Lite-On LH-20A1L 20x "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0 and DLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of LG'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 20x, the LH-20A1L uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 8.2x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The LH-20A1L 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.

LG's new "Super AllWrite" drive performed fairly well in our DVD writing tests. While its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, the LH-20A1L turned in some respectable times with DVD+R and DVD-R media.

To check the media compatibility of the LH-20A1L, 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? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. 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 (firmware BSLB). 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.

Looking at the graphs above, you can see that the results were fairly good with KProbe. Aside from a few isolated PIF spikes, the error rates remained relatively low. Unfortunately, when scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the error and jitter rates were fairly high throughout some sections of the discs. Surprisingly, this had little to no effect on readability.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. The LH-20A1L's writing quality was fairly good with the DVD-R media from Daxon, RiDATA, Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim. Unfortunately, the PI/PIF rates were considerably higher when writing to the discs from Sony and Memorex at 20x.

To test the LH-20A1L's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The LH-20A1L 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 asthe GSA-H55L when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.9.6.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the LH-20A1L, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from MAM-A, Memorex, RiDATA, Philips and Verbatim. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While no match for the drive from LG, the LH-20A1L took a respectable 17:48 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 2.4x and 8x DVD+R DL media. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits and there were no readability issues. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the other discs. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PI/PIF rates were very high throughout some sections of the discs and, in the case of Philips' 8x DVD+R DL media, we saw a large number of PO Failures.

The LH-20A1L also features 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

The LH-20A1H performed pretty well when writing to DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took a respectable 18:33 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

While the writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, the other discs yielded some mixed results. With Verbatim's 8x and RiDATA's 4x DVD-R DL media, the error rates stayed well within acceptable limits when tested with KProbe. However, when scanned by the DW1640, the PI rates were much higher than we'd like to see.

Performance Revisited:

The performance of Lite-On's new "Super AllWrite" drive was pretty mixed, especially when it came to writing DVD's. The LH-20A1L turned in some very impressive times when writing to DVD±R and DVD-RAM media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW discs. Writing quality was also an issue as the PI/PIF rates were a bit high with some media. On the other hand, the LH-20A1L was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD's at 16x and both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at a respectable 12x.

The LH-20A1L 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 LH-20A1L turned in some very impressive 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 LH-20A1L gets a 6 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.