Lite-On SOHW-1653S DVDR/RW review

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It has been a while since we last looked at a Lite-On drive so the time is here to look at a new one; the Lite-On SOHW-1653S. We are familiar with Lite-On drives for several years and their drives do usually perform very well and has many features compared to their low price. Let us see if this drive continues this trend and could keep up with the competition, especially from NEC and BenQ that have made some exceptionally good DVD-Writers. Let's take a look at the already well know Lite-On history.

Some Lite-On history:

In 1995 Lite-On gathered some elite scientist and engineers from ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) to start an optical storage research and manufacturing business in Taiwan. Currently they have over 130 engineers with Master & Ph. D. degrees in their Research & Development team, that are dedicated to the development of their patented anti-vibration mechanical design, advanced circuit design, firmware programming & performance tuning. The Research & Development team achievement is a key factor that has ensured their success in product development.

In 1997, Lite-On established a large manufacturing facility in China enabling them to provide optimum OEM/ODM support to all 1st-Tier PC makers, which further demonstrated their success in the worldwide Optical drive market. Today, they are among top-3 optical drive manufacturer worldwide, mostly due to attractive pricing and quality filled products, along with large OEM contracts. They have also received top brand name recognition in many regions. These achievements, plus superb management visions and planning, enabled them to continue their growth and profit even at times when the optical drive market experienced "price-wars" and many optical drive manufacturers were forced out.

In 1999, they created LITE-ON Information Technology Corporation, another proud member of the Lite-On Group, to concentrate on developing and manufacturing optical drives to stay strong in the storage business. They are going to carry on the tradition of developing optical drives to expand their research and manufacturing capacity to new generations of products such as DVD drives, High speed CD-RW drives and COMBO drives to stay strong in both the retail and OEM/ODM market.

At 9^th July 2001 Lite-On IT signed a co-operation contract with JVC, a famous Japanese electrical company, to be in alliance with each other. Two new companies was established, one is the optical drives manufacturing sales company, named as JVC LITE-ON IT Manufacturing & Sales, Limited (JLMS) , the other is pick-up head developing & manufacturing company.

JVC is a pioneer in development of key components of optical drives and consumer electronics as well, Lite-On IT is excellent in volume manufacturing and developing, also skilled in IT industry. That kind of strategic alliance would benefit both companies.

If you have read our previous Lite-On reviews you may already feel familiar with this company information, so let us now take a look at the specifications of this drive:

Drive specifications:

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These are the specifications of this drive, found at the Lite-On webpage:

SOHW - 1653S 16x 4x / 12x 4x / 16x / 4x + 48x 24x 48x Half-Height DVD-Dual

• ATAPI / E-IDE Half-Height internal DVD+R / DVD+RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD-ROM / CD-R / CD-RW / CD-ROM combination drive
• Support Double Layer DVD+R9 Recording Function
• SMART-BURN avoiding Buffer UnderRun Error, Automatically adjusting writing strategy & running OPC to provide the best burning quality
• SMART-X function adjusts CD-DA / VCD / DVD data extraction to a fastest allowable speed according to both data request rate from host and disk quality
• VAS® system reduce vibration and noise during recording and reading
• Support Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Raw Mode Burning & Over-Burn
• DVD read compliant : DVD single / dual layer ( PTP / OTP ), DVD-R ( 3.9 GB / 4.7 GB ), DVD-R multi-borders, DVD+R, DVD+R multi-sessions, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW
• CD read compliant : CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM / XA, Photo-CD, Multi-session, Karaoke-CD, Video-CD, CD-I FMV, CD Extra, CD Plus, CD-R, and CD-RW
• Support both 8 cm and 12 cm disc of CD and DVD family
• Conform to Orange Book : Part 2 CD-R Volume 1, Part 2 CD-R Volume 2 Multi Speed, Part 3 CD-RW Volume 1 ( 1x, 2x, and 4x ), Part 3 CD-RW Volume 2 : High Speed, Part 3 CD-RW Volume 3 : Ultra Speed
• Supported transfer mode : PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 and Ultra DMA mode 2

