Review: Lite-On eTAU108 Reviewed by: vroom Provided by: Lite-On NL Firmware: EL04 Manufactured: October 2009

Lite-On NL were kind enough to send us
their latest slim line DVD writer for review, the eTAU108. The Lite-On eTAU108 is
a top loading slim drive that supports 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 5x
DVD-RAM and 6x DVD+R DL and 6x DVD-R DL writing technology, allowing
Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.

In this review will check out the
performance of the Lite-On eTAU108.

Company Information

We are sure that most of you know Lite-On already, but for
those of you wishing to find out more, you can read about it on the Lite-On website

Drive Specifications

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Packaging

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Let's now take a look at the packaging that
the drive is shipped in.

The drive that Lite-On sent was the retail
version, and we can see the package and contents below.

Package

Box front

Box rear

 

Box
left and right sides

Box
top

 

What’s inside the box

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Now it’s time to take a look at the drive
itself and what the drive came shipped with.

Our package was the retail version.

The package contained the Lite-On eTAU108, USB
cable, software disc, and instruction manual.

Now let’s take a
look at the drive.

Drive
front

The front of the Lite-On eTUA108 is a stylish
drive, the green led is located on the top of the drive. We can see an open
button.

Drive
rear

We can see a power connector and USB
connector. Note that the unit operates with the USB cable only.

Drive
top

Drive
bottom

On the bottom of the drive we found one
label and we can see that the drive was manufactured in China during October
2009.

Now let’s head on to the next page where
we can take a look at the features of the drive….

 

Test machine

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

Hardware:

·        
System: Toshiba Satellite A300-1MT

·        
Processor: Intel Pentium T3200 2GHz

·        
RAM: 3 GB DDR2

·        
GFX: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470

·        
Sound: Onboard

·        
Hard disk: Toshiba MK255GSX 250GB

·        
Display: Onboard 15.6 inch LCD

·        
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (32 bit).

System setup:

The Lite-On eTAU108 was connected to a USB2
connector on our notebook. The drive came shipped with firmware version EL04.

Included software package

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The Lite-On eTAU108 came supplied with the
Nero 8 Essentials, Nero Linux 3, Nero Showtime 4 essentials, Nero Vision
essentials and Nero recode 3 essentials software, which should provide a good
platform for burning your CD-R and DVD recordable media.

Nero
8 Essentials

Note: We did not install this software on
our review notebook or test it.

Installed software:

For conducting our various tests, we will
be using the following applications.

• Nero Burning Rom 9
• Nero DiscSpeed
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact
  Audio Copy
• Opti
  Drive Control
• DVDFab

Our review notebook has Windows Vista Home
Premium 32 bit installed.

Features and techniques

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BookType (Bitsetting):

The Lite-On eTAU108 supports bitsetting and
is capable of writing DVD+R/RW DL media with DVD-ROM.

Here is how you could check if your discs
are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero DiscSpeed, click the Disc info
button and you should see something like this:

DVD+R
with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+RW
with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+R
DL with BookType DVD-ROM

Disc Quality Scanning

The Lite-On eTAU108 can be used along with
Opti Drive Control or Nero CD-DVD Speed for Disc Quality Scanning.

The drive is able to scan for PIE and PIF
errors also it supports Jitter on DVD R/RW media, and C1 and C2 errors on
CD-R/RW media.

DVD+R Disc Quality Scan

We scanned our test media at maximum speed.
As we can see we can compare results from this drive with our Lite-On iHAP322,
but nonetheless this feature is a useful one to have, and will give some
indication if the disc is good or bad.

CD-R Disc Quality Scan

We scanned our test CD-R media at the
maximum speed the drive would allow, which was 24x. Unfortunately we can't
compare this result with the results obtained with our Optiarc AD-7200A, but
again this a useful feature to have.

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the
write technology used by the Lite-On eTAU108.

