Review: Lite-On iHAS324 Reviewed by: Dee Provided by: Lite-On Europe Firmware: BL17 Manufactured: April 2009

Lite-On was kind enough to send us the iHAS324 for review. In this review we will be seeing how this drive from one the world's best known optical drive manufacturers performs in our tests.

The Lite-On iHAS324 supports 24x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 8x DVD+R/DL-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5GB to be written. The Lite-On iHAS324 also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at 12x speed, and SmartErase features.

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.

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 iHAS324, SATA cable, software disc, instruction manual, and fixing screws.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

Bezel

The bezel of the Lite-On iHAS324 is nicely styled. We can also see various logos including a Smart Erase logo, which is a feature that the drive supports, an emergency eject hole, single green LED and an eject button.

Drive top

Drive bottom

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

On the rear of the drive we can see some unspecified jumpers, an SATA power connector and data connector.

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:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 (Intel X48 chipset)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550
• RAM: 8 GB Crucial Balistix Tracer (red) dual channel kit DDR2 800
• GFX: ATI HD 4870 (512 Megabytes GDDR5 HDCP compliant)
• Sound: Onboard Realtek ALC889 HD audio controller
• Hard disk OS: OCZ Vertex 120GB SSD
• Hard disk storage: 1X 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (SATA 2) - 1x 1TB Samsung SpinPiont.
• Case: Antec 900
• PSU: Enermax Liberty 620W
• Display: Samsung Syncmaster 245B 24” widescreen LCD (HDCP compliant)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium (64 bit) with Service Pack 1

System setup:

The Lite-On iHAS324 was connected to one of the SATA ports on the motherboard’s SATA controller.

And another screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool above, we can see the Lite-On iHAS324 supports the main media groups. The drive came shipped with firmware version BL17.

Included software package

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The Lite-ON iHAS324 came supplied with the Nero 8 Essentials software package, 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 PC or test it.

Installed software:

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

• Nero Burning Rom 9
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
• Nero InfoTool
• DVDFab Platinum
• Slysoft CloneCD
• Exact Audio Copy

Our review PC has Windows Vista Home Premium 64 bit installed with Service Pack 1.

Features and techniques

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PI/PIF Disc quality scanning

The Lite-On drives have become famous for Disc Quality Scanning and the iHAS324 is no exception. The drive can be used with either CD-Speed/Nero DiskSpeed or K-Probe for disc quality scanning. In our reviews we always use a CLV scanning method at 4x scanning speed. Please note, 8x scanning speed has been set as a standard on the CD Freaks forum.

4x CLV scan

8x CAV scan

As well as being able to scan for PI/PIF errors, the Lite-On iHAS324 is also capable of testing Jitter. You can read a full explanation of the tests in our explanation at the start of the DVD+R page.

4x CLV scan with Opti Drive Control (by Erik Deppe)

SmartErase

For a full explanation of SmartErase, please see the Special Features page in this review.

BookType (Bitsetting):

The Lite-On iHAS324 supports set and forget bit-setting and supports Bit-Setting on DVD+R/RW and DL media via burning applications such as Nero Burning Rom.

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

Start Nero CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+RW with BookType DVD-ROM

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM

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

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Lite-On iHAS324.

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 36.74x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As we can see, the Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the fastest drives when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 32x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 32X. This gives an average speed of 24.63x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 52 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As we can see, the Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the slowest drives when writing CD-RW media.

24x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 24x.

DVD+R

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 17.37x and a total writing time of 4 minutes and 3 seconds.

DVD-R

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This gives an average speed of 17.51x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 55 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As we can see from our table, the Lite-On iHAS324 was the fastest drive when writing our test DVD R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives an average speed of 7.38x and a total writing time of 8 minutes and 19 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the slowest drives when writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 5.83x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 42 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the slowest drives when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.23x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 55 seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 8X. This gives an average speed of 6.36x and a total writing time of 18 minutes and 48 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Lite-On iHAS324 was about average in writing speed when writing double layer media.

