Lite-On SOHW-1693S DVD Writer


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Lite-On SOHW-1693S


OEM:
Lite-On
Chipset:Mediatek
48xCDR CAV
24xCDRW ZCLV
16xDVD-R CAV
6xDVD-RW CLV
4xDVD-RDL CLV
16xDVD+R CAV
8xDVD+RW ZCLV
4xDVD+RDL CLV
DVD-RAM
BD-R
BD-RE
BD-R DL
BD-RE DL
HDDVD-R
HDDVD-RW
HDDVD-RDL
HDDVD-RWDL
HDDVD-RAM
48xCD
16xDVD
BDROM
HDDVD
EIDE, 2MB
BitSetting
More info
$50 7.7/10
13 votes
Read 15
comments

(50950 views)

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DVD Media comments for this DVD Writer (click on the link to read the comments):
1 1TEK 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Acme 4xDVD+RW (OPTODISCOP4) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 ActiveJet 4xDVD-R (VDSPMSAB 01.) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Akimoto 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Arita 8xDVD+R (RITEK...R03) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 BenQ 16xDVD-R (DAXON016S...) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 CD Technology 4xDVD-R (PRINCO......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Century Technology 4xDVD-R (POSG04......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Datawrite 4xDVD-R (INFOSMART01.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Datawrite 8xDVD+R (RICOHJPND01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Digitex 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Dynex 4xDVD-R (AML.........) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Dysan 2.4xDVD+RW (CMC MAG.W01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Egital 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Emgeton 4xDVD-R (TYG01.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Fujifilm 8xDVD-R (ProdiscF01..) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Fujifilm 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Fujifilm 16xDVD-R (RITEKF1.....) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Gigamaster 4xDVD-R (SKC Co.,Ltd.) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 GQ (Great Quality) 8xDVD-R (MUST 003....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 HP 16xDVD+R (CMC MAG.M01) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 1 poor.
1 HP 2.4xDVD+RW (CMC MAG.W01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 HP 4xDVD+RW (PHILIPS.041) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 illusion 2.4xDVD+R (CMC MAG.D01) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 illusion 2.4xDVD+R (PHILIPS.CD2) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Intenso 8xDVD-R (DAXON008S...) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 JVC 8xDVD-R (MJC ME......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 JVC 8xDVD+R (WFKA11..211) comments, 1 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 KHypermedia 4xDVD+R (MCC.....002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Mag Media 8xDVD-R (MJC ME......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Mag Media 8xDVD+R (MJC.....003) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
2 Maxell 8xDVD+R (MAXELL..002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 Maxell 8xDVD-R (MXL RG03....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 16xDVD+R (RICOHJPNR03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 4xDVD+RW (RITEK...004) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 16xDVD+R (RITEK...F16) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 16xDVD-R (RITEKF1.....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Maxell 2xDVD-RW (RITEKW01....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 8xDVD-R (CMC MAG. AE1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 2.4xDVD+RW (INFODISCA01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 4xDVD+RW (INFODISCA10) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 16xDVD+R (MCC.....004) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 16xDVD+R (PRODISC.R04) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 2.4xDVD+RW (RICOHJPNW01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Memorex 2.4xDVD+R (RITEK...D01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Network 2.4xDVD+R (OPTODISCOP1) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Office Depot 16xDVD+R (RITEK...P16) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Optodisc 2xDVD-RW (OPTODISCW002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Philips 16xDVD+R (CMC MAG.M01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Philips 8xDVD+R (INFOME..R20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Philips 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Philips 8xDVD+RW (RICOHJPNW21) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Philips 8xDVD+R (RITEK...R03) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Playo 8xDVD+R (AML.....002) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Princo 4xDVD-R (PRINCORDL05) comments, 0 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 RiData 4xDVD-R (RITEKG04....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Six 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 4xDVD+RW (SONY....S11) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Sony 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 StarLogic 4xDVD-R (PRINCO......) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 8xDVD+R (CMC MAG.E01) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 TDK 16xDVD+R (CMC MAG.M01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 1 poor.
1 TDK 2xDVD-RW (CMCW02......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 TDK 8xDVD+R (MBIPG101R04) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Traxdata 16xDVD-R (RITEKF1.....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 ValuePack 8xDVD-R (RITEKG05....) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim 16xDVD-R (MCC 03RG20) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Verbatim 16xDVD+R (MCC.....004) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim 6xDVD-RW (MKM 01RW6X01) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2xDVD-R (MCC 00RG200) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 2xDVD-RW (MCC 01RW11n9) comments, 0 good, 1 mixed, 0 poor.
2 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 2 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
3 Verbatim (DataLifePlus) 8xDVD+R (MCC.....003) comments, 3 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Windata 8xDVD+R (YUDEN000T02) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 WriteOn 8xDVD-R (MCC 02RG20) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 WriteOn 8xDVD+R (MCC.....003) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
1 Zero 8xDVD-R (TYG02.......) comments, 1 good, 0 mixed, 0 poor.
Post your DVD Media comments here
Comments
15 comments, Showing 1 to 15 comments
 - 

No major points bad or good except for the phenomenal reading ability read a Badly scratched disc with no errors. Another drive also a liteon could not read at all.


