detail information

To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On LTC-48161H. These tests are: making backups of protected data and audio discs as well as an overburning test.

Copy protected data discs:

For this test we will use CloneCD (as usual) and Blindwrite for the newest protections, to make a backup of games containing some of the most popular copy protections. In the screenshot below we could see that the Lite-On LTC-48161H supports all available write and read features in CloneCD:

The Lite-On LTC-48161H supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data. Below are our results for all the tested games:

Motoracer 3 is protected with Tagé?s, a protection that is added during the manufacturing process. So far no drives have been able to backup this game successfully.

Flé?klypa grand prix is a Norwegian game that is protected with CD Cops, again a very special protection that is added during the manufacturing process. So far no drives have been able to make a 100% working backup, a few drives in combination with a few media types may make a backup that works in a few drives.

Desperados: Wanted dead or alive is protected with Laserlok, a protection that takes very long time to read for most drives, but most drives is able to make working backups of this game.

The Diablo 2 expansion set is protected with SecuROM version 4.62.00 0100, a widely used protection scheme. Writers able to read and write subchannel data correctly should be able to backup this Game.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice city is protected with a newer version of SecuROM: namely version 4.84.69 0071. Very few (if any) writers could reliably make working backups of this protection.

Max Payne is protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Max Payne is version 2.30.33. If a writer supports 'Almost correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors.

Serious Sam is also protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Serious Sam is version 2.51.21. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it will be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors.

Command and Conquer: Generals is another game protected with the very popular Safedisc protection, the version used on Command and Conquer: Generals is version 2.80.10. If a writer supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" it may be able to backup this protection without problems. If it does not support this you need to enable the 'Amplify weak sectors" option in CloneCD. This is a software trick to make most writers able to backup most safedisc protected games with weak sectors. Not that some writers may still have problems with this version.

The protection on The Sims: Superstar expansion pack is also safedisc, this time it's version 2.90.40. Very few (if any) writers are able to reliably make a working backup of this protection.

The table below shows the backup capabilities of the Lite-On LTC-48161H writer:

The reading performance of the Lite-On LTC-48161H is quite good; especially for the laserlok protection and protections with subchannel data is it fast. For safedisc protected discs it's quite fast but not the fastest drive we have seen. The writing capabilities of the drive is among the best as well and it's able to beat all safedisc protections, when the right program is used (CloneCD is a bit outdated when it comes to the newest Safedisc versions). The drive also supports 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit patterns" which helps it when backing up safedisc protected discs.

Copy protected Audio:

For our protected audio test we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test:

Westlife: World of our own is protected with Cactus data shield 100.

Natalie Imbruglias White lilies Island. This disc is protected with Cactus datashield 200

Shakira: Laundry service, which is protected with Key2Audio version 2.

And finally Celine Dion: A new day has come, that is protected with key2audio version 3

Results:

The Lite-On LTC-48161H is one of the best drives when it comes to extracting the content of protected audio discs as it extracted all the discs without any problems.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the Lite-On LTC-48161H we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to more than 99 minutes:

To make sure that it actually works we wrote a 99 minutes disc in Nero Burning ROM:

And the recording went successful as the above picture shows.

And then we tested the readability of the disc in Nero CD/DVD Speed:

The drive got some problems at the end but was still able to read the whole disc. Just as a second test we tested the quality of the disc in K-probe:

Definitively seems like there was a reason to the slowdown in CD-Speed. The error count went sky-high at about 83 minutes, exactly the same place where the drive slowed down. It's a problem that we are aware of and is not caused by the drive but is caused by our RiTEK 99 minute discs as well as the nature of 99 minute discs which is well outside the standards.

Now, that concludes our Lite-On LTC-48161H review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…

Re-Writing Performance

Conclusion