12x DVD-RAM writing speed

According to the specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324, it should be able to write DVD-RAM at a maximum speed of 12x.

The Lite-On iHAS324 uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at 12X. This gives an average speed of 10.15x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the fastest drives when writing our test DVD-RAM media.

Summary:

The Lite-On iHAS324 has excellent writing performance on CD-R media. Writing performance on DVD R media is also extremely fast.

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

For these tests we will use Nero CD-Speed 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 16x
• CD-ROM 48x

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing the Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD that is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced result:

The Lite-On iHAS324 reached 47.06x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the fastest drives when reading our test CD-ROM media.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD. The disc we used was a Ricoh 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Moser Baer India.

The Lite-On iHAS324 reached 47.38x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On iHAS324 was among the fastest drives in terms of speed with our CD-R test disc.

CD Re-writable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Roxio Media Creator 7.5 install CD; this time we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The Lite-On iHAS324 reached 39.83x read speed. Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The Lite-On iHAS324 about average when reading CD-RW media.

100 minute CD-R:

The Lite-On iHAS324 had no problems reading our 100 minute test CD-R.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the Lite-On iHAS324, again we used Nero CD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it’s nearly 79 minutes in length (78:53:31).

The Lite-On iHAS324 reached 48.58x when reading our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

The Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the fastest drives when reading our test Audio CD.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we used the “Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used a CD-R media from RICOH (Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this media).

The extraction quality is excellent and, the Lite-On iHAS324 proved to be a fast audio extracting drive..

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

Pressed DVD Video:

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

DVD Video (single layer)

DVD Video (double layer OTP)

DVD Video (double layer PTP)

The Lite-On iHAS324 is not riplocked and read our single layer disc at 16x and our double layer test discs at 12x

DVD Video	Average Read Speed (SL)	Start Read Speed (SL)	End Read Speed (SL)	Average Read Speed (DL)	Start Read Speed (DL)	End Read Speed (DL)
NEC ND-4551A	11.83x	6.56x	15.77x	8.89x	4.94x	11.82x
Philips DVDR1660	12.00x	6.64x	15.99x	9.05x	5.00x	12.04x
Samsung SE-S184M	12.22x	6.75x	16.29x	6.38x	3.61x	8.29x
Pioneer DVR-112	11.99x	6.74x	16.03x	9.36x	5.31x	12.44x
Samsung SH-S203B	12.14x	6.82x	16.20x	9.10x	5.15x	12.09x
HP DVD-1035i	12.19x	6.78x	16.27x	9.11x	5.12x	12.11x
Lite-On LH-20A1L	12.11x	6.76x	16.24x	9.09x	5.11x	12.08x
Pioneer DVR-115D	11.82x	6.71x	15.79x	9.31x	5.30x	12.36x
Optiarc AD-7200A	11.85x	6.71x	15.74x	8.74x	4.96x	11.63x
Pioneer DVR-215	11.79x	6.71x	15.81x	9.31x	5.30x	12.36x
Samsung SH-S223F	12.14x	6.80x	16.21x	9.08x	5.13x	12.07x
Pioneer DVR-116DBK	12.03x	6.73x	16.01x	9.36x	5.31x	12.45x
Lite-On iHAS422	12.15x	6.84x	16.21x	9.09x	5.15x	12.09x
Optiarc AD-7240S	11.85x	6.63x	15.78x	8.77x	4.93x	11.65x
Lite-On iHAS324	12.11x	6.75x	16.15x	9.07x	5.12x	12.06x

The Lite-On iHAS324 was about average when reading our test DVD-Video test discs.