DVD Family :	Write	DVD+R	16x ( 21600 KB/sec ) maximum by CAV
		DVD-R	12x ( 16200 KB/sec ) maximum by CAV
		DVD+R9	4x ( 5400 KB/sec ) maximum by CLV
	ReWrite	DVD+RW	4x ( 5400 KB/sec ) by CLV
		DVD-RW	4x ( 54060 KB/sec ) by CLV
	Read	16x ( 21600 KB/sec ) maximum by CAV
	Access time	160 ms
CD Family :	Write	CD-R	48x ( 7200 KB/sec ) maximum by P-CAV
	ReWrite	CD-RW	24x ( 3600 KB/sec ) maximum by Z-CLV in UltraSpeed disc
	Read	48x ( 7200 KB/sec ) maximum by CAV
	Access time	160 ms
Buffer Size :	2 MB
PC Required :	Pentium III 450 MHz or faster CPU and 128 MB or higher RAM are required
	650 MB HDD available capacity; and 5 GB free space for creating a DVD image file
Compatibility :	Windows 98 / NT 4.0 / ME / 2000 / XP
MTBF ( Life ) :	70,000 Hours
S/N Ration :	> 75 dB
Environment :	Operating	5C to 45C; Relative Humidity : 15% to 80%
	Non-Operating	-40C to 60C; Relative Humidity : 15% to 95%
Dimension :	145.0 ( W ) x 41.3 ( H ) x 170.0 ( D ) mm
Weight :	< 0.9 Kg
Voltage Requirements :	+5V +/-5% and less than 100 mVp-p ripple voltage
	+12V +/-5% and less than 200 mVp-p ripple voltage

The specifications is very good, the only drawback we could see is that it only supports 12x writing for DVD-R. It should also write with CAV technology, which is promising for low recording times and high average recording speeds.

What's inside the box?

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Let us start out pretty easy with taking a look at what we got and what the box contained.

 

The drive we received was a retail drive that came in a nice looking box, pretty identical to earlier boxes we have seen from Lite-On. Let us take a look at the content of the box:

Looks like a very small bundle but to make sure that we do not miss anything we list what we got below:

This is what the Retail bundle consists of:

•        The drive itself
•         Cyberlink PowerDVD software CD
•          Nero software CD
•          Quick installation manual
•          Screws
•          Audio cable

Far from the best bundle we have seen, we are missing an IDE-Cable, a thicker manual and some empty media.

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

 

Nothing new under the sun here, it uses the usual Lite-On front that we have got quite used to now.

 

Our sample was produced in China and has a production date of October 2004.

 

Still no changes on the back either; from the left: undocumented pins used for calibrating the drive at the factory; digital audio connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

Now, let us install the drive and check out the features and program bundle of this drive on the next page…

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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: Abit IC-7 MAX3
i875P
⋅
Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 3,2GHz 800MHz FSB Prescott with Hyper
Threading support.
⋅
RAM: 1Gb PC3500 DDR
⋅
GFX: Gainward GeForce 6800LE

⋅
Sound: SB
Audigy 2
⋅
Hard
disks: 2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7k250 160Gb S-ATA in
RAID 0 on the i875P S-ATA RAID controller.

System
set-up:

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S was connected as Secondary Master and
identified itself as LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1653S. DMA
(Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

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:

⋅
Ahead Nero Burning ROM version
6.6.0.3
⋅
Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed
v3.61
⋅
Ahead Nero InfoTool
v2.27
⋅
DVD-Identifier
3.5.1
⋅
K-Probe v2.4.2

Installation and supported features:

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We quickly
installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info
tool:

 

Our drive came
shipped with firmware CS07, we updated the firmware to version CS0A
(experimental version), but found some issues with this version and will use
CS09 for this review. The only drawbacks we could see are the inability to read
and write DVD-RAM discs as well as missing Mt Rainier support along with a bit
small buffer. A larger buffer would at least smoothen up the data transfer to
the drive a bit on stressed systems.

Book type
changing:

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To see if the
Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports bitsetting we tried with Lite-On's official
tool:

 

As we could see it
supports bitsetting. The write now button is for directly changing the booktype
on a DVD+RW disc. Unfortunately it's not possible to save the settings. It
does not
automatically set the booktype for DVD+R DL to DVD-ROM either, which is
a negative in
our book, as most new
users will not know about the bitsetting feature. To test if bitsetting works we
wrote a disc and verified it with Nero CD-Speed:

Error scanning
of written discs:

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The Lite-On
SOHW-1653S supports error reporting just like earlier drives from Lite-On. Here
are two examples on programs you may use for checking your written discs for
errors.

KProbe is developed
by a Lite-On
employee, but it's not an
official Lite-On program. This is what we use in our reviews.

Nero CD-Speed
is just as good and also gives you an indication of the quality by giving a
score. Higher score is better; a good result should at least be over 80 in
quality score.

Included software:

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Now it's time to
look at the included software, and comment it if needed. Notice that we may not
use the included software in our performance testing part of the
review.

Power DVD
5:

The drive
includes Power DVD 5 to play DVD and VCD movies. PowerDVD is among our favourites so Lite-On did
a good choice on including it.

Nero 6 OEM
Suite:

The well known Nero
suite is also included and covers all tasks from creating the movie to writing
it to the disc. One of our favourite programs.

Now that we have
finished examining the drive and bundled programs '“ let us head on to the next
page, which is reading performance test…

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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
sports a specified read speed of 16X for DVD's and 48X for CD's.

Pressed
discs:

For this test
we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing PlexTools
v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced
result:

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S reached 48x at the
end, to see how this compares to other drives, look below:

The speed is
very good '“ among the fastest we have seen so far. But the seek times could be
improved.

CD-Recordable
Discs:

For this test
we made a copy of the original PlexTools v1.08 CD. The
disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi
Chemicals Corporation.

 

Again a good
result, look below for a comparison table.

Same here as
well, good speed but poor seek times.

CD-ReWritable discs:

Again we made
a copy of the original PlexTools v1.08 disc, this time
we used a Verbatim High Speed (10X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation.

 

The drive
reads CD-RW discs at only 32x. Check how this compares to other drives
below.

Lags behind
the best drives due to a reading speed of only 32x, and the seek times are still
a lot higher than for the other drives.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the
digital audio extraction performance of the Lite-On
SOHW-1653S, we again 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 about 78 minutes long (77:56:57).

 

The drive had
no problems with reading the audio disc at full speed and everything seems good,
so let us compare the result with other drives:

Again '“ good
speed, but poor seek times.

Advanced
audio '“ DAE quality test:

Before we move
on to testing DVD read speeds we will take a last audio test, this time we used
the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed.

 

It simply
impressed in this test, everything is as good as it could possibly be! Excellent
speed and quality as well as supporting all features.

DVD reading performance:

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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 single and dual layered DVD
video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it's useful to
be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you're going to extract (rip) the
content of the disc to your hard drive.

 

 

As we can see,
this drive reads single layer DVD-Video discs at almost 16x speed and double
layer DVD-Video discs at 8x speed, pretty average '“ but we would like to see at
least 12x reading speed for double layer discs. How this compares to other
drives may be seen in the table below.

The Lite-On
SOHW-1653S is far from the fastest writer, but it is at least not locked to low
speeds for reading DVD-Video discs.

 DVD+R(W):

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For this test
we used a Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD+R and a Ricoh 4X DVD+RW with about 4,4Gb of data. Below are the
results:

 

 

The reading
speed was locked to 8x for DVD+R and DVD+RW.