Comments posted by loster from United States, February 11, 2009. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





I bought this new a year ago from Walmart (about $55) to replace an HP 300i that can't burn faster than 4x.

I have not had any problem with the burner and stacks of cheap 8x DVD-R. I figure a lifetime total of about 500 DVD-R plus about 100 CD-R and several assorted RW's as well.

The poor +R support other complained about doesn't seem to be true with me as several leftover DVD+R I had from HP burner days all burned fine. But then again those were the older batch and I haven't bought any +R as it's slightly more expensive than -R and fewer DVD player handles +R.

The burner comes with 2 color face plates which are easy to swap so you could match the black or off white computer cases.

I would have given this a 10 except I keep getting dust buildup inside the headset jack and the volume control. There isn't any easy way to safely clean those dust out and Lite-On didn't block the air flow from those ports.


Comments posted by Eric from United States, December 27, 2006. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





a little picky on some discs, but it burns ok. It loves + (plus) discs, and doesnt really like - (minus) discs much. It seems to read and write CDs fine. Could have been better though.


Comments posted by XeoNoX from United States, December 06, 2006. Rated this writer 6 of 10.





After 10 months of service, 500 good copies, mine created copy with alot of errors. Bye bye Lite-on.


Comments posted by Tonny Ramus from United States, June 13, 2006. Rated this writer 7 of 10.





After more intensive use of this drive I was ready to lower my score to 6. Basically it does not handle well cheap, but common, CMC media when using Lite-on official firmware.

My old HP DVD200i does a better job burning 8x +R CMC media (Memorex, TDK, HP, etc.). My NEC 2500 was even better handling this media.

Then I decided to try codeguys KC4B hacked firmware for improved +/-R burn quality. http://codeguys.rpc1.org/firmwares.html#SOHW-1693S

Suddenly this drive was a different beast. Now burning TDK 8x +R CMC media produces very high quality burns. Check the full description of this hack in here: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=152583

With this hack I will still rate this drive as 8. If you use the media listed in this post http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1412356#1412356 you do not need this patch. But if you use lower quality media, then this firmware is a must.


Comments posted by ofbarea from Costa Rica, December 13, 2005. Rated this writer No rating.





While I love the drive, I have to rate it a 7 overall. I have some of the older good 4x DVD-R ProdiscS03's, which burn great on every other burner I have. The Liteon gets about 1/3rd in, sits, waits till the buffer runs out, and then starts back up. Corrupt burn every time.

Zips through my +Rs and only a few bad on newer -Rs. But it seems to be very +R centric, not truly a +/-R burner.

Also appears to be in the burner firmware, same symptoms under different programs for -R burns.

Still a good drive and good value with +R discs, just don't waste your time or discs with -R if you try some and get bad burns. Clearly the -R part is still semi-beta, even if LiteOn isn't aware of the fact. I'll repost if a firmware update fixes it, but have 0B on already and doubt it'll happen soon.

Alan


Comments posted by Alan69 from United States, November 28, 2005. Rated this writer 7 of 10.





I finally decided to test DL burning capabilities of drive. For the test I decided to use a movie called Jesus The greatest story of all time. This movie has a length of 174 minutes and it has a size of 7.85 GB. Its layer break is at 3.93 GB. I created and ISO image and burn two copies with DVD Decrypter 3.5.4.0 One had the book type set to DVD+R DL, the other had book type set to DVD-ROM.

This media is supposed to be written at 2.4x, but Nero 6.6 and DVD Decrypter identified it as 4x capable. I burned it at 2.4x to be safe.

The movie that had the book type set to DVD+R DL could not be read by a Toshiba DVD-RAM SD-W2002 or a Samsung combo drive SM-348B. A Panasonic DMR-E55 recorder was not able to play it either. On the other hand, the copy with book type set to DVD-ROM was played properly by all of them.

If you want to burn to DL remember to set book type set to DVD-ROM or you will face severe compatibility problems.

I really think I made a good decision by selecting this drive. It is fast, cheap and reliable :-)


Comments posted by ofbarea from Costa Rica, November 19, 2005. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





I bough this burner over a month ago. I pay for it (here in Costa Rica) around $115. Probably I would have gotten better prices by buying it on line, but I wanted to have local warranty for it. This unit replaced a NEC2500 that failed on me. The machine were this unit is hosted is a P4 3GHz, mobo uses Intel 865 chipset and it runs WXP SP2. The drive was recognized after the first boot of the PC. No issues in that matter.