For these tests we used Nero DiscSpeed and
Opti Drive Control, and wrote a full disc at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On
eTAU108, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed
of 24x. This gives an average speed of 14.89x and a total writing time of 5
minutes and 57 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

As we can see, the Lite-On eTAU108 wasn’t one
of the fastest drive's when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On
eTAU108, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed
of 24x. This gives an average speed of 14.88x and a total writing time of 5
minutes and 56 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

We can see in the table above, that the Lite-On
eTAU108 was the fastest drive when writing out CD-RW test media.

8x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On
eTAU108, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 8x.

DVD+R

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed
of 8x. This gives an average speed of 4.92x and a total writing time of 12
minutes and 44 seconds.

DVD-R

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed
of 8x. This gives an average speed of 4.93x and a total writing time of 12
minutes and 47 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

As we can see from our table, the Lite-On
eTAU108 was above average when writing our test DVD R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

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

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed
of 8x. This gives an average speed of 4.79x and a total writing time of 12
minutes and 32 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The Lite-On eTAU108 was the fastest drive when
writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On
eTAU108, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed
of 6X. This gives an average speed of 4.89x and a total writing time of 12
minutes and 39 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The Lite-On eTAU108 was again the fastest
drive we test when writing DVD-RW media.

6x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On
eTAU108, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 6x. This gives an
average speed of 4.44x and a total writing time of 24 minutes and 38 seconds.

6x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lie-On
eTAU108, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 6x,
unfortunately the drive was only capable of 4x with our test media.

The Lite-On eTAU108 uses Z-CLV (Zoned
Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 4x. This gives an
average speed of 3.82x and a total writing time of 28 minutes and 49 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The Lite-On eTAU108 was the fastest drive
when writing our DVD+R DL test media, and well above average when writing our
DVD-R DL test media even at 4x.

Summary:

The Lite-On eTAU108 has very good writing
performance on CD-R media. Writing performance on DVD R media is also very fast
for a slimline drive.

Let’s head on to the next page where we
will check reading performance….

Reading performance

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For these tests we will once again use Nero
DiscSpeed, and Opti Drive Control to read various CD’s and DVD’s, including
audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive
supports:

• DVD-ROM 8x
• CD-ROM 24x

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc
containing various software that is slightly over 75 minutes in length. Below
you will see the produced result:

The Lite-On eTAU108 reached 24.09x read
speed.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the
original CD. The disc we used was an unbranded 52x certified CD-R disc manufactured
by Ritek.

The Lite-On eTAU108 reached 24.43x read
speed.

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original CD,
this time we used a Verbatim 24x CD-RW disc (thanks to Verbatim for sending us
this media).

The Lite-On eTAU108 reached 24.48x read
speed.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction
performance of the Lite-On eTAU108, again we used Optic Drive Control to
measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we was 76 minutes in length (75:50:73).

The Lite-On eTAU108 reached 24.27x when
reading our test audio disc.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

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

The extraction quality is excellent and supports
the reading of CD text and sub
channel data. On the fly copy above 10x ripping speed was reported as too slow,
and read leadin/leadout was not supported.

DVD reading performance:

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Again, we will use Opti Drive Control to
measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The
drive should read pressed single and double layer DVD-discs at 8x.

Pressed DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we
are going to start with Single and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only
1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it’s useful to be able to read the
discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc
to your hard drive.

DVD
Video (single layer)

DVD
Video (double layer OTP)

The Lite-On eTAU108 isn’t Video_TS
riplocked and read both our single and double layer discs at 8x.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

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

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The Lite-On eTAU108 read our DVD+R and
DVD+RW discs at 8x.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

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For this test we used a Verbatim 16x DVD-R
disc and a Verbatim 6x DVD-RW disc filled with about 4.4GB of data. Our test
results are found below:

DVD-R

DVD-RW

Once again the Lite-On eTAU108 read our
test DVD-R/RW discs at 8x.

