Lite-On iHAS424-08 24x "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Lite-On iHAS424-08 24x "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Lite-On IT
Provided By: Lite-On IT USA

Lite-On IT got its start in 1995 when its parent company, Lite-On Technology, gathered a group of scientists and engineers to start an optical storage research and manufacturing business. Lite-On Technology quickly established itself as Taiwan’s largest CD-ROM drive manufacturer and by 1999 the business had spun off into a separate company, Lite-On IT. Since then, Lite-On IT has continued to grow. By working closely with companies like BenQ and Philips, they've expanded into the consumer and automotive electronics markets, becoming the world's second largest ODD manufacturer.

While Lite-On has begun to focus on the growing Blu-ray Disc market, they haven't abandoned the DVD quite yet. The company has continued to push the limits of the format, developing drives with new features and faster DVD writing speeds. One of the latest additions to Lite-On's already impressive line of DVD writers is the iHAS424-08. This Serial ATA equipped "Super AllWrite" drive is capable of 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW  and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Along with support for HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system, the iHAS424 also features many of the technologies we've come to expect from Lite-On, including more advanced ones like SmartWrite, SmartErase and OverSpeed.

With features and specs like this, the iHAS424 sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from Lite-On's new DVD writer, we'll take a look at some of its features and then see how it compares to some of the 22x and 24x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does the iHAS424 have what it takes? Is it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Lite-On iHAS424-08 24x "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Nero Software CD
• User's Manual
• Quick Installation Guide
• SATA Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in October of 2009 and had firmware ZL1B. For this review I used firmware versions ZL1N and ZL1P.

From the front, the iHAS424 looks very similar to Lite-On's previous DVD writers. It not only shares the same basic bezel design, but has many of the same logos. Along the front of the tray you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications, as well as HP's LightScribe and Lite-On's SmartErase technologies.

Below the tray you can see the iHAS424's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.

The rear of the iHAS424 is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Lite-On's website and the documentation that came along with the drive.

LightScribe:

The iHAS424 is one of the latest drives from Lite-On to feature LightScribe technology. Developed by HP, LightScribe lets you burn durable, silk screen quality labels directly onto your CD's and DVD's using the same drive that burned the data. According to HP, it's as simple as burning the data, flipping the disc, and then burning the label.

Of course you can't do this with just any drive, media or software. While LightScribe capable drives use the same laser when burning both the data and label, they have to be able to accurately control the laser's focus and position as well as the spindle speed. They also must be able to recognize LightScribe media. These special discs have a thin dye coating on the label side that absorbs laser light. This triggers a chemical reaction that produces a color change, allowing the user to print text, artwork or graphics.

Even if you have a LightScribe capable drive and media, you will need software that supports it. Most major software companies have pledged support for the technology. However, at the time of this review, the list of compatible software is still relatively short. For the iHAS424, Lite-On turned to Nero. Using the bundled software you can both create and burn LightScribe disc labels.

Once you've created your LightScribe label, you're ready to print it. Before you can do this, though, you will need to choose the contrast. Keep in mind this option not only changes the level of detail, it also affects the amount of time it takes to print the label. The higher the quality, the longer the process will take.

How long does it take to print a label? For testing purposes, we printed a disc using Verbatim's LightScribe v1.2 color CD-R media, and the quality was set to "best". The results are shown below.

Verbatim CD-R v1.2 - 27 minutes

The iHAS424 features what Lite-On calls SmartWrite technology. Previously known as HyperTuning, SmartWrite automatically creates writing strategies for unknown, or unsupported, DVD±R and DVD±R DL media. Simply enable SmartWrite, insert your disc and burn. The new writing strategy is then created on-the-fly.

SmartWrite also works with supported media. When enabled, the drive will ignore the writing strategy stored in the firmware and instead create a new one. This is very useful if you are trying to record a disc that uses another company's MID code (I.E. fake TYG02 code discs).