Recently I upgraded the drive to KS0B firmware. With this firmware I have burned -R 4x Ridata (RITEKG04), 8x Memorex (CMC MAG AE1), 8x Maxell (MXL RG03) and 8x Verbatim (MMC 02RG20); +R 8x Maxell (MAXEL 002) and 8x Verbatim (MMC 003); -RW 2x Optodisc (OPTODOSCW002); +RW 2.4x Memorex (INFODISC A01). I have not tested DL media.

Even when all burned disks were fully playable in all the places tested them. After scanning the burns I found that in average + media have fewer errors as reported by Nero CD-DVD Speed disk quality test (at 4x). It could be the media but I have the impression that this drive prefers + media. :-) Also I have better burns with this drive @ 8x than the ones I obtained with my NEC2500.

The CD burning portion is just fine. I have burned several 90 minutes disk with great results. I burned audio discs, Sony atrac 3 disks, data disks and VCD and SVCD. I found that burning at 48x will create incompatible disks, but burning at 40x is just fine.

I really love the large quantity of tools and customizations available for Lite-on drives. Bit setting works flawlessly and the drive is RPC1; all of this with no hacked firmware.

So far a solid drive, with great quality and lots of tools available for customizing.


Comments posted by ofbarea from Costa Rica, November 08, 2005. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





I'm having so many problems with this thing.... at the moment I feel like ripping it out and throwing it away. It isn't being recognized by my winxp prof program... what can I do about this?


Comments posted by lost4wordz from United States, October 23, 2005. Rated this writer No rating.





Lite-On SOHW-1693S06C, Manufactured May 05, firmware: KS04 (~$50 from newegg - incl. tax/SH)

When I read reviews for IDE/EIDE drives and comments like "..installed easily without problems..", I wonder what they mean - after all IDE has been a standard forever and why would a drive NOT work unless broken? I have installed and reinstalled hundreds of drives after all...that was until I got the Lite-On. I just could not get XP-Pro to recognize the drive.

The PC H/W setup recognizes the drive just fine as a master on channel 2! I even forced IDE drive search and saved settings manually. Tried everything - IDE detect Delay setting/DMA/UDMA/..everything. No go. WinXP says nothing exists. Hardware says CDROM exists.

So I mounted it in an external USB2 drive enclosure - it works. And will stay there.

First thing you notice out of the box with this drive is how small it is (depth) - so if you have an already stretched IDE cable (or audio or power) inside your PC, this could strain it further to make it to the connector.

I like the easily swappable Beige/Black enclosed bezels (RTFM - it helps).

Drive came with firmware KS04...easily downloaded new firmware and upgraded to KS0A over USB 2 (that's good - some flashing utils expect the drive only to be on IDE/SCSI). Apparently Sony rebrands them under their own name as well, so there are some sites out there with crossflashing and hacked versions of firmwares to push them to limits. The LiteOn product support site too *seems* frequently updated (liteonit.com).

The drive is somewhat noisy (the external enclosure fan does not help either). Tried to burn an 8x rated Memorex DVD+R (SL) - it burned at 6-7x at peak (my NEC 3500AG burns the same media at 5-6x max). So there is some improvement. A 4x rated Value Disc media (-R) was detected as 8x capable. I selected 6x speed max to stay safe(Roxio 6 DVD Basic edition). The burn speeds varied from 2x-6x at times. Burn proof was activated a few times as the buffer levels dropped to 0% - this was a dedicated task on a P4 2.8GHz machine. The burn pattern on the disc also shows inconsistency (dark/light) at approximate points of burn-proof kicking in. But no problems reading the burned disc on other drives.

Have not tried the bitsetting or pushed it to two sheep features - yet.

I copied (not ripped) a full DVD+RW (VIDEO_TS directory) to HDD - got as high as 9000kbps+ transfer rate - did not time the whole thing but it was under 5 minutes - proving what many people have said that LiteOn makes great CD/DVD-ROMs (readers).

Retail version came with audio cable, screws (no IDE cable), beige bezel spare. Power DVD 5 and Nero OEM Suite 3 (Nero Express 6, Nero Vision Express 2)

OK value for money.


Comments posted by B Bedi from United States, October 07, 2005. Rated this writer 7 of 10.





Sorry about this. Lite-On DVDRW SOHW-1693S (firmware updated).
First one: wouldn't veryify any burned disks.
Second one: verifys about 50%.

Using it as the master and a Sony DVD reader as the slave.
Reading files from the WD hard drive and writing to Ritek Arita, RitekG04, #DRD-47-4X-ARIW50, DVD-R disks.

Reguards, Mike. 9/2005


Comments posted by mike from United States, September 21, 2005. Rated this writer 2 of 10.





