Lite-On SHW-16H5S DVD Burner Review

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Lite-On It B.V. was kind enough to send us their latest DVD Burner, the SHW-16H5S for review, and we will be putting the SHW-16H5S through its paces in this review.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S supports 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 8x/4x DVD+R DL/DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.GB to be written. The Lite-On SHW-16H5S also supports LightScribe label writing technology.

Company information: 

Let us take a look at some of the company information found at the Liteon Website:

Lite-On Technology Corporation's vision is to become a world-class excellent company. The company will accomplish this not only through leading global R&D and manufacturing technologies, but also through the quality and distinctiveness of its products.

To reach these levels of excellence and become the leading navigator in 3C convergence, Lite-On plans to generate between five and six billion US dollars in annual revenue while establishing itself as a global market-leader by mastering all of its product-line industries. The company's ability to generate profits will guide the industrial circles in which it competes. While accomplishing these goals, corporate management will continue its policies of absolute financial transparency, independence, and impartiality.

The company's pursuit of excellence does not end there. To create better lives for people, Lite-On will also continue to develop advanced and integrated digital products while furnishing customers with innovative values that lead to true, beneficial relationships. Lite-On wants to be the best strategic partner for each of its customers.

Led by a professional team with promise and lofty ethics, Lite-On will also strive to be an excellent corporation with peak efficiency. The company will provide shareholders and investors with an appealing return-on-investment. Additionally, Lite-On will supply employees with an optimum work environment that helps them learn new skills and grow professionally for the future. Lite-On seeks to become one of the best corporations that people in greater China can choose for a career.

Facts & Figures:

• Lite-On Technology reported its global consolidated June revenue of NT$13.7B, increasing 4% on a YoY basis.
• Accumulated revenue in 2005 totalled NT$75.6B, growing 2% on a YoY basis.

If you are interested in reading more company information, please visit: Liteon

Drive specifications:

The specifications of the SHW-16H5S were found at the Lite-On webpage:

What's inside the box?

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

The drive supplied was the retail version, and as we can see, we were supplied with the SHW-16H5S drive, black and beige bezels, Nero OEM suite, PowerDVD, one piece of LightScribe media, audio cable, fixing screws, and instruction booklet.

Box front

Box rear

 
Box left and right

Box top

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

Black bezel

Beige bezel

The bezel of the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is attractively styled. On the tray we can see the 'LightScribe" logo, and we can also see an emergency eject hole, a single green coloured LED for read and write (we prefer a different LED colour though for writing) and an eject button.

Top

Label

On the top of the drive we found two labels, and we can see that the drive was made in China, dated October 2005.

On the rear of the drive starting from the left, we can see a diagnostics connector, digital audio connector, analogue audio connector, jumpers for cable select, slave, and master; IDE connector, and finally the power connector.

Software Suite

Now it's time to take a look at the bundled software suite and comment if needed. Please note: we may not use the supplied software in this review.

Supplied with the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is the powerful Nero OEM suite, and comprises the following applications:

⋅         Nero Express 6.6
⋅         InCD 4
⋅         Nerovision Express 3
⋅         Nero Backitup
⋅         MPEG-2 SVCD/DVD plug-in
⋅         Drive manual
⋅         Adobe Acrobat reader

The screenshot above shows the Nero OEM install screen.

Also supplied with the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is the very good PowerDVD application, allowing the user to play DVD-Movie disc's on their PC.

With the Nero OEM and PowerDVD software, the user should have everything needed to burn and author recordable media, and view the results on their PC screen. The package is easy to use for the beginner and contains enough features for the advanced user.

Disc Quality Scanning:

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S can also be used for 'Disc Quality Scanning" using either K-Probe or Nero CD-DVD Speed. In the screenshot below we can see the results of a 'disc quality scan" in CD-DVD Speed.

But let us continue this review and see how the SHW-16H5S really performs.