The Lite-On
SOHW-1653S with its reading speed of only 8x is among the slowest readers for
DVD+R/RW media.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

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For this test
we used a Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 2X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4,4Gb of data. Our test results
are found below:

 

 

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

In this test
it actually comes out as the slowest drive of all the tested drives.

Overall
thoughts:

The drive is a
very good and fast reader for CD-R media and pressed CD/DVD media. But a reading
speed of only 8x for DVD+/-R/RW media is very disappointing compared to the
fastest drives. We would also like to see faster CD-RW reading speed.

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 SOHW-1653S state that
the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x. Let us
find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

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Let us first
take a look at the CD-R write technology used by the Lite-On
SOHW-1653S:

 

As we could see the
Lite-On SOHW1653S uses CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write at its rated speed of 48x,
this gives an average speed of 37.49x. This seems to be right where it should be
for a 48x writer. But let us take a look at the speed with two other writers,
for comparison purposes.

 

The Mad Dog
MD-16XDVD9 uses CAV (Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 48x. This gives an average speed of 36.38x.

 

As we could
see the Plextor PX-712A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) writing
strategy to reach it rated speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 36.43x.

And as a last
test we wrote a disc containing 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 Lite-On SOHW-1653S used 2 minutes and 44 second to write the
disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other
drives;

As we could
see the Lite-On SOHW-1653S is one of the fastest at CD-Writing. That's a plus in
our book.

Write Quality:

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We will test
CD-R discs from a total of 7 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 LTR-52246S drive
with firmware 6S0F 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 average for good
quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will
make a disc unusable.

Why wait any
longer? Below are the obtained results:

 

Brand:	Memorex, thanks to Memorex for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:12s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.28
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

CMC Magnetics is not known for making the best CD-R discs but
the result produced here is quite good, although not perfect. We are still
disappointed to see that it wrote the disc at 40x only.

 

Brand:	MMORE
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:39s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.06
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

A pretty good
result with these CD-R discs.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi China
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:09s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.56
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Perfect quality, but disappointing
that the drive only supports these discs at 40x speed.

 

Brand:	That's Write - Thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek (JS Dye)
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:17s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.253
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

Disappointing that this media also
works at 40x only, but the result is pretty good.

 

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ Thanks to Miflop for providing it
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	32x
Write Time:	3m:38s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.18
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Excellent
quality as expected. But the low writing speed of only 32x is very
disappointing.

 

Brand:	Memorex
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	97m32s19f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:56s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.01
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

For a reason
or another it would only write these prodisc CD-R's at 16x, but the quality is
acceptable.

 

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Systems, Ltd.
Code:	97m27s18f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:11s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.65
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

We have found
these Samsung CD-R discs, manufactured by Plasmon, to
be of very low quality. And as we could see the C1 error count is a bit higher
than for most other media types.

Brand:	BenQ, thanks to Daxon for providing it
Manufacturer:	Daxon (but with Hitachi Maxell ATIP)
Code:	97m25s29f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:13s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.13
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The drive
produced a pretty good result with this disc, but unfortunately only at
40x.

Since so few
discs worked at 48x speed we tried some other discs '“ just to see what speed we
could obtain (by disc manufacturer); nanya plastics 48x CD-R write at 40x, TDK
52x CD-R wrote at 48x, fujifilm 52x CD-R wrote at 40x, princo 48x CD-R wrote at
40x, sony 52x (made by lead data) CD-R wrote at 32x and daxon 48x wrote at
32x.

CD-ReWritable:

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The Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports a CD-ReWriting speed of 24x, let us see
how this compares to other writers. Let us start with taking a look at the
writing strategy it uses;

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of 22.57x. This again
seems a bit slower compared to other drives, below are some other drives for
comparison.

 

The Pioneer DVR-107D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of 22.47x.

 

The Plextor PX-712A, with its P-CAV
(Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) write speed of
24X for Ultra Speed CD-RW discs is among the faster writers due to its high
starting speed of 21.12x.

