Earlier this year, I reviewed one of the world's first 20x DVD writers, the Lite-On LH-20A1H. Aimed squarely at enthusiasts, the drive offered an impressive mix of features and performance. With Lite-On's new Serial ATA equipped DVD writer offering similar specs, I went into this review expecting much of the same from the LH-20A1L. While the drive performed as expected throughout most of our tests, its questionable writing quality kept it from getting top marks in our review.
The LH-20A1H performed very well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 20x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than five minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The LH-20A1L also turned in some very good times with DVD-RAM and DVD±R DL media. However, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW discs.
When it came to media compatibility, the LH-20A1L gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote toall of our test media at its rated speeds or better, only four types were supported at 20x. More concerning was the LH-20A1L's writing quality. As we showed you in our tests, there were a number of cases where the jitter and PI/PIF rates were quite high. 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 LH-20A1L 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 an impressive 12x.
Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the LH-20A1L either. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 33x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at an impressive 48x. When it came to writing CD's, the LH-20A1L performed as expected. The drive had no problems holding its own when writing to CD-R media. However, itsZ-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests.
When it comes to features, the LH-20A1L definitely delivers. Along with old favorites like SMART-BURN and SMART-X, it supports two of Lite-On's more advanced technologies, SmartWrite 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 LH-20A1L 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.
In the end, it usually comes down to price. For what it offers, Lite-On's new drive is surprisingly affordable. Current prices vary depending on the seller, but the retail version of the LH-20A1L can be picked up for less than $40 on Pricegrabber.
| Lite-On LH-20A1L 20x DVD±RW/RAM |
|
| Features: Installation: Performance: |
10 8 6 |
| Overall: | 8 |
Highs:
- Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x
- 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 8x
- 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
- Excellent DAE speeds
- Low seek times
- Supports SMART-BURN, SMART-X, ABS, SmartWrite 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
- Includes both black and beige bezels
- Affordably priced
Lows:
- High media requirements when writing at 20x
- Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R and DVD±R DL media
- Slower than other drives when writing to DVD±RW and CD-RW media
- Reads CD-RW media at only 32x
- Has a 2048KB buffer