OverSpeed:

The iHAS424 supports Lite-On's OverSpeed function. When enabled, the drive will try to write to your DVD±R media at a speed higher than what would normally be supported. To do this, OverSpeed relies heavily on SmartWrite. When a disc is written at a higher than normal speed, SmartWrite will automatically create a new writing strategy for it.

While the OverSpeed function on the iHAS424 is a bit more flexible than previous incarnations, it still has some limitations. To prevent people from writing to all DVD±R media at 24x, the writing speed can only be bumped up by two levels. For example, if your disc was normally supported at 16x, the iHAS424 would now give you the option to write to it at 20x.

I should also point out that OverSpeed does not work with DVD±R DL media. When enabled, you will have the option to write to 8x DVD±R DL media at 12x. However, when you go to burn the disc, the actual writing speed is limited to only 4x.

SmartErase:

The iHAS424 is one of the first drives to support Lite-On's SmartErase technology. Similar in concept to Plextor's PlexERASE technology, SmartErase gives users the ability to destroy the data on CD-R, DVD±R and DVD±R DL media without physically damaging the disc itself. To do this, it uses the drive's laser beam to "re-record" over the lead-in and data sectors, rendering the disc unreadable and unrecoverable.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new DVD writer is identified as an "ATAPI iHAS424 A."

Nero also shows that the iHAS424 has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Super-Link buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the iHAS424 can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media. 

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the iHAS424 is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the iHAS424's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the iHAS424 is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware.  The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the iHAS424's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities.  By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while Lite-On's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The iHAS424 also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using Nero, CD Speed or Lite-On's BookType Utility, you can set the book type for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media. By doing so, your recorded discs will identify themselves as "DVD-ROM." This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

I should point out that the iHAS424 can also set the book type of DVD+RW media after the data has been burned to disc. This "Write Now" feature is available in both KProbe and Lite-On's BookType Utility.

Lite-On has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the iHAS424 contains the Nero 8 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero Recode, Nero ShowTime and InCD.

Nero Express 8 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that Lite-On included with their new DVD±RW drive is 8.3.6.0.  You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Vision 5 - Nero Vision 5 is Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows. 

Nero Recode 3 - This program from Nero can copy unprotected DVD videos onto recordable DVD media. If the source disc is larger than 4.7GB, Nero Recode has the ability to remove unwanted material and compress the contents so that it will fit onto a single blank DVD disc.

Nero Recode 2 will also let you convert your DVD movies to Nero Digital. Using Nero's own MPEG-4 audio and video encoder, an entire DVD movie can be compressed so that it will fit onto a CD. Better yet, Nero Recode 2 does this with little loss of quality.

Nero ShowTime 4 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

InCD 5 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW or DVD±RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc.

While affordably priced, the iHAS424 delivers an impressive number of features. This Serial ATA equipped "Super AllWrite" drive not only supports all major DVD formats, it sports some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. The iHAS424 is capable of 24x DVD±R, 12x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. Along with support for LightScribe, the drive includes many of the features we've come to expect from Lite-On as well as more advanced ones like SmartWrite and SmartErase. With all this, it's easy to see why the Lite-On iHAS424 gets the full 10 points for its features.

Along with smaller cable size, one of the biggest benefits of Serial ATA is its ease of installation. Because it uses a point to point connection, setting jumpers has become a thing of the past. In most cases, installation is as simple as plugging in the SATA and power cables and turning the computer on. Needless to say, it took only a couple of minutes to install Lite-On's new DVD writer in our test computer. After making sure that the iHAS424 was recognized by Windows, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the iHAS424 comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

As you can see, this menu is pretty straight forward. To install the writing software, you will want to choose the "Install Nero 8 Essentials" option. After that, you will be taken to the Nero installation menu. 

By default the setup program for Nero 8 Essentials will install everything, including InCD, onto your computer. If you don't want to install the entire suite, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want.

