Liteon LDW: Great CD Writer Company, DVD will catch up 401 is replaced by 411
Written: Nov 29 '03 (Updated Jan 25 '04)
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Pros: Great CD burner. Burns Dual Format. Good software package. Firmware upgrade service.
Cons: Limited choice of DVD burning media . Until Q1 2003 you need firmware upgrade
The Bottom Line: If Liteon gets the DVD burning part of the firmware up to their CD reputation,this could become an awesome unit. Until then pick your media VERY carefully.
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| leisure_larry's Full Review: Lite On LDW-401S DVD+RW Burner |
This review covers the LiteOn LDW-401S and LDW-411S DVD burner.
LiteOn is known for rock solid CD Writers, which read and burn everything. Clone CD loves them and I have used one for quite some time. The Taiwanese Companies strength shows in this writer too on the CD side. The LDW-401S has been replaced by the LDW-411S (which you supposedly can upgrade to with firmware that is available on the net... do it at your own risk). 401 only writes DVD+R media, the 411 is a dual format burner, otherwise they are IDENTICAL. So following review covers both. 401 will not have the DVD-R(W) capability.
It is the fastest CD Burner that you can find as a DVD writer. It sports 40x CD-R and 24x CD-RW. It overburns, writes subchannels and got all features that people are looking for that want to rip games or music CD's on CD.
But that is not what you buy it for. How about burning DVD's ?
Well this writer is 4x DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW, so it burns both standards. Wouldn't want to buy anything else these days.
The box comes with Power DVD player (which is cream of the top) Mysonic DVD authoring and one DVD+RW 4x and one DVD+R 4x. With both disks the writer works extremely well and produced DVD's in just about 15 minutes.
I bought the burner, although in quite some internet forums, there were some concerns about the lack of compatibility with various media. So far I tried Memorex DVD-R 1x (made by CMC) . Toast and Coaster. Kyphermedia DVD+R 2.4x (also CMC) Toast and Coaster. The two included discs (Ricoh originals) no problems ! Fuji DVD-RW (1x) made by MCC, even killed those.. Stay away from 1x and CMC and MCC blanks... Liteon doesn't seem to support those in their hardware.
Fuji DVD+R (2.4x) which are made by Ricoh. No problem, can read them everywhere, even my DVD standalone player.
TDK DVD-R (2x media) is made by TDK. The burner takes this one well as well. although I had a few coasters. My DVD-Player seems to be much faster in recognizing this media then DVD+R, so I would recommend it for the DVD video freak, the one that I could use without ANY hitch so far were the Ritek DVD-R.
Update January 2003: Newest Firmware version is FS0H. According to list below it should write all of above media. Retail burners with new firmware should be coming through around April - May.
Read my media tests here:
Fuji DVD+R
http://www.epinions.com/content_120933944964
TDK: 2x DVD-R
http://www.epinions.com/content_121745608324
Ritek: 4x DVD-R
http://www.epinions.com/content_122784157316
I downloaded the newest firmware (0F) from the webpage. Updated with no problems. This firmware came out 8 days after the last one, so you can see the company is feverishly upgrading. They are including more media data and also this last one supposedly fixes issues with XBox copies and makes DVD's more compatible with stand alone players. Can neither verify or confirm, but the internet chatter supports the statements.
For every DVD media the player has to find it in it's list and devise a burning strategy. The better the strategy is aligned with the blank disc the better the results.If the disk is not in the list, the burner will try to approximate one and might fail (actually does fail in most cases, which will produce errors on the disk).
In general the producers do not necessarily have DVD production under good control, so it is important to match player and media and use Brand manufacturers. Any test I have seen on "no name disks" is spelling disaster over them.
Liteon recommends following media:
DVD-R: CMC, Maxell, MCC, TY, Ritek, Fuji, Pioneer
DVD-RW: MCC, TDK, JVC, Ritek
DVD+R: BEall, CMC, Daxon,Maxell, Mitsubishi,Prodise,Ricoh,Ritek,, Sony,TDK,Taiyo-Yuden
DVD+RW: CMC, Mitsubishi,Philips,Ricoh,Ritek,TDK
These are several brand names sourcing from a few manufacturers. From what I could identify the DVD+R suppliers are all sourcing from Ricoh. (So there is one OEM)
DVD-RW from Ricoh are available under following names:
Imation, Fuji, Memorex, Traxdata
DVD+R from Ricoh are under following names:
TDK, Traxdata, Ricoh,Philips, Emtec,Fuji
How do you identify the source ? Download DVD Identifier from http://dvd.identifier.cdfreaks.com/. It will tell you who is the manufacturer
So how happy am I ?
