LiteOn's latest release in the DVD Recorder market, the LiteOn SHW 1635S is actually an upgrade of the previously released model, the 1693S DVD-Recorder. The 1635S has been upgraded to burn +R9 (+R DL media) at the max available speed of 8X, while it can burn -R DL media at 4X. Apart from this, the drive's writing mechanism has been improved and as we will see later on in this review, all tested, burned media were burned at their specified speeds with increased quality in comparison to the previous release.

The maximum supported speed for both +R and -R media is 16X, while the drive can burn -RW and +RW media at 6X and 8X respectively.

- Features

No change has been made regarding the drive's supported features.

• SMART-BURN avoiding Buffer UnderRun errors, automatically adjusting writing strategy & running OPC to provide the best burning quality.
• SMART-X function adjusts CD-DA / VCD / DVD data extraction to a fastest allowable speed according to both data request rate from host and disk quality.
• VAS® system reduces vibration and noise during recording and reading.

- Specifications

Below are the drive's main specs as given by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro and VSO inspector:

The drive also uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. As with all LiteOn drives, this one can be set to region free with the use of several utilities.

- Retail package

No changes here, as the retail package remains the same with the pervious release, that of the 1693S model. The package contains all the essentials required for a fresh start, including mounting screws, audio cable, a quick installation guide to help you through the basics of installing your device in your PC, and of course a classic Nero OEM release suite for DVD authoring writing/editing, as well as DVD playback software (Cyberlink Power DVD 5). Last but not least, the package includes an extra black bezel (front plate), offering a complete solution for both light and dark colored PC cases.

-The Drive

The external look of the drive is the same as the previous release, with the DVD+R and DVD+R DL logos and the activity led which turns green upon disc insertion. All these are also available on the black bezel.

The rear panel has the usual analogue and digital outputs (SPDIF), IDE connector and power input.

We opened the drive case to take a closer look at the inside of the drive. Opening the case voids warranty so we strongly advise against it. Click on the images below for a larger, more detailed view...

- Installation

The drive was installed under the WindowsXP OS and was recognized as "LITE-ON DVDRW SHW-1635S ". The drive came to our labs with the YSOG firmware installed which was the version used in our reading tests (DVD reading, error correction and so forth).

A few days later, LiteOn released the latest firmware revision for the 1635s, the YSON and we flashed the drive with it, which improved writing quality with certain media brands. Note here that no change was made in the reading mechanism of the drive as we confirmed with a number of tests. The latest firmware for the 1635S can be found here.

For the needs of this review, we will be posting the results of the 1635S along with the results of the NEC ND-4551A and Pioneer DVR-110, both latest releases and same specifications.