Lite-On/PLDS Stops Making Blu-ray Drives

[Ian]

If the lack of new models wasn't a big enough hint, I heard from a reliable source today that Lite-On has stopped making Blu-ray drives. The only exception is the drive for the Xbox which Lite-On manufactuers.

Lite-On isn't totally out of the optical drive game though. According to the roadmap I saw, the company will be introducing updated 16x (DH-16D8SH) and 18x (DH-18D8SH) DVD-ROM drives this fall as well as new 16x and 24x DVD writers (DH-16AFSH and DH-24AFSH). For the mobile market, Lite-On has new 12.7mm, 9.0mm and 9.5mm tray load DVD writers on the way as well as a couple of new DVD-ROM drives.

Most of these are for the OEM market. I'm not sure if we'll see these being sold under the Lite-On brand.

[Scour]

http://www.liteonodd.com/en/bd-external ... l/eb1.html

Read somewhere it could be a Pioneer-rebadge

[Ian]

Odd.. I don't think that Pioneer makes a tray loading drive. Good to see that its USB 3.0.

[Scour]

I have an Asus SBW-06D2X-U

https://www.asus.com/de/Optical-Drives- ... SBW06D2XU/

The lable says Pioneer BDR-UD03ASW


Not sure about my Pioneer DVR-XU01. The lable says Pioneer, but Pioneers Half Heights are QSI since the DVR-S18, the latest product is the S21 which disappear because QSI stopped production. My S21 made at end of 2014.

Panasonics Slim-BD-writers could be also from QSI, but dunno if it is still in production

[Ian]

Sorry.. I meant their most recent models. I was thinking of the BDR-XD07 which was a clam shell drive and the slot load BDR-XS06.

I could probably ask Lite-On. Then again, they might not want to admit that another company is making optical drives for them now.

[Scour]

Both models I don´t know, not available in Germany

Would be nice if Liteon would customize the firmware, but it doesn´t looks like. OptiDriveControl don´t support quality scans with the EB1.

Not sure if it is a chipset or firmware thing. IIRC Pioneer still uses Renesas, at least in the Half Height, the scan-compatible drives have MediaTek