And we did
also write a disc in Nero Burning ROM, the compilation we made was 650Mb large
and we wrote the disc with the Disc At Once write method.

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S used 3 minutes and 55 seconds for writing
the disc at 24x, let us compare this to some other
writers;

Slightly
slower than most other drives due to the fact that is uses Z-CLV writing
technology. But let us look at the CD-RW writing quality:

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics, but with Mitsubishi dye and ATIP
Code:	97m34s24f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 4: Long Strategy (Phase Change)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	4m:19s
C1 Average/Sec:	47.83
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

There are at least
no C2 errors, but it's still not the best result we have seen with this disc
type.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Plasmon data systems
Code:	97m27s12f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 2: Long Strategy (Phase Change)
Capacity:	74:41.00 (656MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	3m:55s
C1 Average/Sec:	1163.00
C2 Average/Sec:	184.90

Low quality discs,
and as we could see the result is horrible. When trying to read it back we found
it to be completely unreadable of course.

Summary:

It
offers good CD-Writing, but it's a long time since we have had a drive with such
poor media compatibility. CD-RW writing quality and speed is nothing to shout
hurray for either.

But after
all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance and DVD media compatibility…

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The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD-R discs at 12X speed. In this part we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+/-R(W) discs. We do also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

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We will start with taking a look at the writing strategy used and compare it to other drives;

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x speed. This gives an average speed of 11.97x and a total writing time of 6m:01s. This supports 12x for DVD-R writing, and here is the writing speed at 12x:

As we could see it uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) to write at its rated speed of 12x for DVD-R. This gives an average speed of 9.61x. Below are the results for two other 16x writers.

 

The BenQ DW1620 uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.51x and the lowest time we have obtained are 5 minutes and 47 seconds. The drive uses a bit longer time than ideally since it uses running OPC technology when writing (shown as small dips in the transfer curve above).

 

The NEC ND-3500AG uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. The average speed for the NEC ND-3500AG is 11.70x and total writing time is 6 minutes and 4 seconds.

Let us see how long time it needs to create a disc with Nero. We used Nero burning Rom to set up a new UDF/ISO compilation containing 4483Mb of data, and started the write process. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

The DVD+R disc was finished in 6 minutes and 3 seconds, while the DVD-R disc was finished in 7 minutes and 28 seconds.

*Actual writing speed is 12x.

The writing speed for DVD+R is about average compared to the other drives, LG GSA-4163B is the fastest drive and Pioneer DVR-A08XLA is the slowest, and the Lite-On SOHW-1653S placed about exactly in middle of these two drives. We would like to see 16x DVD-R writing speed, or at lest a faster P-CAV writing strategy at 12x. But let us see how the writing quality of this drive 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 SOHW-832S 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 Failueres) 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 is 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-ROM disc (Baldurs Gate DVD-ROM).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (Indiana Jones and the last crusade). 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 what 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 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 PIE-8
errors. In practical use a disc with 1664 PIE-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 are what 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.

And 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 to 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-3500AG DVD-Writer. The reason why we have changed 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 DVDR 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; does it look clean with no
dips it should be good, a small slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibility and write
quality:

---

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Singapore
Code:	MCC004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:3s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	49.07
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

As we can see
the produced disc is not readable. Lite-On needs to fix this as this media works
good in other drives.

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:4s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.32
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.22

We do not have
any complaints here, the disc worked acceptable at 16x. The spike in the PIF
errors is caused by a disc error, not due to writing problems.

Brand:	Traxdata
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	19.18
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.21

The error
level is too high at the end, but we are unsure if this is a disc problem or a
writer problem. When looking at the disc we can se darker spots in the DYE close
to the outer edge after the disc is written, this is normal for discs with
uneven/low quality DYE.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Philips/CMC Magnetics
Code:	Philips.C16 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.29
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

This disc type
is unfortunately only supported at 8x, but the quality is at least
excellent.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TDK 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	16m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	13.16
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.89

As we can see
there is a spike near the end, not good and Lite-On definitively needs to fix
this!

