Lite-On LH-20A1L DVD Burner Review

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Author

Dee
Senior Administrator and Reviewer
Article posted 21 Jan 08 22:31

CD-R/RW Writing performance

  

The specifications of the Lite-On LH-20A1L state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

For our data writing tests, we simply burned a full disc using CD-Speed (create data disc) function and burned the discs at the maximum speed allowed.

Write quality:

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used K-Probe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S09 and scanned the discs at 48X speed.

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

Below are the obtained results:

Brand:

Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media

Manufacturer:

Taiyo Yuden

Country Of Origin

Japan

Code:

97m24s01f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)

Capacity:

79:59.72 (703MB)

Certified Speed:

48x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:38s

C1 Average/Sec:

0.22

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

An excellent result to start our CD-R quality tests, (highly recommended).

Brand:

RICOH – Thanks to RICOH Europe (BV) for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Moser Baer India Limited

Country Of Origin

India

Code:

97m17s06f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703MB)

Certified Speed:

1x-52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:37s

C1 Average/Sec:

2.47

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

Our RICOH media manufactured by Moser Baer India has burned with good quality.

Brand:

HP – Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

CMC Magnetics

Country Of Origin

Taiwan

Code:

97m26s66f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.71 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:38s

C1 Average/Sec:

1.28

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

The HP media manufactured by CMC Magnetics has burned with very good quality.

 

Brand:

Infiniti Printable – Thanks to Medea
International (UK) for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

SKC

Code:

97m26s26f

Disc Type:

CD-R

Recording Layer:

Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)

Capacity:

79:59.09 (703 MB)

Certified Speed:

52x

Write Speed:

48x (CAV)

Write Time:

2m:39s

C1 Average/Sec:

1.29

C2 Average/Sec:

0.0

Another very good result (recommended).

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Brand:

Verbatim Ultra speed 32x – Thanks to Verbatim UK for sending us this media.

Manufacturer:

Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation

Country Of Origin

Taiwan

Code:

97m34s25f

Disc Type:

Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x

Recording Layer:

Phase Change

Capacity:

79:59.74 (703MB)

Certified Speed:

32x

Write Speed:

32x (Z-CLV)

Write Time:

3m:42s

C1 Average/Sec:

7.47

C2 Average/Sec:

0.00

C1 errors are quite high at the start of the disc, but the result is still good.

Summary:

CD-R writing quality and media compatibility is very good to excellent with the Lite-On LH-20A1L and CD-RW writing quality is good.

Now let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD recordable performance….

6 Comments

guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 29 Jan 08 11:13
Hi, I have this DVD Burner and it does not recording on any media with drag-and-drop method on Windows XP. Maybe some of you can help me with that? Maybe it is my fault and it needs some properly driver to install? If so please write to me: p b o r k o w s k i (at domain) o2.pl
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 18 Feb 08 01:41
What of the burn-features? (forced|online) HyperTuning, SmartBurn et al... and their multitudinous combinations?
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 07 Mar 08 13:59
I have a LH-20A1L, i can not stand it, because it is very noisy. does someone have an application to reduce its noise???? i am also looking for its free region code
guest
Posts: 15284
Posted on: 02 Apr 08 21:26
We purchased this drive for a machine I do media work on, and I have since pinpointed it as the cause of a major lockup in the system. Any time the drive is accessed or the tray changes states, Windows chops for at least five to ten minutes. Lite-On no longer supports (or even lists on their site) the BL05 model of this device, therefore no firmware updates were available to fix issues. Found an update on codeguys.rpc.org which helped immensely, and they linked to here. So, there's my two pints on the issue.
ray8375
Posts: 1
Posted on: 25 Sep 09 01:28
anyone know if i can use this drive vertically?
pfloyd1
Posts: 1395
Posted on: 25 Sep 09 07:01
I dont see why not.

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