The iHBS112 we received from Lite-On was the bulk, or OEM, version. The drive came with a SATA cable as well as a CD containing CyberLink's Blu-ray Disc Suite.
Physical Features:
The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in June of 2010 and had firmware CL04. For this review I used firmware versions CL04, CL0B and CL0D.
From the front, the iHBS112 looks nothing like Lite-On's previous DVD writer, the DH-4B1S. Instead, it shares the same basic bezel design as Lite-On's DVD writers and BD combo drives. The iHBS112 also has its share of logos. Along with the large "Blu-ray Disc" logo, you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications as well as Ultra Speed CD-RW media.
Below the tray you can see the iHBS112's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the iHBS112 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 by running a few simple tests.
| Lite-On iHBS112 12x Blu-ray Disc ReWriter | |
| BD-R Write Speeds | 12x (CAV) 10x, 8x, 6x (P-CAV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| BD-R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| BD-R LTH Write Speeds | 6x (P-CAV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| BD-RE Write Speeds | 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 16x, 12x (CAV) 8x (P-CAV) 6x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 16x, 12x (CAV) 8x (P-CAV) 6x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x (CLV) |
| DVD-RAM Write Speeds | 12x, 5x (P-CAV) 3x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Write Speeds | 48x (CAV) 40x, 32x, 24x (P-CAV) 16x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| BD Read Speeds | 8x Max (BD-ROM Single Layer) 8x Max (BD-ROM Dual Layer) 8x Max (BD-R/RE) 8x Max (BD-R DL) 6x Max (BD-RE DL) 6x Max (BD-R LTH) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 16x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 12x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 16x Max (DVD±R) 12x Max (DVD±R DL) 12x Max (DVD±RW) 12x Max (DVD-RAM) |
| CD Read Speeds | 48x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 40x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speeds | 48x Max |
| Buffer Size | 8 MB |
| Access Times |
250 ms (BD SL) 380 ms (BD DL) 150 ms (DVD SL) 160 ms (DVD DL) 200 ms (DVD-RAM) 150 ms (CD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-Extra Video CD Photo CD Karaoke-CD Multi-session CD-I FMV CD Plus CD-R CD-RW |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD±R DVD±RW DVD±R DL DVD-RAM |
| BD Formats | BD-ROM BD-R/RE BD-R/RE DL BD-R LTH |
| Recording Modes | Disc At Once Session At Once Track At Once Fixed and Variable Packet Writing |
The iHBS112 features what Lite-On calls SmartWrite technology. Previously known as HyperTuning, SmartWrite automatically creates writing strategies for unknown, or unsupported, DVD±R 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 iHBS112 also supports Lite-On's OverSpeed function. When enabled, the drive will try to write to DVD±R media at a speed higher than what it 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.
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Oddly enough, the OverSpeed function on the iHBS112 also lets you write to DVD±R media at a speed lower than what is normally supported. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the drive is able to write at 4x when OverSpeed is enabled.
Write Quality Testing:
The iHBS112 is one of the few drives capable of performing write quality testing with Blu-ray Disc media. When combined with software like CD Speed or Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control, the drive is able to report the Long Distance Code (LDC) and Burst Indicator Subcode (BIS).
While it's still too early to know what "good" results should look like, c't magazine has stated that the average LDC should stay below 13 and the maximum BIS should not exceed 8.
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new Blu-ray Disc writer is identified as an "ATAPI iHBS112 2."
Nero also shows that the iHBS112 has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Seamless Link buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the iHBS112 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 iHBS112 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 Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the iHBS112's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.
Opti Drive Control also shows that the iHBS112 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 Opti Drive Control gives us a quick glance at the iHBS112'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 Lite-On's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats.
The iHBS112 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.
