This LiteOn writer supports all optical disk formats and
bundles a decent set of software. However, it fails to do much on the
performance part. It fared better than the LG-GSA 4167B that we reviewed
last month for writing from a hard drive to a DVD+RW disk. It took 15min 30 secs-faster
than LG by 5 seconds.
Price: Rs. 2,995 (1 yr warranty) |
Key Specs: 48X max CD writing, +/- R dual layer compatible |
Contact: Mediatech India, DelhiTel: 51607666E-mail: sales@mediatechindia.com |
It recorded an impressive 18min 13secs for copying DVDs of
the same format, comprehensively beating Sony, that won our DVD writer
shoot-out. However, LG betters it by about 2 minutes. It showed similar results
for writing to DVD-R format, and fared better than Sony, recording a time of 8
mins 45 secs for burning data from hard drive. But, in copying a disk it was
slower than Sony by about 5 mins.
The drive was pretty slower compared to LG and Sony for
writing and formatting DVD-RW disks of 2x max speed. In the read tests too, it
could only give an average speed of 9.91x for single layer DVD formats-again
slower than Sony, which averaged 10.41x. For dual layer disks, the drive gave an
average speed of 6.06x-as against 9.05x by Sony.
However, the writer sailed through CD writing tests on a
pretty decent note. It took 3 mins to write 650 MB of data to a CD-beating LG
by a second. Till then, LG had recorded the least time for this test among all
drives we have reviewed in the past three months. Other than that, it clocked 2
mins 40 secs to write an audio disk from hard drive, which is yet another
remarkable performance. The price also is not substantially different from
either Sony or LG.
Bottom Line: The drive is quite good when it comes to
DVD+RW format and CD writing, and has a price almost as low as Sony or LG
drives. However, its weak performance with other formats is what makes it an
average performer.
Anadi Misra