DVD – DVD+R/RW:

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

DVD+R

DVD+RW

DVD+R DVD+RW	Average Read Speed (+R)	Start Read Speed (+R)	End Read Speed (+R)	Average Read Speed (+RW)	Start Read Speed (+RW)	End Read Speed (+RW)
NEC ND-4551A	11.95x	6.59x	15.98x	9.79x	5.37x	13.08x
Philips DVDR1660	9.38x	5.13x	12.53x	9.38x	5.13x	12.54x
Samsung SE-S184M	9.12x	5.00x	12.06x	6.23x	3.43x	8.33x
Pioneer DVR-112	9.36x	5.19x	12.23x	6.25x	3.47x	8.35x
Samsung SH-S203B	12.17x	6.71x	16.28x	9.04x	4.99x	12.08x
HP DVD-1035i	12.23x	6.74x	16.36x	9.26x	5.14x	12.38x
Lite-On LH-20A1L	12.18x	6.75x	16.31x	9.25x	5.13x	12.35x
Pioneer DVR-115D	11.81x	6.65x	15.85x	9.94x	5.63x	13.32x
Optiarc AD-7200A	11.84x	6.62x	15.79x	9.64x	5.41x	12.81x
Pioneer DVR-215	11.77x	6.61x	15.45x	9.92x	5.64x	13.22x
Samsung SH-S223F	12.17x	6.71x	16.20x	9.18x	5.06x	12.28x
Pioneer DVR-116DBK	12.05x	6.66x	16.15x	10.15x	5.68x	13.57x
Lite-On iHAS422	12.16x	6.74x	16.27x	9.05x	5.05x	12.10x
Optiarc AD-7240S	12.09x	6.63x	16.17x	9.77x	5.36x	13.06x
Lite-On iHAS324	12.16x	6.72x	16.26x	9.03x	4.99x	12.07x

The Lite-On iHAS324 was well above average when reading our test DVD+R media and about average when reading our test DVD+RW media.

DVD – DVD-R/RW:

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

DVD-R

DVD-RW

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

DVD-R DVD-RW	Average Read Speed (-R)	Start Read Speed (-R)	End Read Speed (-R)	Average Read Speed (-RW)	Start Read Speed (-RW)	End Read Speed (-RW)
NEC ND-4551A	11.98x	6.56x	15.98x	9.78x	5.37x	13.07x
Philips DVDR1660	9.37x	5.13x	12.53x	9.38x	5.13x	12.53x
Samsung SE-S184M	9.14x	5.03x	12.21x	6.24x	3.44x	8.34x
Pioneer DVR-112	9.36x	5.18x	12.52x	6.23x	3.46x	8.33x
Samsung SH-S203B	12.16x	6.72x	16.26x	9.03x	4.99x	12.07x
HP DVD-1035i	12.21x	6.75x	16.34x	9.23x	5.08x	12.35x
Lite-On LH-20A1L	12.19x	6.68x	16.30x	9.23x	5.12x	12.34x
Pioneer DVR-115D	11.81x	6.67x	15.69x	9.91x	5.60x	13.22x
Optiarc AD-7200A	11.86x	6.65x	15.80x	9.62x	5.39x	12.88x
Pioneer DVR-215	11.76x	6.68x	15.76x	9.91x	5.61x	13.32x
Samsung SH-S223F	12.15x	6.67x	16.26x	9.17x	5.07x	12.26x
Pioneer DVR-116DBK	12.04x	6.71x	16.11x	10.13x	5.63x	13.52x
Lite-On iHAS422	12.15x	6.74x	16.23x	9.03x	5.00x	12.07x
Optiarc AD-7240S	12.05x	6.59x	16.13x	9.77x	5.36x	13.05x
Lite-On iHAS324	12.12x	6.65x	16.22x	9.01x	4.97x	12.03x

Once again the Lite-On iHAS324 was well above average when reading DVD-R media and about average when reading our test DVD-RW media.

DVD±R DL discs:

DVD+R DL:

The Lite-On iHAS324 read our DVD+R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The Lite-On iHAS324 read our DVD-R DL test disc at 12x reading speed.

DVD-RAM:

The Lite-On iHAS324 read our DVD-RAM disc at 12x using a P-CAV reading method.

Summary:

The Lite-On iHAS324 has generally very good DVD reading performance. CD reading performance is quite simply excellent.

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

The specifications of the Lite-On iHAS324 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

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:

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used Nero CD-Speed’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 a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 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:

Brand:	Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Country Of Origin	Japan
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:43s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.44
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

An excellent result to start our CD-R tests.

