Lite-On eNAU608 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM

What's in the box?:

• Lite-On eNAU608 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Quick Installation Guide
• Software CD
• Replacement Covers
• USB Y Cable

Physical Features:

The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in November of 2010 and had firmware CL02. For this review I used firmware version CL03.

The Lite-On eNAU608 is one of the smallest DVD writers on the market today. Measuring 141 x 18.6 x 132.8 mm, it's not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. Aside from the clear top panel, the eNAU608 is constructed out of a lightweight, black plastic. The glossy finish looks nice, but finger prints and smudges have a tendency to stand out.

If flowery hearts aren't your thing, you can customize the eNAU608 by sliding off the top panel and replacing the insert with a different design. The drive comes with eight pre-printed designs. Otherwise, you can create your own using the bundled photo editing utility. 

On the bottom, the eNAU608 has four small rubber feet to keep it from sliding around when placed on a flat surface. Unlike the eTAU208, there is no place to store the included USB cable when the drive is not in use.

The LED and eject button are located along the front of the eNAU608. This LED lights up green when both reading and writing. You can also see a few logos showing support for LabelTag and LightScribe as well as the DVD Multi specification.

Along the rear, you can see the eNAU608's USB 2.0 interface. This connector not only transfers data but provides power for the drive.

Like many portable drives, the eNAU608 comes with a USB Y cable, which lets you draw power from two USB ports instead of just one. I'm not really sure what Lite-On was thinking when they designed the one for the eNAU608, but they chose some very odd lengths. Despite the fact that there is nearly 20 inches of cable between the two Type A connectors, there is only 8 inches of cable between the first Type A connector and the mini-USB connector. As a result, the drive needs to be placed very close to the computer.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Lite-On's website and the manual that came with the drive.

LightScribe:

Like many of Lite-On's drives, the eNAU608 features support for 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 eNAU608, 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.

LabelTag:

Along with LightScribe, the eNAU608 supports Lite-On's own LabelTag technology. Similar in concept to Yamaha's DiscT@2 technology, LabelTag lets you burn graphics and text onto the data side of a standard CD-R or DVD+R/-R disc.

To create your own LabelTag you'll need to use the bundled version of Nero Express Essentials. You'll see the option to create a LabelTag right before you burn the data to disc. 

Creating the actual LabelTag is pretty straightforward. From within the label designer, you can add your own text and graphic. You can customize it further by selecting the font you want to use, specifying a layout and setting the label height.

Once you're done creating your LabelTag, Nero Express will automatically burn your data and the design onto the disc. The amount of time it takes depends on the writing speed you've selected and the size and complexity of the LabelTag. I found that in most cases it added only a few minutes to the total burn time.

I found that the level of detail really depends on the type of disc being used. The best results came from discs using darker dyes like Metal Azo (Mitsubishi/Verbatim). When using discs with Phthalocyanine or Cyanine dyes, the graphics and text were almost too light to see.

The eNAU608 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 eNAU608 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.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new DVD writer is identified as a "Slimtype eNAU608 5."

Nero also shows that the eNAU608 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 1536KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by SMART-BURN buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the eNAU608 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 eNAU608 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 eNAU608's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the eNAU608 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 eNAU608'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 supports LightScribe technology and can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media.

The eNAU608 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.