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Review: Lite-On LH-20A1S Reviewed by: Dee-27 Provided by: Lite-On BV (NL) Firmware: 9L05 Manufactured: January 2007

We at CDFreaks would like to present a review of one of the latest DVD-ReWriters from Lite-On – the Lite-On LH-20A1S. The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses a SATA interface rather than the more familiar PATA interface used on previous drives. The Lite-On LH-20A1S 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

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We found the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S at the Lite-On website

 

Retail packaging:

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Our review drive was a retail version. Let’s take a look at the packaging.

Box Front

Box Rear

Box left

 

Box Right

Box Top

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 retail package contained the Lite-On LH-20A1S drive, white, black and silver bezels. SATA cable, fixing screws, emergency eject tool and software CD-ROM.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

White bezel

Black bezel

Silver bezel

The bezel of the Lite-On LH-20A1S is plain but nicely styled and we can see various logo’s, emergency eject hole, single coloured green LED and an eject button.

Drive top

Drive bottom

On the top of the drive we found two labels and we can see the drive was manufactured in China during January 2007

On the rear of the drive we can see from left to right, an unspecified connector, SATA power and data connectors.

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 P5W DH Deluxe (Intel Glendale DG I975x chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600
• RAM: 4 GB OCZ Platinum dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: BFG nVidia 8800GTS (640 Megabytes GDDR3)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC882 HD audio controller
• Hard disk: 2X 250GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA 2)

System setup:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was connected to a SATA channel on the main board of our review PC.

No problems with the setup

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Lite-On LH-20A1S supports DVD-RAM read and write but the drive does not support Mount Rainier.

Firmware update:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S shipped with firmware version 9L03. We proceeded to update the firmware to version 9L05 before commencing with our review.

Original firmware shipped with the drive

The update process

We had no problems updating the firmware from version 9L03 to 9L05

Installed software:

• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• KProbe

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

Features and techniques

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The Lite-On LH-20A1S is powered by an MediaTek MT1899E chipset.

In the above screenshot we can see the internal PCB of Lite-On LH-20A1S, interestingly the PCB appears to be manufactured by Sony.

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

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• 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.

Software bundle:

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Let’s take a look at the software bundle included with our retail drive. Please note, we may not install or use any of this software in this review.

Our retail package included Nero 7 essentials, which included the following software.

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

Main software install screen

Nero 7 Essentials install screen

The user manual selection screen

The software bundle is very good and should provide a very good starting point for anyone purchasing this drive.

Disc Quality Scanning with CD-Speed:

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The Lite-On LH-20A1S can be used along with Nero CD-Speed for “Disc Quality Scanning”.

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

Disc Quality Scan at 8x scanning speed using CD-Speed.

Disc Quality Scan at 16x scanning speed using CD-Speed.

Disc Quality Scanning with KProbe:

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KProbe was designed by Lite-On engineers for use with their optical drives. The package is free, simple to use and very reliable.

PI/PIF scan at 4x scanning speed using KProbe

Lite-On has a long history of Disc Quality Scanning. The LH-20A1S proved to be able to perform this task with ease and the results obtained were as expected.

BookType (Bitsetting):

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The Lite-On LH-20A1S supports bit-setting, and is capable of writing DVD+R/RW/DL media with DVD-ROM book type.

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 with Booktype DVD-ROM

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-20A1S:

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-20A1S, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 37.28x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 38 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1S was the fastest compared to our other drives when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.95x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 41 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see, the Lite-On LH-20A1S was around average when compared to our other drives when writing CD-RW media.

20x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 20x.

DVD+R

The Lite-On LH-20A1Suses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 20X. This gives an average speed of 14.67x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 14 seconds.

DVD-R

The Lite-On LH-20A1S 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 5 seconds.

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-20A1S	20x +R 20x –R	CAV CAV	8.17X 8.20x	19.61x 12.64x	14.67x 14.70x	5m:14s 5m:05s

As we can see from our table, the Lite-On LH-20A1S was one of the fastest drives when writing DVD+R media and the fastest drive when writing DVD-R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.22x and a total writing time of 8 minutes and 4 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was below average at writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 5.74x and a total writing time of 11 minutes and 7 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.77x and a total writing time of 17 minutes and 57 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 8.50x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 59 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was around average when writing DVD±R DL media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 12X. This gives an average speed of 9.95x and a total writing time of 6 minutes and 25 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was the slowest drive when writing DVD-RAM media.

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 CD/DVD-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-20A1S reached 47.31x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S proved to be the fastest drive at reading our test CD-ROM. Access and seek times were 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-20A1S reached 47.69x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was among the fastest drives with our CD-R test disc, seek times were once again very good.

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-20A1S reached 34.11x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was among the slowest drives when reading CD-RW media.

100 minute CD-R:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S reached an impressive 52.65x when reading our test 100 minute CD-R and had no problems reading our 100 minute test CD-R.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Lite-On LH-20A1S, again we used Nero CD/DVD-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-20A1S reached 48.91x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was among the fastest drives when reading our audio test CD.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-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-20A1S is not riplocked and read our single layer disc at 16x and our double layer test discs at 12x

The Lite-On LH-20A1S performed very well in our DVD-Video reading tests and was among the fastest drives.