Brand:	Infiniti Printable – Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SKC
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.09 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:42s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.41
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

The result is excellent.

Brand:	Maxell – Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RiTec (made in Taiwan)
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:44s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.75
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The result is very good.

Brand:	Verbatim Super AZ0+Crystal DL – Thanks to Verbatim UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	2m:44s
C1 Average/Sec:	6.07
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

The result is ok, although C1 errors are high at the end of the disc.

Brand:	HP – Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Country Of Origin	Taiwan
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (CAV)
Write Time:	4m:06s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.33
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The result is although there is a clump of C1 errors near the start of the disc, and a single C2 error near the end. Also note the writing speed was reduced during the writing process of the disc. We tried several times, and the result was always the same.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Brand:	Verbatim Ultra speed 32x – Thanks to Verbatim UK for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Country Of Origin	Taiwan
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	32x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:52s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.86
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

The result is very good.

Summary:

CD-R writing quality is generally good to excellent however, there was at least one result from the HP media that needs to be improved upon. CD-RW writing quality on our tested media was very good. Writing performance is excellent, this really is a very fast drive when writing CD-R media

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 24x 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:

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-7203A 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.

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 CD-Speed 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 Nero DiscSpeed/CD-Speed 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:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On iHAS422 with firmware 4L11 along with CD-Speed to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7201S with firmware 1.09 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

An excellent result, PI and PIF errors are low and jitter at 7.68% average is very nice.

The result is good and the burn time was very fast but, 24x is will be just too fast for most media.

No surprises here, an excellent result from the 8x media manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

There is a cluster of PI errors at the first AOPC point, thereafter the everything is well under control. The result is ok, but the writing strategy for this media, could be improved.

The result is very good.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

Below are our obtained results.

The result is simply excellent.

Summary:

The Lite-On iHAS324 burns DVD+R media with generally excellent quality however, 24x burning speed is no more than a gimmick. The iHAS324 only burned one media at 24x and in my opinion, this is too fast for most 16x rated media. It would be more sensible to change to a fast P-CAV writing strategy, starting the burn at 8x and limit the burning speed to 16x. There would not be a drastic drop in writing performance using this writing strategy and burning quality would for sure be much better.

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 iHAS422 with firmware 4L11 along with CD-Speed to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the Optiarc AD-7201S with firmware 1.09 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

The result is good considering the media was burned at 24x.

The result is very good .

The result is good.

The result is good.

The result is very good.

The result is good.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

The result is excellent.

Summary:

The Lite-On iHAS324 burns DVD-R media with generally excellent/very good quality however, like the DVD+R we tested, 24x burning speed is no more than a gimmick. The iHAS324 only burned one media at 24x and in my opinion, this is too fast for most 16x rated media. It would be more sensible to change to a fast P-CAV writing strategy, starting the burn at 8x and limit the burning speed to 16x. There would not be a drastic drop in writing performance using this writing strategy and burning quality would for sure be much better.

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:

The Lite-On iHAS324 supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 8x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we wrote an image file of a DVD-Video compilation of as near full capacity as possible with CD-Speed. We then used the Lite-On along with CD-Speed to test the disc’s quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our Optiarc AD-7201S using Nero CD-Speed.

The result is very good.

DVD-R DL:

The result is very good.

Summary:

The Lite-On iHAS324 writing quality on our tested DVD±R DL media was very good indeed.

Now let's look at DVD-RAM writing performance on the next page....

DVD-RAM writing performance:

The Lite-ON iHAS324 is a so-called Multi drive, meaning it also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also supports the DVD-RAM format. Let us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it has differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

We can see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots. These tick marks are "address information" ("Pre-mastered Pit Header Field") which are embedded onto the disc. This is header information in front of data sector area, and is the same format as HDD and MO.

A DVD-RAM’s disc can be formatted in the following formats:

• FAT32
• UDF 1.02
• UDF 1.50
• UDF 2.00
• UDF 2.01
• UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done as “background processes”. Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish, you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any “hangs” or CPU slowdowns.

