I would like to get opinion on a new reader to buy for my machine. My Toshiba 1302 DVD went to hell, so I need a new reader. I am shy of Toshiba right now because I know of several that are less than a year old that have died. If there is a cheaper (Acer?) CD/RW out there that reads well, I would also like to know about that. This drive is needs to be able to read protections well so that I can back up my game CDs. Suggestions?

you scare me
bought tosh dvd 1502 region free three weeks ago to read sd2
cuts like a hot knife through butter
i asked same Q before i bought tosh
sorry but 9/10 pointed me in the tosh direction.
If you are after a reasonably cheap cd/rw i recomend the liteon
24102B it can backup all protected games ,and with new frm s507
sd2 read times a good under 10 mins
It is realy holding its own against the more expensive plex
and less fussy with what media you feed it



Edited by - nicki98.freeserve.co.uk on 09/06/2001 16:23:22

(in reply to Ion)

Hi!
Is there a list anywhere out there like the one at elbys' for burners but for readers?

Thanks

(in reply to Ion)

Well, I thought the new x24 writers were the answer but it seems that this ATIP check is serving as a good protection against them.
Masters have no ATIP and CDR media does. If anybody comes out with CDR media without an ATIP then copies would run fine, either that or Lite-on / Plextor disable this feature.
I'd be curious to know if earlier liteon firmware had this feature disabled.

The Liteon is a great writer and does copy everything and very fast, further more its seems happy to work with all sorts of media - I'm using MPO x6 certified (Ritek) and it writes to these at full speed without a hitch.

But the fact that you can read the ATIP means that lots of backup copies of new games wont work with it so I'm off to get the Liteon 16/48 DVD drive as my reader - at £44.00 it seems the best value. I've used Liton products for years, (and so probably have you but you just didnt know it as they specialise supplying the OEM market - even Logitech keyboards), and find them very reliable - my old x32 liteon CDROM is still working fine.

Dont look at the low prices of liteon and assume cheap quality, what they are doing is getting market share.

The review of the Plextor v Lite-on was based on 5S01 firmware but with 5S07 there are some massive improvements that put it well ahead of the Plextor now.

I created a DAE test CD using one of my x6 certified media and these are the results.

CD Speed

11 September 2001 - 7:41:15

CD-ROM drive information
Vendor LITE-ON
Product LTR-24102B
Firmware Version 5S07

CD information
Type Audio
Length 74:00.00

Test results

Transfer rate
Average 30.44x
Start 12.37x
End 40.53x
Reading type CAV

0 12.37 6148
2 15.86 7451
4 20.17 9006
6 21.07 8984
8 21.90 8956
10 22.71 8932
12 23.49 8912
14 24.24 8894
16 24.97 8878
18 25.68 8863
20 26.37 8850
22 27.04 8839
24 27.70 8829
26 28.34 8820
28 28.97 8811
30 29.58 8804
32 30.18 8795
34 30.77 8789
36 31.35 8783
38 31.92 8777
40 32.48 8772
42 32.89 8731
44 33.56 8761
46 34.09 8757
48 34.61 8753
50 35.12 8748
52 35.63 8744
54 36.12 8739
56 36.61 8735
58 37.19 8752
60 37.67 8749
62 38.05 8726
64 38.61 8744
66 39.07 8741
68 39.53 8738
70 39.98 8735
72 40.53 8755
DAE quality
Score 10
Accurate stream Yes

Seek times
Random 90 ms
1/3 Seek 100 ms
Full 167 ms

CPU usage
1X 1%
2X 4%
4X 7%
8X 10%

Interface
Burst rate 17 MB/s

Spinup/Spindown Time
Spinup Time 0.31 sec
Spindown Time 1.71 sec

Disc Eject Time 1.56 sec
Disc Load Time 1.69 sec
Disc Recognition Time 6.15 sec

I also noticed that when doing a data transfer test that the drive starts off slower with my x6 cert media compared to using x12 Kodak media so I would imagine that the results would improve further with better media.

(in reply to Ion)

have a look in the liteon forum

liteon 24102b b&w only works in writer[or somthing like that]
thread started by bubble boy

OCfreak goes into detail about good readers and also the atip check
[the upgrading protection addon for sd2]

its not just a good reader you need anymore but one that avoids atip check

(in reply to Ion)