detail information

The specifications of the Lite-On SOHW-812S state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40x. 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. (40x):

The drive used 3 minutes and 5 seconds to write the disc at 40x. Let us see how this compares to other drives; the NU DDW-082 used 3 minutes and 2 seconds for the same writing operation at 40x speed, and the Plextor PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x. This makes the drive slightly slower than the other two drives - but after all, it's just seconds in difference. But let's concentrate on writing quality, as that is even more important.

Write Quality:

We will test CD-R discs from a total of 11 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 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 LTR-52246S drive with firmware 6S0F 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 average for good quality discs. After C2 errors there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Why wait any longer? Below are the obtained results:

CMC Magnetics is not known for making the best CD-R discs but the Lite-On SOHW-812S is still able to spit out a perfect disc. Highly recommended.

This is one of the better results we have been able to get with these discs, highly recommended media for this drive.

Not the best result we have seen with these discs, but still not bad enough to be anything to worry about.

A very good result and this is highly recommended discs.

Seems like Lite-On have messed up the writing strategy for Taiyo Yuden CD-R discs as this is not what we are used to see from TY CD-R discs. But the result is still not bad enough to cause any problems in practical use.

While some other writers have problems with these CD-R discs, the Lite-On SOHW-812S did not have any problems and wrote another perfect disc. Highly recommended.

We have found these Samsung CD-R discs, manufactured by Plasmon, to be of very low quality. And as we could see their C1 error count is a bit high, but not worryingly high, and there were no C2 errors. So all in all there should not be any problems in practical use.

Again a perfect result, highly recommended.

Princo is not known for making the best quality discs, but the Lite-On SOHW-812S wrote them without any problems.

As always with Lite-On drives, Fujifilm CD-R discs is written with outstanding quality.

While TDK is a well-known brand in larger parts of the world, their own manufactured CD-R discs may not be so well known, as they are mostly only available in Europe. But the Lite-On SOHW-812S did still write the disc without problems.

Summary:
Great! That's the word that fits best here; if the drive had a bit better writing quality with Taiyo Yuden and Mitsubishi CD-R discs it would have been perfect. But overall it gets a plus in our book for CD-R writing quality and compatibility.

But after all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing performance and DVD media compatibility…