DVD-RAM has error correction, but also has error replacement to spare sectors as a "defect management" function. This gives higher reliability than other DVD formats.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100,000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors. Let’s try to read back the disc that we wrote:

Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests.

Maxell 12x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the Lite-On iHAS324 wrote our 12x DVD-RAM media at its maximum rated speed of 12x in 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Lite-On iHAS324 can read our test disc.

The Lite-On iHAS324 had no problems in reading our test disc at 12x.

We then ran a CD-Speed’s Scandisc function to check the disc for errors.

As we can see, the disc has no errors.

Verbatim 5x rated DVD-RAM media

As we can see, the Lite-On iHAS324 wrote our 5x DVD-RAM media at its rated speed of 5x in 11 minutes and 13 seconds.

Now let’s see if the Lite-On iHAS324 can read our test disc.

The Lite-On iHAS324 had no problems in reading our test disc at 12x.

We then ran a CD-Speed’s Scandisc function to check the disc for errors.

As we can see, the disc has no errors.

Summary:

There were no problems to report with DVD-RAM and our tested media.

Now let's head to the special features page where we will check out SmartErase.....

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On this page we will check out the special features that the drive has to offer. In the case of the Lite-On iHAS324, we look at SmartErase.

SmartErase

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SmartErase is feature that will destroy any data on recordable CD or DVD. It does this by overwriting the disc with meaningless data to destroy any data that is present on the disc. The resulting disc should be rendered useless and unreadable.

We check out the feature below.

When the SmartErase application is opened, it will list all drives in your system that support the feature. In this case only the Lite-ON iHAS324 supports the feature.

As we can see there are two options.

• Quick Erase
• Full Erase

We chose the "full erase" option.

A popup asks you to confirm that you do really want to erase the disc.

Once the disc has been erased, a popup confirms that the erase process has been successful.

Summary:

SmartErase worked perfectly and none of our tested discs were in any way readable after a SmartErase had been performed on the disc.

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

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:

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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 EAC (Exact Audio Copy) to test the drive’s Audio extraction performance. As we can see from the screenshot below, the drive supports accurate stream, C2 error info.

Below is the results produced by EAC:

Burst mode

Secure mode

The Lite-On iHAS324 performed extremely well in burst mode but, was a little slower in secure mode, but none the less, was faster than most of our tested drives.

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 703MB using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x)

The Lite-On iHAS324 burned our test CD-R at 48x in 2 minutes and 55 seconds.

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

The Lite-On iHAS324 was one of the fastest drives when writing our test CD-R.

DVD R:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4483MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

The Lite-On iHAS324 burned our test DVD R at 24x in 4 minutes and 6 seconds.

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

The Lite-On iHAS324 was the fastest drive when writing our test DVD R media.

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 iHAS324 burned our test DVD R DL at 8x in 18 minutes and 47 seconds.

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

The Lite-On iHAS324 was about average when writing our test DVD+R DL media

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility test:

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

• Panasonic DVD-RV32
• Panasonic SA-HT520
• Proline DVDP350
• Panasonic DMR-E50 recorder

Compatibility results:

All our DVD Standalone devices played the DVD+R DL media burned by the Lite-On iHAS324 without any problems.

Only one DVD Standalone device would play the Lite-On iHAS324 burned DVD-R DL media without any problems.

We would like to mention, that the compatibility issue with standalone DVD Players/Recorders and the DVD-R DL media format is caused by incompatibilities with the standalone devices used in this review, and not the Lite-On iHAS324 or media format used.

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.

To test this feature, we needed a reference from a drive that we know does not employ CSS riplock. We choose the Optiarc AD-7203A as a reference drive for this purpose and ripped a SL and DL pressed DVD-Video to our hard drive using DVDFab Platinum (full disc option).

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.

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

Below we can see our reference results.

SL CSS encrypted DVD Video disc “Goldeneye” (Optiarc AD-7203A reference result)

Time taken = 6m:12s

DL CSS encrypted DVD Video disc “The Green Mile” (Optiarc AD-7203A reference result)

Time taken = 12m:43s

Now let’s test the Lite-On iHAS324 using the same testing procedures.

