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| Posted by | Tor Magne |
| Posted on | 25/01/05 01:33 |
| Number of views | 13543 |
To round off this review we will run some advanced tests on the Lite-On SOHW-1653S
The 'Sheep test":
For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That is because the symbol of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer's ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns".
- No sheep: Can't backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
- 1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
- 2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
- 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.
One of our forum moderators, Womble, has written a guide concerning the 'Sheep Test" that could be found here.
In the screenshot below we see that the Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports all available write and read features in CloneCD:
The Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode. This means that it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data.
Below are our results from the 'Sheep Tests":
|
Sheep Tests |
Reader: |
|
One Sheep
Writer |
Yes |
|
Two Sheep
Writer |
Yes |
|
Safedisc
Writer |
Yes |
|
Three Sheep
Writer |
No |
The Lite-On SOHW-1653S qualifies as a two sheep writer and can produce functional backups of Safedisc 2.90 protected discs. This Lite-On writer is a good choice for backing up copy-protected content.
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:
|
Protected
|
Protection version |
Exact Audio Copy |
|
Westlife:
|
Cactus data shield 100 |
Detects the
tracks |
|
Natalie Imbruglia: |
Cactus data shield 200 |
Reads the disc |
|
Shakira:
|
Key2Audio version 2 |
Reads the disc |
|
Celine
Dion: |
Key2Audio version 3 |
Reads the disc |
Unfortunately the Lite-On SOHW-1653S was unable to read one of our test discs.
Overburning:
To test the overburning capabilities of the Lite-On SOHW-1653S 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:
Media used is Ritek 99 minutes media. And we also wrote a 99 minute disc in Nero:
There were no problems writing the 99 minutes disc, but what about reading then?
There are no problems reading the 99 minutes test disc.
Now, that concludes our Lite-On SOHW-1653S review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…
Double layer writing tests.
You can back up a whole DVD with all the extra's in 30 to 40 min. Including burn time.
I'm puzzled calling the "Prodye" DVD+R's with Plasmon MID "Low Quality". These discs are top quality, when the drive supports it fully. These discs are actually produced by [url=http://www.3a.net]3A Media[/url] which are great quality media (when properly supported by the firmware!!) . I got results comparable to the well known brands like MCC and Ricoh!
In my book they are low quality comparable the chap ass Hong Kong media and VDSPMSAB media.
[edited by OC-Freak on 25.01.2005 09:31]
But with my custom patches, great results have been achieved already on LiteOn and NEC drives so far (proven by CATS, BenQ Pi/Po/Jitter and LiteOn Kprobe). So it's more LiteOn that doesn't support these media properly then the media itself being crappy.
I've been working with 3A Media for the past 2 years almost and must say they have come a long way, getting a fully working production line with great quality discs from scratch, most of it by trial and error, since Asian companies are not willing at all to share any kind of knowledge.
Cd-r's
Verbatim
Mitsubishi China should be made with MCC technology for verbatim by CMC CHINA.
SAMSUNG cd-r.
Is not made by plasmon.
Good should be manufactured with plasmon stamper or
manufactured probally by Intersonic with plasmon stamper.
Funny that the Daxon Maxell disc's are correctly done. So 2 thumbs for that one.
DVD+R
Conclusion of Ritek media suggests additional tests.
But still it's good you at least mention it.
PHILIPS/CMC. -> you could have copied the coorect info from philips licensing.
(that's something like designed by Philips produced by CMC magnetics.)
Prodye -> 3A made media with Plasmon code as Herrie allready suggests. 3a media is most times quite decent but is very poor supported by most drive manufacturers because it's a european manufacturer !
Then again prodye has been known to also put B graded stuff on the market. So this incombination with the bad compatability might explain the result you are seeing.
The commodore interaxia disc.
Well I could track down the manufacturer for that one.But it's not worth the work. Since most disc's made with interaxia dye technology are not that great.
Also in this case stateing something like made with interaxtia manufactureing technology is better and is probally enough.
Sometimes I have the feeling that the transfer rate test isn't completely taken into account but that could be me who is just a bit more critical as the average user.
Missing media ?
Not really,
Only real media I would like have seen some results off might be RICOH's inversed stack dual layer media.
But ohhwell I know how hard it is to get them and then the fact that the drive isn't on
Ricoh's list so it's ok. that it isn't included.
Another good thing the fact that the name of the manufacturer of the 99 minutes disc was given and the fact that a real disc was burned.
So the end conclusion.
I see that a lot of stuff has improved compared to earlier reviews but still there are some small points on occasions that could be done a little bit better, still this review is allready at a level that only a few other sources can achieve.
Samsung - dunno manufacturer as there is various manufacturers using plasmon stamper/ATIP.
Are 3A the only manufacturer of media with plasmon ADIP?
Transfer rates: as long as speed do not drop too much I consider the result good - as mentioned in the introduction of media quality tests.
).
Let's hope they are faster to send out the 1673S.
which drives you have for your next reviews?
To tell the truth, there is no problems with 16x P-CAV on USB2 and FW due to good profilic firmware from mid december in the case.
Tried the firmware on other profilic cases, but it has copmpatibility issues with some drives (benQ for example), but works great with some
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=124830
For some KProbe tests of 3A Media
[edited by Herrie on 30.01.2005 11:26]
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