The Documentation:

Most of the iHAS424's documentation is located in the "User's Manual." Similar to the ones included with Lite-On's other drives, this manual covers a number of topics. It starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new DVD writer. The first section goes over the drive's supported formats, recording modes, and system requirements. The manual also spends a few pages going over the locations and the functions of the buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the iHAS424. With no jumpers to configure, this section is relatively brief. Nevertheless, it covers all of the basics including how to install it into an empty drive bay and hook up the cables. The manual continues on by going over the basic operation of the iHAS424. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, it includes instructions to create and burn your own LightScribe labeled discs. Last but not least, there is a short troubleshooting section containing a list of common problems as well as their solutions.

Lite-On's new DVD writer also comes with a "Quick Installation Guide." While this small, fold out guide contains a set of instructions that take the user step by step through the installation process, it does not include any pictures or diagrams. With this in mind, you're probably going to be better off with the instructions in the manual than the ones in this guide. 

Like Lite-On's previous DVD writers, the iHAS424 was very easy to install. With its Serial ATA interface, most people will have it up and running in no time. If you do run into trouble, the documentation Lite-On has provided is more than sufficient. However, I would have liked to have seen a little more drive specific information. With this in mind, I give the installation an 8 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 and CD Speed are used to test transfer speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating and is used in combination with CD DAE to see how well a drive reads scratched and dirty discs.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks, CD Speed is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Lite-On's new DVD writer gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. While the iHAS422's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, its transfer rates were fairly good. It started reading at about 17.9x (2690 / 150) and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 42.8x (6420 / 150).

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

 

	Lite-On iHAS424-08	Optiarc AD-7240S	Samsung SH-S223Q	Lite-On iHAS422
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.89x 20.93x 47.46x	35.51x 20.37x 46.95x	35.98x 20.97x 47.60x	35.84x 21.07x 47.40x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	102ms 119ms 162ms	151ms 164ms 259ms	101ms 106ms 176ms	103ms 121ms 185ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 0% 1% 2%	19% 1% 2% 3%	0% 1% 1% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%

The iHAS424 didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x, Lite-On's new drive came up a little short of this number in our tests. On a more positive note, the iHAS424's seek times were very good. 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The iHAS424 was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this small speed boost, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48x in our tests.

Lite-On's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The iHAS424 read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 52.33x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

Like the other drives, the iHAS424 reads CD-RW media at only 40x. As you can see, the drive came very close to reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the Lite-On iHAS424 supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

 

CD Speed	Lite-On iHAS424-08	Optiarc AD-7240S	Samsung SH-S223Q	Lite-On iHAS422
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	36.24x 20.90x 47.91x 10 Yes	30.63x 17.71x 40.01x 10 Yes	30.66x 17.73x 40.44x 10 Yes	36.19x 20.90x 47.83x 10 Yes

The iHAS424 did very well in our DAE tests. With a maximum speed of 47.91x, it had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The iHAS424 was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. While the drive still performed relatively well, it reached a maximum DAE speed of only 47.35x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Lite-On's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.14x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the iHAS424 was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well the iHAS424 can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The iHAS424 handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 56.3% of the CD to be "damaged."  More importantly, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. The application extracts the audio tracks twice and then compares them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The iHAS424 gave us some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was fairly low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably. 

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The iHAS424 has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 21.42x and reached a maximum speed of 48.30x at the end of the session. This gave the iHAS424 an average writing speed of about 36.57x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

Lite-On's new drive did fairly well in our CD writing tests.  Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the iHAS424 was able to write an entire 701MB CD in 2:46.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 

Maxell 52x (Ritek)

MBI 52x

Taiyo Yuden 52x

The iHAS424's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the iHAS424 uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 23 minute mark. The iHAS424 writes at this speed until about the 49 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

Lite-On's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the iHAS424 took 2:48 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:52 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc.

While the iHAS424's Z-CLV writing method didn't have much of an effect on its quick erase time, it took 3:43 to do a full erase.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

The iHAS424 was fairly quick when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.61x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.19x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times and CPU usage were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 8x DVD-R and 6x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The iHAS424 had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at 16x, and both DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media at a respectable 12x. 