On the next page we will take a look at the test machine, the software, and the drive features…………

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Test machine:

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

Hardware:

⋅        
Motherboard: ASUSTeK A8N-SLI DELUXE (nForce 4 SLI
chipset)
⋅        
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3500+ (Venice) 800 MHz FSB.

⋅        
RAM: 2 GB Corsair TWINX 2CL DDR
⋅        
GFX: Leadtek Winfast 6600 TD (PCI Express
nVidia)
⋅        
Sound: SoundBlaster Audigy 2
⋅        
Hard disk: 1X 200GB Seagate Barracuda (SATA): 1X 120GB
Maxtor (SATA).

System
set-up:

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S was connected as Secondary Master and
identified itself as LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-16H5S. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

NOTE: This motherboard has 8 IDE
channels; although the screenshot states the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is connected to a
Primary IDE channel. It is in fact connected as Secondary
Master

And another
screenshot from Nero InfoTool below:

From the
screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt. Rainier support and a larger
buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware version LS0T

Installed
Software:

Windows 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:

• Nero Burning ROM version
  6.6.0.18
  and V7.0.1.2
  
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
  V4.10
  
• Nero InfoTool
  v4.00
  
• Slysoft CloneCD
  v5.2.5.1
  
• Exact Audio Copy
  v0.95 beta 2
  
• K-Probe v2.5.1
  
• SureThing Deluxe 4.3
  labeler

Features and
techniques:

Disc Writing Technology:

In the
following tests, we take a look at the disc writing technology used by the
Lite-On SHW-16H5S.

For these
tests we simple burned a disc with Nero CD-Speed's 'create data disc"
function.

CD-Recordable:

The Lite-On
uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its
maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of 37.10x, and as we can
see, it took the Lite-On SHW-16H5S 2 minutes 38 seconds to write the
disc.

Below we have 3 other
drives for comparison.

The Samsung
SE-W164C uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at
its maximum speed of 48x. This gives an average write speed of
37.22x.

The Samsung TS-E552U uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 40x. This gives an average speed of 34.39x.

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. The drive wrote the last
zone at 40.41X and this gives an average speed of 31.70x.

 For comparison we have
made the following table: 

As we can see
from the table, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is very fast when it comes to writing
CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write CD-RW at its maximum speed of 24x, with an average write speed of
22.50x and a total write time of 3 minutes and 44 seconds.

Below are some
other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of
24.90x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds

The Samsung
SE-W164C uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of
28.32x and a total writing time of 3 minutes 35 seconds.

The NEC ND-3540A uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) writing
technology to write at 32X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 29.75x.

The NU DHW-164
uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity)
writing technology to write at 24X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is
23.16x.

For a better
overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see
from the table, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S performed about average when writing
CD-RW's.

16X DVD+R
Writing speed:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed
of 11.96x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 59 seconds.

16X DVD-R
Writing speed:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD-R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed
of 11.93x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 56 seconds.

Below are some
write graphs from some other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R
at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This gives an average write speed of
11.59x and a writing time of 6 minutes and 1 second.

The NEC 3540A uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.81x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 58
seconds.

The Philips
DVDR16LS uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.33x and total writing time is 6 minutes
and 8 seconds. The average speed is lower and the writing time is higher than it
could have been due to the Walking OPC generation 2 using some time to
constantly adjust the writing quality, we could see this as constant dips in the
speed curve.

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.60x
and total writing time is 6 minutes and 12 seconds.

The LG
GSA-4163B uses P-CAV, (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. The average speed is 12.90x and total
writing time is 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

Below, we made
a comparison table:

*1 '“ Actual
writing speed was max 14x due to USB-Bridge limitations.
*2 '“ Actual writing
speed was max 13x due to USB-Bridge limitations.

From the table
above, we can see that the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is above average when it comes to
burning DVD±R
media.

8X DVD+RW
writing speed:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.74x and total
writing time is 7 minutes and 35 seconds.

Below are
three drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.81x and total writing time is 8
minutes and 43 seconds.

