Lite-On SHM-165H6S Super AllWrite 16x DVD±RW/RAM

For the last few years, Lite-On has been content to release drive after drive, with a speed bump or two being the only real difference between each generation. With the SHM-165H6S, Lite-On's engineers have bucked this trend, introducing a truly innovative drive. Along with support for DVD-RAM and LightScribe, it features two new technologies: HyperTuning and OverSpeed. While welcome additions, there were a few performance aspects that kept the SHM-165H6S from getting top marks in our review.

The SHM-165H6S performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 6 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The SHM-165H6S also performed as expected when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. However, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives we've tested. The SHM-165H6S's DVD+R DL writing performance did make up for this somewhat. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took less than 18 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

When it came to media compatibility and writing quality, the SHM-165H6S gave us some mixed results. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speeds, but was not able to write to any 8x DVD±R discs at 16x, even with its OverSpeed function enabled. Writing quality was also an issue with the SHM-165H6S. As we showed you in our tests, there were a number of cases where the jitter level and PI/PIF rates were very high. Hopefully, Lite-On can fix this in a future firmware update.

Lite-On's new drive did pretty well in our DVD read tests. It was able to read both single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some relatively good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the SHM-165H6S either. In our tests, it read both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x and DVD±R DL discs at a respectable 8x.

The SHM-165H6S was also fairly quick when reading CD's. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 49x and CD-RW discs at 33x. On top of that, it was able to rip audio CD's at an impressive 48x. The SHM-165H6S also performed pretty well when writing to CD-R media. Lite-On's new drive not only turned in some impressive times, its writing quality was quite good. Unfortunately, due to its 24x CD-RW writing speed, the SHM-165H6S did not do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests.

When it comes to features, Lite-On's new drive definitely delivers. Along with old favorites like SMART-BURN and SMART-X, the SHM-165H6S supports two of Lite-On's more advanced technologies, HyperTurning and OverSpeed. While OverSpeed let us write to our media at a higher than normal speed, HyperTuning could still use some tweaking. In most cases, we saw little to no improvement in writing quality when it was enabled. Last but not least, the SHM-165H6S 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 SHM-165H6S can be picked up for less than $50 on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 4x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Good transfer speeds with pressed and CD-R media
• Features 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Excellent DAE speeds
• Supports SMART-BURN, SMART-X, VAS, HyperTuning 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 and CyberLink
• Supports 99 minute media
• Includes both black and beige bezels
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media
• Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
• Writes to CD-RW media at only 24x
• Reads CD-RW media at only 32x
• Has a 2048KB buffer