Došli smo do kraja druženja s novom generacijom LiteOn-ovih DVD snimača. Premda modeli LH-20A1H i LH-20A1P pripadaju istoj generaciji uređaja i imaju vrlo slične performanse, namijenjeni su različitoj publici. LiteOn LH-20A1H je interni pogon što će reći da odgovara najvećem broju korisnika. Ovaj uređaj također podržava Lightsribe. LH-20A1P je pak eksterni uređaj koji se na računalo priključuje preko USB-a, a zanimljiv je korisnicima koji trebaju prijenosni snimač ili pak nisu zadovoljni s performansama snimača koji je ugrađen u prijenosno računalo. Ovaj uređaj nažalost ne podržava Lightscribe, pa to svakako imajte na umu prilikom izbora.

Što se tiče performansi, očekivali smo mnogo s obzirom da se oba uređaja hvale s maksimalnom brzinom snimanja jednoslojnih DVD-a od 20x. Ovu brzinu nažalost nismo postigli, a razlog za to mogu biti Verbatimovi mediji koje smo koristili za testiranje ili pak činjenica da nismo rabili LiteOn-ov alat Smart-Burn Tool koji omogućava bolju kompatibilnost s medijima i forsiranje brzine snimanja iznad specifikacija. Premda je to dijelom i naša krivica, fascinantno je da se dotični alat ne isporučuje u paketu sa samim uređajem već bi ga korisnik trebao sam pronaći na LiteOn-ovim službenim stranicama. Također smo imali manjih problema s kompatibilnošću – model LH-20A1H korištene Verbatimove DVD-R medije nije mogao snimati brzinom većom od 8x, a sličan smo problem imali s modelom LH-20A1P kad je riječ o DVD+R medijima istog proizvođača. S obzirom da su testirani LiteOn-ovi pogoni prilično kratko na tržištu, za očekivati je da će ovakvi i slični problemi biti riješeni s budućim revizijama firmwarea.

Ako zanemarimo spomenute probleme, oba snimača pokazala su izuzetno dobre i konzistentne performanse, a zahtjevnijim će se korisnicima posebno svidjeti zbog napredne elektronike koja podržava analizu snimljenih medija. Zbog ovakvih mogućnosti ozbiljno razmišljamo o nabavci internog LiteOn-ovog pogona za potrebe testiranja u PC Ekspert labu. Cijena LiteOn-ovih uređaja također nije velika – oko 220 kn kad je riječ o internom modelu LH-20A1H te oko 430 kn za eksterni model LH-20A1P.

Conclusion

It’s time to summarize our experiences with new generation of LiteOn’s DVD writers. Altough both LH-20A1H and LH-20A1P are part of the same generation of devices and have almost identical specifications, they are designed for different kind of users. LiteOn LH-20A1 is an internal optical drive and that makes this device more appealing to broader audience. This device also supports Lightscribe, nice feature if you really plan to use it. On the other hand, LH-20A1P is an external drive which connects to the PC via USB cable and because of this it is interesting solution for people who need mobile DVD writer or mobile computer users who are not satisfied with the performance of their internal optical drive. Important thing to note about this external drive is that it doesn’t support Lightsribe.

As for performance, we expected really a lot considering both drives are advertised to be capable of writing singled layer DVD+R or DVD-R disks with 20x speed. Unfortunately, we haven’t achieved this speed. The are two reasons for this. First, Verbatim disks we used for testing may have compatibily problems with new LiteOn drives. Second, we didn’t use LiteOn’s Smart-Burn Tool which enables users to broaden compatibily of their LiteOn drives with different media types and increase writing speed beyond standard specifications. Altough this is partly our fault, we are fascinated by the fact that this critical tool for exposing all features of LiteOn drives is not bundled with those same drives. Instead of finding this software within bundle, user is left to stumble upon (eventually) Smart-Burn Tool on Liteon’s website. We also had minor compatibility problems – LH-20A1H refused to record Verbatim’s DVD-R media on speed above 8x and we had similar problems with LH-20A1P refusing to burn DVD+R media of the same manufacturer on speed above 8x. Considering the fact that tested LiteOn drives are pretty fresh on the market, we expect that these and similar problems will be solved with future firmware upgrades.

If we ignore mentioned problems, both LiteOn burners showed very good and consistent performance. Demanding users will also like these drives because they offer advanced analysis of recorded media via PIE/PIF and Jitter detection. Actually, because of these features we are thinking about getting one of LiteOn’s drives for our testing platform. Price of LiteOn’s drives is pretty fair – about 220 kn (30 €) for LH-20A1H and about 430 kn (60 €) for LH-20A1P.