The Samsung
SE-W164C uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.52x and total writing time is 7
minutes and 52 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.98x and total writing time is 7
minutes and 15 seconds.

We made the
table below for easy comparison.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S was above average when it came to writing DVD+RW at 8x.

6X DVD-RW
writing speed:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.83x and total
writing time is 10 minutes and 55 seconds.

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 6.01x and the total writing time is 9 minutes
and 53 seconds.

The Samsung
SE-W164C uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.88x and total
writing time is 10 minutes 23 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 5.80x and total
writing time is 11 minutes 6 seconds.

We present the
table below for easy comparison.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S was around average when writing DVD-RW media

8X DVD+R DL
writing speed:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S supports 8x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.
Unfortunately we did
not have any 8x DVD+R DL media to test the drive at this speed.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S used CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write the
Verbatim DVD+R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 4.05x and the total writing
time was 27 minutes and 42 seconds.

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+R DL at 8x. The average speed is 7.00x and total writing time is
18:06 minutes.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD+R DL media at 8x which gives an average write speed of 6.55x and a
total write time of 18 minutes and 40 seconds.

The BenQ
DW1640 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD+R DL at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an
average write speed of 7.32x and a total write time of 15 minutes and 36
seconds.

4X DVD-R DL
writing speed:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S used CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write the
Verbatim DVD-R DL disc at 4x. The average speed was 4.02x and the total writing
time was 27 minutes and 32 seconds.

Below are
three other drives for comparison.

The Pioneer
DVR-110 uses Z-CLV, (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD-R DL at 8x. This gives an average writing speed of 7.06x and a
total write time of 17 minutes and 55 seconds.

The NEC
ND-4550A uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write DVD-R DL media at 6x which gives an average write speed of 5.67x and a
total write time of 20 minutes and 41 seconds.

The BenQ
DW1640 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R
DL at its maximum speed of 4x. This gives an average write speed of 3.74x and a
total write time of 29 minutes and 56 seconds.

We present the
table below for easy comparison.

The Lite-On
was quite slow when writing DVD+R DL, but was around average when writing DVD-R
DL media.

Book type
(bitsetting):

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S supports auto bitsetting, via burn applications such as Nero, and
supports 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 the following
screen:

DVD+R DL with book type
DVD-ROM.

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

This should say
DVD-ROM.

Now let us
take a look at the reading performance of the Lite-On SHW-16H5S on the nest
page….

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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. 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
SHW-16H5S reached 48.28x, and will reach faster speeds on a full disc. Let's
compare the result in the table below:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S was very fast reading a pressed CD-ROM. The seek times were average.

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. 

As we can see
from the above screenshot, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S reached 48.62x when reading
CD-R. This gives an average read speed of 36.84x.

Now let us
compare with the drives below.

Once again the
Lite-On SHW-16H5S performed extremely well on our CD-R read test, and was among
the fastest drives

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

 CD-Rewritable 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.

As we can see
above, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is locked at around 32x, reading CD-RW; now let us
compare it to other drives below.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S performed below average at reading CD-RW's.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the
digital audio extraction performance of the Lite-On SHW-16H5S, 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
SHW-16H5S went beyond its maximum rated speed of 48x and actually reached
49.71x; let us compare the result with other drives:

The Lite-ON
SHW-16H5S performed well above average with the Audio-CD.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

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 'caching" which can have an
adverse effect on Audio extraction performance. 

Below is the
results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive
performed very well in burst mode, and still managed a reasonable result 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 CD-R media from RICOH (Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this
media).

The extracting
quality is excellent, and the drive performed flawlessly with this test, an
excellent result.

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.

DVD '“
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

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S is not RIPLOCKED and reads a pressed DVD-Video at up to 16x for a
Single Layer disc, and at 8x for a Double Layer disc.

Now let us
test a pressed DVD-ROM disc. For this test we used the 'Plextor PX-716A" install
DVD, which is around 4.37 Gigabyte in size.

