LiteOn LTR-16101B IDE CDR-W - Page 1

- Introduction:

is not a fancy, well known company that manufactures CD-RW drives. Many people may don't know it, but Lite-On manufactures it's own recorders and doesn't just use OEM drives from Sanyo, Ricoh or Plextor. Despite the fact that Lite-On is not a manufacturer that can lead the CD-Writing race, previous models were popular among users for their combination of low price, with good performance. The latest Lite-On recorder (LTR-16101B) supports 16x writing, 10x re-writing and 40x reading speeds. The shipping date is not the best one, since other manufacturers shipping nowadays 20x/24x writing speed CD-RW drives. Lite-On believes that the 16101B drive it's a good choice for its performance/value mark and could possibly be named as the best 16x writing drive.. Does this claim confirmed from true life tests? Can the new Lite-On recorder compete and win the already known Plextor, Yamaha, Teac recorders?

- Features:

As we said earlier the drive supports 16x writing (CLV) speed max. The interesting part is that the drive comes with anti-coaster technology named "Smart-Burn". As Lite-On says: "...Smart burn (Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for burning). To get the best burning quality & reliability with smart burning strategy such as media condition check, vari-speed burning, running OPC & buffer under run free technology..." It might not be clear from the product specs but the drive uses Sanyo's BURN-Proof technology in order to avoid buffer under-runs. We are not sure why Lite-On decided to give "BURN-Proof" another name. Perhaps for marketing reasons ? The drive has also another interesting feature and it's nice to see that manufacturers actually support DAO-RAW official:

- Smart Extraction: (Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for extraction). CDDA/VCD data extraction speed will increase or decrease by host system demand (lower for playback or higher for copy) & media quality condition
- Vibration Absorber System (VAS) to reduce vibration & noise
- Conforms to Orange Book Part 2, 3 & Volume 2 : High Speed
- Compliant with PC99, Support Over-Burn, Raw mode copy

- The package:
The package supplied was the retail European(?) version. This included: The drive itself, a quick set-up guide, 1 piece (16x certified) of Lite-On 74min CD-R blank (actual manufacturer Ritek), 1 piece of Lite-On 74min 4-10x High-Speed RW Blank (actual manufacturer Plasmon Data), audio cables and mounting screws. The software supplied with the drive was Nero Burning ROM v5.0.4.6 and Ahead InCD v2.08 (for packet writing use). There is not any printed manual included - just an electronic PDF file, which is very limited especially from the novice users.

The front of the drive is what we can call "generic". The drive doesn't even have the Lite-On logo (it has the URL for the homepage instead) while doesn't also includes the "High-Speed RW" logo. You will notice that Lite-On has taken care that users will understand the drive's features easily, hence the "16x10x40x" logo. You will also find only one led, the eject button and the headphone input jack/volume selector:

At the back of the drive we will find the usual connectors (IDE interface, power), the jumpers for making the drive Master/Slave, the SPDIF output connector, 3 jumpers which are not used (factory reserved) and the analog/digital output connectors.

- Installation:
The Lite-On LTR-16101B was installed as Master in the primary IDE BUS. The drive worked in PIOMODE-4 mode and after booting, identified itself as the "LITE-ON LTR-16101B". We unchecked the Auto Insert notification, checked DMA and rebooted.

The drive was a May 2001 model with firmware revision vTS0N installed. We used the Nero (5.5.2.3), InCD (2.13), CloneCD (3.0.0.20) and Padus DJ (3.00.780) for the recording tests.

- Test Machine:
WinMe OS
Soyo 7VCA
Celeron II 566 over clocked to 850 MHz
128MB SDRAM PC 133
WD 18GB UDMA 66
Quantum Fireball EX 6.4 GB UDMA 33
DAWI 2975 - PCI (ULTRA) SCSI Host Adapter
ATI AIW 128
Yamaha 2100E firmware v1.0n
PleXWriter PX-W1610A firmware v1.01
TEAC CD-516EB firmware v1.0A
Lite-On LTR-16101B firmware vTS0N