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Lite-On 40/12/48X CD-RW
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Posted by Robin
Posted on 23/06/02 16:00
Number of views 10791
Menu
 Conclusion
 Introduction
 Package content
 The specifications
 Data reading tests
 Music reading tests
 Reading scratched discs
 Writing tests
 Write Quality
 Backing up protected data discs
 CD-ReWriting Performance
 Special CD-R disc tests
 General & Conclusion
Text Size  Text Size
Writing tests
 

Writing tests

Here we will do several write transfer tests with Nero Burning ROM and CloneCD and compare the results to other drives with similar specifications. Due to the lack of 40X certified media in Norway we did not have any available for this review. What we did was to try out different types of media with lower speed certifications and these found two types of discs that will be used for this review as they worked without any problems at 40X writing:

80min disc: Memorex 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)
For the 48X test this 80min media was used:

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)
74min disc: Acer multispeed:
  • 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: 653.76MB (74m 25s 00f / LBA: 334725)
Let us start with Nero burning ROM. The compilation had 79minutes and 55 seconds with data. The disc was made with these settings: Disc-At-Once write method and Finalize CD checked. This gave us this result in Nero when writing at 40X:



The result from the Lite-On LTR-40125S with ZS0A firmware. The drive used 3 minutes and 25 seconds to write the disc. Let us see if the ZS0J firmware makes the drive faster:



Here is the result from the Lite-On LTR-40125S with ZS0J firmware. It was able to write the disc in 3 minutes and 7 seconds, this is 18 seconds less time. Not much, but hey, the firmware upgrade costs nothing ;~)

But when writing at 48X with the overclocked LTR-48125W drive then?



Writing at 48X brought the total write time down even some seconds more to a total time of 2 minutes and 38 seconds! Whoa, now that is impressive, in fact it's writing at nearly the same speed as it is reading at. Will be hard to find a drive that could deliver data fast enough to write on the fly with this drive

Then we used CloneCD to make an image of the disc we just created with Nero to get the exact same size. Then we wrote the disc with both firmware versions and here is the results:



CloneCD used 3 minutes and 12 seconds to write the disc with LTR-40125S and firmware ZS0A.



And it used 2 minutes and 58 seconds to write the discs with LTR-40125S and firmware ZS0J. This is 14 seconds less time compared to with ZS0A, not a large difference but it's a difference that you get for free with a firmware upgrade…

And let us include the write time from CloneCD & LTR-48125W when writing at 48X:



2 minutes and 34 seconds, not bad, definitively not bad.

Now that we have seen the write times let us compare the result with several other drives. All tests was done with Nero burning ROM with Disc-At-Once write method and finalize CD checked.






With firmware ZS0J it was the overall fastest drive of all the tested 40X drive at nearly all tested speeds. With firmware ZS0A the TEAC CD-W540E still have a small lead. We can only conclude with that the LTR-40125S with firmware ZS0J is the fastest 40X drive we have reviewed so far! As expected the LTR-48125W is the fastest drive since it's rated for 48X writing, but as we se, there is a difference between firmware VS02 and VS06. But let us also create a music disc to see if writing mode 2 data makes any difference to the write times.

Writing music:

For this test we filled a CD with 21 songs with a total playtime of 79 minutes and 53 seconds. We also enabled CD-TEXT writing. The songs was converted directly from MP3 files to wav files on the fly while writing. We used the usual options while writing, Disc-At-Once and Finalize CD checked. Here is the results:



The result with Lite-On LTR-40125S with firmware ZS0A, it used 3 minutes and 20 seconds to create the disc.



And this is the result for the Lite-On LTR-40125S with firmware ZS0J, it used 3 minutes and 8 seconds to create the disc.



Notice that the disc we created with the LTR-48125W was a few seconds shorter so you may add a few seconds more to the total recording time. But 2 minutes and 41 seconds is in no aspect a bad result.

Compared to normal data writing there was no noticeable difference in time used for creating the disc. Many CD-Writers writes audio at lower speeds than maximum speed, but the Lite-On did not have this limitation. It wrote the discs at full speed. Is audio discs created at such high speeds really good enough? It much depends on the media used and the player that are going to play the created discs. While we had no problems with the created audio discs in the two standalone CD-Players we tested we may not guarantee that this will be the result for everybody. So we recommend trying different types of media or recording speeds to find out what's the best combination of media and speed for your needs.

But while we are at it, why not take a check to see if CD-TEXT works? Since we have already created two audio discs containing CD-TEXT. For this test we used a small CD-Player that supports showing CD-TEXT.



Both the created discs worked as they should in the LTR-40125S with both firmware ZS0A and ZS0J.



And it detected all the tracks with the correct names also.

Summary

The drive is extremely fast at writing both Audio and data discs. It outperforms all other drives we have tested when we use the ZS0J firmware for the drive. And all discs seem to work as they should, and CD-TEXT works. Also when overclocked to a LTR-48125W the drive performs excellent although a bit faster with firmware VS02 compared to firmware VS06.

But speed is not important compared to write quality, so continue to next page to read about write quality…
Reading scratched discs
Write Quality
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Posted by MP|3 on Thursday 27 June 2002 03:10
Complete review uploaded! Have fun with this great review :p
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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