Lite-On was kind enough to send us the iHAS524 for review. In this review we will be seeing how this drive from one the world’s best known optical drive manufacturers performs in our tests.

The Lite-On iHAS524 supports 24x DVD±R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, and 8x DVD+R/DL-R DL writing technology, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5GB to be written. The Lite-On iHAS524 also supports DVD-RAM reading and writing at 12x speed, and SmartErase features, and also the first drive we have tested here at MyCE.com to feature LabelTag.

Drive Specifications

Packaging

Let’s now take a look at the packaging that the drive is shipped in.

The drive that Lite-On sent was the retail version, and we can see the package and contents below.

Box front

Box rear

Box left and right sides

Box top

What’s inside the box

Now it’s time to take a look at the drive itself and what the drive came shipped with.

Our package was the retail version.

The package contained the Lite-On iHAS524, SATA cable, software disc, instruction manual and fixing screws.

Now let’s take a look at the drive.

Bezel

The bezel of the Lite-On iHAS524 is nicely styled. We can also see various logos including LabelTag, which is a feature that the drive supports, an emergency eject hole, single green LED and an eject button.

Drive top

Drive bottom

On the bottom of the drive we found one label and we can see the drive was manufactured in China during October 2009.

On the rear of the drive we can see a SATA power connector and data connector.

Now let’s head on to the next page where we can take a look at the features of the drive….

Features

Do you want or have this product?

I have it!: 32 people have this product

I want it!: 15 people want this product

32 Comments

Blu-rayFreak: Posts: 954; Posted on: 21 Dec 09 22:28

That LabelTag feature is definitely interesting to me! Glad to see that the drive has overall good write quality too. Thanks for the great review!

tmc8080: Posts: 634; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 12:24

Can anyone tell me how much data space you lose on a cdr, dvd5, dvd9 disc by using LabelTag feature? Also, the logistics... is this burned separately from the acutal data burn.. before or after? With lightscribe it didn't matter because it was the other side. My guess is upto 25%, but if you have accurate numbers... let me know.

Dee: Posts: 11995; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 14:33

You can burn data and add LabelTag later, providing you leave the disc open for further writing.
There are no figures how much space you have to leave for LabelTag, it depends on how much space you want to leave free for your label. The LabelTag software will take care of the rest, it will only allow to place a label on the free space. Perhaps 10% free would be a minimum to have any sort of useful label.

Womi: Posts: 1151; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 18:10

So LabelTag is exactly the same as Labelflash?

coolcolors: Posts: 5973; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 19:34

Sounds good but unfortunately Newegg doesn't show a listing for that drive otherwise I would've ordered it. Hopefully after Xmas they will have that drive. I did notice the label was in EN but I haven't seen it state side yet. I like the stats but until I can get my hands on one I be hard press to read the review and knowing I don't have one in my rig.

DrageMester: Posts: 19412; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 20:49

I noticed quite a few high jitter peaks (above 20%) in the DVD scans. Do you think this is a peculiarity of the scanning drive or scanning program (Opti Drive Control), or do you think the drive really burns with such high jitter spikes?

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 20:50

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee

You can burn data and add LabelTag later, providing you leave the disc open for further writing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Womi

So LabelTag is exactly the same as Labelflash?

I don't think so. If you have to leave the disc open in order to get it "labeltagged", then this is a huge difference to Labelflash/Disc Tattoo.
Another difference: Labeltag supports CD-R, DiscTattoo does not (It did with some old Yamaha CDRW drives, IIRC).

Michael

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 22 Dec 09 21:04

Quote:

Summary:

CD-R writing quality is generally very good, however, there was quite a few discs where the writing speed was reduced. CD-RW writing quality was ok, but could be improved by implementing a fast P-CAV writing strategy.

I'd rather have seen scans done with a Nexperia Benq, so we could see the jitter this drive produces.

Michael

Dee: Posts: 11995; Posted on: 23 Dec 09 00:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by mciahel

I'd rather have seen scans done with a Nexperia Benq, so we could see the jitter this drive produces.

Michael

Not easy with a drive that is no longer available.

Dee: Posts: 11995; Posted on: 23 Dec 09 00:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by DrageMester

This seems to be a problem with Opti Drive Control with some drives, as these spikes don't appear when the disc is scanned with CD-Speed.

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 23 Dec 09 09:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee

Not easy with a drive that is no longer available.

Hehe, want to have my spare Philips 1660?

Michael
No, the drive is not for sale

Dee: Posts: 11995; Posted on: 23 Dec 09 17:57

A very kind offer, but my rig is SATA only.

Ibex: Posts: 1552; Posted on: 23 Dec 09 23:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dee

A very kind offer, but my rig is SATA only.

You could swap the AD-7200A you used for the CD-R/RW tests for Michael's Philips 1660.

Dee: Posts: 11995; Posted on: 23 Dec 09 23:49

New rig now.

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 25 Dec 09 20:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibex

You could swap the AD-7200A you used for the CD-R/RW tests for Michael's Philips 1660.

Having 2 Nexperia drives and one AD7200 is better than having one Nexperia and two of the same AD7200

bitaddict: Posts: 55; Posted on: 23 Jan 10 07:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmc8080

The LabelTag software actually pops up after you hit the BURN button in Nero. It's exactly how Dee explains it. It uses whatever space is left over on the disc. The label looks super clean and works on regular CDs and DVDs. The CD I tagged played perfectly in my car stereo. LabelTag isn't limited to just text either, there was an import image option although I didn't get a chance to try it.

The only thing about discs that have been LabelTagged is that you can't simply copy them anymore. You would have to rip the data off the disc and then create a new compilation.

In short, LabelTag is a cheaper and much much cooler way to label my discs.

BA

pawpawwalston: Posts: 3; Posted on: 26 Feb 10 11:00

I would love to have a new lite on DVD+R drive and I think I deserve it because I am a Grandpa and I have the best grandkids in the world , Beside that My Lite on Drive is Not working because it has served it time and I have recorded video's from my grand kids Pictures and video and put it on the liteon DVD+R it was one of the easiest drive i have ever use to record on and to work with that i would not buy any other drive other than a liteon drive and I am a simple man and I think if this works great and is easy to work with for a simple man like me than i think you have got a great product that is Durable and user friendly

thank you
pawpawwalston

Paw

DrageMester: Posts: 19412; Posted on: 26 Feb 10 11:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by pawpawwalston

I would love to have a new lite on DVD+R drive and I think I deserve it because I am a Grandpa and I have the best grandkids in the world

Perhaps you intended to post in the contest thread instead of the review thread?

Here's the contest thread:
http://club.myce.com/f61/win-brand-n...writer-309017/

halfpipe: Posts: 2; Posted on: 04 Mar 10 23:23

As an event video producer, I'm excited that the labeltag aspect may act as a niffty copy protection procedure BUT how can I duplicate the labeltagged dvd in a standalone duplicator? Perhaps this drive can read it's own labeltag info and pass that along to the other idendical labeltag drives in the duplicator and duplicate?

_chef_: Posts: 29852; Posted on: 05 Mar 10 19:30

I doubt you can do that with "normal" drives....

papasmurf69: Posts: 90; Posted on: 02 Jun 10 23:33

I'll be purchasing one of these if I can ever find one here in the states.

One mistake I noticed in the review was the motherboard. The Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P uses the Intel P45 chipset, not the Intel X48 (I have the same mobo).

moisesmcardona: Posts: 13; Posted on: 08 Aug 10 21:58

I purchased the drive and I noticed that the results on CD-R discs vary between different brands of discs, producing darker labels in some CD-R and non-noticeable labels in other discs brands.

On DVD+/-R, Labeltag is awesome! I already made a backup and filled the DVD up to 3.8GB, and used the rest for LabelTag.

papasmurf69: Posts: 90; Posted on: 08 Aug 10 23:30

I ended up getting a couple of Asus DRW-24B1LT's which is the same drive and cross-flashed one to an iHAS524. Unfortunately I have not been able to get LabelTag to work on it yet. Trying to find software that supports LT is not going well.

moisesmcardona: Posts: 13; Posted on: 08 Aug 10 23:47

@papasmurf69

There is a software called SmartPack which is a vailable on the LiteOn Website and it includes SmartErase and LabelTag features in it. You have to burn data with any software first, without finalizing the DVD, and be sure to have at least 600MB of free space on a DVD. Once the DVD is burned, launch SmartPack and select the LabelTag feature, there you can make a label for your Disc.

papasmurf69: Posts: 90; Posted on: 09 Aug 10 00:10

Thanks. I downloaded it and will try it out later this afternoon. I had seen that listed on their site previously but all it stated that it was for was Firmware updates which I didn't need so I hadn't tried it.

papasmurf69: Posts: 90; Posted on: 09 Aug 10 01:10

It worked, but it doesn't show up that well on the blank cds I have. I'll try it on a DVD the next time I burn one to see if they show up better.

Junjun: Posts: 3; Posted on: 26 Oct 11 11:40

How can i fix my (iHAS524-T08 B) DVD-ROM back to normal? ? ? I just didnt use it for 1 month and it doesnt read dvd anymore(any dvd including blank disc dvd's) it became a CD-ROM RW only.

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 26 Oct 11 21:25

Hi and Welcome!

inability of either handling DVD or CD is usually a sign of a laser that has failed. The drive needs to be replaced then (good thing if it is still under warranty).

What you can try:
Grab a bootable DVD and try to boot from that disc. You may need to adjust some Bios settings (boot order) or use some built-in boot menu. If that works, then there is a problem with your software.
If that test failed, see if you can clean the lens, perhaps with compressed air. Then try again.

Michael

Junjun: Posts: 3; Posted on: 28 Oct 11 15:06

It can still read any kind of cd's so i just hope that its not the laser that has a problem. I tried inserting a bootable DVD but still no luck.

How about the registry (regedit), does it have something to do with it?

mciahel: Posts: 16838; Posted on: 28 Oct 11 19:39

Well, if CD application does work, and DVD does not, then this is most likely a faulty laser. In case the drive is still under warranty contact the vendor. Apart from that, you can't do anything.

Michael

Junjun: Posts: 3; Posted on: 29 Oct 11 15:20

Thank you very much sir Michael.

minaelromany: Posts: 2323; Posted on: 15 Dec 11 18:56

A friend of mine who owns a hardware store just asked me about the iHAS524-T32B LiteOn burner, he wants to get some for selling. Is it a good DVD burner ?

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CD/DVD Writers

With these (internal or external) drives you can read and record DVDs and/or CDs in all kinds of different formats. Every modern drive is able to read and write all kinds of DVDs, so don't worry you have bought the wrong one. Note however that not every drive is able to write dual layer DVDs, and not every drive has support for LightScribe.More about this