Lite-On DX-20A4PU 20x EZ-DUB DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.10.1.0 andDLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of Lite-On's new drive I used Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

While Lite-On claims that the DX-20A4PU can write to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 20x, the drive never reached that speed in our tests. For whatever reason, it limited the writing speed to only 18x. I tried various things, including disabling SMART-BURN and it had no effect.

Lite-On's new drive also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

The DX-20A4PU didn't perform as well as the other drives when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media. With its writing speed limited to 18x, it took nearly 5 and a half minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, the DX-20A4PU also lagged behind the other drives when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the DX-20A4PU, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.For these tests, SmartWrite and OverSpeed were left disabled.

So what about writing quality? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The DX-20A4PU's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part.

To test the DX-20A4PU's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

To test the DX-20A4PU's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The DX-20A4PU had no problems holding its own when reading and writing to DVD-RAM media. However, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast asthe other drives when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.10.1.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the DX-20A4PU, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Memorex, Philips, RiDATA and Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While no match for the drives from Samsung and LG, the DX-20A4PU took a respectable 17:54 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Philips' 8x and Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with the 8x DVD+R DL media from Memorex and Verbatim. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the error and jitter rates were very high at the layer change.

The DX-20A4PU performed relatively well when writing to DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took less than 19 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, their new 8x rated discs yielded some mixed results. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the error and jitter rates were higher than we'd like to see. The worst results were with RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media. Looking at the CD Speed screenshot, you can see that the PI/PIF rates were pretty high throughout the entire disc.

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of Lite-On's new "EZ-DUB" drive was hit and miss. The DX-20A4PU did not perform as well as expected when writing DVD's. It failed to write to DVD±R discs at 20x and lagged behind the other drives when writing to DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media. On the other hand, the DX-20A4PU was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD's at 16x and both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at a respectable 12x.

The DX-20A4PU also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R discs at speeds as high as 48x and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, Lite-On's new drive gave us some mixed results. While the DX-20A4PU turned in some very impressive times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the Lite-On DX-20A4PU gets a 5 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.