Lite-On LH-20A1P Super AllWrite review

By
Herbert Klausner
-

Review: Lite-On LH-20A1P
Reviewed by: H3rB3i & Jan70
Provided by: Lite-On BV (NL)
Firmware: KL05
Manufactured: November 2006

We at CDFreaks published a preview of of one of the latest DVD-ReWriter’s from Lite-On – the Lite-On LH-20A1P now we would like to present a now a full review of even this drive. The Lite-On LH-20A1P supports 20x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/DVD-RW, 12x DVD-RAM and 8x DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.
 

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 honor 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:

What’s inside the box?

In this section we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the drive and its technology.

Front

Back

Left Side

Right Side

Top

Bottom

Below you will see the contents of the retail box:

·         The internal drive itself

·         Silver Bezel

·         Black Bezel

·         Emergency eject tool

·         Mounting screws

·         Audio Cable

·         Nero OEM Suite software CD

·         Quick installation and front panel replacement guides in several languages

Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself:

Beige Bezel

Black Bezel

Silver Bezel

The drive came with three really stylish bezels in a simple and clean design that includes a few logos, a single green coloured LED (we prefer different LED colours to distinguish between reading and writing operations), an emergency eject hole and an eject button. The logos located on the tray include a DVD Forum DVD-Multi Recorder logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+R DL logo, and a CD-RW Ultra Speed logo.

Top

Side

On the underside, we found two sticker and we can read it was made in China – November 2006.

On the back of the drive there are from the left: undocumented pins, digital Audio connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

Now, let us install the drive and check out the features on the next page…

Test machine:

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

Hardware 1:

·         Motherboard: AsRock K7S8X

·         Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2200+

·         RAM: 512MB Infineon PC3200 DDR

·         GFX: Gainward GeForce 440MX

·         Sound: Onboard Realtek AC'97

·         Hard disk: Samsung SV0802N

Hardware 2:

·         Motherboard: Asus A8V Deluxe

·         Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ (Toledo)

·         RAM: 1 GB Corsair Kit PC3200 DDR

·         GFX: MSI GeForce 6600 GT

·         Sound: Onboard Realtek AC'97

·         Hard disk: Maxtor 6V300F0 300 GB (S-ATA)

System set-up 1:

As we can see above, the drive was connected as Primary master and running in UDMA 4 mode.

System set-up 2:

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P was connected as Primary Master and identified itself as LITE-ON DVDRW LH-20A1P. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

 

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Lite-On LH-20A1P does not support CD+G and Mount Rainer. The drive came shipped with firmware version KL05.

Installed Software:

Windows XP Professional XP Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

Features and techniques:

The Internals:

The internals

The drive uses the MediaTek MT1898E chipset.

SMART-BURN:
(Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing)

·         SMART-BURN is the abbreviation of “Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing", innovated CD-RW technology by LITE-ON IT, will be introduced to other products in the future.

·         Users always want to successfully burn a disc with a higher speed in CD-RW drive. You may know, there are so many brands of CD-R / CD-RW media in the market with irregular quality & still being cost down in the price war.

·         If your CD-R / CD-RW media quality is really poor enough or working environment is too hot to induce the Laser Power over margin, the CD-RW drive detected, the burning speed will be forced to decrease to get more reliable Laser working power to secure the life of CD-RW drive & burning quality strategy parameters plus the outstanding running Optimum Power Calibration (OPC) function to provide you the best burning quality.

·         The buffer under run error is also no longer happened to your drive anymore, SMART-BURN also can allow drive to be suspended during writing, than continue to burn from last point when enough data get in the buffer.

·         SMART-BURN features :

o        Buffer Under Run Error Free

o        Running Optimum Power Calibration

o        Automatic Writing Strategy & Burning Parameters

o        Automatically decrease burning speed when Laser power over margin due to poor media quality or high temperature

 

SMART-X:
(Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for eXtraction)

·         SMART-X is the abbreviation of Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for eXtraction, which is LITE-ON innovated technology after being verified & improved for a long period before get into mass production.

·         People ask "What’s the DAE speed?" , "What’s VCD play speed of the drive?"…etc. People want to know this to choose party drive. As you know, removable optical media is so open & unable to control the media quality. Drive need to burn a disc with higher speed & quality as possible. So the drive needs to be very smart!

·         It’s more difficult for drive to rip the Audio & VCD disc than a data disc due to there are only 2 levels error correction for Audio & VCD disc but data disc got 3. For limited un-recoverable error data can be fixed by estimation & calculation due to it’s only for music & movie application. These tolerance ripped data are acceptable & can not be detected by human eyes & ears during playback because there is no pop-noise, interrupt or mosaic on the screen. Of course zero error is preferable for zero tolerance.

·         SMART-X technology is the drive will rip the music / VCD data as fast as possible with less error, even on a poor quality media ( like dirty, scratched ) , the drive will estimate if the ripped data will result audio noise, interrupt or mosaic on screen, the rip speed can be reduced to get more correctable data. SMART-X provide you as fast rip speed as possible, on the other, if you just want to listen music or watch movie directly, it’s not necessary for the drive to keep high speed to read data. It will work under lower speed automatically to get better playability & lower acoustic, so smart!

