What's in the box?:
- Lite-On DH-4B1S 4x Blu-ray Disc Triple Writer
- CyberLink Software CD
- User's Manual
- Quick Installation Guide
- TDK 25GB BD-RE Disc
- SATA Cable
- Mounting Screws
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in December of 2007 and had firmware version 7P5A. This is the newest firmware currently available for the DH-4B1S.
From the front, the DH-4B1S looks identical to Lite-On's 2x Blu-ray Disc writer, the LH-2B1S. The two drives not only share the same bezel design, but have many of the same logos. Along with the large "Blu-ray Disc" logo, you can see a few showing support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media as well as the DVD+ReWritable and DVD-R/RW formats.
Below the tray you can see a strip of clear plastic containing three LED's. Off by default, these LED's will light up blue (BD), red (DVD) or green (CD) to show what type of disc is inserted in the drive.
The rear of the DH-4B1S is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture above 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 manual that came with the drive.
| Lite-On DH-4B1S 4x Blu-ray Disc Triple Writer |
|
| BD-R Write Speeds | 4x (Z-CLV) 2x (CLV) |
| BD-RE Write Speeds | 2x (CLV) |
| BD-R DL Write Speeds | 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 12x, 8x (P-CAV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 12x, 8x (P-CAV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2.4x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Write Speeds | 40x (CAV) 32x, 24x (P-CAV) 16x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 24x, 16x (Z-CLV) 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| BD Read Speeds | 4x Max (BD-ROM) 4x Max (BD-R) 2x Max (BD-RE) 2x Max (BD-R/RE DL) |
| DVD Read Speeds | 12x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 8x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 12x Max (DVD±R) 12x Max (DVD±RW) 8x Max (DVD±R DL) 12x Max (DVD-Video) |
| CD Read Speeds | 40x Max |
| DAE Speeds | 40x Max |
| Buffer Size | 8 MB |
| Access Times |
350 ms (BD-ROM) 160 ms (DVD-ROM) 160 ms (CD) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM/XA CD-Extra Video CD Photo CD Multi-Session CD-Text CD-I CD-R CD-RW |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL |
| BD Formats | BD-ROM BD-R/RE BD-R/REDL |
| CD Recording Modes | Disc At Once Session At Once Track At Once Fixed And Variable Packet Writing Multi-Session |
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 BD B DH4B1S."
The Nero screenshot also shows that the DH-4B1S has a maximum CD writing speed of 40x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Seamless Link buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the DH-4B1S 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 DH-4B1S is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Lite-On's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.
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 DH-4B1S's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the DH-4B1S is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available and utilities like LtnRPC do not work with the drive.
While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the DH-4B1S'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.
Lite-On's new drive also supports a feature called "bitsetting".The DH-41BS automatically sets the book type of DVD+R and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM" without any input from the user. This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.