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

Lite-On's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.95x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.7GB mark. 

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 8x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R DL
 

The iHAS424's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and both DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media at 12x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The iHAS424 didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.62x and reached a maximum read speed of 16.03x. Lite-On's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 12x.

To see how well the iHAS424 worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using Nero Showtime. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of Optiarc'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.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 24x, the iHAS424 uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 10x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The iHAS424 also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds.  In both cases, the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media, the iHAS424 is fast. In fact, it turned in some of the fastest times we've seen, beating even the drive from Optiarc by a few seconds. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, the iHAS424 wasn't nearly as fast as the other drives when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the iHAS424, 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 iHAS422's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media I tested. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. For whatever reason though, there were some readability issues with Sony's 16x DVD+R media. If you look at the transfer rate graph, you can see that the DW1640 wasn't able to read these discs back at full speed.

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 iHAS424's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The iHAS424 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 as the other drives when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the iHAS424, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, Memorex and Moser Baer. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While Lite-On's new drive is capable of writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 12x, its speeds were limited to 8x with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs. As a result, the iHAS424 took nearly 19 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good two minutes slower than the iHAS422 and more than four minutes slower than the drives from Optiarc and Samsung. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

Performance Revisited:

Like Lite-On's previous "Super AllWrite" drives, the iHAS424 performed fairly well throughout most of our tests.  While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW and DVD±R DL discs, it turned in some very impressive times with DVD±R media. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the iHAS424 either. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x and other types of recordable media at 12x.

The iHAS424 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 iHAS424 turned in some respectable 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 iHAS424 gets a solid 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

The iHAS424 is a good example of what we've come to expect from Lite-On. Affordably priced, the drive offers a long list of features as well as some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available.

The iHAS424 performed very well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 24x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 4 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD, beating the Optiarc AD-7240S by a small margin. The iHAS424 also had no problems holding its own when writing to DVD-RAM discs. However, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW media. Without compatible media, we weren't able to test the iHAS424 's full potential when writing to DVD±R DL media. As a result, the drive took nearly 19 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

When it came to media compatibility, the iHAS424 gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speed or better, only two types worked at 24x. Then again, you can enable the drive's OverSpeed function and write to more media at this speed. The iHAS424's writing quality was also fairly good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially with Verbatim's 8x DVD-R DL media. Hopefully, Lite-On can address this in a future firmware update.

Lite-On's new drive did very well in our DVD read tests. It was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some very good seek times. The iHAS424 also reached some pretty impressive transfer speeds with other types of DVD media. In our tests, it read DVD±R discs at 16x and DVD±RW, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media at a respectable 12x.

The iHAS424 was also fairly quick when reading CD's. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 39x. On top of that, it was able to rip audio CD's at an impressive 47x. When it came to writing CD's, the iHAS424 performed as expected. The drive had no problems holding its own when writing to CD-R media. However, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests.

Like Lite-On's previous DVD writers, the iHAS424 isn't short on features.  Along with old favorites like SMART-BURN and SMART-X, it supports a number of Lite-On's more advanced technologies including SmartWrite, SmartErase and OverSpeed. The drive also has a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media. Last but not least, the iHAS424 features HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. An alternative to markers and stick-on labels, LightScribe lets you burn graphics and text onto the tops of specially coated discs.

I should point out that there are two versions of the iHAS424. Along with the version reviewed here (iHAS424-08), Lite-On has begun to ship a second version, the iHAS424-98. This new drive is based on the Optiarc AD-7241S and does not include features like SmartWrite, SmartErase or OverSpeed. Both versions are reasonably priced and can be picked up for less than $40 through Amazon.com.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 24x
• 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 12x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Low seek times
• Supports SmartWrite, SmartErase and OverSpeed technologies
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes software from Nero
• Supports 99 minute CD-R media
• Serial ATA interface
• Supports LightScribe technology
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• High media requirements when writing at 24x
• Questionable writing quality with some DVD-R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD±RW and CD-RW media