ABS - Auto Balancer Spindle:

 

·         Steel balls as balancer within spindle motor will be settled into right positions during spin up period ( that’s the reason why a little noise during drive spin up to read a disc ) to compensate imbalance of the disc when rotating at very high speed.

·         The ABS mechanism can fit from CD-ROM 32x design up to 56x or higher speed that the spindle motor can even works over 10000 rpm with very small vibration generate

Once again back to Smart-Burn. In the latest Official version of this tool we can also find two very interesting and important new functions. These new functions are called OverSpeed (OS) and HyperTuning (HT).

OverSpeed (OS):

OS can let you burn a disc one level above its rated speed.

Smart-Write™ - HyperTuning (HT):

HyperTuning is a so called “Smart-Write™” technology for DVD+/-R and DVD+/-R DL media. Its technology enables the drive to learn a write strategy for unsupported media or for media where you are not satisfied with the quality of the burn when the regular strategy was used. Further, it can give you better results when you use lower quality media with a stronger variation of the disc quality itself.

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Lite-On LH-20A1P supports Bitsetting, and will as default write DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM BookType. The Bitsetting can be changed in i.e. Nero CD/DVD Speed:

Here is how you can check if your discs are really written with the DVD-ROM BookType:

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

 

DVD+R media with DVD-ROM BookType

DVD+RW media with DVD-ROM BookType

DVD+R DL media with DVD-ROM BookType

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

 

This should say DVD-ROM

Quality Scans:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P can be used to measure/scan burned discs for their quality via Nero CD-DVD Speed or KProbe. This can be handy to check and get an impression of which state/condition the burned discs are in.

Quality Scan at 4x

Writing Technology:

20x DVD±R writing speed:

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 20x. The average speed is 14.68x and total writing time is 4:58 minutes.

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at 20x. The average speed is 14.73x and total writing time is 5:02 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

16x
DVDR
Disc
Writing

Supported
Write
Speed

Write
Strategy

Start
Write
Speed

End
Write
 Speed

Average
 Write 
Speed

Write
 Time 
Full 4.38Gb

Samsung
SH-S182D

18x +R
18x –R

CAV
CAV

7.54x
7.58x

18.12x
18.16x

13.21x
13.42x

5m:34s
5m:16s

Optiarc
AD-7173A

18x +R
18x –R

CAV
CAV

7.53x
7.53x

18.02x
18.05x

13.26x
13.29x

5m:26s
5m:27s

Plextor
PX-760A

18x +R
18x –R

CAV
CAV

7.23x
7.24x

18.00x
18.06x

12.41x
12.35x

5m:34s
5m:41s

Samsung
SE-S184M

18x +R
18x –R

CAV
CAV

7.62x
7.63x

18.24x
18.22x

13.46x
13.48x

5m:19s
5m:18s

Pioneer
DVR-112

18x +R
18x –R

CAV
CAV

7.51x
7.51x

18.16x
13.34x

13.17x
13.12x

5m:11s
5m:13s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

20x +R
20x -R

CAV
CAV

8.17x
8.22x

19.62x
19.67x

14.68x
14.73x

4m:58s
5m:02s

As we can see from our table, the Lite-On LH-20A1P was the fastest drive when writing DVD±R media.

8x DVD+RW writing speed:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.26x and the total writing time is 8:02 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

DVD+RW
Drive

Writing
Speed

Average
Speed

Writing
Time

Pioneer
DVR-111

8x Z-CLV

7.83x

7m:26s

Plextor
PX-760A

8x P-CAV

7.87x

7m:15s

Samsung
SE-S184M

8x Z-CLV

6.96x

9m:12s

Pioneer
DVR-112

8x Z-CLV

7.83x

7m:42s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

8x Z-CLV

7.26x

8m:02s

The Lite-On LH-20A1P was one of the slowest drives at writing our DVD+RW media at 8x.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.77x and the total writing time is 10:39 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

DVD-RW
Drive

Writing
Speed

Average
Speed

Writing
Time

Pioneer
DVR-111

6x CLV

6.01x

9m:56s

Plextor
PX-760A

6x CLV

6.03x

10m:00s

Samsung
SE-S184M

6x Z-CLV

5.67x

10m:44s

Pioneer
DVR-112

6x CLV

6.02x

9m:50s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

6x Z-CLV

5.77x

10m:39s

Due its Z-CLV writing technology, the drive was slightly slower then other tested drives at writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 6.82x and the total writing time is 17:49 minutes.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 6.83x and the total writing time is 18:15 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

DVD DL 
Drive

Size

Writing
Speed

Writing
Time

Book
Type

Plextor
PX-755A

8152MB

DVD+R DL 10x
DVD-R DL 4x

14m:14s
21m:14s

DVD-ROM
DVD-R

Pioneer
DVR-111

8152MB

DVD+R DL 8x
DVD-R DL 8x

17m:03s
16m:57s

DVD-ROM
DVD-R

Plextor
PX-760A

8152MB

DVD+R DL 10x
DVD-R DL 6x

13m:55s
18m:33s

DVD-ROM
DVD-R

Samsung
SE-S184M

8152MB

DVD+R DL 8x
DVD-R DL 8x

19m:06s

DVD-ROM
DVD-R

Pioneer
DVR-112

8152MB

DVD+R DL 10x
DVD-R DL 10x

15m:07s
15m:31s

DVD-ROM
DVD-R

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

8152MB

DVD+R DL 8x
DVD-R DL 8x

17m:49s
18m:15s

DVD-ROM
DVD-R

The Lite-On LH-20A1P performed averge when writing both, DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media.