As we can see
from the above screenshot, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S reads a DVD-ROM at
16x.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S performed very well with our SL DVD-Video test. It was the fastest
drive at reading a pressed SL DVD-Video disc. With the Double Layer DVD-Video it
performed around average.

DVD '“
DVD+R(W):

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

DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

Once again the
Lite-On SHW-16H5S was the fastest drive when reading DVD+R, and above average
with DVD+RW. Now let us see how it will perform on 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

Strangely the
Lite-On SHW-16H5S only reads DVD-R at 12x and not 16x as it does with DVD+R
media. DVD-RW media is also read at 12x.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S performed averagely when reading DVD-R media, but was among the
fastest drives when reading DVD-RW media.

Overall
thoughts:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S is an excellent reader; it's fast and reliable, worth a mention is the
DAE performance, which is excellent.

But now
it's time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW
discs…

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The
specifications of the Lite-On SHW-16H5S state that the drive is able to write
CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 24x. Let us find out how the drive really
performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R
discs:

For our data
writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 700Mb 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):

The drive took
3 minutes and 20 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares
to other drives in the table below:

Write
Quality:

We will test
CD-R discs from a total of 8 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:

 

Brand:	Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.17
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by
Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of
0.17 it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category.
Highly recommended!

 

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:	1x-52x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:39s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.33
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

RICOH media '“
manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 2.33 it goes in
the 'good
discs" category. 

The result on
this Verbatim Super AZO+Cystal DL disc is extremely good. With a C1 error
average of 0.23, this disc goes into our 'best quality disc" category. Highly
recommended!

Another excellent result
from the Emgeton branded CD-R media manufactured by Fornet International. With
its C1 average of 1.26, it places this disc in our 'best disc" category.
Recommended!

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:38s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.72
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The Traxdata CD-R
manufactured by RITEK, with its C1 average of 0.72 places this disc in our 'Best
discs" category. Highly recommended!

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:37s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.79
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another excellent burn,
with a C1 average of 0.79, this places this disc in our 'Best Disc" category.
Highly recommended!

Brand:	HP '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:36s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.69
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Once again we have a very
good result, with a C1 average of 1.69, this places the HP CD-R manufactured by
CMC Magnetics in our 'best disc" category. Highly recommended!

Brand:	Infiniti Printable '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SKC
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.09 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.87
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another very good result,
with a C1 average of only 1.87, this places this disc in our 'best disc"
category. Highly recommended!

Writing Quality with Re-Writable
discs:

Due to requests from
our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media.
Settings and testing procedures are the same as used earlier in this review, so
you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for
these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than
5 times.

CD-ReWritable
media:

Brand:	Daxon Ultra Speed '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	97m22s60f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:44s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.26
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

With a C1 average of
0,26, this places this Daxon media in our 'best Disc" category. An excellent
result.

 

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	16x (CLV)
Write Time:	5m:44s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.16
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

A very good result,
but the disc was only written at 16x

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek.
Code:	97m27s12f
Disc Type:	High Speed CD-RW 8-24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	74:41.00
Certified Speed:	12x
Write Speed:	10x (CLV)
Write Time:	8m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.69
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

A very good
result.

Summary:

The CD-R/RW writing quality is
excellent.

So let us
head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance…

---

The
specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 16x and
DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the write time for various
types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and
media compatibility.

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 4480MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once
write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Look below for
the results.

The
results are among the fastest when compared to other drives for DVD-R but
average for DVD+R. Let us see how 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 SHW-1635S
DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On
DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo
drive can't be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On
DVD-Writer. Also remember that
different PI/PO ECC sum settings along
with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these
settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8
ECC blocks,
PIF
(Parity Inner Failures) set
to summarize 1 ECC block,
reading speed: 4X CLV
(Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the
PIF sum to 1 will give
a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and
DVD-R/RW.

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

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

 

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

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

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

Random
errors:

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

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

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

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

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

'If a row
of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than
5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be 'PI-uncorrectable"."

