detail information

Playback & Navigation of data discs:

Like any other DVD player or recorder, the process of playing back an Audio CD, (Super) Video CD or DVD is the same - just pop the disc and it will start playing.  However, when it comes to data discs, this DVD recorder will black back a variety of audio, video and image files present on the disc.  These include MPEG 1, 2 & 4 Video files, WMA and MP3 audio files and JPEG image files. 

Unfortunately unlike the HDD Lite-On models and many other DVD player/recorder brands, this DVD recorder does not feature a browser for data discs.  Instead, it plays the tracks in sequence like an audio CD and displays the tracks as Track 01, 02, etc.  When a data disc containing playable content is loaded, the following screen shows (even if only one media type is present on the disc):

Once a media type is selected, the player will begin playing all the media files it finds of that type in sequence.  The first track in the first folder is shown as 'Track 01', followed by 'Track 02' for the 2^nd file.  Once it moves on to the next folder, the tracks show starting from 'Track 01' again.  It is a real pity that neither a folder # nor name is mentioned to show what folder is currently being played, not to mention the name of the track (at least without going into the 'Navi' menu to display additional info).  The following two screens show the issue in distinguishing two folders apart while navigating.  First, we took a screenshot at track 12 (time mark 01:50) while playing a data disc containing several folders of video tracks with at least 12 tracks in each folder:

We then navigated track after track until it started playing from the next folder.  To the user, it would appear like the recorder has just started from track '01' of the current folder, since the track number just goes back to '01'.  So, just to show the recorder has gone to another folder, we navigated to track 12 and fast-forwarded until we got to the same time mark as before:

The reason this picture is rather narrow is due to us creating a test disc containing various video clips including clips recorded from satellite and converted to XviD.  We will cover tests on different types of XviD and DivX content in the 'Advanced Tests' section later in this review.  The track number system also applies to MP3 / WMA playback.

During the playback of MP3 tracks or video content, some info can be shown when the 'Information' option is enabled in the 'Navi' menu.  Unfortunately, this DVD recorder does not support ID3 tags, so the only additional info that will be shown includes the track duration, folder & file name and the track count for the current folder:

On discs with photographs, the info screen (when enabled) is more limited as shown below.  Unlike the track number shown with audio and video data discs, the recorder shows the photos as a sequence with the photo number and file name only shown when the info screen is enabled:

Other navigation features

While this DVD recorder lacks a browser for data discs, it does offer a few ways to jump to a specific song or jump to the next / previous folder.  On data discs containing several folders for a given media type, the 'Top Menu' and 'Menu' buttons jump to the previous and next album respectively.  The 'Navi' button has a 'search' feature for audio & video files as well as a 'File search' feature for picture files to allow the user to jump to a particular track within the current folder.  Unfortunately, it is not possible to jump a file by searching for a name, keyword, etc. as some players offer.  The following screen shows the 'File Search' feature on a disc containing photos:

Playback features:

---

As with pretty much every DVD player and recorder on the market, this DVD recorder offers several useful features while playing back discs.  For example, it is possible to jump to a given time section within a track instead of manually fast-forwarding to the point.  While some DVD player remotes are cluttered with buttons, Lite-On decided to cut back on the number of buttons on the remote by placing many of its features in the 'Navi' menu, such as Shuffle, Repeat, A-B, subtitles, zoom, etc. which would be found as remote control buttons with many other DVD players.  Then again, with the extra buttons to cater for DVD recording, such as Timer, Tools, Record, etc. the last thing Lite-On needs is to scare of potential customers with a sophisticated looking remote!

As Audio, Video and Image content each have their own navigation menus, this section is broken down into three sub-sections to cover each type of content. 

Video Control

Like playing a DVD or other video content in any other player, the features available on the 'Navi' menu depends on the content being played.  For example, while playing an MPEG file or a DVD without subtitles, the 'Subtitle' option is greyed out.  The following screen shows the 'Navi' menu while playing a DVD:

The Navigation Menu consists of the following:

• Repeat
• Zoom
• Slow Motion
  • Choice of é  1/2X, é  1/4X, éŸ 1/2X or éŸ 1/4X
• Search (Hidden for certain Video DVDs)
  • Title/Chapter
  • Time 
• A-B Repeat
  • Set Point A
  • Set Point B
  • Cancel
• Subtitle (If present)
  • Off
  • Choice of 1 to number of subtitles available.
• Audio (If more than one sound track)
  • Varies depending on disc, e.g. LCPM, DTS and DD
• Angle (If present)
  • Varies depending on disc
• Information
  • Choice of On or Off
• Exit

As the Repeat, Slow Motion, A-B Repeat, Subtitle, Audio and Angle features are common with pretty much all DVD players, we will not go into any detail about these when it comes to DVDs. 

