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Lite-On SOHW-1653S DVDR/RW review
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Posted by Tor Magne
Posted on 25/01/05 01:33
Number of views 13247
Menu
 Conclusion
 Introduction
 Features and bundle
 Reading performance
 CD-R/RW Writing performance
 DVD-Writing speed and quality
 DVD-Writing quality continued and DVDRW tests
 Double layer writing tests.
 Advanced tests
Text Size  Text Size
DVD Writing quality continued and DVDRW tests
 

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:


 

Brand:

Verbatim Data Life Plus

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Singapore

Code:

MCC02RG20

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

7m:29s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

109.70

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.07

There are room for improvements here


 

Brand:

Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Ritek

Code:

RITEKG05

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

9m:01s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

21.69

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.01

No problems with this media.


 

Brand:

MiFlop Extreme - thanks to MiFlop for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden

Code:

TYG02

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

8m:47s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

7.26

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.00

A good result - just like we expect with Taiyo Yuden.


 

Brand:

BenQ

Manufacturer:

Daxon - but with Sony ADIP.

Code:

SONY08D1

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

12x

Write Time:

7m:32s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

3.70

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.11

No problems with this media, worked excellent at 12x speed.


Brand:

Datawrite

Manufacturer:

Prodisc - but with Fujifilm technology and ADIP.

Code:

FUJIFILM03

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8X

Write Speed:

8X

Write Time:

8m:51s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

12.42

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.04

No noticeable problems with this media either.


 

Brand:

eProformance

Manufacturer:

Prodisc

Code:

ProdiscF01

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

8m:59s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

1213.00

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

Freaked out - wrong result.

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S do simply not work with this media. We did try 3 discs with same results; same media type works in other writers


 

Brand:

Datawrite

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics

Code:

CMC.MAG.AE1

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

9m:7s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

23.48

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.03

No problems with this media either.


 

Brand:

Samsung

Manufacturer:

Opto disc

Code:

OPTODISCR008

Disc Type:

DVD-R

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

8x

Write Speed:

8x

Write Time:

8m:53s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

17.07

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.03

A surprisingly good result with this cheap optodisc manufactured DVD-R discs.

Overall thoughts: The drive actually does a good job on most 8x media and almost every 8 disc worked at certified speed, so the media compatibility is pretty good. But media compatibility and writing quality at 12x and 16x speeds needs improving. We would also like to see more media supported for overspeeding (writing at speeds higher than certified for).

Re-Writing data:

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports rewriting DVD-RW and DVD+RW at 4x speed, let us write two discs in Nero and see how fast it is.

Here is the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a 4X Verbatim DVD-RW disc:

 

The drive used 15 minutes to write the disc at 4x speed.

And here is the writing time for writing 4.4Gb of data to a Ricoh 4X DVD+RW disc:

 

The Lite-On SOHW-1653S used 14 minutes and 14 seconds to write the disc.

Writing Quality with DVD Re-Writable discs:

Due to request 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 unsure. All discs used for these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 25 times.

DVD+ReWritable media:


Brand:

That's Write - Thanks to That's Write for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Ricoh (by Ritek)

Code:

RICOHJPNW11

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:14s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

86.76

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.16

While there were no problems reading back the disc the amount of errors is a lot higher than usual with this media.


 

Brand:

Verbatim DataLifePlus

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Code:

MKM A02

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:23s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

97.41

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

3.66

Again a not so good result, and there is even some slight problems indicated by the reading curve.


 

Brand:

Daxon - thanks to Daxon for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Daxon

Code:

Daxon.D42

Disc Type:

DVD+RW

Capacity:

4483MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

14m:21s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

34.12

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.22

Again a bit high amount of errors, but the reading curve is clean.

DVD-ReWritable media:


 

Brand:

RiData - thanks to RiData for providing it.

Manufacturer:

Ritek

Code:

RITEKW04

Disc Type:

DVD-RW

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

2x - failed

Write Time:

-

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

-

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

-

First; this media is not supported at 4x speed, and second; it failed writing it. Not good and there is plenty of room for improvements.


 

Brand:

Verbatim Data Life Plus

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi (Made in Singapore)

Code:

MCC01RW4X

Disc Type:

DVD-RW

Capacity:

4489MB

Certified Speed:

4x

Write Speed:

4x

Write Time:

15m:00s

PI-8 errors Average/Sec:

2.66

PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:

0.13

Finally - the first rewritable media that gave back good results.

To sum it up: The Lite-On SOHW-1653S is one of the worst writers for writing rewritable DVD-Media we've had in the past. With all DVD+RW media it gives discs with higher than usual error level, and it did not work with the Ritek 4x DVD-RW disc.

