DVD-ROM Roundup Vol.4

3. LiteOn SOHD-167T

Review Pages

1. Asus DVD-E616P2
2. Samsung TS-H352A
3. LiteOn SOHD-167T
4. Transfer Rate Reading Tests
5. CD Error Correction Tests
6. DVD Error Correction Tests
7. DAE Tests
8. Protected AudioCDs
9. Protected Disc Tests
10. Asus vs S300
11. 167T vs S300
12. Hacked Firmware for Asus
13. Hacked Firmware for Samsung
14. Hacked Firmware for LiteOn
15. Conclusion

DVD-ROM Roundup Vol.4 - Page 3

LiteOn SOHD-167T

The SOHD-167T is the latest internal half-height DVD-ROM from LiteON. The drive supports 16X DVD-ROM and 48X CD-ROM reading speeds.

- Specifications

LiteOn	SOHD-167T
Interface	ATAPI - E/IDE
Read Speed	DVD-ROM: 16X Max (21,350KB/sec) CD-ROM: 48X Max (7,200KB/sec)
Access Time	DVD: 105ms ( typical ) CD: 95ms ( typical )
Supported Disc Format	Multi-Read UDF, all DVD single/dual layer ( PTP, OTP ), DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, CD, CD-R, CD-RW ISO-9660, all CD-ROM formats both 8cm & 12cm discs
Buffer Size	512KB
Supported Disc Diameter	8cm/12cm
Mount Position	Horizontal/Vertical
Dimensions (W x H x D)	145.8 x 41.3 x 170.0mm
Weight	0.8Kg

The drive uses a 512KB buffer memory and below we can see the supported reading formats. Note that DVD-RAM reading is not supported, but the drive can read DVD+R DL.

DVDInfoPro gives us some additional details about the drive's capabilities as well:

The drive's model name, SOHD-167T, is coded according to the SONY Alliance Models ODD Naming Rule:

S: SONY
O: Optical
H: Half-Height Optical Loader
D: DVD-ROM ODD Type
16: Main reading DVD speed
7:
T: ???? Pickup Supplier

Lastly, let's see what additional information KProbe software returns for LiteON based drives:

- The package

The retail box includes the internal drive, one audio cable for the internal connection with the motherboard, mounting screws, quick installation guide and one CD with PowerDVD 5 Software, Manual and DOS driver.

On the front, on the disc tray there are the DVD-ROM and the compact disc logos. The phone jack, sound level control and the activity indicator light 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 connection and the power input.

The drive is a half-height internal device, much shorter than the usual CD/DVD recorder, making installation an easy task for PCs with small footprint.

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:

Inside the LiteOn SOHD -167T there are the MT1828E an optical disk controller chip and the MT1816E for the analog signal process both from MediaTek Inc. The board as well as the servo control comes from SONY.

- Installation

The drive was installed as secondary master and WindowsXP recognized it as "LITE-ON DVD SOHD-167T". The drive arrived with firmware v9S13. The main tests has been made with the firmware revision v9S14.