12x DVD-RAM:

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-RAM media at its maximum speed of 12x (verify off). This resulted in an average write speed of 10.05x and a total write time of 5 minutes and 49 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

DVD-RAM
Drive

Writing
Speed

Average
Speed

Writing
Time

Pioneer
DVR-111

5x CLV

4.83x

11m:30s

Plextor
PX-750A

5x CLV

4.98x

11m:08s

Samsung
SE-S184M

12x P-CAV

10.11x

5m:42s

Pioneer
DVR-112

12x P-CAV

10.35x

5m:33s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

12x P-CAV

10.05x

5m:49s

The Lite-On LH20A1P was slightly slower than our other tested 12x DVD-RAM drives when writing DVD-RAM media.

48x CD-Recordable:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write CD-R at 48x. The average speed is 37.25x and total writing time is 2:38 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table:

CD-R
Disc
Writing

Supported
Write
Speed

Write
Strategy

Start
Write
Speed

End
Write
 Speed

Average
 Write 
Speed

Write
 Time 
Full 80min

NEC
ND-4551A

48x

CAV

21.41x

47.92x

36.32x

3m:02s

Philips
DVDR1660

48x

CAV

21.33x

48.06x

35.53x

3m:04s

Samsung
SH-W162L

48x

CAV

21.88x

48.36

37.21x

2m:52s

Samsung
SE-W164L

48x

CAV

21.94x

48.24x

37.30x

2m:52s

Samsung
SE-S184M

48x

CAV

21.82x

48.52x

37.21x

3m:00s

Pioneer
DVR-112

40x

CAV

17.83x

40.47x

30.27x

3m:14s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

48x

CAV

21.94x

49.12x

37.25x

2m:38s

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1P was among the fastest drive when it comes to write CD-R media.

32x CD-ReWritable:

Lite-On LH-20A1P uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD+RW at 32x. The average speed is 24.92x and the total writing time is 3:59 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

CD-RW
Disc
Writing

Supported
Write
Speed

Write
Strategy

Start
Write
Speed

End
Write
 Speed

Average
 Write 
Speed

Write
 Time 
Full 80min

NEC
ND-4551A

32x

Z-CLV
4 Zones

20.08x

32.00x

29.71x

3m:11s

Philips
DVDR1660

32x

P-CAV

21.37x

32.16x

29.77x

3m:20s

Samsung
SH-W162L

32x

Z-CLV
3 Zones

16.09x

32.30x

28.44x

3m:35s

Samsung
SE-W164L

32x

Z-CLV
3 Zones

16.01x

32.02x

28.28x

3m:38s

Samsung
SE-S184M

32x

Z-CLV
3 Zones

16.09x

32.18x

28.44x

3m:27s

Pioneer
DVR-112

32x

Z-CLV
3 Zones

16.03x

32.07x

24.97x

3m:45s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

32x

Z-CLV
3 Zones

15.99x

32.01x

24.41x

3m:59s

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1P was a little slower compared to our other drives when writing CD-RW media.

On the next page: Reading performance… 

Reading performance:

For these tests we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to read various CD and DVD’s, including audio discs and DVD-media.

Pressed discs:

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

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P reached 47.29x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

Pressed
Discs

Average
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

NEC
ND-4550A

34.75x

19.87x

45.99x

128ms

136ms

216ms

NEC
ND-4551A

34.71x

20.01x

45.97x

135ms

145ms

222ms

Philips
DVDR1660

35.70x

20.13x

47.29x

106ms

124ms

176ms

Samsung
SH-W162L

35.75x

17.35x

47.38x

95ms

95ms

169ms

Samsung
SH-S182D

35.58x

19.75x

47.10x

99ms

95ms

169ms

Samsung
SE-S184M

36.25x

17.36x

48.08x

109ms

115ms

187ms

Pioneer
DRV-112

31.25x

18.12x

41.36x

105ms

122ms

198ms

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

35.73x

20.66x

47.29x

101ms

112ms

168ms

The Lite-On LH-20A1P was one of the fastest drives at reading our test CD-ROM. Access and seek times were fairly good too.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test, we made a copy of the original Easy Media Creator 7.5 install CD. The disc we used was a Taiyo Yuden 52x certified CD-R disc manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P reached 47.87x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

CD-R
Discs

Average 
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

NEC
ND-4550A

35.60x

20.74x

47.01x

134ms

136ms

210ms

NEC
ND-4551A

35.53x

20.67x

46.77x

187ms

146ms

218ms

Philips
DVDR1660

36.54x

20.94x

48.27x

104ms

113ms

169ms

Samsung
SH-W162L

30.82x

16.85x

40.66x

88ms

90ms

157ms

Samsung
SH-S182D

30.65x

17.28x

40.52x

92ms

90ms

162ms

Samsung
SE-S184M

30.84x

16.51x

40.73x

105ms

108ms

178ms

Pioneer
DVR-112

31.95x

18.38x

41.36x

116ms

132ms

199ms

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

36.23x

21.30x

47.87

100ms

107ms

163ms

Again, the Lite-On LH-20A 1P was one of the fastest drives. This time with our CD-R test disc, the seek times are very good too.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

