LiteON SOHW-1213S
Aug 18th, 2004 | By Archive
LiteON SOHW-1213S
Date
: 08/18/04 – 02:51:31 AM
Author
:
Category
: Optical Devices
Page 1 : Introduction
Manufacturer
: LiteOn
Price
:$80
My series of DVD+/-RWs continues as I take on the LiteON SOHW-1213S. It should be a nice little ride as I compare it to the Plextor PX-712A and Plextor PX-712UF.
Many of you have heard of LiteON for its superior drives at reasonable prices. At one point, I remember everyone trying to find one of their CD-RW's because they were so affordable. However, they also have a wide variety of other products: barebone systems, DVD players, LCD monitors, cameras, projectors, WiFi, Bluetooth, etc. They first opened for business in 1975 and they created various LED products. In 1981 they left Asia and opened a branch office in Dallas, Texas. Since then, they have been opening more offices and spreading their line of products like wildfires! Last year, 2003, they were ranked 61st among the top 100 IT companies; not bad for being in the business for less than 30 years. It's amazing how one company can go from building LEDs to top notch burners.
I credit the company's fast growth from their simply philosophy for success.
Our commitment to quality is strongly supported by our âGolden Triangle of Operational Excellenceâ strategy: The ability to generate revenue-growth, healthy profit-margins, and strong cash-liquidity. High quality standards are always at the core of every one of these activities, and our unrelenting dedication to these ideals leads to customer loyalty and satisfaction.
Integrity
Integrity fosters trust. We place great value on creating technologies that incorporate the human touch. Every day, we earn the respect of shareholders, customers and employees as we strive to expand and enhance the value of our company while also following best-business practices.
Innovation
We honor and nurture the spirit of innovation while striving to be creative and responsive to customer needs. This in turn helps strengthen our competitive advantage in the global marketplace.
[/quote]
Let's get right to the goods and take a look at the drive. I don't want to keep you guys waiting forever!
Page 2 : Package
This was another great delivery by UPS. I'm starting to like them more and more now that they've stopped charging me an arm and a leg for customs and various Canadian taxes. Inside the standard grey box was a bunch of Styrofoam protecting the edges of the retail box.
Once you open up the retail box you'll find a very organized kit. Mine is slightly different as I made a few extra requests – asked for some extra media for testing.
I requested 3 12X compatible DVD+R and 1 8X compatible DVD-R. According to the box contents you should only get one of each.
The hardcopy manual has an 8 step visual guide, then a small little blurb repeated in 11 different languages and one last blurb about the system requirements. If you're looking for a detailed manual LiteOn includes one on the Nero CD.
As you can tell from this image, the drive isn't all that big. It's a tiny bit larger than a DVD envelope and should be an easy fit for most cases.
This is a rather simple and plain looking bezel. It holds all your standard features and that's all you really need. If you saw the front of this drive without knowing it's made by LiteON, you'd never be able to tell. You have your standard eject button, an LED to indicate the current activity, volume knob, earphone jack and emergency eject hole.
Pretty quiet on the back end too. Don't forget to power the drive, attach the IDE interface and select the proper jumper. You can also choose between Analog or Digital audio output for your media.
Not too much to report here. It shows you that this drive was made in June of 2004 and that it passes all sorts of safety and industry standards.
Nothing special about this. It's not black or anything. Compared to other DVD and CD optical drives, I found this particular one a little looser than the rest. I was able to jiggle it up, down, left and right. While with most other drives, you can only move it up and down a tiny bit.
