Lite-On SOHW-1673SU EZ-DUB 16x DVD±RW

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Lite-On's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 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 16x, the SOHW-1673SU uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 6.6x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The SOHW-1673SU also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

The SOHW-1673SU performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as some of the other drives when writing DVD-R and DVD+RW discs, it turned in some very good times with DVD+R and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the SOHW-1673SU, 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.

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 SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) 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. 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.

The SOHW-1673SU's writing quality was less than impressive. In most cases, the PI/PIF rates were much higher than we'd like to see, especially when scanned with the BenQ DW1640. This, and the high jitter rates, caused a number of readability problems.

The SOHW-1673SU's writing quality wasn't much better with DVD-R discs. The media from Taiyo Yuden and Verbatim yielded some fairly good results. However, when tested with the BenQ DW1640, the PI/PIF rates were considerably higher on the other discs.

To test the SOHW-1673SU's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

The SOHW-1673SU performed fairly well in our packet writing tests. It turned in some good writing times with both DVD-RW and DVD+RW media, but was not as fast as some of the other drives when reading back our test data.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the SOHW-1673SU, I used Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL and Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

While rated at 2.4x, the SOHW-1673SU was able to write to both the Verbatim and Memorex media at 4x. This was a little surprising considering most drives write to Memorex's Ritek manufactured media at only 2.4x.

While no match for the other drives, the SOHW-167SU performed as expected, taking a little more than 26 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The SOHW-1673SU's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's .DVD+R DL media. While the CD Speed scans showed a sizeable PI spike at the layer change, the error rates were otherwise very low. The results with Memorex's Ritek manufactured media were also better than I expected. The PI/PIF rates were higher than what we saw with the Verbatim media. However, they remained within acceptable limits for the most part.

Performance Revisited:

Like its internal counterpart, the SOHW-1673SU's performance was pretty mixed. The drive held its own relatively well when writing to DVD±R and DVD±RW media. However, there were a number of cases where the writing quality could have been better. When it came to reading DVD's, the SOHW-1673SUwas able to read single layer data DVD's at 16x and most recordable media at 8x, but slowed to 5.7x when reading DVD±R DL discs.

The SOHW-1673SU also did pretty well in our CD read tests. While its seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive had no problems reading pressed and CD-R media at 48x. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the SOHW-1673SU either. The drive turned in some very impressive times and its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the SOHW-1673SU gets a 6 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.