In House Review - Lite-On LTR-52327S 52/32/52 CD-RW

[Ian]

CDRLabs has taken a look at Lite-On's new 52/32/52 CD-RW, the LTR-52327S. While affordably priced, this drive sports some of the fastest speeds currently available. The LTR-52327S reads and writes at 52x and rewrites at a blazing 32x. The drive also has many of the features we've come to expect from Lite-On, including support for their SMART-BURN and SMART-X technologies and the Mt. Rainier format.

In this review we take a look at some of the features found on the LTR-52327S and then see how it compares to some of the 52x writers from the competition. Does Lite-On have another winner here? Are faster rewriting speeds really as good as they sound? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=194]

Lite-On LTR-52327S 52/32/52 CD-RW[/url]

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the Lite-On LTR-52327S, please post them in the forum by clicking the link below.

[CDRecorder]

Good review, Ian!

I was really impressed with the drive's writing quality!

[dolphinius_rex]

Nice review Ian, one question though. Why did you use Nero CD Speed 1.02 and not 2.02?

[dhc014]

Nice review Ian, one question though. Why did you use Nero CD Speed 1.02 and not 2.02?

Either because it's what he has used for all of his other reviews, or because 2.02 wasn't out officially when he ran the tests.

Nice review too!

[Ian]

Nice review Ian, one question though. Why did you use Nero CD Speed 1.02 and not 2.02?

Yeah, 2.02 wasn't out when I started testing the drive. As it is, I found that there is little difference between the two versions when testing stuff like transfer speeds, seek times, etc.

There are still a few reviews in the works using CD Speed 1.02. However, I am currently using 2.02 to test.

[aviationwiz]

As always, very good review. I just glanced over the Performance and Conclusion sections. The writing quality surprised me. This is apparently a good drive, but there are a few cons that make this drive bad in some cases.

Loudness
Writing Quality with different media other than TY

The drive doesn't appear to work well with MC media from what I saw, very surprising.

[dolphinius_rex]

The loudness rating of a drive is too subjective. Saying a drive is loud doesn't really say much because we don't know what the point of reference is.

I don't really care either way personally, I have fans running 24/7 in my room (where my computer is) and I have to really pay attention to hear the motor running! Actually, all things considered, I *like* being able to tell when my drive's motor changes speed, it gives me a good idea of when it's doing things it shouldn't be, like slowing down during a CD test, or when the speed changes while burning a CD-R, since Nero 6 doesn't have a way to show the true burning speed (that *I* know of at least).

Maybe I'm just a bit of a nut, but I'll keep my "loud" drive

and yes, I like my modems to be external with blinky lights too

[rdgrimes]

Writing Quality with different media other than TY
.

Did you miss the parts of the review where Ian states this is one of the most media-tolerant drives ever?

From the conclusion: Very good media compatibility. Can write at 52x with a large selection of media
And from "performance": The LTR-52327S's media compatibility can be summed up into one word: excellent. While the writing times varied by a second or two overall, the drive was able to write to all of our test media at 52x.
Except for the CMC disc, all the error rates are well within acceptable limits.

I concur, I've never seen a drive that can write at 52x to as many types of media as this one. Actually WRITE at 52x, not just offer 52x speed selection.

[Ian]

rdgrimes, you might as well give up now. Unless the drive says Plextor on it, aviationwiz is going to think it sucks.

[rdgrimes]

Agreed, but incorrect statements should be corrected.

[merlen32]

Ian,

Any chance you can get a hold of some Memorex 24x Ultra Speed media and try it?

I bought a 5-pack, and it burns the CD fine. When I run CDSpeed 2.02 on it, most of the CD is yellow (C1), sometimes there is even a few reds (C2).

I have burnt VideoCDs, and some Audio CDs, and tried them in other drives, there are definately errors on the disc. Is the media bad, bad compatibility with the LiteOn? I have the QS06 bios.

My Pengos and KHypermedia CDRWs work fine.

Any help would be appreciated.


-jt

[merlen32]

I guess I should have started a new topic or something, as I realize I shouldn't have posted this in this thread. New to forums. I apologize.

-jt

[David]

merlen32 it's not the drive it's the media.

Read here.

[merlen32]

Thanks for the information and links. Glad it is not my drive, have had trouble with other Memorex media. I suspected it was the media, now that I see others are having problems, I can rest easier.

A friend bought 4 packs of these, looks like he is out. You can't return them for a refund I don't think. Will wait until a decent CDRW comes out with a decent speed and is 80 min. I only lose out on 1 pack, glad I didn't buy a bunch.

-jt

[rdgrimes]

Memorex 24x RW media:



It doesn't get much worse than that!

[rdgrimes]

@ Ian:
Did you test the burn strategy on any slower media? Check out this 48x Sony media, which the 7S burns at 40x max:



I don't have anything around here to test for 32x strategy, but I'll keep looking.

Edit: In Nero, a 32x burn takes 3:20, 40x takes 3:10. Maybe one of the strategy wizards here knows what that indicates.

Double Edit:
Just double-checked my 52246S, and it's in P-CAV at 40x. the time is the same because it only slows down at the very end. At 32x, the time is the same on both drives, so I'll guess that they are both in P-CAV at 32x.

[Ian]

@ Ian:
Did you test the burn strategy on any slower media?

No, I didn't check the writing strategy below 48x with CD-R media. I figured it would be the same as the LTR-52246S.

[Bhairav]

Ian, did you try the QS09 firmware?

[dolphinius_rex]

Ian,

Any chance you can get a hold of some Memorex 24x Ultra Speed media and try it?

I bought a 5-pack, and it burns the CD fine. When I run CDSpeed 2.02 on it, most of the CD is yellow (C1), sometimes there is even a few reds (C2).

For the record, the yellow blocks are C2 errors, and the red blocks are unreadable. Nero CD Speed still does not test for C1 errors.

[Ian]

Ian, did you try the QS09 firmware?

Not yet. No time.

Erik Deppe is working on a version of CD Speed that can test C1 errors. I've tried a few beta builds and it sometimes works, sometimes not. I was expecting v2.02 to include this new test, but alas it didn't.

[aviationwiz]

For me, I want a really quiet drive, as I have all Stealth fans in my computer, so I would be able to tell a difference between the plex and the lite noise wise.

P.S.

Congrats on 6,500 posts Ian.

[Ian]

For me, I want a really quiet drive, as I have all Stealth fans in my computer, so I would be able to tell a difference between the plex and the lite noise wise.

P.S.

Congrats on 6,500 posts Ian.

Thanks. Just noticed that. So, do you have the silent mode enabled with your Plex?

[aviationwiz]

I have silent mode limiting my read to 32x. That's it though.

[dolphinius_rex]

For me, I want a really quiet drive, as I have all Stealth fans in my computer, so I would be able to tell a difference between the plex and the lite noise wise.

Too each their own, I have a feeling you don't do quite as much testing and burning as I do, nor is the neccessity for consistancy really there, since you are doing it for your own knowledge and not someone elses. I like to make sure my drive performes EXACTLY like it did the last time I did the burn, or the test. I burn the same image, and expect the same general performance 9 times over. The noise differences help me to keep my burning/testing consistant. When I'm just doing it for myself I don't care as much of course, but reviews are different! Right Ian?

[aviationwiz]

Yup,

My LTD-163D was quite quiet so I go got a little bit worried. I already had one break on me, so another one wouldn't have been so odd. I did a few tests, turned out fine. It was just the disk I was using.

I like the features on the Plex such as GigaRec and VariRec, if your not going to use any of the features, why spend an extra $90 on a burner.