detail information

First things first as we check out the VisionTek Xtasy 48X specifications as mentioned on the VisionTek website and the Lite-On website. We also used additional software like Nero InfoTool to detect some of the features:

Drive Specifications:

Overall nice features. The drive supports all recording formats and even offers some extra technologies such as the (by now) well known Lite-On SMART-BURN and SMART-X technologies. Besides that the drive also has VAS (Vibration Absorber System) mechanism. We'll explain these technologies below but let's give you a screenshot of Nero InfoTool first with the detected features of the VisionTek Xtasy 48X drive:

As you can see from the screenshot the VisionTek Xtasy 48X (or Lite-On LTR-48125W) supports all features a CD-Writer should have including the new 'Mount Rainier' format which we'll test later on in this review. Now let's take a closer look at some of the supported features/technologies:

Buffer (Underrun Protection):

According to Nero InfoTool the VisionTek drive has a 2MB buffer. Let's check this, along with other features of the VistionTek drive, with Nero Burning Rom:

As you can see from the screenshot the VisionTek drive (Lite-On LTR-48125W) confirms the information provided by Nero InfoTool. The drive has a 2MB buffer, supports 'Mount Rainier' and uses SMART-BURN as part of the buffer underrun protection.

SMART-BURN:

SMART-BURN (Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing) is Lite-On's solution for writing discs at the highest possible quality and speed. By determining the optimum write parameters and a running OPC (Optimum Power Calibration) the drive will determine the best strategy for the disc and will change the write speed if necessary (e.g. due to poor media quality or a working environment that has become too hot). SMART-BURN (of course) also includes a technique to prevent buffer underruns. When the drive runs out of data it will stop writing and wait until its buffer has been refilled and will then continue writing again.

As you can see from the Nero screenshot above it is possible to disable the SMART-BURN feature. When it's disabled the drive will always try to write at the speed you've selected. However, the drive is still running continuous quality checks, which means that it may still lower the write speed if the media can't handle the speed. In other words: disabling SMART-BURN is disabling the media table that is in the firmware of the drive, but the write speed may still be lowered if write problems occur due to a media defect or low quality media.

SMART-X:

SMART-X (Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for eXtraction) is a new Lite-On technology to increase the extraction speed of audio and VideoCD data with less errors even from poor quality (dirty/scratched) media. The drive estimates if the ripped data will result in audio noise, interrupt or mosaic on screen. If so, the rip speed will be reduced to get more correctable data.

Disc-Loading Mechanism:

You may have noticed, if you own a Lite-On, or Lite-On based drive such as this VisionTek Xtasy 48X, that its tray is rather noisy compared to other drives. When you look inside the Lite-On drive while its tray is open you can see the cause. The Lite-On drive's tray is driven by plastic gears instead of a belt which is normally used. Gears make more noise but last longer and this is why Lite-On picked gears instead of belts:

Mount Rainier:

As already mentioned, the VisionTek Xtasy 48X supports the Mount Rainier industry standard. We'll test the drive's Mt. Rainier abilities later on in this review. Here's a small introduction of the CD-MRW format. Click on the Mt. Rainier logo to read our article on the Mt. Rainier format:

"...Mount Rainier enables native OS support of data storage on CD-RW. This makes the technology far easier to use and allows the replacement of the floppy. This is done by having defect management in the drive, by making the drive 2k addressable, by using background formatting, and by standardizing both command set and physical layout. The new standard is promoted by Compaq, Microsoft, Philips, and Sony and is supported by over 40 industry leaders: OS vendors, PC-OEM's, ISV's, chip makers, and media makers.

The purpose of the proposal made by the Mount Rainier group is to make CD-RW easier to use for data storage and interchange. The changes proposed will enable the operating system support of dragging and dropping data to CD-RW discs. Formatting delays will also be eliminated and the use will be comparable to using a hard disk or a floppy..."

Write Method:

As you may have seen in the drive specifications on top of this page, the VisionTek Xtasy 48X uses the CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) write method when writing at its maximum speed. The write speed is increased gradually and there's no switching between write zones as with the Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) write method. This will result in a higher average write speed and the drive doesn't need to use its buffer underrun technique when switching write zones. In the screenshot below you can see a test burn done with Nero CD Speed:

In the graph you can clearly see that the VisionTek Xtasy 48X starts writing at an extremely high speed of 22X and then gradually increases the speed to 48x:

The VisionTek Xtasy 48X (or actually the Lite-On LTR-48125W) is one of the first drives to use the full CAV method when writing discs and is currently the fastest drive available. The average write speed of the drive is 37.10x, which means an average increase of about 6.0x (900KB/s) compared to the fastest 40x Z-CLV writer, the TEAC CD-W540E (31.21x). When the VisionTek Xtasy 48X drive is writing at 24x/32x/40x it uses P(artial)-CAV instead of full CAV. It will then also start writing at a lower speed of about 19x instead of 22x as we saw with the full CAV mode.

Later on in this review we will do more write speed tests and compare the drive to other (Z-CLV and P-CAV) drives we've previously reviewed.

Next up in our VisionTek Xtasy 48X review, the data read tests.