To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu.

    -----------------------------------------------

     This story was printed from CdrInfo.com,

     located at http://www.cdrinfo.com.

    -----------------------------------------------

---

1. Introduction

---

Lite-ON LXR-24101A external CD-RW - Page 1

- Introduction

External drives are usually addressed to office and desktop users who need a portable and easy to install CD recorder. Lite-On moved forward and shipped an external drive with an additional advantage: The high supported writing/reading performance. Lite-On 24/10/40 external drive can be connected to USB1.1/2.0, IEEE1394, PCMCIA and PC card bus. It would be interesting to see whether we can consider Lite-On's solution as an alternative for our daily recording needs.

- Features

The drive supports 24x writing (Z-CLV), 10x re-writing, has a 2MB Buffer, "SMART-BURN" as the main anti-buffer under run technology among with adjusting writing strategy system. The drive also features the SMART-X technology to support high speed Digital Audio Extraction (DAE) & VCD data extraction. The VAS Vibration Absorber System Mechanism is used to reduce vibration & noise during read & write.

The maximum reading speed of the drive is 40x (CAV). The exact writing speeds are 4x, 8x, 12x,16x (CLV), 20x (16-20x), 24x (16-24x), (Z-CLV). The re-writing speeds are 4x, 8x and 10x (CLV). The drive also supports 40x (CAV) DAE speed. These specifications are applied only when the drive is connected through USB 2.0 or IEEE 1394 interfaces. The performance varies according to the connected interface, as the following table shows:

Interface	Writing	Rewriting	Reading
USB1.1	4x	4x	6.6X
USB2.0	24x	10x	40x
IEEE1394	24x	10x	40x
PCMCIA	8x	8x	9x
PC Card Bus	24x	10x	40x

The drive is equipped with a built-in E-IDE D-type 36pin connector, and with the appropriate adapter cable the drive works with USB1.0/1.1/2.0 interface, optional to IEEE1394-1995/1394a (FireWire) interface or PCMCIA2.1/Card Bus5.0. Lite-On LXR-24101A supports up to Ultra-DMA Mode2 33.3MB/sec.

Lastly, the drive supports all the known writing modes (DAO, SAO, TAO and RAW), among with packet write and overburning options.

- The package

The package supplied contained: the external drive, 1 piece of Lite-On 80min multispeed CD-R blank , 1 piece of Lite-On 80min 4-12x HS-RW blank, the USB adapter cable, the AC/DC power adapter with the power cord. The software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning ROM and Ahead InCD (for packet writing use). The package also contains a quick installation manual, and a user's manual CD-ROM.

Lastly as the package says the drive is "XP" compatible which was confirmed from our test results, since the drive worked without any problems at UDMA-33 mode.

As you can see the drive lines are smoothly designed, and the Lid Cover (top-opened tray) is silver colored with the "Let's Write" logo in the middle of it. The green "busy" LED and the red Write/Rewrite LED among with the open button and the the emergency eject hole are placed on the front of the drive.

The dimensions of the drive are 152.0 x 44.3 x 198.0 mm (WxHxD) and weights 600g.

In the right side of the drive there are the earphone, a stereo mini-jack for headphones and power speakers, and the volume control.

On the rear panel of the drive you can find the host adapter IDE interface connector and the power connector.

- Installation

The drive worked in UDMA33 mode and identified itself as "LITE-ON LXR-24101A". The tests were made under Win XP operation system. Lite-On LXR-24101A is a March 2002 model with firmware revision v8S01 installed. We used the newer build of Nero (5.5.8.0), InCD (3.21), and CloneCD (4.0.0.0) for our recording tests.

---

2. Data tests

---

Lite-ON LXR-24101A external CD-RW - Page 2

Data Tests

- SCSI Mechanic v3.0x results

Drive	Average Same Sector I/O (Kbytes/sec)	Average Sequential I/O (Kbytes/sec)	Average Random I/O (Kbytes/sec)
Lite-On LXR-24101A	5660	4428	840

The average Sequential I/O reading result is good for Lite-On LXR-24101A. In the Same Sector reading test, the drive gave an 840 Kbytes/sec result, which is not low but it could be improved.

- Pressed CD results: (Click to see the CD Speed Graphs)

Drive	Start Speed X	End Speed X	Average Speed X
Lite-On LXR-24101A	18.35	40.29	30.61

Drive	Random Seek (msec)	1/3 Seek (msec)	Full Seek (msec)
Lite-On LXR-24101A	90	95	169

At the Nero CD Speed test, the drive gave an 30.61x average reading speed and the seek times were low.