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 (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:

'In any
ECC Block
the number of PI - uncorrectable 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 NEC ND-3540A 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 SHW-1635S drive with firmware YS0N along with K-Probe
to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-3540A with
firmware 1.03 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests. 

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.61
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

An excellent
burn to start our tests. Highly Recommended!

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.95
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

An excellent
result form the Verbatim 16x media manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals. Highly
recommended!

Brand:	Datawrite '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics Corporation
Code:	CMC MAG M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.01
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.20

PI errors are
getting quite high near the end of the disc, the read back test is perfect, the
result is still very good.

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RICOH
Code:	JPNR02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.65
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.16

The result is very good.
Recommended!

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.98
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

An excellent result from
the Verbatim 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. Highly
recommended!

Once again the
result is excellent. Highly recommended!

Brand:	Emgeton '“ Thanks to Bell Technology (CZ) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Infomedia Inc.
Code:	INFOME R20
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	6x (CLV)
Write Time:	10m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.98
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.32

PI and PIF
errors are rising at the end of the disc, the read-back test is perfect and the
result is good.

Brand:	Unbranded printable
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.56
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

PI errors are high at the
start of the disc, PI error average is however low and the read-back test is
perfect. The result is good.

Brand:	MMORE '“ Thanks to MMORE (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India Limited
Code:	MBIPG101 R05
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.82
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Another very good
result.

Brand:	Verbatim Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Verbatim
Code:	MCC003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	7m:27s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.34
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

An outstanding result
from the Verbatim MCC003 disc. Highly recommended!

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	DAXON AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:09s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.29
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.10

The result is
good.

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK R04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	6m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	22.89
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.16

PI errors are high at the
start of the burn, but are still well within specification, our read-back test
shows a slight slowdown at the end of the disc. This should not cause too much
concern. The result is good.

Brand:	RiDisc '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN R01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	14m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.48
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

And another excellent
result. Recommended.

DVD+ReWritable media:

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 (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	7m:34s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.53
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is
very good and as we can see a perfect reading curve. Recommended!

Another very good result
from the Traxdata DVD+RW media, manufactured by RITEK.

To sum it
up: So
far the Lite-On SHW-16H5S writes DVD+R with very good quality and DVD+RW media
with good quality. All our test discs had a good read-back curve. Let's find out
if the drive can do as well with DVD-R/RW media.

On the next
page you will find the DVD-R/RW writing
results...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and
write quality:

In these tests
we will be using a Lite-On SHW-1635S drive with firmware YS0N along with K-Probe
to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-3540A with
firmware 1.03 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.45
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.12

PI errors are
quite high throughout the disc but well within specification, and the read-back
test is perfect. The result is good.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for providing this sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.56
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The cluster of
PIF errors is a bit alarming although the read-back test is perfect. The result
is ok.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAG AM3
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.17
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.13

Another good
result.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:20s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.54
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The PIF errors
are astonishingly low, and the read-back curve is perfect. An excellent result.
Highly recommended!

Brand:	RiDisc '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK G05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:25s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.82

Once again the
cluster of PIF errors near the end of the disc is worrying, and we have a small
slowdown in our read-back test.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAGAE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	75.95
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

PI levels are
high throughout the disc but within specification, and we have a good read-back
curve. The result is good.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK F1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	34.92
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.13

The PI error
levels are quite high throughout the burn and PIF levels are fairly constant
throughout the burn, but all well within specifcation. The read-back test is
good, another good result.

Brand:	BenQ '“ Thanks to Daxon (Taiwan) for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Daxon Inc.
Code:	DAXON AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x (CAV)
Write Time:	5m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.00
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

A very good result with
low PIF errors. Recommended!

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY 08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.20
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Another very good
result.

Again we have a cluster
of PIF errors at the end of the disc, this doesn't affect the read-back test
which is perfect, another good result.

Brand:	RiVision '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Prodisc Technology
Code:	Prodisc S03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	14m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.65
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.11

A result is
good.

