LiteON 20x DVD-everything + LightScribe

[Dr Mordrid]

NewEgg page....

LITE-ON LH-20A1H-186 (black)

DVD+/-R 20X
DVD +/- DL 8x (yes, both DL types)
DVD-RAM 12x
DVD+RW 8x
DVD-RW 6X
CD-R 48X
CD-RW 32X
CD-ROM 48X

with LightScribe & white 2nd bezel.

Seek: 160ms

$38.99

I'll post how well it works.

[Helevitia]

Please do, I've been eye-balling this drive.

[Kooldino]

When did DVD-/+R drives go 20x?

[Helevitia]

I think the middle of last year? I can't remember exactly.

[rylan]

Anyone know who else makes a decent lightscribe DVD burner?

[VJ]

Dunno about "decent", but Lacie has some models, both mobile and desktop versions...

http://www.lacie.com/products/family.htm?id=10008

Jörg

[cjolley]

NewEgg page....

LITE-ON LH-20A1H-186 (black)
...

I'll post how well it works.

Well?
Inquiring minds want to know!

also, what software did it come with?

[Gurm]

Of course for the stuff I do (PS2 games, non-standard DVD's, etc.) anything over 4x is a complete waste, the target drives won't read the discs anyway. *shrug*

That's why I still have my Lite-On 4x->8xDual

[Dr Mordrid]

Well?
Inquiring minds want to know!

also, what software did it come with?

Great so far. Fast, very few coasters and takes what I feed it. A tad noisier than the Panasonic or LG's, but not that much.

Nero 7 lite, but I use the latest full edition of 7.

[Mehen]

Still haven't burned a dual layer DVD yet, but my LG has been excellent so far (using 16x media, I think its an 18x burner).

[cjolley]

I have an LG 16x now.
But it almost always burns DVDs at half the rated speed of any disk I put in it.

If I use a 4x blank and burn at 4x the video always has skips in it. 4x!?

So, that is the type of problem I am looking at.

[Nowhere]

There's a really good polish testing site with forum dedicated mostly to burning hardware/software. They seem to be not afraid of criticall opinions (seem to be totally community-driven, and generally look like what Gurm wanted to do with his hardware/software testing site) and perform very throughout tests, using various brands of blanks and performing quality analysis of burned disks.

Unfortunatelly only in polish...but I can help you with that

First, here's a list of hardware they tested http://cdrlab.pl/article_lista_1.html
Tell me about which model you want to know more than is evident with graphs and ending "number of stars" verdict, and I'll translate most important points of summary.

Since this thread is about Liteon 20x, I'll do that right away:

Link to the original test: http://cdrlab.pl/article_wstep_4602_...+LH-20A1P.html
And summary:
It gets 3 stars out of 5. Fastests to date with burning single layer DVD-R & +R, it excells in speed only on best blanks from Tayo Yunden, but on rest it's in the top anyway. Horrible quality when burning DVD+R. Quality with DVD-R is "lottery" (brands accepted as best don't neccesarilly give best results, etc), but it's generally OK. Similar lottery with dual layer blanks, but it's either great or horrible. Speed of reading all media either top or among the best. Good/great in audio extraction. Average when it comes to error correction. Good time of making images of copy protected disks

Second article: http://cdrlab.pl/article_wstep_4683_...OHT+i+OSW.html
Here they used the HyperTuning and OverSpeed Writing technologies (why not in the main test? Becuase by default, with out-of-the box burning sofware now available, the drive doesn't use those technologies)
Summary: on average quality went up (though nothing dramatic), but on few types of blanks went down. Speed went down a bit. Again, it mostly depends of type on blanks...
The end verdict remains the same, 3 out of 5.

I hope that helps somebody.

PS. Yeah, frustrating that practically one has to take a closer look at detailed results for each blank type...and when you go to the store you don't even have guarantee that the blanks of given brand are actually from the saem manufacturer...

[cjolley]

Maybe the top 3 star wise @16x or over?

Particularly looking at burn quality over a broad range of media.

[Nowhere]

When it comes to recently released/available drives the Pioneer DVR-112 seems best in burning quality - almost all burns (and certainly all with name brands) ended up with excellent results, even perfect with DVD+R. It's above average in speed of DVD burning, and the fastest drive to date when burning DVD-R DL.
OTOH it's not very good with CD-R burning quality (and doesn't burn 870MB blanks). Average or weak speed of reading, depending on media...but really seems to like DVD-ROM DL, it's also the fastest drive in reading. Average speed of audio extraction, but defeats all protection schemes. Weak error correction when reading from CD-ROMs. Not good in defeating most game copy protection schemes.
End result: 5 out of 5 for burning quality, 2 for the rest. 3 total. Overall this drive seems to be their favourite right now...but they wait for improved firmware before deciding that average of 3,5 is, without decimal point, not 3, but 4
Nice thing is that cheapest model can be flashed to be the top one, supporting writing to DVD-RAM and Labelflash.
All of the above applies equally to SATA (212) model.

BTW, overally the best burner in reasonably recent times was according to them Benq1640/Pioneer740. Consistently very good in everything, and my experience with it seems to confirm that. Too bad mine suffered mechanical damage when moving and is no longer available, replaced by cost-cutting models...

Oh, and will sort through more recent articles and post info about other devices.

[Nowhere]

Ops, not Lightscribe, LabelFlash (I mix them, probably because of using neither)