Lite-On SOHW-1673S DVD Burner Review

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It's just a
short while since we tested the SOHW-1653S, but now there is a new drive
already; The SOHW-1673S. 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 -
1673S 16x 8x / 16x 6x
/ 16x / 4x + 48x 24x 48x Half-Height DVD-Dual

• ATAPI / E-IDE Half-Height
  internal DVD+R / DVD+RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R9 / 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
• Supprot 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

The specifications
are very good, and we can't find any noticeable drawbacks. 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 by 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 gotten quite
used to now.

 

Our sample was
produced in China and has a production date of December 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
connect the drive and check out the features and program bundle of this drive on
the next page…

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Test machine:

---

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 PC4300 DDR
⋅
GFX: Asus GeForce 6800

⋅
Sound: SB
Audigy 2
⋅
Hard
disks: 400Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 S-ATA connected to the Intel i875P S-ATA
controller.

System
set-up:

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1673S was connected as secondary slave and
identified itself as LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1673S. DMA
(Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices where it was
possible.

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
6.6.0.8a
⋅
Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed
v3.75
⋅
Ahead Nero InfoTool
v3.0
⋅
DVD-Identifier
3.6.2
⋅
K-Probe v2.4.2

Installation and supported features:

---

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

 

Our drive came
shipped with firmware JS02, we updated the firmware to version JS04 and later on
to JS05. 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 smooth the data transfer to the drive a
bit on stressed systems. DVD-R DL support is promised with the next Lite-On
drive, the SOHW-1693S.

Book type
changing:

---

To see if the
Lite-On SOHW-1673S 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. It is also possible to change and save the booktype wanted in
the EEPROM. Lite-On should fix the identification problems so the drive name
could be displayed.

Error scanning
of written discs:

---

The Lite-On
SOHW-1673S 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:

---

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 made
a good choice 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. This is 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-1673S did reach 48x at the end. To see how this compares to other drives, look below:

The Lite-On SOHW-1673S performed pretty well and is among the faster drives.

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.

 

No big differences compared to reading the original pressed disc.

Again '“ pretty good, as expected.

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 speed. Check how this compares to other drives below.

Unfortunately
it's among the slower drives due to the read speed limit of 32x
speed.

Audio '“ Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the
digital audio extraction performance of the Lite-On SOHW-1673S, 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 '“ among
the faster drives.

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.

 

The extracting
quality should be excellent, and it supports all features. This is very good
performance and a highly recommended drive for audio extraction.

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 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.

 

 

This drive
does not have any riplock as it reads the single layer disc at full 16x speed,
but we would like to see slightly higher reading speed than 8x for reading the
double layer disc.

The Lite-On
SOHW-1673S is pretty fast for the single layer disc, but we would like to see
higher speeds than 8x for the double layer disc.

 DVD+R(W):

---

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 both DVD+R and DVD+RW.

Among the
slower drives due to the low 8x reading speed. We would like to see higher
reading speeds for DVD+R media at least.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

---

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.

Nothing
changes here, we would still like to see 16x reading for DVD-R.

Overall thoughts:

The drive is a
fast and stable reader, but we would like to see faster reading speeds for
DVD+/-R/RW media as well as CD-RW media.

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

---

The
specifications of the Lite-On SOHW-1673S 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:

---

Let us first
take a look at the CD-R write technology used by the Lite-On
SOHW-1673S:

 

As we could see, the
Lite-On SOHW-1673S uses CAV (Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 48x, this gives an average speed of 37.38x. This seems to be right
where it should be for a 48x CD-Writer.

 

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 multi-session disc with 'finalize disc"
enabled.

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1673S used 2 minutes and 47 seconds to write
the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other
drives:

Compared to
the other writers capable of writing at 48x there is only seconds in
difference.

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 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:	48x
Write Time:	2m:51s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.10
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

CMC Magnetics is not known for making the best CD-R discs, and
the result is not so good, there are even some C2 errors near the
end.

 

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:44s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.13
C2 Average/Sec:	0.42

The quality
near the end was so poor that the LTR-52246S slowed down while scanning, end
scanning speed was 20x. Which is very disappointing performance in this
test.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India for Mitsubishi.
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.43
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Good quality with
Mitsubishi/Verbatim media '“ but works at 40x only. This is probably the reason
why it works so well.

