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| Posted by | Tor Magne |
| Posted on | 05/11/05 15:08 |
| Number of views | 10722 |
- Overall good specifications.
- Very good DVD-media support as almost every disc is supported at certified speed.
- Very good CD-Writing quality.
- Very good DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL writing quality.
- Very good retail package that includes extra black front bezel.
- Excellent audio extraction capabilities.
- Fast CD-Reader.
- Reads DVD+/-R at 16x.
- No riplock for reading DVD-Video discs.
- Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW/R DL, but needs to be enabled.
- Good error testing capabilities.
- Good community support and many 3rd party programs that works with the drive.
- Supports reading/writing 99 minute CD-R media.
- Good drive for backing up protected PC games.
Negative:
- CD-R media compatibility could be further improved.
- Awful DVD+/-RW writing quality.
- Only 24x CD-RW writing speed, and writing quality needs to be improved too.
- Only 32x CD-RW reading speed.
- Very low DVD+/-RW reading speed of only 6x.
- Only 8x reading of all double layer media types.
- DVD-writing quality with certain 16x media could be improved.
- Doesn't support 6x/8x DVD-R DL.
- Doesn't support any current DVD+R DL discs at 8x speed.
- Doesn't set DVD+R/RW/R DL media to DVD-ROM booktype as default.
- Doesn't support 'overspeeding" media (Writing media at higher speeds than what it is certified for).
Conclusion:
Have Lite-On been able to fix the issues we pointed out in our
SOHW-1673S review? Well, some of them, but they did also introduce some new
issues. Let's summarize the main positive and negative points below.
The main positive points: The Lite-On SHW-1635S is a very good CD-Writer. They have also greatly improved the DVD-Writing quality and at 8x the quality are very good. The Lite-On SHW-1635S is also a fast CD-Reader and excellent Audio CD-Reader and also reads DVD+/-R at 16x. And you also get a good program bundle and an extra front bezel in the retail package. And not to forget that this drive also supports bitsetting, error scanning of written discs and has a huge community support with lots of 3rd party programs designed just for Lite-On drives. Interested? Then our Lite-On forum is a great place to start reading!
The main negative points: While they improved in some areas they did also break some things. The DVD+RW and DVD-RW writing quality of this drive is just horrible, so don't buy this drive if you plan on using such media. The CD-RW speed is only 24x and the quality could be better too. The reading speed for several media types is lower than we would like to see as well, especially DVD+/-RW reading speed is low with only 6x - this is even slower than previous Lite-On drives. The strange thing is that the reading speeds were higher with earlier firmware versions. And we can't get around it, the 16x DVD-Writing quality is still not as good as the competition for some media types - but it's better than previous Lite-On drives. And the drive is also selling as an 8x DVD+R DL capable drive, but doesn't support any current DVD+R DL media at 8x - we would like to see 8x support for Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL.
To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: 'This drive will work pretty well if you don't care about writing DVD+/-RW media, and could live with low reading speeds of some media types" We hope that Lite-On will soon be able to make a drive that works acceptably in every area, and not just some areas.
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 Traxdata media used in
this review. Conrexx technology is the
supplier of Traxdata media as well as other Ritek media brands for whole Europe, Africa and Middle
East.
For providing some of 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 Miflop Extreme and Lite media. Miflop media aims at providing
both chea 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.
For providing the Infiniti media used in this review. Medea is a long time player in the
optical disc market.
E-Net Distribution - United
Kingdom for providing the DVD+R 8x and DVD-R 8x media used in this review. E-Net Distribution is currently
Europe's largest supplier of CD and DVD media.
Bell Technology spol
s.r.o. - Czech Republic for providing some of the media used in this
review.
Optodisc USA for sending the Acro Circle media used in this
review.
Looking for CD and DVD-Media in Norway? Visit www.norwaydisc.no the Norwegian specialist on CD and DVD Media!
I´m surprised about the improving from older 16x Liteon to the newer ones.
But what in the hell Liteon think when tey optimizing the RW-strageties?
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