The Zoom feature can come in handy to see a close-up of a certain section of an image such as to read small print.  However as with any other DVD player, it cannot show any more detail unless the TV itself is incapable of showing the full resolution, such as a hand held / pocket TV.  While zoomed in, it is possible to navigate about the picture in steps and the zoom strength goes between 100% and 400%.  The following shows an example of zooming in on some print:

The Search navigation feature (if available) allows the user to jump to a given title, track, chapter or point of time within the current title/chapter depending on the type of content being played back.  For DVDs, this is very useful to skip to a certain section in between two chapter marks without manually fast-forwarding or rewinding to that point.  The title/chapter feature jumps to a given title or chapter without wading through several layers of menus, although we've seen this feature disabled on some DVDs.  Finally, when a data disc containing video files is loaded, this can jump to a given file number.  Unfortunately, there is no way to jump to a given folder besides manually navigating from folder to folder until the required one starts playing. 

The 'Information' navigation control displays some extra info for DVD-Video content such as current angle, sound track, subtitle, etc. as shown below:

When playing back other Video content, such as MPEG4 (DivX & XviD), etc., the info screen shows very limited information, such as the current folder, file name, track number and subtitle (if available):

Unfortunately regardless of the video content, the recorder will not show other details such as audio / video bitrate as some other DVD players do.

Audio Control

As audio CDs and files don't contain any video, the navigation menu while playing audio-only content is a much cut down version of the DVD navigation menu as shown below:

The Navigation Menu consists of the following:

• Repeat
  • Switches between 'Repeat One', 'Repeat All', 'Shuffle Mode' and play.
• Search
  • Track
  • Time
• A-B Repeat
  • Set Point A
  • Set Point B
  • Cancel
• Information
  • On
  • Off
• Exit

The Search Time feature works like with video content in that the user can jump to a specific point of time within the current track.  A-B Repeat allows the user to set a repeat start and end point such that it plays between these two points in a loop.   Finally, the Information menu displays some details about the current track.  On an Audio CD, the track length, number and total count is displayed.  On a data disc while playing MP3 or WMA tracks, the folder and file name are shown (what ever can fit on-screen in one line), along with the track number for the current folder, current time and total time:

It is a pity to see the lack of ID3 support or even a better layout for displaying the folder and file information.  Then again some are happy enough as long as they can listen to MP3 or WMA tracks.

Picture Control

Like the Audio navigation menu, the picture navigation menu is a very cut down version of the video navigation menu, since pictures are still images and don't contain sound or subtitles.  The following screen shows the picture navigation control:

Like an Audio CD, the Repeat feature allows the photos to play in a loop and the Shuffle Mode displays the photos in a random order.  File Search allows the user to jump to a given picture number within the current folder, however as it is not clear which shown picture represents which number, it is only really useful if the user manually goes through all of the pictures and notes down the numbers for important pictures to look back at later.  The Picture Control displays a zoom control feature like the Video zoom feature, but with the ability to rotate the picture:

Even though images can have a resolution many times higher than that of standard definition, it is a pity to see that the recorder does not take advantage of this when it comes to zooming into an image.  For example, unlike the maximum 400% zoom for Video DVD discs, this recorder can only zoom to 200% in images.  Worse still, the picture shown seems to be a zoomed version of the standard definition picture as the above photo has a clearly readable sign when displayed on a PC. 

Photo loading time is fairly quick at ~4 seconds per 2MB 6 Megapixel and 1 to 2 seconds for images under 2 Megapixel.  Each photo is displayed for the slide time set in the setup menu, however it seems that as the loading time is also taken into account, we would recommend setting this figure to take into account the loading time.  For example, if the slide time is set to 5 seconds, each fully displayed 6 Megapixel photo is only shown for about a second! 

The Information screen shows the current folder, file, file number and number of files in the current folder:

Recording Content

The Easy Guider & Timers