CD burning : YAHOO !!! great work !
DVD : Works well with the disks included.Looks like you should use Ricoh based DVD+R'+'RW as those were included and worked fine, for DVD-R I have settled strictly on Ritek 4x media.
And now Ricoh is also available from former market leader Imation:
Review of the Imation/Ricoh blanks here:
http://www.epinions.com/content_126881599108
Isn't that a major drawback ? Don't think so. If you read test magazines, you will find that Ricoh outperforms all other brands in performance and quality. If you put important data on your disc, you should use them anyway.
Sonic MyDVD. Could not get the software to directly burn on DVD, but writing to folder and burning with Nero I do get some REALLY COOL results.
DVD-RW why use them, they have slow speed. Only reason I can think of is burning a DVD video for tryout, before committing a final blank. The DVD+RW I had, my standalone player could not read (DV+RW reportedly have less then 40% compatibility).
Tried FUJI-RW 1x.. Consistent errors and super lame speed.
Made by CMC. When I put the disk in, my player could read it, but then skipped lateron due to read problems. My current conclusion: If the burner could handle it correctly, the stand alone player would be able to read it.
Why should I use DVD-R at all? More offers, slightly cheaper and works with more stand alone DVD players. Downside is less stringent quality control by the DVD-R consortium, therefor a lot more blanks in the market that will exceed error specifications.
Who would I recommend the drive to ? Not to the computer beginner, that wants to plop it in and burn. The unit doesn't have a big library of media yet, so chances are you burn some coasters. ( and you might not even realize it)
For the pro: You know how to download and upgrade firmware ?
This unit won't shock you then. I bet on the fact, that after a few more upgrades, the DVD performance will become equally rock solid as the CD performance. 1x media will start to disappear and Liteon will have same great support then they have on their CD writers.
Update January 2003: Firmware is now at OH with increased media compatibility.
Don't want to wait ? Buy a Pioneer DVD burner. They have no upgrades, but their units seem to be more forgiving with more media.
Overall: This is a young technology and nowhere near the quality levels of CD's yet. If you can wait, do so. If you can't, buy quality media. No name brands you won't be happy with. Saving 1.50 USD on a DVD that you might loose your data with is just no comforting thought.
Should I buy one of the new 8x burners ? Well, even Liteon has announced one now which is dubbed Liteon LS-811. If you go to the shops, you will notice an ABSENCE of 8x media. Even 4x isn't pervasive yet. 4x media takes about 15 minutes to burn your DVD and is double the price of 2x.
As the DVD is 4.7 GB and a CD is .7 MB, a DVD holds about 8 CD's. A 40x Burner takes a little less then 3 minutes to burn a CD, with changing the disks certainly around 3 minutes, so 8 CD's take about 21 minutes. Therefor a 4X DVD burner is about as fast as a 40x CD burner, and you don't have to change the disks.
So, faster is better, but 8X isn't out there yet and it only writes faster at the outer parts of the CD disk.The current 8x burners actually take 4x media and burn it faster. So don't expect 7 minutes. Expect around 8-10 minutes.
And the burners are pricey. If you want to buy a burner now, don't pay the money for the extra speed. Buy a 4x, wait 15 month and you will get the 8x for a price that combined with the 4x you buy today won't cost you more then buying the 8x today. And it will be better, media will be available and won't cost a fortune. At CES consumer show, the DVD+R camp has now announced the new double layer standard for DVD+R which will have two layers in one media that enables you to store 8.4 GB on one disk. None of the current burners would be able to handle this disk. LiteOn's roadmap has a 16x DVD writer for end of Q2-2004 which also supports dual layer formats.
So don't buy for the future in this market. Buy a 'solid' unit one generation behind the 'latest'. Less bugs, less cost, less headaches.
Update: First reviews in computer magazines suggest the 811 from Liteon is 'bananaware'. They ship it green and let it ripen at the customer (with firmware updates).
A test from German computer magazin CT (http://www.heise.de/ct/04/01/082/) in Dec. 2003 suggests that only Tajo Yujiden media worked in writing 8x and the resulting media had totally unacceptable error rates.