- CDR Media: (Click to see the CD Speed Graphs)

Drive	Start Speed X	End Speed X	Average Speed X
Lite-On LXR-24101A	18.45	41.46	31.27

Drive	Random Seek (msec)	1/3 Seek (msec)	Full Seek (msec)
Lite-On LXR-24101A	86	99	168

The drive improved the reading performance when CD-R media were used. The reading speed in the end was 41.46x and the average 31.27x.

- HS-RW media: (Click to see the CD Speed Graphs)

For the RW tests we used the Mitsubishi Chemical HS-RW written at 10x. Lite-On LXR-24101A locked the reading speed at 16x throughout the test.

Drive	Start Speed X	End Speed X	Average Speed X
Lite-On LXR-24101A	16.05	16.05	16.02

Drive	Random Seek (msec)	1/3 Seek (msec)	Full Seek (msec)
Lite-On LXR-24101A	105	126	213

---

3. CloneCD reading tests

---

CloneCD Tests

- Procedure

We used CloneCD (v4.0.0.0) and 5 original CDs - Euro 2000 (SafeDisc 1), No One Lives For Ever /Serious Sam (SafeDisc 2), Rally Masters (LaserLock 1), Desperados (LaserLock 2) and V-Rally 2 Expert (SecuROM 2) - in order to test the reading time of the drives. We also tested the reading performance with backups of the original CDs, since the reading speed varies between original and backup media. The following pictures show the drive(s) reading/writing capabilities as CloneCD reports:

- PSX Pressed Media

For this test we used the PSX game 'NBA Jam Extreme' and we ripped the image to the HD with CloneCD. Lite-On LXR-24101A finished the task in 176secs.

- SafeDisc v.1/2 Results

Lite-On LXR-24101A	Original CD ( sectors/sec )	Backup CD ( sectors/sec )
SafeDisc v.1	508.84	519.08
SafeDisc v.2	618.84	605.44

Lite-On LXR-24101A finished the SafeDisk v.1 test in approximately 8:30 min and the SafeDisk v.2 test in 9 min. The performance is not the best you can find but is adequate for an external drive.

- LaserLock v.1/2

Lite-On LXR-24101A	Original CD ( sectors/sec )	Backup CD ( sectors/sec )
LaserLock v.1	614.78	826.55
LaserLock v.2	462.24	708.76

With LaserLock v.1/2 protected CDs, Lite-On LXR-24101A continued the good performance. As you can see from the above table, the drive was faster with the backup titles.

- SecuROM v.2 Results

Lite-On LXR-24101A	Original CD ( sectors/sec )	Backup CD ( sectors/sec )
SecuROM v.2	1613.93	1613.93

Lite-On LXR-24101A seems to handle the SecuROM v.2 protected CDs better than any other titles. The task was finished in 3:33 min and the performance is good.

---

4. DAE tests

---

Lite-ON LXR-24101A external CD-RW - Page 4

DAE Tests

- Test Method

We used CD DAE 99 v0.3 beta and EAC v0.9 beta 2 software in order to check the DAE performance of the drive with various AudioCDs (both pressed and CDR). The posted DAE results are the average of both applications. We made a full CD Rip starting from the first to the last track of the CD. The Average DAE reported speeds are displayed in the test graphs.

- DAE features

We used EAC v0.9 beta 2 to examine the drive(s) features:

The drive supports "Caching" of data, "Accurate Stream" and includes "C2" error info.

 

- AudioCD results

Lite-On LXR-24101A	Average DAE Speed (X)
	Pressed	CDR
	24.5	20.1

Lite-On LXR-24101A kept the DAE speed under the 25x in both pressed/CDR tests. The performance is low and does not meet the drive's official specifications (40x max).

- EAC Secure Extract Ripping mode

After many requests from numerous visitors we have added the EAC's secure extract ripping mode results, which ensures maximum produced WAV quality. Note that for each drive we used the build-in detection function:

Lite-On LXR-24101A	Average DAE Speed (X)
	Pressed	CDR
	15.6	13.6

- Advanced DAE Quality

The drive got a 100 score (best), and produced no errors. Its average reading speed is 19.79x a As the following picture shows, the drive can read SubChannel Data and CD-Text:

- Bad CDR Media results

Despite the fact that Nero CD Speed Advanced DAE test stretches drive's mechanism to the max, we decided to do real life tests with a scratched disc. The disc was dirty, and with some light scratches, enough in order cause problems to most of the tested drives. We used CD DAE 99 software to rip the whole disc (756539616 sectors) and the results were very interesting:

	Average Speed (X)	Errors	Errors Of Total Disc (%)
Lite-On LXR-24101A	15.6	21957259	2.9

The drive's average "secure" DAE speed is 15.6x, which was expected for this kind of test, but did not manage to give a quality DAE result and the 2.9% of the data were fault. (errors)

- Ripping 90 and 99mins AudioCDs

The drive recognizes 90/99 min CDs.