Brand:	Ridisc
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x (P-CAV)
Write Time:	8m:25s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.89
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.18

Again we have the PIF
cluster near the end of the disc. Overall the error averages for PI/PIF are
good, but we see a slowdown in our read-back test. The result is ok but could be
better.

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK W06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	10m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.13
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.22

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S has handled the Traxdata DVD-RW media well. A very good
result.

To sum it
up:
Overall, the write quality is good on DVD-R and DVD-RW media, but some
improvements would be nice with DVD-R.

Head on to
next page and read about DVD+R DL compatibility and write
quality...

---

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing
speed and compatibility:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S 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 DVD+R DL, and
4x for DVD-R DL. Let us first take a look at the media we will use:

Let's find the
manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed
version 4.10:

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this
media.

Traxdata
manufactured by RITEK, thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this
media.

Ricoh JPN D00,
manufactured by Ricoh. Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this
media.

Datawrite, manufactured
by CMC Magnetics. Thanks to E-Net UK for sending us this media.

Testing
procedure:
We created an ISO Image from
a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of 8146
MB. We then wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 6. Below are the
results:

Verbatim Media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Verbatim media in 26 minutes 58 seconds.

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	26m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.05
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

The result is
excellent. Recommended.

RITEK
Media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Traxdata media in 43 minutes 28 seconds.

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x (CLV)
Write Time:	43m:28s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.31
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.25

A very good result, the
SHW-16H5S has handled this media well

Ricoh Media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Traxdata media in 43 minutes 28 seconds.

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RICOH
Code:	JPN D00
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x (CLV)
Write Time:	44m:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	20.70
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.06

PI and PIF errors on the
second layer are quite high, but are well within specification.

Datawrite Media

As we can see the burn
failed, after making two further attempts which also failed, we must conclude
the drive will not be able to burn this media with the present
firmware.

Now let us try
and read the Double Layer media back, first on the Lite-On SHW-16H5S and then
the BenQ DW1640.

Lite-On SHW-16H5S read-back test (MKM001)

BenQ
DW1640 read-back test (MKM001)

Lite-On SHW-16H5S read-back test (RITEK D01)

BenQ DW1640 read-back test (RITEK D01)

Lite-On
SHW-16H5S read-back test (RICOH JPN D00)

BenQ DW1640 read-back test (RICOH JPN D00)

As we can see from our
results, both drives read the Verbatim and Traxdata Double Layer media without
any problems. We can also see both drives had problems reading the RICOH media,
with the BenQ DW1640 failing to read the 2nd layer on the disc.

Let's compare
the Lite-On SHW-16H5S with some other DL capable drives.

*1 Verbatim DVD+R DL
(MKM001)
*2 Traxdata DVD+R DL (RITEK D01)
*3 Ricoh DVD+R DL (RICOH JPN
D00)
*4 Datawrite DVD+R DL (CMC MAG D01)

DVD-R
DL

As mentioned
at the top of this page, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S supports the DVD-R DL standard at
4x. Let us first take a look at the media we will use:

Let's find the
manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use CD-Speed
4.10:

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this
media.

Again, we used
Nero Burning Rom 7 to write the DVD Image:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S took 27 minutes and 35 seconds to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL media at
4x.

To check the
disc quality we used the Lite-On SOHW-1635S along with K-Probe.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to SVP UK for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x (CLV)
Write Time:	27m:35s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.85
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

As we can see
from the K-Probe scan, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S has written the Verbatim DVD-R DL
media with very good quality.

We will now
check the read-back curves on two different drives.

Lite-On SHW-16H5S read-back test

BenQ DW1640 read-back test

As we can see
from the above read-back tests; both drives read the DVD-R DL disc without any
problems.