 

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to conrexx 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:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:41s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.00
C2 Average/Sec:	0.04

Again we see the same problem '“
error increase towards the end. Not 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:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:42s
C1 Average/Sec:	5.58
C2 Average/Sec:	0.01

Well, what can
we say? It's not the result we are used to.

 

Brand:	Prodisc
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	97m32s19f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:39s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.29
C2 Average/Sec:	0.01

And it
continues, errors rise near the end.

 

Brand:	Miflop Lite '“ thanks to Miflop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Digital Data Storage (using generic plasmon ID)
Code:	97m27s18f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x
Write Time:	2m:56s
C1 Average/Sec:	9.37
C2 Average/Sec:	0.02

Again '“
problems at the end.

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:	48x
Write Time:	2m:44s
C1 Average/Sec:	3.53
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The only disc
type recorded at 48x that did not have C2 errors. But we could still see a
noticeable increase in C1 errors near the end.

CD-ReWritable:

---

The Lite-On SOHW-1673S 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-1673S uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of 22.58x. This seems
to be about average compared to other drives, but let us include some other
results 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-1673S used 4 minutes and 6 seconds for writing
the disc at 24x, let us compare this to some other
writers:

The slowest
drive of them all, partly due to a bit slow Z-CLV writing strategy. But let us
take a look at the writing quality with two CD-RW discs.

 

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:24s
C1 Average/Sec:	34.40
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

There are no C2
errors, still not the best result we have seen with this disc type, but we have
seen much worse results as well..

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:	4m:06s
C1 Average/Sec:	498.90
C2 Average/Sec:	0.25

Low quality discs,
and as we could see the result is not good at all.

Summary:

Well this is the first
surprise in this review, after having produced excellent CD-Writers for several
years… How could they mess up the CD-Writing quality so badly? Almost every disc
had C2 errors at the end and overall this drive is a very poor CD-Writer! NOT
the way to go Lite-On :@

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

---

The
specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD-R discs at 16X 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:

---

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

 

The Lite-On
SOHW-1673S uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at
16x speed. This gives an average speed of 11.92x and a total writing time of
5m:54s. Let us also take a look at writing a DVD-R
disc:

As we could
see it uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R
as well. The average speed is about the same, but it uses some more time on
writing the disc, to be exact it used 6m:10s. Let us compare this to some other
drives.

 

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 LG
GSA-5163D uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. The
average speed for the LG GSA-5163D is 12.82x and total
writing time is 5 minutes and 19 seconds. This is the fastest result we have got
with all tested writers so far, and is thus the record to beat for other
drives.

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 2 seconds, while
the DVD-R disc was finished in 6 minutes and 17 seconds.

*Actual
writing speed is 12x.

The Lite-On
SOHW-1673S is not the fastest drive; it's around the 6 minutes +/- area, where
most 16x writers are. But 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 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 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 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:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON.AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	72.39
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	2.69

Looks like Lite-On
have some improving to do with this media; at the current firmware we can't
recommend the use of this media.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	MCC004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:54s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.85
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Very good,
looks like the improved something compared to the SOHW-1653S at
least.

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:	5m:57s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.75
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.13

Not perfect,
but still good enough and should not cause any troubles.

Brand:	Traxdata
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:2s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	83.26
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The PI error
level stays a bit high, but still within the specifications and the reading
curve shows no noticeable problems.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Philips/CMC Magnetics
Code:	Philips.C16 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.98
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.36

Looks like
Lite-On still have some improvements to do.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TDK 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	16.14
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.20

And it still
seems like Lite-On have some improvements to make with this disc
type.

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:	9m:09s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.46
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

There is a
small slowdown in the reading curve, but otherwise the result is very
good.

Brand:	Datawrite '“ thanks to E-net distribution for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	MCC003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:54s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.56
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.20

No problems
with this media, the PIF spikes are due to minor disc quality issues, nothing to
do with the drive.

 

Brand:	UNIVERSAL
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC.R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.99
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.08

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:	8xx
Write Time:	9m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	11.17
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

No noticeable
problems with this media.

 

Brand:	Miflop extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:57s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.40
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

And Taiyo
Yuden does of course work excellent!

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:	8x
Write Time:	9m:05s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	35.34
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

While the
results are within acceptable numbers '“ there is still room for improvements
with this media.

