Lite-On DH-4B1S 4x Blu-ray Disc Triple Writer

While the DH-4B1S isn't the fastest or most feature packed Blu-ray Disc writer to come through the 'Labs, it just might be the answer for those on a budget. With a price tag of less than $200 in some places, it is currently one of the most affordable Blu-ray Disc writers on the market.

The DH-4B1S is the first drive from Lite-On with the ability to write to BD-R media at 4x. At this speed, it took a little more than 24 minutes to burn an entire 25GB disc. The DH-4B1S wasn't as fast when writing to BD-RE media. However, its performance was on par with the other Blu-ray Disc writers I've tested. Unfortunately, the drive had some problems writing to BD-R DL media. Hopefully, Lite-On can fix this in a future firmware update.

Using the bundled software, the DH-4B1S played all of the Blu-ray movies I had on hand, including those protected by BD+. The drive also performed fairly well in our transfer rate tests, reading BD-ROM's and BD-R discs at 4x. However, its speeds were limited to only 2x when reading BD-RE and BD-R DL media.

With a maximum DVD±R writing speed of 12x, the DH-4B1S is no match for the current crop of DVD writers. Nevertheless, it was faster than most of the Blu-ray drives I've tested, burning an entire 4.7GB DVD in a little more than 7 minutes. The drive also had no problems holding its own when writing to other types of media. However, the writing quality could have been better with some DVD±R DL discs. The DH-4B1S was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer data and video DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 12x.

Reading and writing CD's wasn't a problem for the DH-4B1S either. In our tests, it read all types of CD media at 40x and had some fairly good seek times. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at speeds as high as 40x.As a writer, the DH-4B1S performed as expected. The drive turned in some very good times with CD-R media and its writing quality was quite good. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests.

Lite-On's Blu-ray Disc writer also has its share of features. To prevent buffer underruns, the DH-4B1S has an 8MB buffer that is backed up by Seamless Link buffer underrun protection. While the drive only utilizes 2MB of the buffer when writing CD's, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The DH-4B1S also has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R and DVD+R DL media and comes with a great software bundle from CyberLink.

In the end, it usually comes down to price. For what it offers, Lite-On's Blu-ray Disc writer is surprisingly affordable. The retail version of the DH-4B1S can be purchased for less than $270 through the vendors listed on Pricegrabber. Otherwise, if you shop around, you can pick up the OEM version of the drive for around $200.

Highs:

• Writes to BD-R media at 4x
• Writes to BD-RE and BD-R DL media at 2x
• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 12x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 8x
• Reads single layer BD-ROM's and BD-R media at 4x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 12x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Features 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Includes buffer underrun prevention technology
• 8MB buffer
• Good CD-R and DVD±R writing quality
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Includes software from CyberLink
• Supports 99 minute CD-R media
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Problems reading and writing to BD-R DL media
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R DL media
• Reads BD-RE and BD-R DL media at only 2x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• Buffer limited to 2MB when writing CD's