- Reading/Ripping Protected AudioCDs

For the test procedure we used 3 protected AudioCDs, which we tested in both recognition and ripping (with CD DAE v0.3b/EAC v0.9 beta2) processes:

* Pressed AudioCD with Sony KeyAudio
* Pressed AudioCD with Cactus Data Shield 200 (Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island)
* CDR AudioCD protected with Cactus Data Shield (CDS100) - made with Clone Audio Protector v1.1 (adding 30 secs lead-out)

	Key2Audio		CDS200	CDS100
	EAC
Lite-On LXR-24101A	Cannot recognize disc contents		Recognizes all tracks, cannot rip	Reads all tracks as Data tracks - ripping impossible

Lite-On LXR-24101A cannot rip any kind of protected audio CDs. The drive managed to read the disc contents of the CD200 protected media, but the ripping of the files was not possible.

---

5. CDR tests - Page 1

---

CDR Tests - Page 1

- Procedure

We tested all five drives with latest version of Nero/CloneCD. We used various media for our tests: Mitsubishi Chemicals 74/80min 24x certified, Mitsui 74min 24x certified, Taiyo Yuden 74/80min 24x certified, Imation 80min 32x certified and Mitsubishi Chemicals/LiteOn HS-RW media.

We burned CDs at almost all recording speeds from 16x up to 24x using the same amount of data for all drives. Lite-On LXR-24101A reduced the supported writing speed when Ritek 80min 16x, Mitsui 74min 24x and Teac 74min 24x media were inserted, as Nero reports. The following picture is from Nero when we tried to burn Mitsui 74min 24x:

The posted recording times are the best we had from our test results. Using other media can increase the final burning time.

- 74min CD-R Tests

We tested the drive at 16x, 20x and 24x speeds.We created a "DataCD" job with data slightly more than 74mins (74:03:65). Although it is not fair to compare the performances of an external drive with an internal one, we give some writing speed results of some 24x CD-RW IDE drives.

Lite-On LXR-24101A showed a really bad performance in the recording tests. The drive seems to reach the maximum recording speeds late and as a result the burning times are significantly increased.

The picture below is from Nero when we burned Tayio Yuden 74min 24x media at 20x.

The best result at 24x also came with Tayio Yuden 74min 24x media:

---

6. CDR tests - Page 2

---

CDR Tests - Page 2

- 80min CD-R Tests

In our normal burning tests the 80min CD contains slightly more than 80min data (80:01:47):

With 80min CDs, Lite-On LXR-24101A was slow again, as in the 74min burning test. The recording performance is very limited and the problem could possibly be a glitch of "Smart-Burn" adopted technology. The results were bad with any media we tested and the best ones at 20x came with Imation 80min 32x CDs:

At 24x, the lowest writing times came with Imation 80min 32x, as well:

---

7. CDR tests - Page 3

---

CDR Tests - Page 3

- Overburning Tests

Using Nero, we saw that Lite-On LXR-24101A can overburn up to 90 mins.

- CD-Text Results

We created several AudioCDs with CD-Text enabled. Lite-On LXR-24101A can read/write CD-Text AudioCDs without any problems.

- 8cm Media Tests

For this proposed we used a 8cm RW media and we burned up to 185MB. None of the tested drive had problems writing/reading from the 8cm disc.

- CloneCD Writing Tests

The CloneCD v4.0.0.0 reports Lite-On LXR-24101A supports the DAO-RAW feature. We performed our usual tests and we confirmed that both drives support the DAO-RAW writing mode at the following CD protections: SafeDisc v.1/2, LaserLock 1/2 and SecuROM 2.

- SD2 Support

For the SD2 test we used the "No One Lives For Ever", "Max Payne" and "Emperor Battle of Dune" and "Serious Sam - The second Encounter" game titles. We used each drive both as reader/writer at maximum reading/recording speed The produced game backups worked perfectly in any drive we tested.

---

8. Writing Quality tests

---

Writing Quality Tests

We used many media, mostly 24x certified, and burned them at various recording speeds with LiteON LXR-24101A. We used Nero 5.5.8.0 as the CDR software. The produced CDs, were measured from DigitalDrives and results are illustrated in the following tables.

