Lite-On to launch world's fastest DVD burner (20x). But why?

[Bob Crabtree]

The race for ever-faster DVD write speeds has reached yet another new and quite unnecessary high point with Lite-On IT's announcement that it will be launching a 20x burn-everything model (LH-20A1P) in Europe at the end of December, priced around £30.

This will be followed in early 2007 by a similar-spec'd version (LH-20A1H) that adds the ability to write disc labels to LightScribe media.

Full specs and more in this HEXUS.lifestyle.headline.

And, if you can, please tell us why makers chase ever faster burn speeds when the only way to guarantee reliable reads and writes is to burn at far slower settings?

[64Bit_Oddity]

I wish there was more Sata optical drives..., why do i suspect that this one will be IDE.....?

[TheAnimus]

thing is, most are 16speed already, going to 20x isn't going to make it much faster at all is it?

[dave87]

Am I the only one that manages to burn at the full 16x (8x on laptop) and not have a stack of coasters? Out of the last pack of 50 Maxell DVD-Rs I had 1, and that was due to Nero crashing....

Dave

[Bob Crabtree]

I wish there was more Sata optical drives..., why do i suspect that this one will be IDE.....?

Cos you read the news story, not just the forum posting?

[Bob Crabtree]

thing is, most are 16speed already, going to 20x isn't going to make it much faster at all is it?

Well, no, it doesn't make the burn much faster.

What you also need to realise (if you don't already) is that none of them burn at their top speed anywhere on the disc apart from towards the outer edge of the disc - and that area is only reached reached if the disc is going to be filled right up to capacity (and as it fills up).

[TheAnimus]

What you also need to realise (if you don't already) is that none of them burn at their top speed anywhere on the disc apart from towards the outer edge of the disc - and that area is only reached reached if the disc is going to be filled right up to capacity (and as it fills up).

yup if i was in posession of more info, i would calculate the average speed increase you'll see.

Best of all with most media you find that there is an "under damped response" (http://images.google.co.uk/images?hl...-8&sa=N&tab=wi) as the DVD write is burning far too fast, then slows down too much only to speed up again, and so forth.

Putting my cybernetics degree to good use i could calculate this, however, i've had beer, and that just make me find the graph strangely attracting.

[Bob Crabtree]

Am I the only one that manages to burn at the full 16x (8x on laptop) and not have a stack of coasters? Out of the last pack of 50 Maxell DVD-Rs I had 1, and that was due to Nero crashing....

Dave

Dave,

What are you burning, data or DVD video?

Also, when you say you are burning at a full 16x, do you mean that you know it burns at 16x (where that's possible - ie towards the outside of the disc) or that you've selected 16x and it burns okay but don't know what speed is actually being used?

Most burning software will test the practical burn speed and, though you might choose the Max setting, the burn may actually be happening slower.

[Bob Crabtree]

Oh and what I was very naughty about not including in the news piece was the fact that I'm not aware of any 20x DVD being available now (18x is a hen's teeth job right now) and also don't know when 20x will be available.

Bob (off to do some burning speed tests right now with a Samsung 18x jobbie).

[dave87]

Dave,

What are you burning, data or DVD video?

Also, when you say you are burning at a full 16x, do you mean that you know it burns at 16x (where that's possible - ie towards the outside of the disc) or that you've selected 16x and it burns okay but don't know what speed is actually being used?

Most burning software will test the practical burn speed and, though you might choose the Max setting, the burn may actually be happening slower.

Using Nero on my home system, it burns at up to 16x (ie at the very edge of the disc) No speed throttling as the discs are 1-16x approved (according to manufactures specs)

Thats using one of the most recent sony recorders, with Maxell DVD-Rs and Nero 7

Dave

[3dcandy]

Do they actually work well in other drives? If I burn at more than 8x then most older drives just can't read them...

[dave87]

Yup, I've been burning a mixture of home vids and data dvds, and they've all worked in both my Sony drive (used to burn them) Asus e616 DVD-ROM, NEC drive that came with a dell, TSSCorp Drive in my laptop, Sony & Panasonic DVD players (one of which can read ram aswell, but never got the drive to burn them ) oh and the no name dabs value one I put in my sisters machine.

Pretty successful

Dave

[Bob Crabtree]

dave87,

I'd bet a considerable amount of money (well, a dollar, anyway) that - unless you've actually done some timing tests to verify the write speed - then what will be the case is that the software reports the speed at which it's burning but that the speed that it actually burns at is slower.

That's absolutely is the case here with Nero (OEM V6) through all the many tests I've been doing since my last post.

And it's been the case with a whole lot of different types of blanks - DVD+/-R; dual-layer +/- and RW+/-.



Not sure if you are interested enough to check this but I'd rather like to send you an XL spreadsheet that will allow you to check the real burning speed.

Are you up for that?

[dave87]

Yup, I'd be interested to see how well my burner stacks up against some of the newer ones, and what, if any, performance difference they offer

I'm home this weekend too, so I'd be able to test it

Dave

[Bob Crabtree]

Dave,

Can you PM me with your email address?

Bob

[dave87]

Yup, YGPM