Page 3 : Specifications
Taken directly from the SOHW-1213S products page, here are the specifications:
12x 4x / 8x 4x + 48x 24x 48x Half-Height DVD-Dual
ATAPI / E-IDE Half-Height internal DVD+R / DVD+RW / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD-ROM / CD-R / CD-RW / CD-ROM combination drive
SMART-BURN avoiding Buffer UnderRun Error, Automatically adjusting writing strategy & running OPC to provide the best burning quality
SMART-X function adjusts CD-DA / VCD / DVD data extraction to a fastest allowable speed according to both data request rate from host and disk quality
VAS® system reduce vibration and noise during recording and reading
Support Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Raw Mode Burning & Over-Burn
DVD read compliant : DVD single / dual layer ( PTP / OTP ), DVD-R ( 3.9 GB / 4.7 GB ), DVD-R multi-borders, DVD+R, DVD+R multi-sessions, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW
CD read compliant : CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM / XA, Photo-CD, Multi-session, Karaoke-CD, Video-CD, CD-I FMV, CD Extra, CD Plus, CD-R, and CD-RW
Support both 8 cm and 12 cm disc of CD and DVD family
Conform to Orange Book : Part 2 CD-R Volume 1, Part 2 CD-R Volume 2 Multi Speed, Part 3 CD-RW Volume 1 ( 1x, 2x, and 4x ), Part 3 CD-RW Volume 2 : High Speed, Part 3 CD-RW Volume 3 : Ultra Speed
Supported transfer mode : PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 and Ultra DMA mode 2
Speed DVD Family :
Write :
DVD+R 12X(16200KB/sec) by Z-CLV
DVD-R 8X(10800KB/sec) by Z-CLV
ReWrite :
DVD+RW 4X(5400KB/sec) by CLV
DVD-RW 4X(5400KB/sec) by CLV
Read : 12X(16200KB/sec) maximum by CAV
Access Time : 160ms
CD Family :
Write :
CD-R 48X(7200KB/sec) maximum by P-CAV
ReWrite :
CD-RW 24X(3600KB/sec) maximum by Z-CLV in UltraSpeed disc
Read :
48X(7200KB/sec) maximum by CAV
Access Time : 160ms
Buffer Size 2 MB
Access Time DVD Family : 160 ms
CD Family : 160 ms
MTBF (Life) 70,000 Hours
S/N Ration : >75dB
Power Requirement +5V +/-5% and less than 100 mVp-p ripple voltage
Environment :
Operating 5°C to 45°C; Relative Humidity : 10% to 80%, Non-Condensing
Non-Operating -40°C to 60°C; Relative Humidity : 10% to 95%, Non-Condensing
+12V +/-5% and less than 200 mVp-p ripple voltage
Dimension 145.0 ( W ) x 41.3 ( H ) x 170.0 ( D ) mm
Weight < 0.9 Kg
[/quote]
Not all forms of media are supported by this drive, and especially at the higher write speeds. As a result, LiteON has compiled a list of recommended media.
Low Speed CD-RW: CMC, Daxon, Gigastorage, Infodisc, Lead Data, MCC, Princo, Prodisc,Ricoh, Ritek
High Speed CD-RW: CMC, Daxon, Fornet, Gigastorage, Infodisc,
LeadData, MCC, NANYA, Princo, Prodisc, Ricoh, Ritek
Ultra Speed CD-RW: CMC, Daxon, INFODISC, Mitsubishi, Prodisc, Ritek
DVD+R 12X: Maxell, MCC, Ricoh, Sony, TY
DVD+RW 4X: CMC, Daxon, Infodisc, MCC, Nanya, Optodisc, PHILIPS, PRODISC, RICOH, RITEK, Sentinel, SONY
DVD-R 8X: CMC, Gigastorage, GSC, Maxell, MCC, Prodisc, Ritek, Sony, TDK, TY
DVD-RW 4X: Optodisc, MCC, Princo, RITEK, TDK
[/quote]
Minimum System Requirements
:
Pentium III 450 MHz, Pentium III 800 MHz Recommended
Microsoft Windows 98SE/ME/2000/XP
Minimum 256MB Recommended
Hard Drive Free Space: 650MB for CD images and 5GB for DVD images
Interface: Vacant IDE Interface
Supplied Software
If you'd like to learn more about Ahead, click here.
If you'd like to learn more about Cyberlink's PowereDVD, click here.
Page 4 : Features
Merely looking at the specifications, the LiteON SOHW-1213S doesn't appear to be as featureful as any of the Plextor drives I've looked at. Have no fear, there are things you just have to look for.
Here are some things you should be aware of.