- 16x writing speed

Brand	C1		C2		Average Burning Time (mins)
	Max	Average	Max	Average
Mitsui 74min (24x)	19	1.1	0		5:32
Imation 80min (32x)	45	3			5:55
Teac 74min (24x)	50	1.3			5:35

At 16x, the drive gave quality recording results, and the best ones came with Mitsui 74min 24x media.

- 20x writing speed

Brand	C1		C2		Average Burning Time (mins)
	Max	Average	Max	Average
Taiyo Yuden 74min (24x)	9	0.2	0		4:45
Imation 80min (32x)	56	4.1			5:04
Ritek 80min (16x)	47	6.4			5:05

The best results at 20x came with Taiyo Yuden 74min 24x certified media.

- 24x writing speed

Brand	C1		C2		Average Burning Time (mins)
	Max	Average	Max	Average
Taiyo Yuden 74min (24x)	67	7.9	0		4:23
Ritek 80min (24x)	52	1.5			4:37
Imation 80min (32x)	41	2.6			4:45
Taiyo Yuden 80min (32x)	55	1.6			5:40
Lite-ON CDR-80S 80min (24x)	27	0.6			4:35

In the maximum 24x writing speed, the quality is still good, and Lite-On CDR-80S media (package included) gave the lowest average C1 error rate.

---

9. RW - Packet Writing tests

---

Lite-ON LXR-24101A external CD-RW - Page 9

RW Writing Tests

We used Nero 5.8.0.0 for writing CDs at the maximum RW speed for this test. Lite-On LXR-24101A supports 10x re-writing speed.

Lite-On LXR-24101A gave the best result in this test. The writing time is low and competes all the 24x external IDE drives. The "quick erase" test also rated the drive in the first position with 27 only seconds.

- Packet Writing Tests

We used Ahead InCD v3.21 for the packet writing tests with the Ricoh HS-RW media. The formatted disc had 534mbs of free space. We copied a 403 MB file (403.147 kbs) from a Hard Disk (on the same PC as the writers) to the formatted RW media using Windows Explorer (we dragged and dropped) and we completed the test twice to eliminate any possible time measurement faults and user errors:

Lite-On LXR-24101A write the file at 7.14 average speed and read it back from the HS-RW disc at 10.96x.

---

10. Conclusion

---

Lite-ON LXR-24101A external CD-RW - Page 10

Conclusion

Positive (+)	Negative (-)
- Supports 24x writing, 10x re-writing and 40x reading speeds - Good CDR reading performance - Good HS-RW writing times - Low access times - Supports DAO-RAW - Supports reading/writing of SubChannel Data - Good CloneCD performance - SD2 support - Supports CD-Text (reading/writing) - Supports Overburning (up to 90mins) - Supports 90/99min CDs - Supports 8cm CDs - Retail package contains Nero/80min HS-RW media	- Very high recording times - Low DAE performance - 16x HS-RW reading speed - Cannot "handle" protected AudioCDs - Makes lot of noise - Not stable operation - Problems in ejecting spinning CDs - Delicate tray

Lite-On LXR-24101A is a fast CD-R reader with low access times and ability to handle all the CD protections. The drive also supports CD-Text for audio CDs and 90/99min audio CDs ripping. In the writing part, Lite-On LXR-24101A finished the HS-RW test really fast and also supports overburning up to 90 minutes.

The main weakness of the drive is the very high recording times. We burned many different brands of CD-R media and the results did not confirm the 24x or the other supported recording speeds. Possibly this low performance could be improved with an adjustment of the adopted "Smart-Burn" technology. During some different writing tests, we saw that the drive reached the maximum recording speed late or even kept writing the whole CD in a low speed.

Also, we were surprised that the drive did not manage finish the audio CD DAE tests in a high average speed. The DAE speed was almost the half the specifications state. In the protected audio CDs ripping test, the drive refused to finish the tasks and the test PC "froze" in many cases.

We also consider as negatives for the drive the delicate structure of the top-opened tray and the noisy operation. In some cases, the eject button was not the solution for ejecting a fast spinning inserted CD and we had to unplug the power cord of the drive or restart the test PC in order to continue our tests.

Lite-On LXR-24101A is an ambitious proposal for an external 24/10/40 drive. However, the overall picture of the drive's performance is not the expected and we cannot say that the drive is ready for a straight comparison with other 24x recorders. The early firmware version installed gives us the chance to expect a better performance with future upgrades.