48x CD-RW Combo Roundup Vol.1 - Page 2
LiteOn
has established a strong position in the optical storage market and is always
a leader when it comes to manufacturing large quantities of CD-RW and
DVD-ROM drives. Recently, the company announced its plans to expand its product
line
to dual
DVD recorders,
and has
made strategic partnerships with other IC manufacturers to deliver leading
DVD writing
speeds.
As we mentioned in the first page, we have in our hands the LiteOn LTC48161H
CDRW/DVD combo drive. It would be very interesting to see how the drive performs
in a straight comparison against the Optorite DC4801.
- Drive features / Specifications
| SMART-BURN avoiding Buffer
Under Run error, Automatically adjusting writing strategy & running
OPC to provide the best burning quality |
| SMART-X Smart Monitoring & Adjusting
Read-speed Technology for eXtraction |
| VAS® to reduce vibration & noise during recording & reading |
| Mt. Rainier support |
| |
| Disc formats: |
DVD: DVD-ROM single/dual layer ( PTPT,
OPT ), DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW |
| |
CD: CD-R & CD-RW discs ( up to 99min.
) |
| Writing Method: |
Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Raw Mode
Burning & Over-Burn |
| Write: |
CD-R: 48x ( 7200KB/sec ) CAV ( 21x ~
48x ) |
| |
CD-RW: 24x ( 3600KB/sec ) CAV |
| Read: |
CD-ROM/R: 48x ( 7200KB/sec ) CAV ( 20x
~ 48x ) |
| |
DVD Single Layer: 16x ( 21600KB/sec )
CAV ( 2x ~ 16x ) |
| Access time: |
CD-ROM: 120ms |
| |
DVD-ROM: 140 ms |
| Audio Extraction: |
Maximum 48x |
| Internal Buffer: |
2 MB |
LiteOn LTC48161H supports 48x CAV reading for both the CD-R and CD-RW media.
The same speed is used for CD-R writing, while DVD reading can be achieved
at 16x CAV maximum.
The drive uses the SMART-BURN feature and a 2MB buffer size to avoid buffer
underun errors and keep the writing quality at high levels, while the SMART-X® feature
ensures the accurate extraction od bits while reading.
Also the LiteOn combo drive uses the
VAS® technology to
reduce vibration and noise
during recording and reading .
LiteOn came with region Code II selected, and the RPCII region control allows
the user to change the region code only 4 more times.
The drive supports reading of all the CD and DVD formats (except DVD-RAM),
retrieves C2 error information and is Mount Rainier compliant. In addition,
the drive supports RAW DAO 96, packet writing and overburning.
- The package
The
retail package includes the LiteOn LTC48161H drive, a quick installation guide,
mounting screws
and the usual internal audio cable.
The software package includes PowerDVD XP v4.0 DVD playback software, Nero
Express v5.5.10.13 (OEM version), one blank CD-R (Ritek), and one LiteOn
CD-RW (Plasmon, 10x-24x). The retail package is available at a street price
of $55-65.
The front panel of the drive includes the usual headphone jack, the volume control
knob, the eject button and the operation LED.
On the rear panel there are the analog and digital outputs, the IDE connector,
the device jumper configuration and the typical power input
After removing the screws we can see the drive's internal design:
- Installation
The LiteOn drive was connected on IDE 1 of our test
PC as a "Master" and worked under the Ultra DMA Mode 2 transfer
mode. The drive was identified
as "LITE-ON
COMBO LTC-48161H" under
WinXP. The firmware version installed and used for the tests was KH0F. By the
time we write these lines, a new firmware has been released, adding support
for more
media. The new firmware (vKHOK) version is available here.