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

 

The drive is locked around 32x while reading CD-RWs. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

CD-RW
Discs

Average 
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

NEC
ND-4550A

30.66x

17.92x

40.12x

134ms

141ms

214ms

NEC
ND-4551A

30.63x

17.94x

40.08x

171ms

166ms

317ms

Philips
DVDR1660

30.75x

17.67x

40.55x

106ms

115ms

170ms

Samsung
SH-W162L

30.84x

17.52x

40.68x

87ms

90ms

159ms

Samsung
SH-S182D

30.65x

16.43x

40.44x

91ms

90ms

163ms

Samsung
SE-S184M

31.17x

16.75x

41.15x

102ms

107ms

176ms

Pioneer
DVR-112

24.96x

14.61x

32.94x

117ms

131ms

205ms

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

25.66x

15.00x

33.73x

109ms

118ms

199ms

The Lite-On LH-20A1P was one of the slowest drives when reading CD-RW media.

100 minutes CD:

We used Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the transfer rate. The 100 min disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it is 99 minutes and 57 seconds long.

 

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Lite-On LH-20A1P, again we used Nero CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is about 75 minutes in length (74:45:27 min).

The Lite-On LH-20A1P reached 47.87x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

Audio
Discs

Average 
Read
Speed

Start
 Read 
Speed

End
 Read 
Speed

Seek
Times
 Random

Seek
 Times 
1/3

Seek
 Times 
Full

NEC
ND-4550A

31.33x

17.97x

40.11x

123ms

138ms

220ms

NEC
ND-4551A

31.30x

17.89x

40.13x

122ms

142ms

222ms

Philips
DVDR1660

37.42x

20.09x

49.65x

107ms

125ms

173ms

Samsung
SH-W162L

31.55x

17.57x

41.85x

86ms

101ms

172ms

Samsung
SH-S182D

31.39x

17.68x

41.61x

88ms

104ms

181ms

Samsung
SE-S184M

31.46x

17.67x

41.77x

111ms

128ms

192ms

Pioneer
DVR-112

31.61x

19.04x

42.44x

132ms

152ms

223ms

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

36.18x

21.29x

47.87x

97ms

109ms

160ms

The Lite-On LH-20A1P was one of the fastest drives when reading our audio test CD.

Audio Extraction:

For this test we used EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to test the drives Audio extraction performance. As we can see from the screenshot below, the drive supports accurate stream and C2 error info and caching.

Below is the results produced by EAC:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P performed excellent in burst mode but was much slower in secure mode.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the “Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used a JVC CD-R DA media.

The digital audio extracting quality is excellent and the drive is reported to support all advanced features.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-DVD 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.

DVD – DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and dual 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)

As we can see, it reads DVD-Video Single layer at 16x and DVD-Video Double layer at 12x.

DVD
Video

Average 
Read
Speed
(SL)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(SL)

End
 Read 
Speed
(SL)

Average 
Read
Speed
(DL)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(DL)

End
 Read 
Speed
(DL)

NEC
ND-4550A

11.84x

6.57x

15.82x

8.90x

4.95x

11.83x

NEC
ND-4551A

11.83x

6.56x

15.77x

8.89x

4.94x

11.82x

Philips
DVDR1660

12.00x

6.64x

15.99x

9.05x

5.00x

12.04x

Samsung
SH-W162L

12.12x

6.78x

16.16x

6.44x

3.60x

8.57x

Samsung
SH-S182D

12.06x

6.66x

16.07x

6.41x

3.58x

8.52x

Samsung
SE-S184M

12.22x

6.75x

16.29x

6.38x

3.61x

8.29x

Pioneer
DVR-112

11.99x

6.74x

16.03x

9.36x

5.31x

12.44x

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

12.09x

6.77x

16.12x

9.19x

5.10x

12.21x

The Lite-On LH-20A1P performed excellent in these tests. The drive performed well in our single layer test and was one of the fastest double layer readers.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

For this test, we used one DVD+R and one DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data. Below are the results:

 DVD+R:

 

DVD+RW:

DVD+R
DVD+RW

Average 
Read
Speed
(+R)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(+R)

End
 Read 
Speed
(+R)

Average 
Read
Speed
(+RW)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(+RW)

End
 Read 
Speed
(+RW)

NEC
ND-4550A

11.93x

6.53x

15.95x

9.79x

5.40x

13.08x

NEC
ND-4551A

11.95x

6.59x

15.98x

9.79x

5.37x

13.08x

Philips
DVDR1660

9.38x

5.13x

12.53x

9.38x

5.13x

12.54x

Samsung
SH-W162L

9.15x

5.03x

12.22x

6.24x

3.45x

8.34x

Samsung
SH-S182D

9.09x

5.02x

12.16x

6.21x

3.43x

8.29x

Samsung
SE-S184M

9.12x

5.00x

12.06x

6.23x

3.43x

8.33x

Pioneer
DVR-112

9.36x

5.19x

12.23x

6.25x

3.47x

8.35x

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

12.19x

6.74x

16.31x

9.25x

5.11x

12.36x

Again, the Lite-On LH-20A1P performed excellent in our DVD+R/+RW read tests. It was the fastest drive when reading DVD+R and about average when reading DVD+RW media.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

For this test, we used one DVD-R disc and one 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.

