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Lite-ON 24/10/40X USB 2.0
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Posted by Robin van Lieshout
Posted on 21/05/02 11:47
Number of views 7775
Menu
 Conclusion
 Introduction
 The package
 Specifications
 Data reading tests
 Music reading tests
 Reading scratched discs
 Writing tests
 Protected data test
 CD-RW tests
 Media compatibility
 Special CD-R disc tests
 General usage
Text Size  Text Size
Specifications
 

The specifications of this drive, as found at Lite-On's page:

Features

  • 24X (Zone-CLV) Record, 10X (CLV) Re-Write & 40X (CAV) Read technology.
  • Portable Design, using USB2 adapter cable to ensure 24X performance (PC has to be USB2)
  • Optional accessory including IEEE1394 Firewire, PCMCIA Card Bus Adapter Cable
  • Innovated SMART-BURN® technology to avoid from buffer under run Error & automatically adjust writing strategy plus running OPC to meet various CD-R/RW media burning condition.
  • Innovated SMART-X technology, support high speed Digital Audio Extration (DAE) & VCD data extraction
  • Plug & Play with emergency manual eject
  • Supporting Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Raw Mode & Over-Burn.
  • Read/Write formats CD, CD-R, CD-RW Disc (up to 99 min), also conforms to Orange Book Part 2,3.
  • VAS® Vibration Absorber System Mechanisam to reduce vibration & noise during read & write.
Specifications
  • Speed:
    • Recording 24X (3600KB/sec) Zone-CLV (16X, 20X@6min, 24X@16min)
    • Re-writing 10X High-Speed (1500KB/sec) CLV
    • Reading 40Xmax (6000KB/sec) CAV (16X~40X)
  • Interface: Built-in E-IDE D-type 36pin connector, Use adapter cable to provide USB1.0/1.1/2.0 interface, optional to IEEE1394-1995/1394a (Firewire) interface or PCMCIA2.1/Card Bus5.0. Support up to Ultra-DMA Mode2 33.3MB/sec
  • X Limitation: (Limited by the Lower one of either Drive Cabel Speed or PC Interface Speed)
    InterfaceUSB1.1USB2.0IEEE1394PCMCIAPC Card Bus
    Writing4X24X24X8X24X
    Rewriting4X10X10X8X10X
    Reading6.6X40X40X9X40X
  • Access Time: 80ms (typical)
  • Buffer Memory Size: 2MB
  • System Requirement: CPU Pentium 166MHz above , Memory 128B Required ; HDD must have access time < 20ms, with a minimum of 100MBytes Free space
  • Support Disc Format: CD/CD-R/CD-RW formats both 8cm & 12cm discs (up to 99 min)
  • Support Operating System: Windows 98/XP/2000/ME, OS10 Warp
  • MTBF: 70'000 Power On Hours with 25% Duty
  • Audio:
    • S/N: 60dB
    • Earphone: 0.3Vrms @ 1KHz
  • Temperature & Humidity:
    • Operating: 5C to 40C ; RH: 10% to 80%, Non-Condensing
    • Non-Operating: -40C to 60C ; RH: 10% to 95% , Non-Condensing
  • Power Requirement: Use Dedicated Switching Power Supply Adapter (+5V: 1.5A rated, +12V: 1.5A rated)
  • Dimension: WxHxD: 152.0 x 44.3 x 198.0mm
  • Weight: 600g (Drive Only)
As you can see from the specifications the drive actually supports a lot of various interfaces by just buying the right accessory. The drive we received was shipped with an ATAPI to USB cable.

Buffer and buffer underrun protection:

According to the specifications the drive has a 2Mb buffer, let's check this with Nero:



You can clearly see that the drive has a 2Mb buffer and supports the SMART-BURN Buffer underrun protection system. We could also see that the drive is shipped with firmware revision 8S01, there is no newer firmware revision released for this drive yet.


Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing

This technology is made by Lite-On, but is similar to BURN-proof that is made by Sanyo and used by many of the larger CD-RW drive manufacturers. Maybe Lite-On had to pay money to Sanyo to be allowed to use the BURN-proof technology and then decided to make their own technology, just better and in the same time save money.

Here are the main features of SMART-BURN:

  • Buffer Under Run Error Free
  • Running Optimum Power Calibration
  • Automatic Writing Strategy & Burning Parameters
  • Automatically decrease burning speed when Laser power over margin due to poor media quality or high temperature.


Here is a picture illustrating how the smart-burn technology works


Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for eXtraction

This technology is invented to increase the readability of audio and VCD CD's. These special types of CD's don't have a very good error-correction scheme. SmartX will prevent serious faults in reading.


SMART-X illustration


Write method:

Now lets have a look at what write technology this drive uses, for this test we used Nero CD-Speed. The result is this graph:



The green line indicates the write speed. The yellow line indicates the rotation speed (rpm) that the disc have.

As we could clearly see from the picture this drive uses Zone-CLV(Zone Constant Linear Velocity) write method. The drive uses three zones to reach the specified 24X write speed:

  • Zone 1: It starts writing at 16X from the beginning.
  • Zone 2: Then at the 4 minute mark it shifts speed to 20X
  • Zone 3: And finally at the 14 minute mark it shifts speed to 24X and keeps this speed for the rest of the disc.
The use of Zone-CLV write method causes the average write speed to be lower than 24X:




This is the average write speed when we used an 80minute CD-R disc. Lets see how well that compares to other 24X Writers:

WriterStart speedEnd SpeedAverage speed
Lite-On LXR-24101A16.00X24.01X22.76X
Lite-On LTR-24102B16.01X24.04X22.80X
Plextor PX-W2410A16.00X24.00X22.76X
Mitsumi CR-4809TE16.00X24.01X22.71X

As you can see there is no noticeable difference.

Nero Info tool features detected:

We used Nero info tool to detect the features of the drive, and here is what it displayed:




The drive seems to support everything expected. Mount Rainier was not supported but this was not expected for this drive either, but let us hope that Lite-On's next USB 2.0 drive will support it. Since you manually have to close the top cover when a disc is inserted it's detected as a slot-in drive.

Summary:

The drive has all the needed features, nice specifications that we would expect from a drive like this. The only thing that is worth mentioning is that we would have preferred a larger buffer.

But let us now take a look at how the drive performs when reading data discs…
The package
Data reading tests
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Reactions on this item
Posted by on Saturday 01 June 2002 15:52
Very nice review OC-Freak! Enjoyed reading it. Oh and nice pics by the way ;)
Posted by MP|3 on Saturday 01 June 2002 22:25
The pics were really a pain in the ass to get them right in the backend system ;)

Great review though.
Posted by on Wednesday 19 June 2002 08:58
In order to backup Cactus Data Shield Audio CD's. I've found it helps to insert the CD with autorun enabled and allow it to start the built-in player. Stop the player, load CloneCD and copy the CD (make sure you don't have any fast error skip stuff enabled). This (for me at least) results in a copy of the CD which completely works 100% (and in fact can be backed up or ripped perfectly). :)
Posted by on Monday 17 March 2003 13:46
I have the 40x write version of this drive but can only reach around 20x in EAC burst mode.

Any ideas what's wrong?
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