Standalone DVD-Player
compatibility:

We only have 3 standalone
DVD-Players available and 1 standalone DVD-RAM DVD-R recorder to test the DVD+R
DL medias (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (Book Type:
DVD-R):

• Panasonic
  DVD-RV32
  
• Panasonic
  SA-HT520
  
• Proline DVDP350

• Panasonic DMR-E50
  recorder

Compatibility
results: 

All DVD Standalone
devices played the Lite-On SHW-16H5S burned DVD+R DL media. But only one DVD
Standalone device would play the Lite-On SHW-16H5S burned DVD-R DL media without
any problems.

We would like to mention,
that the compatibility issue with standalone DVD Players/Recorders and the DVD-R
DL media format is caused by incompatibilities with the standalone devices used
in this review, and not the Lite-On SHW-16H5S or media format used.

Summary: Very good quality on
most DVD+R DL/-R DL and DVD standalone compatibility results, for the DVD+R DL
media. We would also like to see CMC MAG D01 media properly supported in the
firmware.

Now the
really interesting part of this review, the LightScribe tests on the next
page…

---

LightScribe:

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

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

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

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

LABEL-MAKING REDEFINED.

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

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

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

A RADICAL
REVOLUTION IN DISC LABELING.

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

JUST HOW
DOES IT WORK?

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

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

LIKE TO
KNOW MORE?

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

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

The
LightScribe Media:

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

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

In this
article we will use LightScribe media from Verbatim:

Designing
and burning with SureThing Labeler:

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

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

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

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

The SureThing LightScribe
printing dialogue showed us an estimated remaining time of 20 minutes and 54
seconds.

Now let us take a look at
the result.

Very nice indeed, even if
we zoom in on the disc, the quality and contrast is very good. We decided to
print this design twice on the new disc in Best quality, to test the indexing
feature:

Excellent! The indexing
capability of the hardware and software worked out perfectly. The label is now a
lot darker and the graphic details are still excellent.

Summary

The LightScribe feature
on the Lite-On SHW-16H5S produced excellent results, the only negative is the
time taken to produce the image.

To round of
this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On SHW-16H5S on the
next page.....

---

To round off
this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On SHW-16H5S. These
tests are: 'Sheep Test", protected audio discs and some special disc tests.

The '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 found here.

In the
screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Lite-On SHW-16H5S supports
everything.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write
uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

 

As we can see
from the table the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is a 'Two Sheep Burner", in addition it was
also able to complete our Safedisc 2.90 test.

Copy protected Audio:

For our
protected audio test, we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the
protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried
to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we
had available for this test: 

Celine Dion: A
New Day Has Come; protected with key2audio version 3.

 

Herbert
Gé¶nemeyer: Mensch - This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4
.3(build 12b)

And Michelle:
Leben!; protected with Cactus Datashield 200.5.1.91 '“ 5.10.090.

Results:

From our 'copy
protected audio disc" tests, we would have to conclude the Lite-On SHW-16H5S had
no problems in ripping our protected audio CD's.

Overburning:

900MB (99 minute)
over-burn test:

For this test
we used an Infiniti Professional Compax 99min/900mb CD-R. (Thanks to Medea
International (UK) for providing the disc).

From the
screenshot above, it was clear the Lite-On SHW-16H5S would be able to write the
99 minute media at its full length. We then set up a test over-burn with Nero
CD-Speed. We set the test at 99:57.74 to be exact, then attempted to write a
test disc.

As we can see
from the above screenshot, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S created our test disc. Now it
was time to see if the drive could read the disc.

As we can see
from the above screenshot, the Lite-On SHW-16H5S successfully read the
disc.

We can
conclude that the Lite-On SHW-16H5S would be a very useful drive for
over-burning CD-R media.

Mini DVD-RW
discs:

In this
section we are going to test if the Lite-On SHW-16H5S is capable of writing and
reading mini DVD-R/RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

The Memorex
media is made by CMC Magnetics.  Thanks to Memorex Europe for sending us
this media.

As we can see,
the Lite-On SHW-16H5S had no problems in writing to our MINI DVD-RW
disc.

Now it was
time to test if the Lite-On SHW-16H5S could read our disc.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S had no problems in reading the created MINI DVD-RW disc.