DVD-R
DVD-RW

Average 
Read
Speed
(-R)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(-R)

End
 Read 
Speed
(-R)

Average 
Read
Speed
(-RW)

Start
 Read 
Speed
(-RW)

End
 Read 
Speed
(-RW)

NEC
ND-4550A

11.97x

6.58x

16.01x

9.78x

5.37x

13.07x

NEC
ND-4551A

11.98x

6.56x

15.98x

9.78x

5.37x

13.07x

Philips
DVDR1660

9.37x

5.13x

12.53x

9.38x

5.13x

12.53x

Samsung
SH-W162L

9.18x

5.08x

12.26x

6.24x

3.44x

8.34x

Samsung
SH-S182D

9.12x

5.05x

12.19x

6.22x

3.43x

8.31x

Samsung
SE-S184M

9.14x

5.03x

12.21x

6.24x

3.44x

8.34x

Pioneer
DVR-112

9.36x

5.18x

12.52x

6.23x

3.46x

8.33x

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

12.17x

6.76x

16.27x

9.24x

5.12x

12.35x

The Lite-On LH-20A1P performed excellent when reading our DVD-R/RW test discs.

DVD – DVD+R DL:

For this test, we used one DVD+R DL disc and the result can be found below:

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P reads DVD+R DL media with up to 12x speed.

DVD – DVD-R DL:

For this test, we used one DVD-R DL disc and the result can be found below:

 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P reads DVD-R DL media with up to 12x speed.

DVD – DVD-RAM:

For this test, we used a Maxell DVD-RAM 12x disc and the result can be found below:

 

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P proved to be an excellent and very fast reader with no problems reading all our test discs.

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

The specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1P 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/RW discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703Mb using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x)

.

CD-R:

 
 

The Lite-On LH-20A1P took 2 minutes and 45 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other drives in the table below:

Nero Burning Rom
CD-R

Write
Speed

Total
Time

Lite-On
SHW-16H5S

48x

3m:20s

Plextor
PX-750A

40x

3m:16s

Plextor
PX-755A

48x

2m:43s

Pioneer
DVR-111

40x

3m:28x

Plextor
PX-760A

48x

2m:54s

Samsung
SE-S184M

48x

3m:08s

Pioneer
DVR-112

40x

3m:55s

Lite-On
LH-20A1P

48x

2m:45s

The Lite-On LH-20A1P was one of the fastest drives when writing our test CD-R media.

CD-R Writing Quality

We will test CD-R discs from 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 KProbe 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.

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:

Brand:

Verbatim Printable CD-R

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation

Code:

97m34s23f

Disc Type:

Printable CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine,Azo)

Capacity:

79:59.31 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:54s

C1 Average/Sec:

3.70

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

A good quality result for this Mitsubishi Chemicals manufactured 52x CD-R media. With a C1 average the disc fits in the “good quality discs” category. Unfortunately, the disc is only supported up to 40x recording speed and other drives can burn this type of disc at full speed and lower error rates.

Brand:

Taiyo Yuden
 (Thanks to Primera Technology Inc. for providing us with this media)

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden Company Limited

Code:

97m24s01f

Disc Type:

Tuffcoat with Watershield CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine,Azo)

Capacity:

79:59.72 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:38s

C1 Average/Sec:

0.29

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

A C1 average of 0.64 places this Taiyo Yuden manufactured media into the “best quality discs” category. Everything elsewould have been a surprise. 

Brand:

RICOH – Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Moser Baer India Limited

Code:

97m17s06f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703MB)

Certified Speed:

52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:38s

C1 Average/Sec:

0.79

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

A Moser Bear India manufactured 52x CD-R media and once more an excellent result. With an C1 average of 0.79, the disc fits in our “best quality discs” category.

Brand:

BenQ – Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Daxon

Code:

97m22s67f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.70 (703MB)

Certified Speed:

48x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:50s

C1 Average/Sec:

0.36

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

0.36 C1 average, once more a “best quality disc” result for this media.

Brand:

Ultron – Thanks to Ultron AG (D)
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

SONY Corporation

Code:

97m24s16f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.73 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:43s

C1 Average/Sec:

0.52

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

Ultron media and with the average C1 errors of 0.36 it goes into the group “best quality discs” category.

Brand:

Traxdata Black – Thanks to Conrexx (NL)
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

RiTEK Corporation

Code:

97m15s17f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.73 (703MB)

Certified Speed:

40x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:48s

C1 Average/Sec:

1.49

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

A C1 average of 1.49 is an excellent result for this RiTEK manufactured CD-R media. Once more, a disc that fits in our “best quality discs” category.

Overall thoughts:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P burns CD-R media with very good quality and sometimes above their rated speed.

Now let us check if the CD-RW writing performance is as good as the CD-R writing performance…..

