LiteON
SOHW-1213S Dual DVD±RW Recorder -
Page 1
LiteOn
enters the 12X writing speed with a new
DUAL DVD burner with the model name "SOHW-1213S". The drive uses
the third generation MediaTek chipset combined with Sanyo's OPU and promises
to offer
fast recording/reading speeds. Through our tests we aim to investigate
how the drive performs compared with another 12X recorder from Plextor...
- Features
The drive features 12X DVD+R, 8X DVD-R, 4X DVD±RW,
48X CD-R and 24X CD-RW maximum burning speeds. Reading speeds are at
12X for DVD±R/RW/ROM and
48X for CD-R/RW. Also offers the below features:
- SMART-BURN avoiding Buffer UnderRun Error, Automatically adjusting writing strategy & running OPC to provide the best burning quality
- SMART-X function adjusts CD-DA / VCD / DVD data extraction
to the fastest allowable speed according to both data request rate from
host and disk quality
- VAS® system reduce vibration and noise during recording and reading
The model name SOHW-1213S, is coded according to the SONY Alliance
Models ODD Naming Rule:
- S: SONY
- O: Optical
- H: Half-Height Optical Loader
- W: DVDRW ODD Type
- 12: Main DVD writing speed
- 1:
- 3: Third generation Mediatek Chipset
- S: Sanyo Pickup Supplier
- Specifications
Interface: |
ATAPI/E-IDE supported
PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 and Ultra DMA mode 2 |
Writing Speed: |
DVD+R: 12X Z-CLV/
-R: 8X Z-CLV, DVD+RW: 4X CLV, DVD-RW: 4X
CLV
|
|
CD-R: 48X CAV, CD-RW: 24X
Z-CLV |
Read Speed: |
DVD+R/-R/+RW/-RW: 12X
CAV
|
|
DVD-ROM: 12X CAV, CD-R/RW: 48X
CAV |
Access Time: |
DVD: 160msec
CD: 160 msec
|
Buffer Size: |
2MB |
Supported Disc Formats: |
DVD: DVD single / dual
layer ( PTP / OTP ), DVD-R ( 3.9 GB / 4.7 GB ), DVD-R multi-borders,
DVD+R, DVD+R multi-sessions, DVD-RW and DVD+RW |
|
CD: CD-DA, CD-ROM,
CD-ROM / XA, Photo-CD, Multi-session, Karaoke-CD, Video-CD, CD-I FMV,
CD Extra, CD Plus, CD-R, and CD-RW |
Installation Angle: |
Horizontal/Vertical
|
| Physical Dimensions: |
145x41.3x170mm (WxHxD) |
| Weight: |
0.9Kg |
The
drive also uses the RPC II region control, allowing a user to change the drive's
region
at most 5 times, which however can easily be bypassed with various utilities.
Below are the drive's main specs as given by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro:
KProbe software
offers additional information for the LiteON drive:
- Retail package
The
retail package includes the LiteOn SOHW-1213S drive, a quick installation
guide, mounting screws, one sound cable and one DVD-R media from Taiyo Yuden.
Also included are Nero v6 OEM version and CyberLink PowerDVD v5.0
retail
version.
On the front panel, there are as usual on the tray the CD-RW, DVD-R/RW, DVD+RW
and compact disc rewritable logos. The phone jack, the
sound level control and the activity led are located on
the left side, below the disc tray. On the right side there
is
the
eject
button.
On the rear panel you can see the analogue and digital outputs (SPDIF), the
IDE connector
and the power input.
The drive is a half-height internal device,
much shorter than the usual CD/DVD recorder, making mounting an easy task
for PCs
with
the smaller
cases.
Below you can see a picture of the drive with noticably smaller dimensions
compared to the Plextor Premium drive.
Removing the screws and opening the drive's cover voids the drive's warranty.
For reference reasons, we post the following pictures. You can click on the mainboard
picture for a higher resolution image:
The LiteOn SOHW-1213S further incorporates (located on the underside of the controller circuit board), a high-speed DVD dual Optical Disk Controller chipset from MediaTek Inc. consisting of two CMOS ultra-scale integrated circuits, the MT1816E and MT1828E. The MT1816E is the front-end analog signal processor and the MT1828E is the servo control and Endec IC. The pickup system is the Sanyo SF-DB 10SA.
- Installation
The drive was installed as secondary master and WindowsXP recognized
it as "LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1213S".
The drive arrived with firmware vTS08.
Below is a picture from Nero Burning Rom, showing the drive's specs.
We will compare the drive with the Plextor PX-712A, since
both drives have about the same DVD/CD recording
specs.
- Testing software
In order to perform our tests we used:
- Nero CD-DVD Speed v3.00
- CDVD Benchmark v1.21
- ExactAudioCopy v0.9 beta5
- Nero Info Tool v2.21
- KProbe
v2.2.2 (Reader: LiteOn LDW-811S firmware vHS0Q, Reading speed 8X CAV)
- PlexTools v2.14 (Reader:
Plextor PX-712A firmware v1.01, Reading speed 8X CLV for CD-R)
- DVDInfoPro v2.54
- LiteOn Booktype Utility v1.0.6
- Nero Burning Rom v6.3.1.15