DVD±R DL discs:

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DVD+R DL:

The Lite-On eTAU108 read our DVD+R DL test
disc at 8x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Lite-On eTAU108 read our DVD-R DL test
disc at 8x reading speed.

Summary:

The Lite-On eTAU108 has shown itself to be
an excellent, fast and reliable reader.

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

The specifications of the Lite-On eTAU108 state
that the drive is able to write CD-R/RW discs at 24x. Let us find out how the
drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

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For our data writing tests, we simply
burned a full disc using CD-Speed (create data disc) function and burned the
discs at the maximum speed allowed.

Write quality:

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We will test CD-R discs from many different
CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data
CD” function in Opti Drive Control. The discs were written at the maximum speed
that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used Opti Drive Control's Disc
Quality Scan and combined this with a Transfer Rate
Test to test if the resulting disc was readable. Also note that
different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained
when scanning the discs. We used an Optiarc AD-7200A and scanned the discs at
48X speed.

There is more than one way to handle C1
and C2 error detection/correction, but a simple and common way is to detect and
correct up to two errors per frame in each stage and detect three or more
errors:

• E11: 1
  error detected and corrected by C1 layer
• E21: 2
  errors detected and corrected by C1 layer
• E31: 3 or
  more errors detected but not corrected by C1 layer

The sum of these (per second) is called
the Block Error Rate: BLER=E11+E21+E31

• E32: 3 or
  more errors detected but not corrected by C2 layer

Any E31 is un-correctable by the C1 layer
and will result in the bytes in that frame being redistributed into multiple
frames which are passed to the C2 layer.

Any E32 is un-correctable by the C2 layer
and will result in interpolation being used for Audio CDs or will result in
third layer error correction being used for Data CDs.

Different drives have different ways of
reporting these errors in a Disc Quality scan.  Lite-On CD-RW drives
will report C1 and C2 errors this way:

• C1=BLER=E11+E21+E31
• C2=E32

Here is an easier way to look at Disc
Quality Scanning:

A written CD-R disc will always have some
C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction
capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be
corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on
a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and
preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or
at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are
only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

In short, our analysis will be based on
this guideline to determine the quality of the burned disc:

CD-R/RW quality scans
guideline

Below are the obtained results:

An excellent result to start our CD-R tests.

The result is again excellent.

The result is ok.

The result is very good.

The result once again is very good.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

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The result is very good.

Summary:

Both CD-R and CD-RW writing quality with
the Lite-On eTAU108 is generally excellent/very good.

Now let’s head on to the next page where
we will test DVD recordable performance….

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

Write quality:

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Disc Quality
Scanning - PI/PO:

DVDs use an error detection and correction
system (ECC) which is usually transparent to the end-user, but we can get an
idea of the "quality" of a disc by performing Disc Quality Scanning,
which shows how many errors the drive is detecting and correcting behind the
scenes.

There are two layers or stages of error
detection and correction on all DVD media; these are called Parity Inner (PI)
and Parity Outer (PO). Data is arranged in ECC blocks containing rows and
columns of user data with additional columns of PI error correction and rows of
PO error correction.

An ECC block contains 32 KByte of user data
with some added control data, scrambled and arranged in 192 rows and 172
columns with an additional 10 columns of PI error correction and 16 rows of PO error correction.

The Parity Inner stage is performed first,
and up to 5 bytes in a row can be corrected. Any row with one or more errors is
counted as a Parity Inner Error (PIE). Any row with more than 5 errors is
considered un-correctable and is counted as a Parity Inner Failure (PIF).

The Parity Outer stage is performed next
and will detect and attempt to correct any errors that are still left after the
PI stage. Any column that has errors is counted as a Parity Outer Error (POE),
and any column that has un-correctable errors is counted as a Parity Outer
Failure (POF). If a POF occurs the drive can sometimes re-read the problematic
spot and correct the problem; this happens only during normal reading and not
during scanning, however.