In the race of getting the product out I think Liteon is at the brink of destroying it's reputation. I hope they dedicate some people to increase the media compatibility for the 411 and 811 alike.
Other word of advice:
If you use Nero to compile your DVD's upgrade to the latest version Nero 6.0028 at least. Nero in previous versions is reported to have issues with finalizing some DVD's (I got a 'burnphase unknown ' error on occasion, that vanished with the new update. The disks worked but still leaves you uneasy.
If the DVD you burned does not playback or you get a "Disc Error", burn the disc using UDF 1.02. If you have a somewhat older player, chances are it supports UDF 1.02.
From the DVD menu, select "DVD-ROM (UDF)". Make sure "No Multisession" is selected. Then choose 'Physical Partition' and UDF 1.02.
This should help with most drives. Thanks to ExtremeMhz.com, who provided this helpful hint.
And here you can test your burner and standalone compatibility with the media you select:
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia.php
1x media (which generally has no speed mentioning on the box): Avoid it like the plague, this burner seems to have been optimized for new media and I haven't found a single 1x media yet that worked. But then you really don't want to wait an hour for the disk to finalize anyway...
If you like to make your Lite-on LDW 401S, 411S or 811S region free, see this link with LTNRPC
http://dhc014.rpc1.org/LtnRPC/
Flash Tools:
http://digi.rpc1.org/rpc.htm
Compatible Media with the FSOH firmware (January 2003)
Media codes in these firmwares (same for both):
DVD-R:
PVC001001
TAIYOYUDEN
SONY
CMC MAG.
PRODISCG02
MBI
OPTODISCK001
MCC 01RG20
PVCR001002
TYG01
RITEKG04
ProdiscS03
CMC MAG. AF1
DAXON004
SONY04D1
MXL RG02
SKC Co.,Ltd.
PRINCO
BeAll G40001
FORNEX101
NANYA-JC001
GSC001
Dvsn
LEADDATA01
LD
LEADDATA
PRINCO
RITEKG03
TAROKO-MX4
BeAll G00001
LONGTEN 001
TDKG02000000
MAM4XG01
GSC001
MEI 00V001
OPTODISCR004
MCIG01
SONY08D1
GSC002
Yi Jhan 001
MBI 01RG20
ONIDTECH
VDSP_SAB 01
AN32
AN31
POSG04
RITEKM02
New compared to FS0F and HS0E:
DATA TRACK
VANGUARD
DKM_01
RITEKG05
MCC 02RG20
LONGTEN 009
POSJ 01
Auvistar
MCC 00RG200
MXL RG01
VDSPMSAB 01
OPTODISCK001
TYG02
FORNEX001
MCI4XG01
DVD-RW:
RITEK000V11A
RITEKW01
CMCW02
PRINCO
PRINCO !
ProdiscDVDRW
OPTODISCK001
MCC 00RW11N9
PVCW00V00245
TDK502sakuM3
JVC_VictorW7
OPTODISCK001!
New compared to FS0F and HS0E:
RITEKW04
MCC 01RW11n9
OPTODISCW002
DVD+R:
MCC 001
MCC 002
CMC MAG R01
YUDEN000T01
RITEK R01
PRODISC R01
RICOHJPNR01
MAXELL 001
PRODISC R02
TDK 001
BeAll000P40
SONY D01
NANYA DR
RITEK R02
DAXON AZ1
CMC MAG F01
OPTODISCOP1
MPOMEDIA001
LD 001
SKYMEDIAR01
OPTODISCOR4
MPOMEDIA040
YUDEN000T01
YUDEN000T02
MCC 003
RICOHJPNR02
RITEK R03
CMC MAG E01
PRODISC R03
SONY D11
NANYA RJB
MBIPG101R03
OPTODISCOP2
Philips 081
CMC MAG F01
MAXELL 002
LONGTEN 002
GSC502 002
New compared to FS0F and HS0E:
RICOHJPNR00
DT-D02 02
MUST 002
MCC
MCC
RITEK M02
VDSPMSAB001
DVD+RW:
MCC A01
RITEK 001
MKM A02
CMC MAG W01
NANYASC DRW
RICOHJPNW11
OPTODISCOP1
PRODISC W01
INFODISCA01
RITEK 0040
RITEK W04
CMC MAG W02
PHILIPS 041
SONY S11
DAXON D41
INFODISCA10
SENTINELW01
PRODISC W02
MBIPG101W03
New compared to FS0F and HS0E:
RICOHJPNW01
NANYA DRW
PHILIPS 010
DAXON D42
OPTODISCOP4
In other words: many new media codes.