The Verbatim
MINI DVD-R was manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation. Thanks to SVP
UK for providing this media.

Now it was
time to see if the Lite-On SHW-16H5S could write our MINI DVD-R disc.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S had no problems writing our MINI DVD-R disc. Now let's see if the
drive can read back the disc.

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S successfully read back our MINI DVD-R disc.

Video-CD disc:

For our final
test we wanted to see how the Lite-On SHW-16H5S would read a Video-CD, for this
test we created a Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 6, and used NERO CD-DVD Speed
to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The Lite-On
SHW-16H5S is locked at 40x when reading VCD's

This
concludes our Lite-On SHW-16H5S review, let's head on to the last page to read
our conclusion…

Positive:

• Excellent write quality with CD-R/RW media
• Excellent write quality with most DVD+R media
• Supports LightScribe labeling system
• Supports DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x
• Supports DVD+R DL/-R DL at 8x/4x writing speed
• Can write DVD+R DL certified media at higher speed
• Excellent CD-R reading performance
• Excellent DAE performance
• Very good CD-R over-burning capabilities
• Supports auto bitsetting for DVD+R/RW/+R DL (booktype to DVD-ROM)
• Can read Pressed DVD-ROM/DVD-Video SL/DL at 16x/12x
• 'Two Sheep" writer plus Safedisc 2.90
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Supports Mini DVD-R/RW discs
• Good software package
• Extra 'black" bezel included in the package

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• Read speed is locked at 12x for DVD-R media
• Some CD-R discs burn slower than their rated speed
• Single colored LED for read/write
• Write quality on some DVD-R media's could be improved
• Only supports 24x write speed on CD-RW
• Does not over-speed DVD±R media
• Some DVD+R DL media are not fully supported by the drive
• Write quality on some DVD+R DL media needs to be improved
• Small buffer size

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points: DVD+R writing quality and media support is excellent with the Lite-On SHW-16H5S. As far as DVD+R writing quality goes, this drive can hold its own with any other drive on the block.

CD-R writing quality is also excellent, and some very impressive write times were measured during this review. The write quality with CD-RW is also excellent, although limited to 24x maximum write speed.

DVD±RW write quality was very good with our tested media.

Digital Audio extraction and quality was extremely impressive with the Lite-On SHW-16H5S, perhaps the best performing drive of them all in this department.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S was also a very capable reader; CD-R read performance was excellent.

The LightScribe feature is also very well implemented and very capable of very good results.

The Nero OEM and Power DVD software package is excellent, with a nice balance of ease of use and useful features, for both the beginner and more experienced user.

The main negative points: There are not many negative things to say about the Lite-On SHW 16H5S. DVD-R write quality needs some improvement; many of our tested DVD-R media had high error levels near the end of the disc.

Reading performance with DVD-R media is also a little slow with the SHW-16H5S locked at 12x read speed, while DVD+R media can be read at 16x

CD-RW write speed is also limited to 24x. This is not such a great problem as the time taken to write a CD-RW media at 24x or not much greater than a CD-RW disc written at 32x.

The Lite-On SHW-16H5S does not allow any DVD±R media to be burned faster than its rated speed (over-speed)

A minor negative is the single coloured LED for read and write (we prefer different colours for read/write) and a small buffer size.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'Lite-On are back, the SHW-16H5S is a very good all around package with very few weaknesses" With better DVD-R write quality, this drive would be near unbeatable.

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we were unable to locate a listed price for the SHW-16H5S (December 2005). 

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

Thanks to:

Bell Technology spol s.r.o. '“ Czech Republic for providing the media used in this review.

SVP Communications '“ The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

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

Medea International '“ United Kingdom for providing the Infiniti and HP media used in this review

Ricoh Europe '“ For providing the media used in this review.

E-Net Distribution '“ United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

 

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

For providing the Memorex media used in this review. Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

Daxon (Taiwan) for providing the Daxon media used in this review.