 

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	OPTODISC.OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.57
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Very good,
considering that this is very cheap media.

 

Brand:	Prodye Video
Manufacturer:	Unknown
Code:	Plasmon1C01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.27
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.20

Some reading
problems near the end, but that is something we often see with this low quality
media type.

 

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:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.83
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.12

There are no
problems with this media.

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:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.84
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.18

Low quality media, and the results
reflect this.

Brand:	Commodore
Manufacturer:	Interaxia AG
Code:	VDSPMSAB002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.73
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.20

Another very
low quality media type and the results are not good near the end.

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:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON016S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:23s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.69
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.12

No problems
with this media, very clean and a nice reading curve.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Conrexx for providing this media
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RitekF1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	58.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	4.17

Seems like
Lite-On have some work to do to get this Ritek media to work
correctly

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	MCC03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:12s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	25.62
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

No problems
with this media.

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:10s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.58
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

As expected
with Taiyo Yuden, very good!

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON008S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:11s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	13.39
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.12

The reading
curve shows a few problems at the end, but nothing to worry about.

 

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:	8m:57s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

No noticeable
problems with this media. But beware of lower grade media that is floating
around on the market and sold as A grade.

 

Brand:	Ridisc '“ thanks to E-Net distribution for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	17.46
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.15

While not as
good as the Traxdata RitekG05 it's still good enough to not cause any
problems.

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:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	18.21
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

A good result
'“ but not as perfect as we are used to with Taiyo Yuden.

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Daxon '“ but with Sony ADIP.
Code:	SONY08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.76
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

No problems
with this media.

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:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.86
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

No problems
with this media.

 

Brand:	UNIVERSAL
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscF01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	33.36
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.12

Better than
the SOHW-1653S, but still, room for improvement.

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto disc
Code:	OPTODISCR008
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:57s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.07
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

A small speed
reduction at the end, but still very good - considering that this is very cheap
media.

Brand:	Unbranded
Manufacturer:	Gigastorage
Code:	GSC003
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:57s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	499.30
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	69.91

Very poor
result, the disc is totally unreadable by the NEC ND-3500AG. Needs
improving.

Brand:	Princo
Manufacturer:	Princo
Code:	PRINCO8X02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:12s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	397.10
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	5.63

Very poor
result, the disc is totally unreadable by the NEC ND-3500AG. Needs
improving.

Brand:	Datawrite titanium '“ thanks to E-Net distribution for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.AE1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	9m:08s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	60.92
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.32

Not very good,
but the result could be due to low grade media, as we have found these Datawrite
Titanium discs to be less than perfect.

Overall
thoughts: It's clearly a step forward
compared to the SOHW-1653S, but there is still many steps to go to reach the
quality of BenQ/Pioneer/NEC and LG.

Re-Writing data:

---

The Lite-On SOHW-1673S supports rewriting DVD-RW at 6x and DVD+RW at 8x speed, let us write two discs in Nero CD/DVD speed and Nero
Burning ROM to see how fast it is.

Here are the
writing results for writing the 6x DVD-RW disc:

Lite-On
SOHW-1673S uses CLV writing technology to write the DVD-RW disc at 6x. Total
recording time is just over 10 minutes.

And here are
the results with 8x DVD+RW writing:

The 8x DVD+RW
disc was written using Z-CLV writing technology and the total writing time is
around 8 minutes.

Writing Quality with DVD Re-Writable discs:

---

Due to request from
our readers we will add a few write quality tests with ReWritable 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:	Unbranded '“ thanks to LG for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/CMC Magnetics
Code:	MKMA03
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.10
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

No problems
with this media.

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK004
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.04
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.53

A very good
result with this media.

 

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:27s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.69
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Very low
amount of errors and an excellent result.

DVD-ReWritable media:

---

 

Brand:	Unbranded '“ thanks to LG for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi
Code:	MCC01RW6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.74
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Surprisingly
only supported at 4x, but otherwise the results are very good.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to Conrexx for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:26s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.84
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.09

Simply
excellent.

To sum it
up:
The Lite-On SOHW-1673 shows very good DVD-ReWriting speeds and quality, the only
problem found is that Mitsubishi 6x DVD-RW does not work at 6x.

