New Lite-On CDRW drive: SOHR-5238S

[dodecahedron]

WOW.
a new 52x CDRW drive from Lite-On: SOHR-5238S

apart from the link to the new firmware, anyone hear of it?
what's it like?
how good is it?
how does it compare with the LTR-52327S?

looking at Lite-On's website:
http://www.liteonit.com/ODD/English/e_p ... 52327s.asp
http://www.liteonit.com/ODD/English/e_p ... r5238s.asp
the only difference i can see is: it rewrites @ 32x ZCLV !!!! wtf ???

[Ian]

It's been on their website for awhile but I don't know of anyone that actually has one yet.

[dodecahedron]

oh well...

and already a firmware upgrade!

damn their website is SLOW !

[hammad]

its not listed at even new eggss website,how can we buy it ?

[dolphinius_rex]

I wonder why the new drive? The CD-RW drive market is drying up... I can't see how it would be worth it to them...

[rdgrimes]

Does a SOHR-52A8S count?

I first though it would wind up being the same hardware, but it's apparently not completely the same, anyway they won't use the same FW.

[phsstpok]

hammad,

Here you go.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 939&depa=0

I'm ordering one now but I won't have it for a while. Newegg usually takes six days with my orders for some reason.

It's not for me but I will be trying it for a little while.

[dolphinius_rex]

Please let us know how it is! I'm still surprised to see a new LiteON CD Burner

[phsstpok]

Please let us know how it is! I'm still surprised to see a new LiteON CD Burner

So far I have mixed thoughts.

Up Side

The SOHR-5238S is very fast. This I expected but I didn't realize that DAE was 48X+.

Haven't done much testing yet.

I'm trying some game backups but only having marginal success. My old burner could only backup up Safedisc up to 2.51.xxx.

So far I backed a Safedisc 2.6 game, a 2.8 game, and 1 of 2 Safedisc 2.90.040 games all without emulation which means the Liteon is a good reader for those protections.

I did run into blacklisting problems with NFS:U. Not only did the NFS:U backup not work (in any drives) but now the original doesn't work and Splinter Cell didn't work any longer either. I uninstalled CloneCD (I use CloneCD/Fireburner) and Daemon tools but NFS:U still refuses to work. Splinter Cell is working again (original and backup) but only if both CloneCD and Daemon tools are remain uninstalled. Installing CloneCD prevents me from running the game, even if I don't load the virtual drive component.

With Daemon Tools blacklisted I can't run backups in my CDRWs and only one of my CDROMs will play the SplinterCell backup. I until I resolve this problem I can't form an opinion of the SOHR-5238 backup capabilities.

I don't have a lot of games myself but I buy games for my nephew and he scratches CD's badly. Game backups is an important feature for me

(Sorry. I got a little off-topic with those details).

I haven't really tested writing quality yet. My tests aren't very sophisticated anyway. I just need my backups (data) to be readable by any drive I own. I basically only use Taiyo Yuden media but I have some old Ritek and CMC Magnetics (yuck) on hand. I use Nero CDSpeed to confirm all drives reach their respective top speeds when reading the disc and don't have slowing problems. I also use the Scan Disc function to check disc quality.

Downside

This drive is insanely loud. It drowns out all my case fans which aren't exactly quiet in their own right. Sometimes the 5238s seems to rev up to max RPM for no reason at all. Only noticed this behavior playing audio CDs with PowerDVD and a playing DIVX files with BSPlayer. Pressing Pause resolves the problem with audio CDs but nothing seems to help with BSPlayer. (I'm hoping this all a software issue).

Speaking of software issues, the version of Nero (5.5.8.0) I have did not recognize the 5238s. I downloaded 5.5.10. something or other and am hoping this will fix the problem. Nero Express shipped with the drive but I'd rather use the full version if I can.

MusicMatch Jukebox (I forget which version) refuses to do DAE above 4X with the 5238S but works fine with my old burner (Cyberdrive CW068D). Audio Grabber exhibits no such problem.

That's about it for now.

Phsstpok

[dodecahedron]

Installing CloneCD prevents me from running the game, even if I don't load the virtual drive component.

you did disable the Hide CDR Media feature, right?

[TheCDBurner]

Does a SOHR-52A8S count?

Sweet! Serial ATA!

Too bad it's not a 16x DVD-ROM/52x32x52x CD-RW SATA combo drive. That'd be perfect!

[aviationwiz]

The quality doesn't look quite as good as my Premium, if it ever comes out though, I'd consider it. Can anyone link me up with that PATA-SATA bridge talked about a lot, preferably on newegg?

[TheCDBurner]

Power connectors:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 409&depa=0

Bridges:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 160&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 111&depa=0

Newegg also as Western Digital "secure connect" Serial ATA cables...highly recommended.

[phsstpok]

Installing CloneCD prevents me from running the game, even if I don't load the virtual drive component.

you did disable the Hide CDR Media feature, right?

I tried to enable Hide CDR Media but it didn't work. Then I discovered even the original CD would not run in the CDROM drive that I always use! By installing CloneCD I somehow had completely disabled a working game.

