Lite-On 40/12/48X CD-RW

detail information

Posted by	Robin
Posted on	23/06/02 16:00
Number of views	10813

Reading scratched discs

Writing tests

Write Quality

Backing up protected data discs

CD-ReWriting Performance

Special CD-R disc tests

General & Conclusion

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Write Quality

Write Quality

In this test we will test various different CD-R discs. We have tried to pick CD-R discs from different manufacturers and not only different brands(which may still actually be manufactured by the same manufacturer). We will test the LTR-40125S with firmware ZS0A and ZS0J and also some tests when converted to an LTR-48125W with firmware VS02 and some tests with firmware VS06 also. Also we will run some tests with SMART-BURN disabled to see if it really have a function.

Testing methodology: The discs is written with Nero Burning ROM with these settings: Disc-At-Once, Finalize CD. 700Mb discs is filled with 700Mb of data and 650Mb discs is filled with 650Mb data, this means the discs are written to itÂ¡Â¦s full capacity to see if there is problems writing to the full capacity. Then we will use Nero CD-Speeds scandisc function to check for errors on the discs. We also wanted to use CD-R diagnostic as the second program to get more reliable results but all it gave us was a bluescreen of death when tried to run the test, so we used Nero CD-Speed for the testing only.

Let us start the testing!!!

Generic Noname 74min CD-R disc.

ATIP: 97m 26s 00f
Disc Manufacturer: Fornet International Pte Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 658.30MB (74m 56s 00f / LBA: 337050)

A short note: these discs have problems at speeds higher than 8X.

Acer Professional Platinum 1-12X multispeed, 80minutes

ATIP: 97m 22s 66f
Disc Manufacturer: Acer Media Technology, Inc.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Pretty impressive of the discs to do so well at 40 and 48X recoding since they are only 12X certified.

MMORE 74min CD-R 12X multispeed.

ATIP: 97m 31s 01f
Disc Manufacturer: Ritek Co.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 656.69MB (74m 45s 00f / LBA: 336225)

These discs did not handle the high writespeed very well, at the end there was plenty of C2 errors when writing at 48X. Well why complain? Works well at 24X which is double of what they are certified for!!

Kodak GOLD 8X certified 74min.

ATIP: 97m 27s 45f
Disc Manufacturer: Kodak Japan Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 650.83MB (74m 05s 01f / LBA: 333226)

Is there anything to say? 8X certified discs that is discontinued 2 years ago Æ’Â¼ and performs so excellent at 48X recording, that is 40X more than what they are certified for!! To bad Kodak is pulling out of the CD-R disc business.

Mitsui GOLD 16X certified 74min.

ATIP: 97m 27s 56f
Disc Manufacturer: Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, Inc.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 650.85MB (74m 05s 11f / LBA: 333236)

Not a bad result but we had expected a perfect result from the mitsui gold discs, oh well we canÂ¡Â¦t complain since they were written at a higher speed than what they are certified for, writing at their certified speed will give a better result.

Mr.Platinum 12X cerified 74min.

ATIP: 97m 26s 11f
Disc Manufacturer: Postech Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 654.49MB (74m 30s 00f / LBA: 335100)

**Note that even if it showed up as 40X capable according to SMART-BURN the writespeed was lowered to 16X when writing!!

To be old 12X certified and cyanine type discs they did pretty good.

TDK 12X certified 74min

ATIP: 97m 24s 01f
Disc Manufacturer: Taiyo Yuden Company Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 656.40MB (74m 43s 00f / LBA: 336075)

The well known Taiyo Yuden spindle.

Seems like there was a reason why the writespeed was limited to 16X when smartburn was on. When written at 48X the disc couldn't even be detected by most players.

NoName Generic 80min 12X cerified:

ATIP: 97m 28s 12f
Disc Manufacturer: Gigastorage Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 698.88MB (79m 33s 00f / LBA: 357825)

NoName generic 80min 24X certified:

ATIP: 97m 32s 19f
Disc Manufacturer: Prodisc Technology Inc.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

40X seems to be the limit for this media as 48X writing did not give good results.

NoName generic 80min 24X certified:

ATIP: 97m 27s 00f
Disc Manufacturer: Disc ID not allowed
Reflective layer: Dye (Disc ID not allowed; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Made by Moser Baer India with Multimedia Masters & Machinery manufacturing equipment, but the ATIP is hidden.

Cheap media, we wasnÂ¡Â¦t really expecting much from it. But it seems like LTR-48125W with firmware VS02 and smartburn on handles this media pretty good.

Verbatim DataLifePlus metal AZO, 16X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 34s 21f
Disc Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Not a very satisfying result, seems like these disc do not work to well at the tested speeds.