CD-RW Writing Quality

For these tests we will be using 4 different CD-RW media from 3 different 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 our review drive and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-RW 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.

Brand:

Verbatim

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation

Code:

97m34s25f

Disc Type:

Ultra Speed CD-RW

Recording Layer:

Phase Change

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

32x

Write Speed:

32x (Z-CLV)

Write Time:

3m:59s

C1 Average/Sec:

16.19

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

No C2 errors and 16.19 C1 errors, we have expected a better result for this high quality, Mitsubishi Chemicals manufactured media.

Brand:

Verbatim

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation

Code:

97m34s24f

Disc Type:

Ultra Speed CD-RW

Recording Layer:

Phase Change

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

24x

Write Speed:

24x (Z-CLV)

Write Time:

4m:15s

C1 Average/Sec:

4.82

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

A much better result than the one for the 32x version of this media. A C1 average of 4.68 places this disc into the “good quality discs” category.

Brand:

TDK

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics Corporation

Code:

97m26s67f

Disc Type:

Ultra Speed CD-RW

Recording Layer:

Phase Change

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

24x

Write Speed:

24x (Z-CLV)

Write Time:

4m:16s

C1 Average/Sec:

2.08

C2 Average/Sec:

0.02

Very good C1 average but C2 errors let the burn look worse, even when the disc was perfect readable in other drives. Anyway, a bad result.

Brand:

FujiFilm

Manufacturer:

RiTek Corporation

Code:

97m10s00f

Disc Type:

High Speed CD-RW

Recording Layer:

Phase Change

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

12x

Write Speed:

10x (CLV)

Write Time:

9m:01s

C1 Average/Sec:

7.19

C2 Average/Sec:

5.54

A bad result for this disc, high C2 errors and burned below their rated speed.

Overall thoughts:

The CD-RW writing performance of this drive is below average. There are almost no problems when burning well known high quality media but it performs poor with other media. 

Now let's head on to the DVD+R/+RW writing performance...

DVD-Writing performance:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD±R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4483Mb of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

                                                                                                                                     DVD+R

DVD-R

Let’s compare with some other drives.

Write DVD data discs

DVD+R

DVD-R

Plextor
PS-760A

5m:40s
(18x speed)

5m:46s
(18x speed)

Samsung
SH-S182D

5m:31s
(18x speed)

5m:21s
(18x speed)

Samsung
SE-S184M

5m:32s
(18x speed)

5m:23s
(18x speed)

Pioneer
DVR-112

5m:19s
(18x speed)

5m:21s
(18x speed)

Lite-On
LH­-20A1P

5m:02s
(20x speed)

5m:07s
(20x speed)

We can see. With its 20x writing speed, the Lite-On LH-20A1P was the fastest drive when writing DVD+R/-R, but let’s see how good the writing quality is.

 

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 SHM-165P6S 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 the Lite-On LH-20A1P with firmware KL05 and the Lite-On SHM-165P6S with firmware MS0R along with KProbe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A/Lite-On LH-20A1P/NEC-3540A with firmware 1-01/KL05/1.WB along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

EDITORS NOTE: Some DVD±R media was burned by using the OverSpeed function.



Brand:

Miflop Extreme – Thanks to Miflop
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden Company Limited

Code:

YUDEN 000 T03

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

20x

Write Time:

4m:58s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

4.88

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.03

Miflop extreme media with Taiyo Yuden media code, the result is excellent.



Brand:

BenQ – Thanks to Daxon
for sending us this media

Manufacturer:

Daxon Inc.

Code:

DAXON AZ3

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

18x

Write Time:

5m:19s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

2.29

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.01

The result is excellent.



Brand:

Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (Germany)
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation

Code:

MCC 004

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

18x

Write Time:

5m:16s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

0.78

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.01

The result is excellent.



Brand:

Pleomax – Thanks to Pleomax (NL)
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Opto Disc

Code:

OPTODISC R16

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

6x

Write Time:

10m:30s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

2.07

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.04

The result is excellent but the drive only burned this disc at 6x. Sometimes it is a problem for the drive to burn media at their rated speed, the next burn of the same disc on the same drive succeeded at 16x without any problem. We have seen similar results also for other media many times in our forum, so we wanted to show this also in our review.



Brand:

Traxdata ValuePack – Thanks to Conrexx (NL)
forum sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

RiTEK Corporation

Code:

RITEK P16

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

5m:56s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

18.59

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.09

A bad result for this media, other drives are able to burn this media with a PIE average below 2.



Brand:

Traxdata DVD+R

Manufacturer:

Ricoh Company Limited

Code:

RICOH JPN R03

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

5m:58s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

100.60

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

8.97

A very bad result for this media.



Brand:

Datawrite - Thanks to E-net
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Prodisc Technology Inc.

Code:

ProdiscR04

Disc Type:

DVD+R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

5m:51s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

9.22

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.04

A very good burn until around 3.6GB and then it’s gone worse. The read back test looks perfect.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

Below are our obtained results.

 



Brand:

Ricoh – Thanks to Ricoh Europe
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

RICOH Company Limited

Code:

RICOH JPNW21

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

8m:02s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

12.73

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.10

The result is very good for this DVD+RW media.

