indicates a LightScribe-enabled product, so be sure to look for it at your favourite retail locations. Also check out the Looking for LightScribe page for a list of companies that make LightScribe-enabled products.

A RADICAL REVOLUTION IN DISC LABELING.

Once you've burned your first LightScribe label and experienced the amazing result, you'll never want to use a permanent marker or sticky label again. LightScribe makes it easy. It truly is a revolution in disc labelling.

JUST HOW DOES IT WORK?

How can you burn a label onto your disc right from your computer? Suppose you have just created a music CD of your favourite songs. Now you want to make a label that contains the song titles, artists' names, and some personal information and design elements to make it special.

Burn your tracks onto the data side of the disc. Flip the disc over to the label side and put it back in the drive. Burn your label by opening your favourite LightScribe-enabled label-making software and going to the CD template work area. Now you do all of your creative design work-imported pictures, copy, and artwork. When you are satisfied with what you have done, click "print." It really is that simple! No ink, no messy markers, no clumpy adhesive labels, just an amazingly beautiful label right before your eyes.

LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Your LightScribe-enabled CD/DVD disc drive contains a special laser that pumps light energy into a thin dye coating on the label side of the disc. The light from the laser causes a chemical change in the dye coating that shows up as a visible point on the disc. With laser precision, LightScribe delivers closely controlled light energy to multiple points on the disc as it spins in the drive. The result is a high-resolution reproduction of the artwork, text, or photos you composed in the software application. Seeing is believing!

In this review we decided to use SureThing Deluxe labeller instead of the supplied label making module in Nero.

The LightScribe Media:

The surface of the LightScribe media is gold-brown, also referred to as sepia coloured.

If we take a closer look at the inner ring of the LightScribe media, we can see a bar code indexing system. This is what the drive’s laser uses to recognize the LightScribe surface, but also for the indexing (for later re-burns).

Designing and burning with SureThing Labeller:

The SureThing program is very easy to work with and we created a layout here to test out the LightScribe feature. After we were satisfied with the layout we pressed Print Label (LightScribe).

In the print option dialog we also find a Diagnostic button and we clicked it of course.

We closed the LightScribe Diagnostics windows and selected “Best quality” and OK to print the label in the Print Dialog windows.

The program gave us a notice “Please ensure that you have a LightScribe disc inserted in the drive with the label side down”. (As you can see you can choose – Don’t show me this message in the future.” We went on with OK to print the label.

Above we can see the label side of the disc being written to, in the form of a progression dialog.

Above we can see the finished label. Now let’s check out the indexing feature, which allows us to print to the label using several passes.

The indexing feature worked perfectly.

Summary:

The LightScribe feature of the Lite-On LH-20A1L worked perfectly and the obtained results were extremely good.

This concludes our Lite-On LH-20A1L review.

Positive:

• Excellent writing performance on CD-R media
• Excellent/very good CD-R writing quality and compatibility.
• Generally good/very good DVD±R/RW writing quality.
• Can burn selected DVD±R media faster than its rated speed.
• Excellent reading performance and reliability.
• Reads pressed DVD Video SL/DL and recordable media at 16x/12x.
• Supports DVD-RAM read/write at 12x speed.
• Supports automatic BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R/RW/DL.
• Supports Disc Quality Scanning with CD-Speed and KProbe.
• Good software bundle.
• The LightScribe feature worked perfectly.

 Negative:

• Noise levels are high when the drive is running at high speed.
• DVD±R DL writing quality needs improving.

 

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points:

The Lite-On LH-20A1L is a fast drive as far as writing DVD media is concerned and extremely fast when writing CD-R media. Being a so called multi-drive, the Lite-On LH-20A1L supports all of the currently popular CD/DVD formats including DVD-RAM. The Lite-On LH-20A1L also supports LightScribe “direct to disc labelling” and worked extremely well.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was able to burn all our tested CD-R media with excellent/very good quality and media compatibility was also very good.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L was also able to burn selected DVD±R media at faster than its rated speed.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L also proved to be a good performer with DVD-RAM media, again recording some very fast write times with our tested 12x DVD-RAM media.

Reading performance and reliability is excellent with most media groups.

The supplied software bundle should provide a good starting point for new and more advanced users alike.

The main negative points:

There are not that many negative things to say about the Lite-On LH-20A1L.

DVD±R DL writing quality in most cases was not good and requires improvement.

The Lite-On LH-20A1L is noisy when running at high speed and caused a lot of vibration in our review PC case.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The Lite-On LH-20A1L is generally a good performer and has a great feature set. However, some areas need some improvement”

You may comment on this review below or in this forum thread.

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