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R03 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:29s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	17.46
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The drive did
not have any noticeable problems with this media.

 

Brand:	eProformance
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC.R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.45
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.28

The drive
performed very well with the prodisc media and we have no problems
recommending this media.

Brand:	Platinum
Manufacturer:	Ricoh by Ritek
Code:	RICOHJPNR02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.01
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.09

A slight
increase in error near the end, but nothing to worry about.

 

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.E01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.37
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Another media
type that works problem free.

Brand:	That's
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.41
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

And Taiyo
Yuden does of course work excellent! But we would like to see higher speeds than
8x supported for this media.

 

Brand:	BenQ, thanks to Daxon for providing this media!
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON.AZ2
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:22s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.12
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

A bit
disappointing that this media worked at 6x only, but the quality is at least
good.

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	OPTODISC.OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	-
Write Time:	-
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	-
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	-

Seems like
Lite-On have made a mistake in their firmware as the drive refused to write to
this media at all.

 

Brand:	Prodye Video
Manufacturer:	Plasmon
Code:	Plasmon1C01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	17.96
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.26

Nothing to
complain about as this media type is among the lowest quality media types on the
market.

Brand:	Fortis
Manufacturer:	Daxon with Sony tech.
Code:	SONY.D11
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.19
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Brand:	ProDVD
Manufacturer:	UME Disc '“ Hong Kong.
Code:	AML 002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.19
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Impressive
result with these discs, when taking into account that this is among the worst
discs on the market.

Brand:	Commodore
Manufacturer:	Interaxia AG
Code:	VDSPMSAB002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.33
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Another very
low quality media type, and as we could see the result is not very good with
this media type.

Head on to
next page and read about DVD-R compatibility and write quality as well as
DVD+/-RW writing quality and
speed...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

---

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Singapore
Code:	MCC02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:29s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	109.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

There are room
for improvements here

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.69
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

No problems
with this media.

Brand:	MiFlop Extreme '“ thanks to MiFlop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.26
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

A good result
'“ just like we expect with Taiyo Yuden.

 

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Daxon '“ but with Sony ADIP.
Code:	SONY08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:32s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.11

No problems
with this media, worked excellent at 12x speed.

Brand:	Datawrite
Manufacturer:	Prodisc '“ but with Fujifilm technology and ADIP.
Code:	FUJIFILM03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8X
Write Speed:	8X
Write Time:	8m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	12.42
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

No noticeable
problems with this media either.

Brand:	eProformance
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscF01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1213.00
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	Freaked out '“ wrong result.

The Lite-On
SOHW-1653S do simply not work with this media. We did try 3 discs with same
results; same media type works in other writers

Brand:	Datawrite
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.AE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:7s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	23.48
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

No problems
with this media either.

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto disc
Code:	OPTODISCR008
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:53s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	17.07
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

A surprisingly
good result with this cheap optodisc manufactured DVD-R discs.

Overall
thoughts: The drive actually does a good
job on most 8x media and almost every 8 disc worked at certified speed, so the
media compatibility is pretty good. But media compatibility and writing quality
at 12x and 16x speeds needs improving. We would also like to see more media
supported for overspeeding (writing at speeds higher than certified
for).

Re-Writing data:

---

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports rewriting DVD-RW and DVD+RW at 4x speed, let us write two discs in Nero and see how fast it
is.

Here is the
writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a 4X Verbatim
DVD-RW disc:

 

The drive used
15 minutes to write the disc at 4x speed.

And here is
the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a Ricoh
4X DVD+RW disc:

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S used 14 minutes and 14 seconds to write
the disc.

Writing Quality with DVD Re-Writable discs:

---

Due to request 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 unsure. All discs used for these tests
have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 25
times.

