detail information

Writing Data CD-RW Discs: 

A glance at the specifications of the Lite-On SOHR-5238S states that the drive is able to write CD-RW discs at up to 32x. Now it is time for us to find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

For our data writing tests, we set up a new compilation of 702Mb 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 'finalise disc" enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (32x):

Write Quality:

For these tests we will be using 5 different CD-RW media from 3 different 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 our review drive and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-RW 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.

Note. Not all of the CD-RW media used in this review was new, but each media had been burned no more than 3 times. Where a media did not burn as well as expected a new disc was used and re-tested up to 5 times.

CD-ReWritable Media Results:

Excellent result but rather slow. Very low average C1 errors places this disc in the 'best quality disc" category.

The K-Probe result reported high C1 errors, and to many C2 errors. A poor result, but at least the disc was readable by the Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive.

High C1 errors and a few C2 errors spoil this burn. Once again a poor result. The disc is readable on the Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive, but this was a big disappointment on a good quality media.

Once again a poor result. Although the average C1 errors are very low at 0.62, there are C2 errors on the disc and this is never a good sign.

Once again a poor result. Far too many C2 errors on this disc, at least the disc is readable on the Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive.

Overall Thoughts:

The CD-RW writing quality is certainly not up to the standard of the CD-R write quality on this drive.

Overall I feel the CD-RW quality needs improving on the Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive.

Now lets do some Packet Writing and Mount Rainier tests on the next page…