Verbatim DataLifePlus Super AZO, 24X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 34s 21f
Disc Manufacturer: Mitsubishi Chemicals Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

When written at the speed that SMART-BURN selected these discs worked pretty good.

PC-Line 24X Certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 26s 66f
Disc Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Did someone ask if there was any difference in quality between discs made by the same manufacturer? Yes there for sure is since these CMC Magnetics discs did much better than the Imation CMC Magnetics discs.

MPO 24X Certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 25s 07f
Disc Manufacturer: MPO
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.69MB (79m 59s 00f / LBA: 359775)

Again we see unreadable sectors, which is very bad. SMART-BURN and write strategy definitively needs to be tweaked more to avoid such problems.

TDK RefleX 24X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 24s 01f
Disc Manufacturer: Taiyo Yuden Company Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 73f / LBA: 359848)

These Taiyo Yuden produced discs did really impress us with perfect results! Must be the best Cyanine discs available?

Fujifilm 24X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 26s 45f
Disc Manufacturer: FUJI Photo Film Co., Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Another disc type that worked pretty well with this drive.

Vivastar 24X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 25s 40f
Disc Manufacturer: Vivastar AG
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

These discs couldn't handle 48X writing but they worked ok at the SMART-BURN selected speed, which was 32X.

Sony 32X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 24s 12f
Disc Manufacturer: Sony Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Long strategy; e.g. Cyanine, Azo etc.)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

The table easily shows it: Stay away from sony CD-R discs as they wonÂ¡Â¦t always work properly at the speed they are certified for.

Princo budget 32X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 27s 28f
Disc Manufacturer: Princo Co.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

The princo is very strange, they are green/blue like cyanine at the back but is identified as phthalocyanine disc, who cares anyway since they performed pretty good at all speeds except 48X.

MMORE 32X certified 80min:

ATIP: 97m 17s 06f
Disc Manufacturer: Moser Baer India Ltd.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Ritek 32X cerified 'J' Type media

ATIP: 97m 15s 17f
Disc Manufacturer: Ritek Co.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 73f / LBA: 359848)

Imation 32X certified, 80min.

ATIP: 97m 26s 66f
Disc Manufacturer: CMC Magnetics Corp.
Reflective layer: Dye (Short strategy; e.g. Phthalocyanine)
Media type: CD-Recordable
Recording Speeds: min. unknown - max. unknown
Nominal Capacity: 702.83MB (79m 59s 74f / LBA: 359849)

Having unreadable sectors is very bad, stay away from this type of media or write at lower speeds to avoid getting unreadable sectors.

Now that was all we had to show you. Notice that most of the tested media was written at a higher speed than it was certified for, if we had wrote all discs at the speed they were certified for we would most likely se much better results. When the drive was overclocked to a 48X drive we did not se any serious issues or worse media compatibility as long as SMART-BURN was enabled.

The overall performance was not that impressive, either the drive is not correctly calibrated for the media types and may be fixed with a firmware upgrade. Or most likely the media we had (notice that we did NOT have any 40 and 48X certified discs) is not good enough to keep up with the high recording speeds. We still expected to see better results than we saw.

Now that we knows how well the write quality is, let us continue to backing up protected discs...

Writing tests

Backing up protected data discs

Want to submit your own review? Click here

Posted by MP|3 on Thursday 27 June 2002 03:10

Complete review uploaded! Have fun with this great review

Posted by OC-Freak on Thursday 27 June 2002 21:52

PLEASE comment this review. Over 5000 views and no comments?

Both positive and negative comments wanted. Quetions welcomed as well.

Posted by on Friday 28 June 2002 06:34

Great review, already own the drive, wanted to see where you had it rated. Speed is great, even though I think its not as loud as listed, but other than that and its boring looks, this drive rocks! Good tests, indepth and professional, keep up the good work!
Mike

Posted by ExSport on Saturday 29 June 2002 01:59

Very good review. But I don't understand why Lite-on has only 9.5 and Teac 10. In 90% of tests Liteon was the best and TEAC was second. LITEON has best price,speed,game backup,and so on).I think it's minimally the same as TEAC, maybe better. I have LITE-ON, I know what I say.

Posted by on Saturday 29 June 2002 21:42

If you want more comments how about fixing the pull down menu code so it works in netscape6/mozilla/opera so people can create a login, or better still allow anonymous posting.

Great review, very thorough.

I must stress that the drive is ugly looking and the loader try is very loud and cheap feeling. I prefer the LG 40X over the Lite-On 40x because of this although technically they both perform well.