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-20A1S was the fastest drive when reading our DVD+R test disc and among the fastest drives when reading our DVD+RW test disc. Now let’s see how it will perform with DVD-R/RW.

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-20A1S was the fastest drive when reading our DVD-R test disc and among the fastest drives when reading our DVD-RW disc.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S read our DVD+R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S read our DVD-R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S read our DVD-RAM disc at 12x using a P-CAV reading method.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S really does have excellent reading performance, proving to be a fast and 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-20A1S 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:

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).

The write quality on the Verbatim 52x media is very good.

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

Once again we have an excellent result, (highly recommended).

Another excellent result (highly recommended).

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

The result is excellent (highly recommended).

Summary:

CD-R writing quality and media compatibility is very good/excellent with the Lite-On LH-20A1S and CD-RW was also excellent with our tested media.

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 up to 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.

Reviewers note
For these tests over-speeding was enabled, allowing the test discs to be burned faster than their rated speed.

DVD-Writing performance:

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 a Lite-On LH-20A1P with firmware KL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-03 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

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

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

An excellent result and the disc were written at faster than its rated speed.

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

Once again we have another good result and the disc was written at faster than its rated speed.

The selected burn speed was 18x for our Ricoh 16x media, however the LH-20A1S slowed the burn speed down to 8x (screenshot above for reference). The result is good.

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 very good.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S writes DVD+R/RW with excellent/very good quality and is able to burn selected media at higher than its rated speed.

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 KL05 along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7173A with firmware 1-03 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

The result is very good and the media was burned at higher than its rated speed.

PI and PIF errors are rising at the end of the disc and PIF errors get slightly out of specification. Our read-back test is perfect, the result is ok.

The result is good considering this disc was written a good deal faster than its rated speed.

PI and PIF levels are high at the end of the disc with PIF levels out of specification and our read-back test shows a slight slowdown. The result could be better and we would recommend not over-speeding this media.

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

Once again the result is very good and the disc was burned faster than its rated speed.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

PI errors are fairly high but PIF levels are low and we have a perfect read-back test. The result is good.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S has written our DVD-R media with very good/good quality and wrote all our test discs faster than their rated speed.

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

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

The Lite-On LH-20A1S 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 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.

DVD+R DL:

An excellent result

DVD-R DL:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S had big problems with this disc, the disc was un-readable, a very poor result.

We tried a second disc.

Once again the disc was un-readable.

PI errors are high but within specification, PIF levels are low however, our read-back test drive once again had problems reading the disc. The result is ok but could be improved.

Summary:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S burned our test DVD+DL with excellent quality. DVD-R DL quality was another matter. The 8x DVD-R DL media tests failed and our 4x DVD-R DL burn also showed some problems.

Let’s head on to the next page and our DVD-0RAM writing tests....

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The Lite-On LH-20A1S 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

The Lite-On LH-20A1S wrote our 12x disc in 6 minutes and 25 seconds. Now let’s try and read the disc back in the drive.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S failed to read the burned disc.

We then tried to read back the disc on our Optiarc drive. The disc was readable but the Optiarc drive also had problems reading the disc and we were forced to write the disc again in the Optiarc drive to recover the disc.

Summary:

We would conclude the DVD-RAM writing quality with 12x DVD-RAM media with the Lite-On LH-20A1S needs improving.

This concludes our Lite-On LH-20A1S review. To read the conclusion, click on the link below....

Positive:

• Excellent/very good CD-R/RW writing quality and compatibility.
• Excellent/good DVD±R/RW writing quality.
• Excellent DVD+R DL writing quality.
• Excellent reading performance on most media types.
• Can burn DVD±R media faster than its rated speed.
• Reads pressed DVD Video SL/DL at 16x/12x
• Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R/RW/DL.
• Supports Disc Quality Scanning with KProbe and CD-Speed.
• Excellent community support here on CD Freaks.
• Good software bundle
• Extra black and silver bezels supplied as standard with the retail package.

Negative:

• DVD-R DL writing quality needs improving.
• DVD-RAM writing quality needs improving.
• Long lead-in times hamper writing performance.
• Single coloured read/write LED

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points:

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was able to burn all our tested CD-R/RW media with excellent/very good quality and media compatibility was also excellent.

DVD±R/RW writing quality was also of a very high standard and on most media very good indeed.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S was also able to burn DVD±R media at faster than its rated speed, and overall burning performance with DVD±R media was very good indeed. Recording some of the fastest write times we have seen.

The Lite-On LH-20A1S is also a very good drive if you wish to use the drive for Disc Quality Scanning. Lite-On drives enjoy very good support here on CD Freaks forums.

The software bundle is also of a high standard and should provide all the essential tools for burning CD and DVD media.

The retail package also comes equipped with extra silver and black bezels

The main negative points:

There are not many negative things to say about the Lite-On LH-20A1S. DVD-R DL burning quality needs improving, as does DVD-RAM writing quality.

The long lead-in times when burning DVD±R holds back writing performance, had the lead-in not taken so long, the drive would have been able to burn at 20x in under 5 minutes.

We would also like to see different coloured LED’s being used for read/write.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The Lite-On LH-20A1S has a great feature set and burns most media with very good quality”.

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

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