Disc Quality scanning is influenced by the
drive performing the test, and that's why different drives report different
results and even the same drive will report (slightly) different results when
scanning the same disc again. Please note that PI/PO and Jitter scans only test
some aspects of disc quality and that other important aspects are not revealed.

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

The scan above shows the results from a
pressed, Single Layer DVD-Video disc (Goldeneye).

The above scan shows the result from a
pressed Double Layer DVD-Video disc (The Green Mile).

The Lite-On DVD burners used in this review
report errors as follows:

·        
PIE per 8 ECC blocks (rows with 1 or more bytes
in error)

·        
PIF per 1 ECC block (rows with 6 or more bytes
in error)

We want to see as low error numbers as
possible.
PIE per 8 ECC blocks should be no higher than 280.
PIF per 1 ECC block should be no higher than 4.

Both the pressed DVD-discs above are well
within the standards if we ignore the single PIF spike in the DL scan.

If you want to look at the standards for
yourself, 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.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity,
tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc –
but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned
the discs at 4X speed, by lowering the speed to 2X (DVD-R/RW)/2.4X (DVD+R/RW)
or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV
due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the
reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the
reading curve from an Optiarc AD-7200A DVD-Writer which by default is able to
read DVD±R media at 16x speed. A small speed reduction near the end is still
accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a
bad sign.

Jitter:

Jitter
is a very complex subject and even more difficult to explain when we start to
use optical drives designed for the home market to measure jitter values.

Let’s
first look at the DVD specification for pressed DVD discs (in the bold part courtesy
of Pioneer Electronics).

“The
DVD design target is that when the worst-case disc allowed by the
specification, considering the economics of production, is played using the
worst-case pickup that can be produced in volume economically, the byte error
rate after error correction will still be 1 x 10-^-20, which is good
enough to be acceptable for computer applications.

Since
the above target is for "after error correction," the error
correction capability must be calculated. Considering the trade-off between
error correction capability and the overhead of the added redundancy, the DVD
format was set to one ECC block per 32 KB. This requires a byte error rate
before correction of 1 x 10^-2.
In order to achieve good economy on both the part of the discs and the playback
mechanisms. The current disc tilt specification was determined as a result of the
efforts on both sides.

As
will be explained hereafter, it is difficult to make the error rate a
specification of the disc itself. Therefore, a jitter standard is set by the
DVD specifications. A simple calculation based on a normal distribution requires
that the jitter rate be under 15.4%, and experimental results indicate that
jitter must be under 16%, to achieve the required error rate. Since the disc
tilt varies within a revolution, it was decided to adopt the design concept
that jitter must remain within 16% at the instantaneous peak value of tilt.
Since it is actually very difficult to measure the peak value, the concept
became to measure the average jitter at under 15%, and the byte error rate at
under 5 x 10-3.”

What
is Jitter?

In basic terms, we
could say jitter is a product of “pit and land distortion” In other words, when
the drive reading the disc has to compensate by means of a “tilt servo” which
constantly tries to move and refocus the PUH lens for optimum tracking and
tries to compensate for the imperfections of pits and lands on the pressed or
recordable media. This is further compounded by the hardware used for recording
and playback. Not only is the
record and replay process limited by the resolution of the optical pickup, it
is also horribly non-linear. In addition, the playback of the pits is subject
to non-linear crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track, and also from pits
in nearby tracks.

The things that causes jitter divide into three main
types.

• Variation in pit length and width.
• Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track.
• Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks.

 

Variation in pit length and width.

The recorded pits themselves are not perfectly
accurate. Anything which causes variations in the sizes of the pits will
produce jitter. A prime culprit of this is sudden variations in laser power
(laser noise). If laser power varies, then the laser beam itself changes and
will vary in intensity and possibly focus. This will cause the pit length and
width to also vary and we now have jitter.

Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track.

If the pits are not totally accurate, then the laser
beam spot may overrun a pit and gather data from the adjacent pit in the same
track, or if the “land” is to short, then the laser beam spot can be influenced
by the adjacent pit and this is called inter-symbol interference. Inter-symbol
interference is worse at low recording velocities, because the pits are shorter
and closer together. And it is the cause of "deviation" of the pit
lengths.

Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks.

Crosstalk between pits in adjacent tracks is caused by
the laser beam spot being larger than the width of the track. It is a largely
random contribution and is worse at lower recorded velocities, because the
highest frequency components of the readout signal in the wanted track, with
which the crosstalk is competing, are weaker.

Some
other factors to consider

There
are many aspects to consider when we add Recordable DVD media into the mix. We
are now dealing with an organic dye, which is inherently unstable. We must also
consider the equipment we are using to measure jitter is aimed at the home
market. So we must also take into account variations between drives that we are
unable to calibrate for such tests.

Now
let’s look at some of the hardware limitations of the drives we are using to
measure jitter.

If
there is no tilt, then the jitter value includes components from light source
noise, circuit noise, disc noise, standard interference between symbols (inter
-symbol interference), and some small amount of crosstalk from the neighbouring
tracks.

Next
we consider manufacturing variation in the circuitry.
Variation due to the circuitry have noise-like characteristics, and increase
the minimum jitter level, but are thought to have a very small effect on tilt
margin. Factors such as offset in the servo circuit, however, both increase the
jitter level and decrease tilt margin.

How
we will measure jitter.

We
will be using a Lite-On DVD writer to conduct these tests along with Nero DiscSpeed
and Opti Drive Control at
4x scanning speed. In the screen shot below we can see a PI/PIF scan
including a jitter test (the purple graph in the lower window) we carried out
on a single layer DVD+R media.

Now,
let's find a reasonable average jitter level. Experimental results indicate
that 8% average value or less is a desirable figure, based on the DVD
specification. That does not mean that jitter average values above 8% are bad.
In fact, many optical drives will quite happily read recordable DVD media with
jitter values of more than 14% average without any problems. Other drives,
including standalone DVD players may begin to struggle reading discs with
average jitter values above 10%. So there is a fairly wide range of acceptable
values. One must test their own playback devices to see what they can cope
with.

However,
for the purpose of having a basic guideline we can use in our reviews, we
present a rating system for average jitter values.

·        
Less than 8% (average) = Very good

·        
8% - 9% (average) = good

·        
9% - 12% (average) = average

·        
Above 12% (average) = poor

Here is an easier explanation on how to read the test
results

Maybe this got too technical, and you are
wondering what to look for in your Opti Drive Control Quality Scans?

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.

·        
Jitter: An average jitter value of 8% or less is
considered very good. You should not worry too much if the average value is
slightly above this figure.

And as always; lower is better

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

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In these tests we will be using a Lite-On iHAP322
with firmware UL19 along with Optic Drive Control to measure the disc quality.
We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7200A with firmware 1.09 along with Opti
Drive Control for our read-back tests.

An excellent result, PI and PIF errors are
low and the jitter average is excellent.

The result is very good and once again
excellent jitter.

A very good result from this 8x media
manufactured by Taiyo Yuden. Jitter average is once again excellent.

A good result for this TDK media. Jitter
average is also very good at 8.1%.

The result is very good, with average
jitter.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

---

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

Below are our obtained results.

Considering this a re-writable disc, the
result is excellent.

Summary:

The Lite-On eTAU108 writes DVD+R with
mostly excellent/very good writing quality. Write speed is average for a
slimline DVD writer.

On our tested DVD+RW media, writing quality
was excellent.

Now let’s look at DVD-R/RW performance
and quality on the next page….

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

---

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On iHAP322
with firmware UL19 along with Opti Drive Control to measure the disc quality.
We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7200A with firmware 1.09 along with Opti
Drive Control for our read-back tests.