Posted by Fish3669 on Saturday 29 June 2002 22:09

I thought the review covered the drive very well, as do the other reviews here. I already have this drive and I like it :7

Posted by cj2304 on Sunday 07 July 2002 12:09

Good, indepth & informative review. Well done! I have this drive myself and can't fault it.

Posted by on Friday 12 July 2002 19:59

Fantastic review. I will have to read your reviews about other drives as well. I like the speed and performance of this drive, but there was one aspect which seemed unclear. These discs that are written with SmartBurn, shouldn't they be completely free of all bad sectors or damaged sectors? I can understand that some CD-R's are crap, but I would think that the Smart-Burn would be able to lower the speed to the point where one could expect 100% perfect burns. I have an old Plextor 8X, and am looking to upgrade, these fast burners are great, but what I still want is 100% perfect recording, even if the drive drops to 24X writing, I would expect that if the media is good enough (certified 24X), it would always write perfectly.

I want to check the rest of your reviews to see which drive writes perfectly every single time, whenever it's "active-media detection" technology is engaged.

Posted by on Friday 19 July 2002 21:25

Great review. I went right out and bought one. What is the difference between thew S and W models? Do you lose anything?

Posted by on Monday 29 July 2002 04:15

Australian PC User has reviewed the 40125W the "best buy". They found it both cheap and reliable. I checked with the elby CloneCD 4 web site (http://elby.ch/english/products/clone_cd/writers/l.html#liteon) and it says it supports DAO96.

So there you go. Looks like this will be the first CD-burner for this newbie. :4

Posted by on Sunday 04 August 2002 13:26

Great review. I was trying to decide whether to get the Asus 4816A or the Lite-On 40125S after my Acer 4x4x32 finally died :4. Thanks for making my mind up

I'm going to buy the Lite-On this week.

Posted by MythosGR on Tuesday 03 September 2002 13:55

Great review as always. But I had the teac in my mind till now and Im more confused cause of the score you gave both!

Posted by on Friday 06 September 2002 04:49

first thang first...CD Freaks!? mega indepth and wicked review you've got here! LTR-40125S IS THE KING!!! it's a supurb burning machine! i bought the drive five days before reading the review, mainly cuz a friend told me that it can be overclocked. on the first day i got it, i burned more than 20 perfect cds consecutively. i very much enjoy it's lightning speed. i believe that your review should give it 9.9 (cuz nothing is perfect in the world) for the time being as there will be more great drives in the near future, and teac should only get 9 outta 10. i'm not being bias or anything..as i have never used teac before, but the review clearly speaks for itself, that the performance of liteon surpassed teac. the best part is flashable firmware enabling anyone to overclock it and still running rock solid. sometimes, overclocking isn't all that bad cuz it can show what a hardward is capable of. for me the strongest factor which makes liteon superior to other brands is "value of money". it's not the cheapest rw in town, but it surely has one of the lowest caparable price on today's market. especially when overclocked it will make 40125S the cheapest 48X drive available..so worthy you can even buy a spare in case you wreck the first one. the noise the tray makes and the plainess and dullness of the front to me are bearable. i simply just luv everything about my 40125S. LITEON RULES MAN!!!

Posted by on Wednesday 30 October 2002 09:34

gr8 review. made me buy the Liteon.
Please explain on the possiblity to use a x48 firmware on this machine.
although not legal/voids warranty / with risks, is it simple to do? possible?
Any elaboration is welcomed. Thanks.

Posted by theunbeatable on Friday 06 December 2002 23:31

For better support on copy-protected cd's you could use the newest firmware ZS0P. So makes that a 10 out of 10

Posted by megod on Tuesday 10 December 2002 06:32

Just did a Quick test burning a Simulated 699mb file 588 solid Win RAR File & a 111mb Video file on a 16x Certified Go Tech "Cheap shit media",
LTR-48125w Safeburn off 48x "2.43min"
LTR-48125w Safeburn on 40x "3.09min"
Yamaha CRW3200e Write speed Off 24x "3.52min"
Yamaha CRW3200e Write speed On 24x "3.53min"
I must say I am Impressed with the LiteOn.
Cheers
megod:9

Posted by on Friday 21 February 2003 23:25

I've got this LTR-48125S. Whenever overburning is involved, any speed higher than 16x will be successful, but Scandisc shows Unreadable sectors! How could the reviewer managed to get a fully readable burn on a 99min CDR with 48X?!?! This drive must be something!

Besides, my drive shows success on overburning test using this CD Speed, even @ 99min using an 80min CD-R
Brand: Arita
Manuf: RiTEK

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