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-1673S 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 45
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:45s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.05
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.10

No problems
with verbatim double layer media.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to traxdata for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	26m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	42.81
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	8.94

Looks like
Ritek still have manufacturing problems with their double layer media, or maybe
the problems are due to the fact that the disc was written at 4x and not 2.4x?
But let us try another Ritek made Double layer disc of another brand, to see if
that changes anything.

Brand:	That's Write! '“ Thanks to That's Write! for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:12s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	36.60
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.28

Better, but we
could see that picky drives like the Plextor PX-712A may have reading
problems.

Brand:	Imation
Manufacturer:	Ritek/Ricoh
Code:	RICOHJPND00
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	44m:27s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	123.80
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	6.21

These
Ricoh/Ritek Double layer discs were troublesome, first disc failed, and then we
tried Nero, failed as well at the layer change. Third disc wrote successfully at
least, but the quality is not good. Looks like Lite-On need to optimize their
drive for this media, or maybe Ricoh/Ritek needs to improve the media as
well?

Here are some
comparison results against other drives:

The Verbatim
Double Layer disc worked fine in our standalone player, as long as we set the
book type to DVD-ROM.

Summary: Stick to quality
Verbatim made media and you will not have any problems, but try to avoid the
lower quality Ritek media.

Before we
complete 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-1673S.

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-1673S supports all available write
and read features in CloneCD:

The Lite-On
SOHW-1673S 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-1673S qualifies as a two sheep writer and can also produce functional
backups of Safedisc 2.90 protected discs. This makes the Lite-On SOHW-1673S one
of the better choices for protected game discs.

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, which is protected with Key2audio version 3

Results:

The Lite-On
SOHW-1673S did not have any problems with reading the protected audio
discs.

Overburning:

---

To test the CD
overburning capabilities of the Lite-On SOHW-1673S 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-minute media. And we also wrote a 99-minute disc in Nero:

 

Unfortunately,
the drive could not write to more than 95 minutes, but what about reading 99
minute discs?

 

There are no
problems reading the 99-minute test disc.

Now, that
concludes our Lite-On SOHW-1673S 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
  DVD+/-RW writing quality
• Supports
  DAO-RAW writing.
• Fast and
  perfect audio extraction.
• Good
  reading speed with many media types.
• Supports bitsetting.
• Good user
  community support with several programs and modifications to get the most out
  of the drive.
•  'Two
  sheep" writer '“ positive when backing up copy protected games.
• Supports
  backing up all protected audio discs.
• Most media
  is supported at certified speed.
• Supports
  reading/writing 99 minutes CD-R media.

Negative:

---

• Only 8x
  DVD+/-RW reading speed.
• Only 32x
  CD-RW reading speed
• Very poor
  CD-R/RW Writing quality
• DVD-Writing
  quality is still not as good as with drives from Benq, Pioneer, NEC and
  LG.
• Does not
  support Mt. Rainier.
• Documentation could be better
  and the retail package could include some empty media.
• Supports
  Mitsubishi 6x DVD-RW at 4x only.

Conclusion:

---

What changed compared to the Lite-On SOHW-1653S? Well, the
DVD-Writing quality is improved, so that is a step in the right direction. But
why did they mess up the CD-Writing quality? It's been a long time since we have
had a Lite-On drive that performed poorly for CD-Writing! Which is two steps
backwards for CD-Writing quality. But let us concentrate on the most important
negative and positive points.

The main
positive points: Lite-On drives have a
very large user community, for example our own Lite-On forum, where you will
find tools, modified firmwares and help to get the most out of your Lite-On
drive. The drive also supports many features like disc quality checking,
bitsetting etc. And it's a good reader for original DVD discs as it does not
have a riplock. The drive is also among the better drives for backing up games
and protected audio discs.

The main
negative points: The major negative
point is the poor CD-Writing quality, which is uncommon for Lite-On drives. And
we are still not satisfied with the writing quality for DVD+/-R media.
Especially at 16x speed, but there were a few 8x discs that needs fine tuning as
well. And don't you think it's time to increase the reading speed for DVD+/-R
media at least? Yes, we think so.

To sum it all
up, this is the best we could say: 'Acceptable DVD-Writer at 8x Writing speed, but 16x
writing still needs improving. And very poor CD-Writing quality doesn't make
this drive your first choice." Lite-On: Next time '“ try to head in
the right direction only, instead of improving some things and breaking
others.

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!