I ended up installing a patch for NFSU. I only tried this as a last resort because uninstalling CloneCD, re-installing NFSU, removing registry entries, and even a clean install of NFSU did not get the game working again, with the original disk!!! Luckily the patch made the game usable.

It's all strange because I had been using the game for almost a month without any patches and suddenly it stops working?

It sure seemed like blacklisting except uninstalling the supposed blacklisted application (CloneCD) didn't fix the problem.

Anyway, I finally got my backup for NFSU. Works without DT's Safedisc emulation if I use the CDROM drive. If I use the SOHR-5238s (or my other burner) then I do need emulation. I don't need Hide CDR media with my burners and I don't understand why.

Phsstpok

[vsekh]

Power connectors:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 409&depa=0

Bridges:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 160&depa=0
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDe ... 111&depa=0

Newegg also as Western Digital "secure connect" Serial ATA cables...highly recommended.

Have you tested this pata-sata converter on ATAPI devices? If so, which ones have worked for you? Also, I heard that Intel SATA had issues with this and only worked on Silicon image SATA connectors.

[TheCDBurner]

Sorry, never used them before - don't see much of a point, really. If you have a regulare ATA drive, just use round cables.

Right now, both of my HDD's are Serial ATA, and if I add another, I'll just get an external.

As for the Intel issue, well, Intel sucks right now, IMHO. I'll stick with AMD, at least until Intel junks the stupid Netburst core. Oh, did you see this lovely little interview between Paul from Windows Supersite and Bob Muglia (Microsoft's VP for Windows Server development)? (http://www.winsupersite.com/showcase/mu ... server.asp)

Paul: Are you seeing any difference between AMD's [64-bit] stuff and Intel's stuff?

BM: Yes. [Smiles]

Paul: Would you care to clarify that? [Laughs]

BM: Well, AMD has done a good job ...

[Laughter]

He he...up yours, Intel!

[aviationwiz]

If you have a regulare ATA drive, just use round cables.

You do know that round cables are many, many times as large as SATA cables... right?

Also, in that article, you are comparing 64 bit CPU's to 32 bit CPU's, make it a fair fight, and compare, say, a Pentium 4 2.6C GHZ to an Athlon XP 2600+.

[TheCDBurner]

The quote was in reference to Intels new 64-bit extensions.
As for the P4 vs Athlon XP, well, my old system was an XP 2500 an my roommate has an 2.4C. The XP smokes it.

And yeah, I know the cables are much larger
But probably not enough to make much of a difference. My optical drives are all P-ATA, my HDD's S-ATA. Only reason I got SATA was because I wanted a Raptor

[aviationwiz]

My optical drives are all P-ATA, my HDD's S-ATA. Only reason I got SATA was because I wanted a Raptor

You can say that again

Which Raptor do you have? I have the 36GB, and I also have a 120GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA drive too.

[TheCDBurner]

I've got a 74GB Raptor and a 200GB WD, 8MB cache SATA drive. Both nice & fast. My roommates PC has a 120GB WD (8MB cache) and a 120GB Maxtor (2MB), both seem to be good drives. I wouldn't mind a 300GB Maxtor external drive.

I remember hearing that Hitachi has a 400GB, 10,000 RPM S-ATA drive, but since that's basically an IBM, I'll pass. Now if Western Digital came out with a Raptor that big

Edit:
Their web site lists a 7200RPM, 400GB drive. Now where did I see that 10K RPM one...

[Bhairav]

Raptor...


Too expensive here,though.

[evanrabby]

hey, lets not get off topic, your wasting our time! (sorry im rude because people deserve it)

sohr5238s sucks. I burned princo and enclosed-with-burner-liteon brand, analyzed with kprobe 2 in ltr52327s i already own 7 of,.

for the liteon brand they sent:
C1 max 48, total 61,429

tried 5 different pieces of princo:

burn with sohr, read with 7s:
princo: C1 max 210, total 65,823.

princo: burn and read with 7s: C1 13, total 6123

burn and read with sohr reads its own princo burns differently:
C1 max = 9, total = 1877.

read 7s burn in sohr: C1 max 13, total 3109

I think sohr improved read ability, destroyed write quality. I will be sending back for AOPEN 523252, which is the best burner on the market for write quality plus media compatibility... according to cdrlabs reviews.

and whats with the high status of plexwriters, when the write quality is the lowest of any cd burner across most media! People, the ONLY thing that really matters is WRITE QUALITY and MEDIA COMPATIBILITY. what does it matter if you can write a poor disc 15 seconde faster. talk about give it to me now no matter what the cost mentality of our times!

I'm tired of reading all posts only testing things like how nice it looks, what free software it comes with, if it writes 10 seconds faster, how fast it rips audio, cpu usage (come on, its never anything on a modern computer!), read speed (theyall read "fast), DAE speed (they all read "fast)

and then if at all, put the crucial factor, write quality, buried under all this useless CRAP! Then rate a plextor that burns most media poorly at the top because it says PLEXTOR.. theyre all getting paid to lie I say!



**This post was edited (somewhat) by Spazmogen for poor spelling, but I had to give up on it **