The result is good, although PIF and Jitter
levels are high but the disc read back was perfect.

The result is very good, PIE are very high
but the read back of the disc was perfect.

The result is very good, although PIF levels
are high, the PIE and Jitter levels are low, the disc read back was perfect.

The result is very good for this media, and
Jitter is very low.

PIE and Jitter are
very good, but we believe that there is room for improvement for this media.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

Considering this a re-writable disc, the
result is once again excellent.

Summary:

The DVD+R writing quality was excellent/very
good, but there is room for improvement with some DVD-R media.

On our tested DVD-RW media, writing quality
was excellent.

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

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

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The Lite-On eTAU108 supports the DVD+R
DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around
8.5 GB at a writing speed of 6x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we used Opti Drive Control
to burn our test disc. We then used a Lite-On iHAP322 along with Opti Drive
Control to test the disc’s quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our
Optiarc AD-7200A.

PIE errors are generally low, PIF errors on
the second layer are high at the end of the disc, but we didn’t have any
problems reading back the test disc. The result is ok.

DVD-R DL:

PIE errors are very high, PIF errors are
within limits. The disc had a perfect read back test, the result is good.

Summary:

The Lite-On eTAU108 writing quality on our
tested DVD±R DL media was generally good, we hope that a firmware update will
improve the burn quality.

Let’s round off this review with the
Authors page, with some real world and advanced tests....

Real world tests:

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Introduction:

On this page, the author of the review has
the freedom to run tests that she/he thinks will enhance the review. These
tests are unlike our standard tests, which we try to keep consistent throughout
the whole review team, so that our reviews are as consistent as possible. This
page gives the reviewer the opportunity to show some advanced and real world
tests that other review team members may not be able to run.

Real World tests:

---

Real world tests are designed to simulate
what normal users might use their drives for in everyday use. For example,
writing discs with a burning application.

Audio Extraction:

For this test we
used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio to our hard drive. According
to EAC the Lite-ON eTAU108 does not support caching, but it does support
Accurate Stream and C2 Error Info.

Below are the results produced by EAC:

Burst
mode

Secure
mode

The Lite-On eTAU108 performed well in the
“Burst mode” test but slower in the “Secure mode” test.

Nero Burning Rom:

In the
following tests we will burn discs from the main media groups with Nero Burning
Rom.

CD-R:

For our data writing tests, we simply set
up a new compilation of 696MB using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method
used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc
with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to
write a disc at the highest speed. (24x)

The Lite-On eTAU108 burned our test CD-R at
24x in 6 minutes and 01 seconds.

Let’s compare with other drives in our
table below.

As we can see the eTAU108 wasn't the
fastest drive.

DVD R:

In this test we will measure the time for
writing to DVD R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an video compilation
containing 4302MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

The Lite-On eTAU108 burned our test DVD R
at 8x in 12 minutes and 48 seconds.

Let’s compare with other drives in our
table below.

Again we can see that the drive isn't the
fastest.

DVD DL:

In this test we will measure the time for
writing to DVD R DL discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO DVD-Video
compilation containing 8103MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

The Lite-On eTAU108 burned our test DVD R
DL at 6x in 24 minutes and 22 seconds.

Let’s compare with other drives in our
table below.

As we can see the eTAU108 is the fastest
drive we have tested when it comes to dual layer media.

CSS Encrypted DVD-Video ripping tests:

Most modern DVD burners don’t have Video
riplock and in most cases will read a pressed DVD-Video SL disc at 16x speed.
However, some drives use a CSS riplock when it comes to extracting data from
the disc. If you attempt to rip a pressed DVD-Video with CSS encryption to your
hard drive, then the ripping speed may be locked at a much lower speed than
16x.

Of course, running this test on a slimline
drive, we can expect the results to be much slower than running the tests on a
modern full sized internal DVD writer. However, we felt that this would be an
interesting and useful test.

