Lite On SOHW-832S DVD Writer

Description:

I'd like to give a brief overview of the DVD9 standard. A Double Layer DVD is a single-sided DVD with two recording layers on the same side. Thus; the capacity increases from 4.7 GB to 8.5 GB per DVD side . By using two different focusing locations, the laser beam can write data to two existing layers. When recording, the data can be continuously written from the first layer to the second layer without interruption. The same is true with reading.

The Lite On SOHW-832S DVD writer looks and feels like an optical drive. There is one exception to the look, the drive is short. It is about 3/4 of an inch shorter than my Samsung DVD ROM or my NU Technology burner. This does not sound like much, but in a cramped case it can make a big difference between an easy installation or a major pain. Eventhough it is shorter, the drive feels a few pounds heavier than my Samsung or NU drive.

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To further set its looks apart from other companies, Lite On provides two different colors, black and white, to accomidate more cases on the market. The DVD writer that I received is black. On the front Bezel are a bunch of logos for DVD, RW, and compact disc. A headphone jack, LED, and volume control are also on the front of the drive.

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There is nothing special on the back of the drive compared to other DVD ROMs. On the back is a digital audio hookup, analog audio, IDE socket, and 4 pin power socket.

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For software, the Lite On SOHW-832S is loaded. It comes with two very popular applications, Nero Express and Power DVD. This alone makes the retail package better than most in the market. Also, included with the software, are a ton of CDs. Some of these might have been for my benefit because they had handwriting on them. The two disks with handwriting on them are DVD+9 writeable media. Just what I needed because it is very hard to find this type of media right now. The package contents do not list these as part of the package. The other two disks are 4.7 Gig, DVD-R and DVD+R disks.

Installation:

Installation is very simple, mainly because of its shorter size. We all know the drill, pop out the 5 1/4 inch face plate in your case. Slide in the DVD writer. Hook up the IDE and power cables. All that's left is to screw the drive in. Screws are provided and so is an analog audio cable. Too bad they left out the SPDIF cable. If you have any problems installating the drive, included is a great installation diagram in two languages. The instruction manual also provides a lot of details on installation, playing and writing DVDs.

Usage:

The first thing I wanted to do with the Lite On writer was to create a copy of a movie. I put in one of the 4.7 Gig DVDs and loaded up DVD X-Copy. The drive had no problems making a compressed copy of the movie Spiderman.

For those of you out there wondering why I would use DVD X-Copy, I used it as a warm up test. Of course, with the dual layer technology, there is no need for DVD X-Copy. A whole movie will fit on one disk. Because a DVD has encryption on it, it must be decrpyted before it can be burned. A great program for this is DVD Decrypter. Once the ISO was created, I burned the file to one of the Dual Layer DVDs provided with the Lite On unit.

Before I go further, the program I used to burn the DVD was Nero 6. I had a lot problems at first because I had version 6.3.0.3. You must upgrade your version of Nero to a version higher than this version to support the DVD9 writers. Once I did that, the movie burned in about 45 minutes (7.5 GB).

The movie played great in my other computer DVD player. Picture quaility and sound were awesome. Unfortunately, I could not get the DVD to play in my Yamaha home theater DVD player.

I had no problems burning at 8X speeds using the media provided. Audio CDs were no problem either as they were quickly created. I used Nero 6 for all my burning.

As of right now, it is very hard to find DVD9 media. About the only place I found them was at SuperMediaStore.com. After further reading, it seems only Verbatim and Ritek is distributing DVD9 discs at this time. Ritek is a good quality media that I would recommend.

Updated 9/14/04:

Because I have had lots of questions on this review, I will answer update this now. When I did this review, I was a newbie at burning DL DVDs. I found out that buring the DVD as a R+ instead of DVD ROM can cause lots of problem with DVD players. I was able to burn a DVD5 (4.7GB) DVD as a +R or DVD ROM and it worked fine in the home theather DVD player. To change the DVD type or Book Type, I downloaded LiteOn's Book Tool. Simply use the tool to change the DVD type to DVD ROM before you burn it. Because DL media is rare, I have some on order that should be here in the next couple of days. I will be able to fully test this advice out then.