 



Brand:

Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

RICOH Company Limited

Code:

RITEK 008

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

8m:05s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

52.31

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.17

Very high PI-8 errors at the beginning, but the disc was perfectly readable.



Brand:

TDK

Manufacturer:

RICOH Company Limited

Code:

RICOHJPN W11

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

8m:05s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

5.92

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

1.58

An excellent result for this Ricoh made TDK DVD+RW.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P produced mixed results on both media types and has sometimes also problems to burn media at their rated speed. On the other hand it produces very good results with quality media that are burned much faster than rated.

On the next page we are going to take a look at DVD-R/RW writing performance…

DVD-R/RW Writing performance:

For these tests we used the same testing equipment as for our DVD+R/+RW tests.



Brand:

Miflop Extreme – Thanks to Miflop
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden Company Limited

Code:

TYG03

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

20x

Write Time:

5m:02s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.48

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.00

Miflop extreme media, with Taiyo Yuden media code and the result is excellent.



Brand:

Ricoh – Thanks to Ricoh Europe for
sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics Corporation

Code:

CMC MAG AM3

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

20x

Write Time:

5m:05s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

26.19

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.06

The result is good.



Brand:

Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (Germany)
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

Code:

MCC 03R G20

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

18x

Write Time:

5m:34s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

5.28

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.02

The result is very good.

 

Brand:

BenQ – Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media

Manufacturer:

Daxon Inc.

Code:

DAXON 016S

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

18x

Write Time:

5m:22s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

6.49

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.07

The result is very good.

 

Brand:

Datasafe - Thanks to E-net for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation

Code:

MCC 03RG20

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

5m:55s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

0.98

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.07

Another excellent result for a Mitsubishi Chemicals made media.

 

Brand:

FujiFilm

Manufacturer:

Prodisc Technology Inc.

Code:

ProdiscF02

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

6m:04s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

2.25

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.03

An very good result for this Prodisc media. The Lite-On LH-20A1P automatically enabled Online HyperTuning (OHT) for this media.

 

Brand:

Pleomax – Thanks to Pleomax (NL)
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Opto Disc

Code:

OPTODISCR016

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

5m:53s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

60.91

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.20

One bad result, even when the disc was perfect readable in our NEC 3540A.

 

Brand:

Traxdata ValuePack – Thanks to Conrexx (NL)
forum sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

RiTEK Corporation

Code:

RITEK F1

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

16x

Write Speed:

16x

Write Time:

5m:53s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

30.73

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.07

Not a very good but acceptable result for this media.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

 



Brand:

Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Code:

MKM 01RW 6X01

Disc Type:

DVD-RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

6x

Write Speed:

6x

Write Time:

10m:39s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.26

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.01

The result is excellent.



Brand:

Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim
for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation

Code:

MCC01RW4X

Disc Type:

DVD-RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:58s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

7.88

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.33

The result is good.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P produced good/excellent quality results with the tested DVD-R/RW media. Selected, quality media where burned above their rated speed.

On the next page we are going to take a look at DVD±R DL writing performance…

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing performance and quality:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P 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.

For these tests we pre-authored several video clips into an image file and burned the resulting image in Nero Burning Rom. We then used the Lite-On LH-20A1P/Lite-On SHM-165P6S along with KProbe to test the discs quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our Lite-On LH-20A1P using Nero CD-Speed.



Brand:

Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim (D)
for providing the sample.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Code:

MKM 003

Disc Type:

DVD+R DL

Capacity:

8103MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

17m:49s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1.50

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.04

The result is very good.



Brand:

Traxdata

Manufacturer:

RiTEK Corporation

Code:

RITEKD01

Disc Type:

DVD+R DL

Capacity:

8103MB

Certified Speed:

2.4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

27m:22s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

6.43

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.51

The result is good and the media was burned above its rated speed.

DVD-R DL:



Brand:

Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim
for providing the sample.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Code:

MKM 03RD30 

Disc Type:

DVD-R DL

Capacity:

8103MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

18m:15s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

4.85

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.04

The result is very good.



Brand:

Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx (NL)
forum sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

RiTEK Corporation

Code:

RITEKP01 

Disc Type:

DVD-R DL

Capacity:

8103MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

28m:52s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

63.37

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

1.62

A bad result for this media but the disc was good readable.



Brand:

Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim
for providing the sample.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Code:

MKM 01RD30 

Disc Type:

DVD-R DL

Capacity:

8103MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

28m:22s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

10.13

PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:

0.06

Relative high PI-8 errors on layer one but the result is good.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

Unfortunately we only have 1 standalone DVD-Players available to test the DVD+R DL medias (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type: DVD-R):        

  • Cyberhome CH-DVD 402

Compatibility results:

Drive

Infiniti
DVD+R DL

Verbatim
DVD+R DL

Verbatim
DVD-R DL

Comments

Cybnerhome
CH-DVD 402

OK

OK

not tested

ok

Our DVD Standalone device played the DVD+R DL media burned by the Lite-On LH-20A1P without any problems.

We would like to mention that the Cyberhome CH-DVD 402 DVD player does not support DVD-R DL playback and a test result hasn’t been added because of this.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P burned DVD+R/-R DL media with average/acceptable quality.

