detail information

The specifications of the Lite-On SHW-16H5S state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 24x. 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 it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x):

The drive took 3 minutes and 20 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares to other drives in the table below:

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 8 different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which 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 SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 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 drive's error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive's 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 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the obtained results:

Media made by Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of 0.17 it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category. Highly recommended!

RICOH media - manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 2.33 it goes in the 'good discs" category. 

The result on this Verbatim Super AZO+Cystal DL disc is extremely good. With a C1 error average of 0.23, this disc goes into our 'best quality disc" category. Highly recommended!

Another excellent result from the Emgeton branded CD-R media manufactured by Fornet International. With its C1 average of 1.26, it places this disc in our 'best disc" category. Recommended!

The Traxdata CD-R manufactured by RITEK, with its C1 average of 0.72 places this disc in our 'Best discs" category. Highly recommended!

Another excellent burn, with a C1 average of 0.79, this places this disc in our 'Best Disc" category. Highly recommended!

Once again we have a very good result, with a C1 average of 1.69, this places the HP CD-R manufactured by CMC Magnetics in our 'best disc" category. Highly recommended!

Another very good result, with a C1 average of only 1.87, this places this disc in our 'best disc" category. Highly recommended!

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Due to requests from our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media. Settings and testing procedures are the same as used earlier in this review, so you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 5 times.

CD-ReWritable media:

With a C1 average of 0,26, this places this Daxon media in our 'best Disc" category. An excellent result.

A very good result, but the disc was only written at 16x

A very good result.

Summary:
The CD-R/RW writing quality is excellent.

So let us head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance…