LITEON eSEU206 Blu-Ray combo drive review

Test machine

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For this review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 (Intel P55 chipset)
• Processor: Intel i7 750
• RAM: 8 GB Kingston dual channel kit DDR3 
• GFX: ATI HD 5670 (512 Megabytes GDDR5 HDCP compliant)
• Hard disk OS: OCZ Vertex 2 64GB
• Hard disk storage: Samsing Spinpoint F1 1TB
• PSU: Chieftec 500W
• Display: FujitsuSiemens 22”
• Operating System: Windows 7 Premium (64 bitSystem setup:

The Lite-On eSEU206 was connected to a USB2 port on our test PC. The drive came shipped with firmware version UL14.

Included software package

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The Lite-On eSEU206 came supplied with CyberLink BD Solution v.6 that has PowerDVD 10 BD, PowerProducer 5, PowerDirector 7, Power2Go 6, PowerBackup 2 and LabelPrint 2. A good multimedia platform for all your needs.

BD Solution v6

Note: We did not install this software on our review notebook or test it.

Installed software:

For conducting our various tests, we will be using the following applications.

• Nero Burning Rom 11
• Nero DiscSpeed
• Exact Audio Copy
• Opti Drive Control
• DVDFab

 

Features and techniques

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BookType (Bitsetting):

The Lite-On eSEU206 supports bitsetting and is capable of writing DVD+R/RW DL media with the DVD-ROM book type.

Here is how you can check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book type:

Start Nero DiscSpeed, click the Disc info button and you should see something like this:

DVD+R DL with BookType DVD-ROM.

As we can see from the above picture the Bitsetting can be changed manually using the EEPROM Utility or you can do that from your burning software.

Disc Quality Scanning

The Lite-On eSEU206 can be used along with Opti Drive Control or Nero CD-DVD Speed for Disc Quality Scanning.

The drive is able to scan for PIE and PIF errors also it supports Jitter on DVD R/RW media, and C1 and C2 errors on CD-R/RW media.

Blu-Ray Disc Quality Scan

The drive is capable of performing disc quality scans on Blu-ray media.

DVD+R Disc Quality Scan

As we can see the eSEU206 has no issues scanning our test DVD.  

CD-R Disc Quality Scan

We scanned our test CD-R media at the maximum speed the drive would allow, which was 24x. Unfortunately we can’t compare this result with the results obtained using our Optiarc AD-7200A, but again this a useful feature to have.

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the write technology used by the Lite-On eSEU206.

For these tests we used Nero DiscSpeed and Opti Drive Control, and wrote a full disc at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On eSEU206, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24x. This gives an average speed of 17.83x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

For comparison purposes we have produced the following table: 

As we can see, the Lite-On eSEU206 is one of the fastest drives when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On eSEU206, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24x. This gives an average speed of 14.49x and a total writing time of 6 minutes and 6 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table: 

As we can see the eSEU206 is the second fastest drive we have tested with CD-RW media, with an average speed of 14.49x and a total write time of 6 minutes and 6 seconds.

8x DVD+R/-R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On eSEU206, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 8x.

DVD+R

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average speed of 5.73x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 38 seconds.

DVD-R

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average speed of 5.73x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 53 seconds.

For comparison purposes we have produced the following table: 

As we can see from our table, the Lite-On eSEU206 showed some very impressive results on both +/- media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8x. This gives an average speed of 4.39x and a total writing time of 13 minutes and 29 seconds.

For comparison purposes we have produced the following table: 

The Lite-On eSEU206 wasn’t as fast as the eTAU108 that we tested a few years ago, however the result is acceptable for a slim drive.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On eSEU206, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average speed of 4.27x and a total writing time of 14 minutes and 25 seconds.

For comparison purposes we have produced the following table: 

The Lite-On eSEU206 shows average performance with DVD-RW media, taking 14 minutes and 25 seconds to complete the burn.

4x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lite-On eSEU206, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 4x.

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 4x. This gives an average speed of 3.60x and a total writing time of 30 minutes and 12 seconds.

4x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the Lie-On eSEU108, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 4x.

The Lite-On eSEU206 uses Z-CLV (Zoned Constant Linear Velocity), to write at 4x. This gives an average speed of 3.44x and a total writing time of 32 minutes and 21 seconds.

For comparison purposes we have produced the following table: 

The maximum speed on both dual layer media types was 4x, and the Lite-On eSEU108 therefore requires some extra time to burn our test discs.

Summary:

The Lite-On eSEU206 has very good writing performance on CD-R and DVD-/+R media. Writing performance on DVD RW and dual layer media is a little slow.

 

Let’s head on to the next page where we will check reading performance….

• Introduction
• Reading performance