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

Writing performance DVD-RAM:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P supports writing and reading 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.

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


Maxell 12x media manufactured by Maxell

Now let’s see how DVD-RAM media is written and read by the Lite-On LH-20A1P:

Maxell 12x at 12x with “Streaming” option

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1P wrote our 12x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 12x in 5 minutes and 49 seconds.

Verbatim 5x DVD-RAM media, manufactured by Matsushita Electric.

Verbatim 5x at 5x with “Streaming” option

The Lite-On LH-20A1P wrote our 5x DVD-RAM media in 11 minutes and 27 seconds.

Now let’s see how our Lite-On LH-20A1P performs when reading back the discs that we wrote:

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1P use a P-CAV reading method, and reads the disc at its rated write speed, meaning our 12x media was read at 12x and the 5x media at 5x.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P performed excellent at both reading and writing our test DVD-RAM media. When using 12x media the drive completed a full disc in 5 minutes and 49 seconds, which should be fast enough for every day backups.

To round of this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On LH-20A1P on the next page…

Sheep Test

For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That’s because the logo of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer’s ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: “Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns”.

  • No sheep: Can’t backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
  • 1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
  • 2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
  • 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators Womble; has written a guide concerning the “Sheep Test” that can be and be found here.

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Lite-On LH-20A1P supports everything.

The Lite-On LH-20A1P supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

Sheep Tests

Reader:
Lite-On
SHM-165P6S

One Sheep Burner
SD2OLD

Yes

Two Sheep Burner
SD251

Yes

Safedisc v2.90
SD290

Yes

Three Sheep Burner
SHEEP3

No


 

As we can see from the table and screenshots, the Lite-On LH-20A1P is a “Two Sheep Burner”. It also succeeded in writing the Safedisc V2.90 test but failed the Sheep3 test.

Overburning

CD-R overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the Lite-On LH-20A1P, we used the over-burning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.

Nero CD/DVD Speed reports that the disc can be overburned to 93 minutes and 45 seconds.

To test if the Lite-On LH20A1P is capable to read overburned CD-Rs, we have set up a compilation in Nero and burned the disc, which has been tested above, to it’s maximum capacity and tried to read back the disc:

We read the disc back in CD-Speed at full speed. As we can see above, the Lite-On LH-20A1P had no problems in reading the disc to the end, with an maximum read speed of 50.06x.

DVD+R overburning:

First we tried to overburn a DVD+R disc.

As we can see above the Lite-On LH-20A1P does not support overburning on DVD+R media.

DVD-R overburning:

Now we try a DVD-R.

As expected, the drive does also not support overburning on this media type.

Positive:

·         Supports DVD±R/±R DL/RAM writing at 20x/8x/12x

·         Supports DVD+RW/-RW writing at 8x/6x

·         Supports CD/RW writing at 48x/32x

·         Can write DVD±R certified media at higher speed

·         Supports Bitsetting for DVD+R/RW/DL media

·         Supports disc quality scanning

·         Can read 100 minutes CD-Rs

·         Reads DVD±R/±RW/±RL at 16x/12x/12x

·         Reads DVD-Video SL/DL at 16x/12x

·         Good community support and 3rd party programs that works with the drive

·         Good retail and software package

·         Almost good writing quality on DVD±R/±R DL media

Negative:

·         Does not support Mt. Rainer

·         Reads CD-RW only at 32x

·         Fails sometimes to write DVD media at their rated speed

·         Single LED for reading and writing

·         Questionable writing quality on some CD-RW media

·         High lead in writing time

Conclusion:

Let us now summarise the most important positive and negative points below:

The Main Positive Points:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P is one of the worlds first DVD-writers supporting 20x writing speed on DVD+R/-R media and one of the fastest drives we have tested so far.

The Lite-On LH-20A1P is an excellent reader. It reads most media groups at high speed and reads all media groups reliably.

The Lite-On LH-20A1P writes most DVD±R/±RW/±R DL media with good quality. Sure, we have seen much better quality burns with other drives but we can say that the writing quality is above average.

It has a very good set of features and supports many media formats. Lite-On drives also enjoy good community support and 3rd part programs here at CD Freaks.

The Main Negative Points:

The Lite-On LH-20A1P reads CD-RW only with up to 32x speed and the writing quality on these media could be better.

Also the Lite-On LH-20A1P fails sometimes to write media at their rated speed or slows down during the burning process without a reason while other burns appear to be perfect. It doesn’t affect the writing quality but it’s simply annoying.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “The Lite-On LH-20A1P is an overall average performing drive. Its very good feature set together with 20x DVD+/-R writing speed and its good community support makes it a recommendable drive for everyone, burning enthusiasts and the average home user.”

At Geizhals.at we can find the Lite-On LH-20A1P starting at €24.84.  

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

Miflop Media – Spain for providing the media used in this review.

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe – The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.

Daxon Technology Inc – Taiwan for providing the BenQ media used in this article.

Philips Europe – The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review

Pleomax Europe – The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.

Ricoh Europe – Germany for providing the media used in this review.

Sony - Germany for providing the media used in this review.

Ultron AG – Germany for providing the media used in this review.

Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

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