Have had this burner for just over 2 weeks. Put it thru a bunch of test. Burned data a video DVD @ 4x +RW, 8x +RW, 8x -R. All worked like a charm. ON the performance side, Its about right on. I use it in a External USB 2.0 enclosure.


Comments posted by Roger from United States, September 13, 2005. Rated this writer 8 of 10.





Just got this burner a few weeks ago. No problems yet. Was cheap, its pretty fast, and its dual layer. (got it at newegg for $45)


Comments posted by zeromist from United States, September 07, 2005. Rated this writer 9 of 10.





This drive is awesome! I picked mine up from Wal-Mart for $74, pretty cheap for a drive this good. It's a two sheep burner (this just means it can copy complex data patterns, for more information I'd suggest going to this site: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=101608), so you'll be able to use if for copying games too. I've tried TDK DVD+RW's and Sony High Speed CD-R's and haven't had any problems so far.

You can find the latest firmware here: http://www.liteonit.com/ODD/English/e_downloads/e_firmware_dvd%20rw.asp (installing it adds more media compatibility)

And they have a "Smart Burn" program that you can use to set your drive to the optimal burning speed for the media you're using, as well as a BookType program you can use to trick many DVD players into thinking the dics is a DVD-ROM (useful for more compatibility with some DVD players)
here is the link to those programs: http://www.liteonit.com/ODD/English/e_downloads/e_utility.asp

Why you would want to change the BookType (and why you would want to use DVD+R over DVD-R:
http://www.cdfreaks.com/article/150

The package I got came with a white face plate (that you can use to replace the black one that's on by default), Nero 6 OEM for DVD Writers, PowerDVD 5, the manuals, and an analog audio connection cable (to connect to the soundcard).


Comments posted by Andrew Anderson from United States, August 05, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.





Picked up at Wal mart for 77 dollars. So far have burned 20 Be-All printable DVD-R with no coasters. Also burned Memorex DVD+RW with no issues. Burns 4X disc in about 10 minutes. Have yet to try it with faster media, but so far very impressed for the price.


Comments posted by Scott from United States, May 26, 2005. Rated this writer 10 of 10.




15 comments, Showing 1 to 15 comments
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1 DVD Writer hits, Showing 1 to 1 DVD Writers
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Column Explanation:

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New comments= New comments since your last visit.
New Writer = New DVD Writer since your last vist.

OEM
Original Equipment Manufacturer.


Chipset

The manufacturer of the main chipset the DVD writer/recorder is based on.


Write support / Read support
DVD-R
= Works
DVD-R = Is not supported
DVD-R? = Not tested


Single Layer(4.7GB) write speeds
1x (CLV) = about 58 minutes
2x (CLV) = about 29 minutes
2.4x (CLV) = about 24 minutes
4x (CLV) = about 14.5 minutes
6x (CLV/ZCLV) = about 10-12 minutes
8x (PCAV/ZCLV) = about 8-10 minutes
12x (PCAV/ZCLV) = about 6.5-7.5 minutes
16x (CAV/ZCLV) = about 6-7 minutes

Dual/Double Layer(8.5GB) write speeds
1x CLV = about 105 minutes
2.4x CLV = about 44 minutes
4x CLV = about 27 minutes

Single Layer (4.7GB) read speeds
1x read speed is 1.321MB/s = ~56 minutes
6x CAV (avg. ~4x) read speed is max 7.93MB/s = ~14 minutes
8x CAV (avg. ~6x) read speed is max 10.57MB/s = ~10 minutes
12x CAV (avg. ~8x) read speed is max 15.85MB/s = ~7 minutes
16x CAV (avg. ~12x) read speed is max 21.13MB/s = ~5 minutes


DVD Write types
CAV = Constant Angular Velocity, the DVD is written at a constantly increasing speed.
CLV = Constant Linear Velocity, the DVD is written at a constant speed.
ZCLV = Zone Constant Linear Velocity, the DVD is divided into zones. After each zone the write speed is increased.
PCAV = Partial Constant Angular Velocity, the DVD is being written at an increasing speed until a certain speed. After this speed it will not increase anymore.


Connection
Desktop = Standalone desktop DVD Recorder
EIDE = Computer DVD Writer with EIDE/IDE connection
SCSI = Computer DVD Writer with SCSI connection
USB = Computer desktop DVD Writer with USB 2.0 or/and 1.1 connection
FireWire = Computer desktop DVD Writer with IEEE 1394/FireWire/i.Link connection (some standalone desktop dvd recorder supports this also but then it is usually to connect your DV camera to the recorder)


Rating
The first rating is based on a weighted rank (the true Bayesian), it requires at least 5 votes to get a weighted rating.
The second rating between the ( ) is a normal average rating.


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