* SMART-BURN® avoiding Buffer Under Run error, Automatically adjusting writing strategy & running OPC to provide the best burning quality(*1)
* SMART-X® Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for eXtraction(*2)
* VAS® to reduce vibration & noise during recording & reading(*3)
* Support Fixed Packet, Variable Packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, Raw Mode Burning & Over-Burn
* DVD read compliant: DVD single/dual layer (PTP, OTP), DVD-R(3.9G/4.7G), DVD-R multi-borders, DVD+R, DVD+R multi-sessions, DVD-RW, and DVD+RW
* CD read compliant: CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM/XA, Photo-CD, Multi-session, Karaoke-CD, Video-CD, CD-I FMV, CD Extra, CD Plus, CD-R, and CD-RW
* Support both 8cm and 12cm disc of CD and DVD family
* Conform to Orange Book: Part 2 CD-R Volume 1, Part 2 CD-R Volume 2 Multi Speed, Part 3 CD-RW Volume 1 (1X, 2X AND 4X), Part 3 CD-RW Volume 2: High Speed, Part 3 CD-RW Volume 3: Ultra Speed
* Supported transfer mode : PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 and Ultra DAM mode 2
* 1 SMART-BURN® : Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing.
* 2 SMART-X® : Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for eXtraction.
* 3 VAS® : Vibration Absorber System
[/quote]
Points 1, 2 and 3 are somewhat unique to LiteOn. Each company likes to implement and phrase similar technologies in different ways.
SMART-BURN
Users always want to successfully burn a disc with a higher speed in CD-RW drive. You may know, there are so many brands of CD-R / CD-RW media in the market with irregular quality & still being cost down in the price war.
If your CD-R / CD-RW media quality is really poor enough or working environment is too hot to induce the Laser Power over margin, the CD-RW drive detected, the burning speed will be forced to decrease to get more reliable Laser working power to secure the life of CD-RW drive & burning quality. Strategy parameters plus the outstanding running Optimum Power Calibration ( OPC ) function to provide you the best burning quality.
The buffer under run error is also no longer happening to your drive anymore, SMART-BURN also can allow drive to be suspended during writing, than continue to burn from last point when enough data get in the buffer.
SMART-BURN features :
1. Buffer Under Run Error Free
2. Running Optimum Power Calibration
3. Automatic Writing Strategy & Burning Parameters
4. Automatically decrease burning speed when Laser power over margin due to poor media quality or high temperature
[/quote]
SMART-X
People ask ‘ Whatâs the DAE speed? ‘ , ‘ Whatâs VCD play speed of the drive? ‘â¦etc. People want to know this to choose party drive. As you know, removable optical media is so open & unable to control the media quality. Drives need to burn a disc with higher speed & quality as possible. So the drive need to be very smart!
Itâs more difficult for a drive to rip the Audio & VCD disc than a data disc due to there are only 2 levels error correction for Audio & VCD disc but data discs got 3. For limited un-recoverable error, data can be fixed by estimation & calculation due to itâs only for music & movie application. These tolerance ripped data are acceptable & can not be detected by human eyes & ears during playback because there is no pop-noise, interrupt or mosaic on the screen. Of course zero error is preferable for zero tolerance.
SMART-X technology is the drive will rip the music / VCD data as fast as possible with less error, even on a poor quality media ( like dirty, scratched ) , the drive will estimate if the ripped data will result audio noise, interrupt or mosaic on screen, the rip speed can be reduced to get more correctable data. SMART-X provide you as fast rip speed as possible, on the other, if you just want to listen music or watch movie directly, itâs not necessary for the drive to keep high speed to read data. It will work under lower speed automatically to get better playability & lower acoustic, so smart ![/quote]
VAS
Name: Isolated Absorber System
Slogan: VAS
Similar design: Pioneer
Advantage: Small vibration on Traverse / Pickup & Cover
Disadvantage: Space limitation, hard to design the isolated absorber
[/quote]
The following image shows the physical components required for this feature:
ABS – Auto Balancer Spindle
The ABS mechanism can fit from CD-ROM 32x design up to 56x or higher speed that the spindle motor can even works over 10000 rpm with very small vibration generated
[/quote]
BookType
A feature I haven't seen on any other drive is the LiteON BookType BitSetting. This little feature is great if you own old DVD Players that may not support DVD+R or DVD+RW. By using the BookType software utility, you can change the BookType to DVD-ROM in hopes it is supported by your player. You can also change the BookType to DVD+RW. There are various other features incorporated with this piece of software, and if you have further interest click here to view the entire PDF and information therein.
