detail information

The specifications of the Lite-On LDW-411S state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40x. 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 set up a new compilation of 700Mb 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 time it takes to write a disc at the highest speed that is 40X:

The drive used 3 minutes and 7 seconds to write the disc at 40X. There is no DVD-Writers in the same generation that we have reviewed that supports 40X Writing. As an example the LG GSA-4040B used 4 minutes and 56 seconds to write the disc at 24x, and the Memorex Dual-X used 5 minutes and 28 seconds when writing at 16X. If we compare it to a next generation drive; the Plextor PX-708A that used 2 minutes and 58 seconds to write the same disc it still stands strong and lags behind with 9 seconds only. But speed is not everything, quality is even more important, so let us take a look at the writing quality of this drive.

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 11 different large and not so large CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed we used the create data CD function in Nero CD-Speed, the discs was written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test we used K-Probe that is a tool developed by a Lite-On Employee, it runs under windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On LTR-52246S drive and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors, C1 errors are easily corrected by the drives error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drives 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 average for the best discs or at least below 10.0 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Why wait any longer? Below are the obtained results:

CMC Magnetics is not known for making the best CD-R discs but still the LDW-411S spit out a perfect quality disc. It's simply impressive.

What could we say? Simply excellent.

Again very good! An average C1 amount of 1.287 is great!

Again, simply excellent!

As usual with Taiyo Yuden CD-R discs the quality is superb; an average C1 error amount of 0.326 is among the best.

Some of our previously reviewed writers have had problems writing to these discs, but the LDW-411S just laughs and spits out a more than perfect disc! These discs gave back the best result in our test.

Eat this! We said and put in a Samsung CD-R discs which we have found to be of very low quality and none earlier reviewed writers have been able to write these with good quality. Again the LDW-411S just laughs, louder this time - and spits out another perfect disc!

Actually these discs are the discs that got the worst result, yes believe it or not! A C1 average of 1.716 is still perfect though.

Princo? No problem, still writes perfect.

Excellent discs are also written perfectly in this drive! We highly recommend these discs.

While TDK is a well-known brand in larger parts of the world their own manufactured CD-R discs may not be so well known, as they are mostly only available in Europe. But the Lite-On LDW-411S do not care about that, it still writes them perfect.

Summary:
The Lite-On LDW-411S simply laughs at the competition when it comes to CD-R media compatibility and writing quality. So far we have never had a drive from any brand to even come close to the results this drive is able to make! It did not care what brand the discs was, it just wrote them at all at 40x with impressive scores, without as much as a single C2 error. In other words: Just buy the media you want and know that the LDW-411S will write it perfect.

In case someone wonders; yes, we used exactly the same way of testing as in our previous review: The LG GSA-4040B. And yes; all media comes from the same spindles or packs, except the TDK Speed-X media that is from a new pack, but bought at the same time.

But after all it's a DVD-Writer so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media compatibility…

Reading performance

DVD-Writing performance