DVD+ReWritable
media:

Brand:	That's Write - Thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh (by Ritek)
Code:	RICOHJPNW11
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	86.76
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.16

While there
were no problems reading back the disc the amount of errors is a lot higher than
usual with this media.

Brand:	Verbatim DataLifePlus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM A02
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	97.41
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	3.66

Again a not so
good result, and there is even some slight problems indicated by the reading
curve.

Brand:	Daxon '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	Daxon.D42
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	34.12
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.22

Again a bit
high amount of errors, but the reading curve is clean.

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW04
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	2x '“ failed
Write Time:	-
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	-
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	-

First; this
media is not supported at 4x speed, and second; it failed writing it. Not good
and there is plenty of room for improvements.

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Made in Singapore)
Code:	MCC01RW4X
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.66
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.13

Finally '“ the
first rewritable media that gave back good results.

To sum it
up:
The Lite-On SOHW-1653S is one of the worst writers for writing rewritable
DVD-Media we've had in the past. With all DVD+RW media it gives discs with
higher than usual error level, and it did not work with the Ritek 4x DVD-RW
disc.

But let us
now look at the most interesting aspect of this drive; Double Layer DVD+R writing…

---

DVD+R Dual Layer
writing speed and compatibility:

---

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports 4x DVD+R Double layer writing speed;
let us see how it performs quality and speed wise.

Testing
procedure: We created a new compilation
using Nero 6 and wrote it using the Disc-at-once writing
method: 

Verbatim DVD+R9 Double layer 2.4x written at 4x. Total writing time is 27 minutes and 9
seconds. 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Taiwan)
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.61
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.15

A slight spike
at the layer change but nothing to worry about. All in all a pretty good
result.

Brand:	Traxdata
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	44m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	35.62
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.53

We could see
that there is some slight problems reading back the second layer at full speed
with the plextor and that the error level is noticeably higher than for the
first layer. But after all, this is one of the few drives that have been able to
create a working disc with the ritek DL media.

Here are some
comparison results against other drives:

The discs
worked fine in our standalone player, as long as we set the booktype to
DVD-ROM.

Summary: The drive has no
problems with DVD+R Double layer media, just remember to set the booktype to
DVD-ROM.

Before we
round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next
page…

---

To round off
this review we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On
SOHW-1653S

The 'Sheep test":

---

For this test,
we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test?
That is because the symbol 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 could be found here.

In the
screenshot below we see that the Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports all available write
and read features in CloneCD:

The Lite-On
SOHW-1653S supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode. This means that it can write
uncorrected data and subchannel data.

Below are our
results from the 'Sheep Tests":

The Lite-On
SOHW-1653S qualifies as a two sheep writer and can produce functional backups of
Safedisc 2.90 protected discs. This Lite-On writer is a good choice for backing
up copy-protected content.

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:

 

Westlife: World of our own is
protected with Cactus data shield 100.

 

Natalie Imbruglias White lilies
Island.
This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield
200

 

Shakira: Laundry service,
which is protected with Key2Audio version 2.

 

And finally
Celine Dion: A new day has
come, that is protected with key2audio version 3

Results:

Unfortunately
the Lite-On SOHW-1653S was unable to read one of our test discs.

Overburning:

---

To test the
overburning capabilities of the Lite-On SOHW-1653S we
used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.
According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn
to more than 99 minutes:

 

Media used is
Ritek 99 minutes media. And we also wrote a 99 minute disc in Nero:

 

There were no
problems writing the 99 minutes disc, but what about reading then?

 

There are no
problems reading the 99 minutes test disc.

Now, that
concludes our Lite-On SOHW-1653S review, head on to
the last page to read our conclusion…

Positive:

---

• Supports 4x
  DVD+R9 Double Layer writing
• Supports
  16x CAV DVD+R writing speed
• Good
  writing quality with CD-R discs.
• Mostly good
  writing quality at DVD-Writing speeds below 12x.
• Good
  writing quality with double layer media.
• Supports
  DAO-RAW writing.
• Supports
  reading and writing of full SubChannel Data.
• Fast and
  perfect audio extraction.
• Supports bitsetting.
• Media
  quality scanning features.
• Short drive
  design makes it easier to fit in small computer cases.
• 'Two sheep"
  writer '“ positive when backing up copy protected games.
• Supports
  reading/writing 99 minutes CD-R discs.

