detail information
| Posted by | Tor Magne |
| Posted on | 25/01/05 01:33 |
| Number of views | 13568 |
Test machine:
For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:
Hardware:
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Motherboard: Abit IC-7 MAX3
i875P
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Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 3,2GHz 800MHz FSB Prescott with Hyper
Threading support.
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RAM: 1Gb PC3500 DDR
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GFX: Gainward GeForce 6800LE
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Sound: SB
Audigy 2
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Hard
disks: 2 x Hitachi Deskstar 7k250 160Gb S-ATA in
RAID 0 on the i875P S-ATA RAID controller.
System set-up:
The Lite-On SOHW-1653S was connected as Secondary Master and identified itself as LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1653S. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.
Software:
Windows XP professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for windows XP. We will be using the following software in this review:
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Ahead Nero Burning ROM version
6.6.0.3
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Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed
v3.61
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Ahead Nero InfoTool
v2.27
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DVD-Identifier
3.5.1
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K-Probe v2.4.2
Installation and supported features:
We quickly installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info tool:
Our drive came shipped with firmware CS07, we updated the firmware to version CS0A (experimental version), but found some issues with this version and will use CS09 for this review. The only drawbacks we could see are the inability to read and write DVD-RAM discs as well as missing Mt Rainier support along with a bit small buffer. A larger buffer would at least smoothen up the data transfer to the drive a bit on stressed systems.
Book type
changing:
To see if the Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports bitsetting we tried with Lite-On's official tool:
As we could see it supports bitsetting. The write now button is for directly changing the booktype on a DVD+RW disc. Unfortunately it's not possible to save the settings. It does not automatically set the booktype for DVD+R DL to DVD-ROM either, which is a negative in our book, as most new users will not know about the bitsetting feature. To test if bitsetting works we wrote a disc and verified it with Nero CD-Speed:
Error scanning
of written discs:
The Lite-On SOHW-1653S supports error reporting just like earlier drives from Lite-On. Here are two examples on programs you may use for checking your written discs for errors.
KProbe is developed by a Lite-On employee, but it's not an official Lite-On program. This is what we use in our reviews.
Nero CD-Speed is just as good and also gives you an indication of the quality by giving a score. Higher score is better; a good result should at least be over 80 in quality score.
Included software:
Now it's time to look at the included software, and comment it if needed. Notice that we may not use the included software in our performance testing part of the review.
Power DVD 5:
The drive includes Power DVD 5 to play DVD and VCD movies. PowerDVD is among our favourites so Lite-On did a good choice on including it.
Nero 6 OEM Suite:
The well known Nero suite is also included and covers all tasks from creating the movie to writing it to the disc. One of our favourite programs.
Now that we have finished examining the drive and bundled programs - let us head on to the next page, which is reading performance test…
Introduction
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]
add a tag