But let us now look at the most interesting aspect of this drive; Double Layer DVD+R writing…
DVD-Writing speed and quality
Double layer writing tests.
Want to submit your own review? Click here
Reactions on this item
Posted by newbie2030 on Sunday 15 February 2004 19:06
I can tell you have more knowledge than I do about this stuff. I have AnyDVD and let me say I have used it twice and both times I have had A/V sync problems about half way thru the movie. I am still trying to get A/V back into sync. You say you can backup a movie in less than 1 hour. How can that be ? The movies I backup are one and half to two hours long, and it takes that long just to cpoy to my hard drive aas an AVI file. Then 10 to 12 hours with TMPGEnc to encode. That's 14 hours right there. How do you do it in less than 1 hour ? :o
Posted by Wings on Monday 15 March 2004 16:20
We are talking about making DVD back ups. Not ripping a DVD to make a Dvix or SVCD.
You can back up a whole DVD with all the extra's in 30 to 40 min. Including burn time.
Posted by Wings on Wednesday 07 April 2004 21:48
You need a video capture card and you still have to capture to your hard drive first. Unless you buy one of dose stand alone DVD burners by panasonic. Then just hook it up to your VHS deck and copy away. Just like coping VHS to VHS.
Posted by Herrie on Monday 24 January 2005 13:06
Nice review, it shows again LiteOn is getting further behind with their DVD Writers. Their price/performance which used to be good is getting worse and worse.

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!
Posted by OC-Freak on Tuesday 25 January 2005 07:27
The DYE do not look good - it's uneven near the edge and many writers have problems with them. And NEC writers have problems reading them at 16x without slowdowns when written by most writers - even if PIE/PIF is low.

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]
Posted by Herrie on Tuesday 25 January 2005 08:12
The problem with many of the media with the VDSPMSAB 01 media is that this MID is generic. It's the Interaxia AG staper used by Sky Media Swiss (poor quality), 3A Media Austria (good quality). Like every manufacturer 3A Media has probably got A and B-grade media. Their current problem is compatibility by the drive manufacturers, due to the fact that they are a rather small manufacturer (500.000 to 1.000.000 discs a month), which is peanuts compared to the Asian production numbers. Therefore drive manufacturers don't work very hard to support discs of small manufacturers (most Europe based producers suffer seriously from this problem). Some drive manufacturers are more willing to cooperate (BTC, BenQ, Philips, Plextor), but others (NEC, LiteOn, Pioneer, LG) are very slow in implementing the MIDs and a correct writing strategy.

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.
Posted by dakhaas on Tuesday 25 January 2005 18:23
Some comments and remarks from my hand

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.

Posted by lui_gough on Wednesday 26 January 2005 12:42
Well - this really makes me think twice of ever buying another writer - and crossflashing my 1633s may really be making it worse :P .... well - it seems like the rumors are all true - Liteon is going down!
Posted by OC-Freak on Wednesday 26 January 2005 12:59
Verbatim China: they do not look like CMC, they have a black serial number like the original MCC discs. I have CMC/Verbatim (CMC code) from china and they look very different

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.
Posted by Herrie on Wednesday 26 January 2005 14:20
Plasmon has various ID's, some are unique to 3A Media, others are generic (which can be used by other manufacturers;)).
Posted by I Have Piles on Wednesday 26 January 2005 19:24
Its hard to belive Liteon cant crack this, what a fall from the heady hights of there CD witers.
Posted by Scour on Wednesday 26 January 2005 23:19
Seems like the old CDFreaks-tacticals (review with Plextor, LG & some others with one of the first firmwares or whwn they fresh on the market, review with Liteon after long time and perhaps many new firmwares) don´t work any longer. The 1653 is 'old" in the market, the 1673s is coming soon (maybe avaible in some countries) and Liteon didn´t make a good drives after all, the former good FW-support is almost dead :r
Posted by OC-Freak on Thursday 27 January 2005 14:21
It mostly depends on when the companies send their drives out. I got this drive late december.

Let's hope they are faster to send out the 1673S.
Posted by Scour on Thursday 27 January 2005 14:32
The 1673 is avaible on 4.2.05 here in Germany. It´s important to get the drive fast for a review because almost all Liteons are not avaible for a long time. Nobody read reviews for a drive that´s in a few weeks out of the market.
which drives you have for your next reviews?
Posted by OC-Freak on Thursday 27 January 2005 14:56
I only have one drive for review now - and that is LG GSA-5163D, the external version of the already tested GSA-4163.
Posted by Scour on Thursday 27 January 2005 16:11
I don´t know if you need to review that. I think it´s the same technical, the performance depends more on the USB-interface of the external enclosure and the mainboard
Posted by OC-Freak on Thursday 27 January 2005 21:33
Vel - as long as LG provided it I have to test it :p

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 :)
Posted by Herrie on Sunday 30 January 2005 11:25
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=76549
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=124830

For some KProbe tests of 3A Media :)
[edited by Herrie on 30.01.2005 11:26]
Posted by OC-Freak on Saturday 12 February 2005 13:29
I would REALLY like to see a 16x reading curve without slowdowns made with an ND-3520A and 3A media written at 8x with whatever writer. ;)
Posted by Quakester2000 on Wednesday 09 March 2005 14:48
Thats what LiteON get for using the clapped out MediaTek Chipset it just isnt up to cutting the mustard with DVD writing. It was meant more for CDwriting.
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