Negative:

---

• Not the
  best bundle (missing cables, printed manual and empty discs).
• Only 12x
  DVD-R writing speed.
• Poor
  writing quality at 12x/16x DVD-Writing.
• VERY poor
  CD-R media compatibility!
• Questionable CD-RW/DVD-RW/DVD+RW
  writing quality, especially DVD+RW media writing quality needs
  improving.
• Very low
  reading speed of DVD+/-R/RW media and CD-RW media compared to most other
  drives.
• High seek
  times
• Does not
  support Mt. Rainier.
• Problems
  reading certain copy protected audio discs.
• Does not
  bitset DVD+R DL media to DVD-ROM automatically.
• Problems
  reading cactus data shield 100 protected audio discs.
• We miss the
  good old 'solid-red" writing LED from previous Lite-On writers, we do not like
  the blinking green LED of this writer.

Conclusion:

---

We have been pleased with earlier Lite-On drives, but this one did not
meet our expectations. Read on to find out why.

 The main positive points: The drive offers
pretty good writing quality with CD-R media and at 8x with DVD media, and it has
good media compatibility '“ even with unknown media. It also offers good DVD+R
Double layer writing quality and speed, along with booktype changing
possibilities. And as always with Lite-On drives it offers good testing
possibilities of written discs by using tools like K-Probe or CD-Speed. Another
advantage is the great user community, for example here at the cdfreaks forums
where you could get help quickly as well as finding lots of tools designed for
Lite-On drives.

The main
negative points: We did never expect to
see poor CD-R media compatibility with a Lite-On drive as they have been
excellent at CD-R media compatibility in the past. But this one just plain
fails, almost no discs works at 48x '“ even though the supported media list we
got states that they should work at 48x. And the media compatibility and writing
quality at 12x/16x writing speeds MUST be improved, that's for sure! And there
are some quality and compatibility issues as well with rewritable media
(CD-RW/DVD-RW and DVD+RW). It is also a very slow reader for DVD+/-R, DVD+/-RW,
double layer media and CD-RW media compared to other drives.

To sum it all
up, this is the best we could say: 'Some
things here and some things there that needs to be fixed, couple it all together
and you will see that there are better drives available." What must Lite-On do to achieve an award next
time? First; we expect full 16x media compatibility with good writing quality on
both + and '“ formats, increase reading speed for DVD+/-R/RW, CD-RW and double
layer discs, and fix the CD-R media compatibility problem. Then their drives
would be right up there among the better drives.

You
may discuss/comment this review below or in this
forum thread. This forum thread may also be used to ask questions around
this drive or request additional tests.

Thanks
to:

Conrexx for
providing the  media used in this review. Conrexx technology
is the supplier of Traxdata media as well as other
Ritek media brands for whole Europe.

 For providing the That's Write media used in this review. That's Write focus on providing quality
media at reduced prices in Europe.

 For providing some of 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.

 For providing us with Mirror and Miflop Extreme
media. Miflop media aims at providing both cheap
(INFOSMART) and expensive (Taiyo Yuden) quality media.

For providing the RiData media used in this
review. RiData is
a Ritek brand and thus you are sure to get Ritek manufactured discs when buying RiData media.

 For providing the Daxon and BenQ media used in this review. Daxon manufacture high quality
media for many large OEM customers lke BenQ and Sony.

 For providing the Verbatim DVD+R9 Double Layer media used in this
review. Verbatim
provides high quality media almost over the whole world.

Looking for CD and
DVD-Media in Norway? Visit www.norwaydisc.no the Norwegian specialist
on CD and DVD Media!