We should point out, that ripping and
compressing a DL DVD-Video disc to DVD 5 format is quite CPU intensive. The
more power your system has, the less likely your system power will affect the
results. The PC used in this review is equipped with a fast Intel Quad Core
processor and fast hard drives. We checked to make sure our review PC was not
having an impact on the results.

For this test we will use Fengtao software
DVDFab.

DVD-Video
single layer “Dario Argento's Phantom of the opera”

DVD-Video
double layer “Bruno”

Thanks
to Fengtao software – For providing a full
DVD Fab license.

The Lite-On eTAU108 isn’t video_ts
riplocked, the result is great considering that this is a slimdrive.

To compare with other drives, we present
the table below.

As we can see the eTAU108 is the fastest
drive that we tested so far.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility test:

We only have 1 standalone DVD-Recorder and
1 DVD-Player available to test the DVD+R DL media (Book Type: DVD-ROM):        

• Samsung DVD-HR721
• LG DVX172

Compatibility results:

Our DVD Standalone devices played the DVD+R
DL media burned by the Lite-On eTAU108 without any problems.

Advanced tests:

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To round off this review, we will run some
advanced tests on the Lite-On eTAU108. These tests are: “Sheep Test”, and some
special disc tests.

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

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

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

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD,
we see the Lite-On eTAU108 supports everything.

The Lite-On eTAU108 supports DAO-RAW96
recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and
sub-channel data.

Sheep
3 test

As we can see from the results, the Lite-On
eTAU108 is a two sheep burner.

CD-R Over-burn test:

For this test, we used Nero DiscSpeed and
an 80 minute CD-R.

The Lite-On eTAU108 reported a maximum over-burn
capacity of 82:40.36 We then setup a test burn with CD-Speed of slightly less
than maximum and burned the disc, 82:30.00 to be exact.

As we can see, the Lite-On eTAU108 had no
problems writing the CD-R, also the transfer rate is good, but in the end of
the disc there is a slowdown.

This concludes our Lite-On eTAU108 review.
To read the conclusion, click on the link below

Positive:

• Generally good DVD±R writing quality.
• Excellent write quality with DVD±RW
  media.
• Generally very good/excellent CD-R
  writing quality.
• It supports overburning with CD-R media.
• Sleek and stylish design.
• Excellent reading reliability.
• Supports 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW writing speeds.
• Excellent build quality.
• Two sheep burner.
• Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on
  DVD+R/DVD+RW/DVD+R DL.
• Good community support here at MyCE.com.
• Excellent software bundle.
• Small size and portable
• It doesn’t require an external power
  supply.

Negative:

• DVD±R DL writing quality could be better.
• Slow burn speed on DVD±R

Conclusion:

---

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

The main positive points:

The Lite-On eTAU108 was able to burn all
our tested CD-R media with excellent/very good quality.

The Lite-On eTAU108 wrote our tested DVD+R
media with very good quality, and excellent quality with all our RW media.

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

Reading performance and reliability was excellent.

It's a two sheep burner that can overburn
CD's and it can also change the booktype of all +R media.

The Lite-On eTAU108 is small and easily
portable, powered only by USB.

The Lite-On eTAU108 is beautifully designed
and has a very sleek look with a top loading mechanism, and the build quality
is excellent.

The main negative points:

There are not many negative things to say
about the Lite-On eTAU108.

Writing quality on our tested DVD-R and
DVD+R DL media could be improved.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The Lite-On eTAU108 is a top loading
drive, beautifully designed reliable and it only needs USB2 to work, and as a
pure Lite-On drive has a huge amount of features. It’s small, portable, and the
performance overall is excellent”.

Because of the good feature set and
generally good writing quality across the main media groups, we decided to
award the Lite-On eTUA108 our MyCE “Safe Buy” award, and a MyCE editor rating
of “Excellent”.

Thanks to:

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