For our CD transfer rate tests, we used the Nero Disc Speed utility and a set of data and audio CD-R/RW/ROM. The drive can read CD media at a maximum speed of 40X.

-CD-ROM

- US RW

The following CD Speed graph shows the reading performance with US-RW media.

- AudioCD

In the CD Speed Advanced DAE quality test, the drive's average speed was 28.68X with a quality score of 100.

- CD DAE

Digital Audio Extraction or DAE is important when we try to read the files stored on an audio CD and store them in our hard disk drive. The procedure is not always that simple and the fidelity of the extracted data depend on the way each drive handles these data.

The majority of the software that support this procedure, commonly known as "ripping", will just read the audio files and store them on your hard disk. However, this approach is not recommended for all drives, since it may result to read or sync errors if your drive does not support report of C2 error pointer information and also what the author of the EAC (Exact Audio Copy) software describes as "accurate stream" and " non-caching."

According to EAC, the LiteOn DH-4B1S drive supports all of the "caching ", "Accurate stream" and "C2 error info" parameters. Accurate stream and C2 error reporting is always welcome and contribute to reliable and fast audio extraction. However, the "caching" feature makes audio extraction more complicated.

If you are sure about the physical condition of your audio CD and you need faster extractions, you may chose other utilities such as the CD DAE software. A typical ripping task finished at an average reading speed of 28.9X, using CD DAE:

Average Speed: 28.9X

- 90/99 mins Audio disc

90min Audio disc

99min Audio disc

The drive was able to read only the 90 min audio disc.

- DVD Format

Now let's take a look at how the drive performs with DVD media. This time, a set of SL and DL DVD media was used. The drive is capable of reading at 12X maximum speed for single layer DVD ROM and at 8X for dual layer DVD ROM media.

DVD-ROM SL media -

PTP DVD-ROM -

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, progressing towards its outer range.

OTP DVD-ROM -

The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer of the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks and progresses towards the inner part of the disc.

DVD-R-

DVD-RW -

DVD+R -

DVD+RW -

DVD+R DL -

DVD-R DL -

DVD Ripping speed -

Riping of a single layer DVD movie:

- Blu-ray format

Continuing, let's see how the drive reads the various Blu-ray recordable and ROM discs.

BD-ROM-SL

BD-ROM-DL

Some minor problems were reported in the second layer of the disc with the drive to slightly reduce the reading speed at around the 32GB mark.

BD-R SL

BD-RE SL-

BD-RE DL

The specific disc was recorded by the drive itself. However, the graph illustrates that the drive could not read the data easily, especially in the second layer.

Summary

The reading process of almost all media was completed without read errors and at speeds that match the drive's specifications. However, we should say here that the BD-RE DL disc was harder for the drive to read. Hopefully, the transfer rate test did not give any read errors.