SL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (Goldeneye):

The Lite-On iHAS324 is not CSS riplocked and ripped our test DVD-Video SL disc in 5 minutes and 23 seconds.

DL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (The Green Mile):

The Lite-On iHAS324 is not CSS riplocked and ripped our test DVD-Video DL disc in 11 minutes and 24 seconds.

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

The Lite-On iHAS324 was extremely fast when ripping our tested DVD-Video media.

Advanced tests:

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To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On iHAS324. These tests are: “Sheep Test”, and some special disc tests.

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

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

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

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the Lite-On iHAS324 supports everything.

The Lite-On iHAS324 supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

As we can see from the results, the Lite-On iHAS324 is a two sheep burner, in addition, it can also handle safedisc 2.90.

Overburning CD-R:

We tested the Lite-On iHAS324 to see if it could overburn CD-R media. The results are below.

700MB (80 minute) over-burn test:

The Lite-On iHAS324 reported a maximum overburn capacity of 81:57.56. We then setup a test burn with CD-Speed of slightly less than maximum and burned the disc, 80:49.25 to be exact.

As we can see, the Lite-On iHAS324 had no problems in writing our test disc. Now let’s see if the Lite-On iHAS324 can read back our created disc.

Unfortunately the Lite-On iHAS324 could not fully read back the over-burned disc that the drive created.

MINI DVD discs:

In this section we are going to test if the Lite-On iHAS324 is capable of writing and reading mini DVD-RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.46 GB.

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

The Lite-On iHAS324 had no problems in writing our test mini DVD-RW disc. Now let’s check if the Lite-On iHAS324 can also read back our test disc.

The Lite-On iHAS324 read back our test mini DVD-RW disc without any problems.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the Lite-On iHAS324 would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 9, and used NERO DiskSpeed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The Lite-On iHAS324 had no problems in reading our test VCD and also read the disc at 46x reading speed.

This concludes our Lite-On iHAS324 review. To read the conclusion, click on the link below

Positive:

• Generally good/excellent DVD±R/RW writing quality and performance.
• Very good DVD±R DL writing quality
• Generally good CD-R/RW writing quality.
• Can burn selected DVD±R media faster than its rated speed.
• Excellent CD and DVD reading performance and reliability.
• Reads pressed DVD Video SL/DL and recordable media at 16x/12x.
• Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on DVD+R/RW/DL.
• Supports Disc Quality Scanning.
• Supports SmartErase.
• Excellent third party support here on CD Freaks.
• Very quiet at 24x writing speed.
• Can read and write mini DVD media.

Negative:

· DVD±R writing quality on a few media could be improved.

· Questionable writing quality on selected CD-R media.

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points:

The Lite-On iHAS324 is a fast drive as far as writing CD-R and DVD±R media is concerned, recording some of the fastest times on CD-R and DVD±R discs burned in our reviews.

The Lite-On iHAS324 wrote our tested DVD±R media with generally excellent quality

The Lite-On iHAS324 is a feature rich drive, with SmartErase adding to the drive’s appeal.

Reading performance and reliability was excellent. The iHAS324 would make an excellent CD-Audio and DVD-Video ripper.

Lite-On Disc Quality Scanning has become legendary here on CD Freaks and the iHAS324 will not disappoint in this department.

Our retail drive was also supplied with Nero Essentials 8, and should be very capable of meeting most people's media burning requirements.

The main negative points:

Not many negative points to the Lite-On iHAS324 at all. There were some questionable results concerning writing quality, with selected CD-R/DVD R media. We hope this can rectified with a firmware update.

24x burning speed seemed more like a gimmick than a genuinely useful feature, and the iHAS324 could only burn one DVD+R media at this speed and one DVD-R media at this speed.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“Good feature set and not too many negative points, the Lite-On iHAS324 is generally an excellent drive”

Because of the good feature set and generally good writing quality across the main media groups, we decided to award the Lite-On iHAS324 our CD Freaks “Safe Buy” award.

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

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