Thanks to OC-Freak at Club CDFreaks for this list.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=82617
Warning: The FS0H firmware has trouble with burning TDK DVD-R now, whereas the FSOF did not! I experienced it and some other internet users have reported the same issue. If you use TDK, use them up before you upgrade.
But I could get my DVD-RW to work now without a problem. Kyphermedia DVD-R are still toast.
Other hint: With Kprobe you can get a semi read out on the quality of your burned disc, as Kprobe can read inner and outer parity errors in your drive.
Initially I had problems as Kprobe would not recognize my drives. Finally figured out that the issue are Adaptec ASPI drivers that I had installed. Deinstalling those with a nice program found on the following website corrected the issue:
http://aspi.radified.com/
And here is the official road map and some other news thanks to www.digitimes.com
Lite-On IT, Taiwan’s largest producer of optical disc drives, will begin to deliver 8x half-height (H/H) DVD Dual burners to Sony in February, according to the company.
Sony, because of uncompetitive costs, stopped own production of DVD drives beginning with 8x models late last year.
Sony sold three million 8x DVD burners last year and the sales volume may double to six million units this year, Lite-On IT said. If Lite-On IT can absorb all of the OEM orders for 8x DVD burners, the monthly shipments would average 500,000 units, according to the company. However, Lite-On IT thinks that Sony is unlikely to rely on only one OEM supplier.
Lite-On IT could also obtain orders for 8x DVD burners from another international brand vendor next quarter, the company said. Including these orders, Lite-On IT expects to deliver five million DVD burners this year, a jump of 67% from three million shipped in 2003. Market analysts believe Lite-On IT may enjoy record revenues in March.
The mainstream speed of DVD burners will progress from 8x to 12x next quarter and 16x in the second half of this year, according to Michael Gong, general manager of Lite-On IT’s optical disc drive business unit.
Finally a free collection of hints how to solve a common issue with the Liteon 411S and Nero burning program.
The problem is: After installing a virtual drive such as Daemon Tools, Pinnacle Instant Copy CD, or Clone CD Virtual Drive Nero or other CD recording software doesn't recognize your CD, DVD writer anymore and only shows Image recorder.
Nero only recognizes image recorder, does not detext CD writer or DVD writer/burner/drive.
This is a very common and annoying problem. Here are the list of solutions, that I have found working:
1) Aspi driver issues. Use ForceASPI.You can find a copy searching on Google. CD burning programs quite often rely on the presence of ASPI drivers. If those are corrupted (check with Nero Infotool under Nero tool kit) they can cause problems. ASPI 4.60 seems to be most stable.
Daemon tools as well as Nero virtual drive have some severe stability issues with Windows XP and I recommend not using them, as they might destroy your Windows installation.
2) Remove Other recording software including Roxio and WinCD (note the earlier versions are guaranteed to cause this problem)
3) Clean Nero installation with the Nero Cleanpack from the Nero website before reinstalling
4) Change registry settings as follows:
WARNING: If you use Registry Editor incorrectly, you may cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that you can solve problems that result from using Registry Editor incorrectly. Use Registry Editor at your own risk.
To resolve this behavior, follow these steps:
1. Start Registry Editor (Regedt32.exe).
2. Locate the UpperFilters value under the following key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
3. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.
4. Locate the LowerFilters value under the same key in the registry:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}
5. On the Edit menu, click Delete, and then click OK.
6. Quit Registry Editor.NOTE: After you remove the Upperfilters value and the Lowerfilters value, if you notice lost functionality in a particular program, such as CD recording software, you may need to reinstall that software. If the problem recurs, consult with the software vendor for assistance.
(Compliments www.afterdawn.com)
I have found that CloneCD virtual drive is the only one that did NOT conflict with Nero burning software.. All others such as Daemon Tools created major issues. Short of reinstalling Windows XP this is a major nuisance. The Nero website doesn't help much with it either...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 79
Operating System: Windows
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Epinions.com ID:
leisure_larry
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Member: Leisure Larry
Location: US
Reviews written: 57
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Electrical Engineer. Engaged Computer User. Hobby photographer.
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