Page 5 : Installation
To install any ordinary optical drive you just remove your old one, select the jumper for the new one and slide it in. Next connect the appropriate power and IDE cable and that's pretty much it. I installed the Nero software included with the drive for benchmarking purposes.
Here's a breakdown of the system:
Abit NF7-S rev 2.0
AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+ @ 200*12
Ultra Products 2*512 MB PC3200 Dual Channel Kit
HIS ATi 9550 VIVO Stock
Asetek KT03A-L30 WaterCooling
10 GB ATA 100 5400 RPM Hard Drive (My Maxtor is on its last leg….SATA time!)
LiteON SOHW 1213S Provided by LiteON
2*80mm Red UV reactive fans @ 7V
2*80mm Round UV CCFL
2*12′ UV CCFL
2*12′ Red CCFL
2*20mm Vantec Stealth fans @ 12 V
1*Temperature Probe
Windows XP SP2
I started the review with one unit, and I ended it with a different unit. The first unit I received was internally damaged in-between manufacturing and shipping. I had tried to repair the unit through firmware upgrades but that did very little. The firmware installation is very easy! Pretty much run a simple piece of software and reboot! LiteON provided me with great technical support and within a few hours of my request, a new drive was shipped to me for evaluation. The delivery by UPS took less than 24 hrs, nothing but great support from LiteON.
Page 6 : DVD Benchmarking
I test the DVD writing performance using a Ricoh DVD+R disc. This disc was rated at 8X, however it is compatible at 12X. The first drive I received had no problems writing at 12X, but it was the quality and the read that gave me issues being that they were very erratic and inconsistent; something not usually experienced with LiteON products. I will show the results from the new drive which reflects what you expect to receive if you buy one.
Writing
Transfer Rate, Seek Time, CPU Usage, Burst Speed
Error PI/POF
With my previous reviews I used the PlexTools Professional to determine the writing error. However, this piece of software is not supported by LiteON so I've moved over to the KProbe v2.2.3 for benchmarking. You can find more information on KProbe here.
Page 7 : CD Benchmarks
The CD benchmarking was done using some Memorex 700MB Black Label media rated for 48X performance.
Writing
Transfer Rate, Seek Time, CPU Usage, Burst Speed
Error C1/C2
Page 8 : ReWriteable Benchmarks
DVD ReWriteable
Tested using some generic piece of DVD+RW compatibile up to 4X.
Writing
Transfer Rate, Seek Time, CPU Usage, Burst Speed
Error PI/POF
Erasing
CD ReWriteable
Tested using a Verbatim 24X Ultra High Speed piece of media.
Writing
Transfer Rate, Seek Time, CPU Usage, Burst Speed
Error C1/C2
Erasing
Page 9 : Conclusion
After receiving the new unit that truly reflects the nature of LiteON products, I was very impressed by there work. For the end user looking to back up large volumes of data this LiteON drive is not only affordable but works extremely well. With dual layer technology just becoming more and more popular you can probably expect these prices to drop in the future. I definitely look forward to seeing what LiteON will produce next.
I'm going to award this drive out very first
Overclockers Online BUDGET Award
. It has proven itself very worthy, and at 80 dollars you won't find any better 12X DVD Writer!
Advantages
Very reasonably priced
Fast CD and DVD writing speeds
Great technical support
Disadvantages
Excessively wobbly drive tray
No Mount Rainer Support
Couldn't reach 48X CD-Write.
12X Supported Media hard to come by
I would like to take the time to thank LiteON for providing me with a drive for evaluation and for putting up with me for the many emails I have sent.
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