Buslink Lite-On or Buslink Aopen brand, does it matter?

[Rolexusn1]

Hi guys, this is my first post here

I just picked up the Buslink (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=293936 with JustLink technology) at compusa today for $29 after rebates. I wanted to get the Buslink with Lite On guts, but all they had left were the ones with Aopen.

My question is, does it really matter what brand? I have always used Lite On, and I have been a happy with them. I know the Lite On 48x model can be flashed to 52x, but lets assume I don't care about that. I have never used Aopen. Is Justlink better then Smart Burn?

This drives fate is in your hands, since it is sitting here about to be returned.

[TheWizard]

JustLink and Smart-Burn perform the same basic function, no matter which you use, you won't find anything incredibly different about them. They act as buffer underrun protection to prevent you from burning coasters. As for the Aopen drive itself, I have not seen any complaints about it. It is actually a 48X12X50 drive whereas the similar Lite-On is 48X12X48 (sometimes BUSlink even puts a 48X24X48 Lite-On in the box). Lite-On is good, no doubt, but I don't think you'll be unhappy with the Aopen drive. Try it and see how you like it.

[cfitz]

... Smart-Burn ... act as buffer underrun protection to prevent you from burning coasters.

Hey Wizard, have you already forgotten? We just went through all this, and you even contributed:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8780

SMART-BURN isn't buffer underrun protection. It is technology to optimize the overall quality of a burn by selecting the optimum burn speed, power level, etc. LiteOn doesn't even have a name for their buffer underrun technology anymore (unless it is the mysterious "Just Burn" referred to in the above therad). But your basic point is still valid. All the buffer underrun technologies do a good job at preventing coasters.

cfitz

[dhc014]

... Smart-Burn ... act as buffer underrun protection to prevent you from burning coasters.

Hey Wizard, have you already forgotten? We just went through all this, and you even contributed:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8780

SMART-BURN isn't buffer underrun protection. It is technology to optimize the overall quality of a burn by selecting the optimum burn speed, power level, etc. LiteOn doesn't even have a name for their buffer underrun technology anymore (unless it is the mysterious "Just Burn" referred to in the above therad). But your basic point is still valid. All the buffer underrun technologies do a good job at preventing coasters.

cfitz

OWNED!!

[Rolexusn1]

Thank for your reply. Wow, you learn something new every day, I was not aware smart burn was not an under bufferrun.

I just opened it and tried to burn some stuff. I was able to burn a 699MB file at 48X in 2:36. Not sure if thats fast. This drive is sorta loud also. Hmmm.. I am debating whether to take this back..

[cfitz]

I was able to burn a 699MB file at 48X in 2:36. Not sure if thats fast.

That is a fine result for burn speed. No complaints there.

cfitz

[MCKComputerWorks]

I was able to burn a 699MB file at 48X in 2:36. Not sure if thats fast.

That is a fine result for burn speed. No complaints there.

cfitz

I'd say that's an AWESOME burn time!! I've used AOpen drives in several instances, and have always been very pleased with their performance. Granted, they ARE kinda noisy, especially if you invoke the "speed boost" function. I did have problems with a couple of rebadged AOpens (one Cendyne and one Verbatim) when "speed boost" was turned on, but I think that those were probably isolated occurrences.

[jase]

From what I can gather (and I haven't run full tests yet) the Aopen is very slightly faster than the LiteOn, because it calibrates media faster once you've put in a few examples of the media you're burning (all Ricoh drives "learn" about new media so each burn should be slightly better than the last as the drive refines the strategy each time, and also starts the test-writes at the previous calculated "ideal" strategy -- I don't believe LiteOn does this).

As for media compatibility, I think it's six and two threes. The Aopen does seem a bit better at handling "difficult" discs, I have some Discrite-branded 32x MBI media here that the Aopen burns quite happily at 48x, whereas the LiteOn struggles even at 24x to get a good burn. But the Aopen can be a little restrictive with other obscure brands.

To clarify, on the Aopen JustSpeed is the equivalent of LiteOn's SMARTBurn, and JustLink is the equivalent of whatever LiteOn is calling its buffer-underrun protection this week (possibly JustBurn, but it's really the same as LG/BTC's Superlink).

The Aopen is loud, louder than the LiteOn, and it seems a bit power-hungry. It also has an annoying feature in that it has no 16x setting, and to make matters worse 24x is CAV which means the average burn speed at 24x is only 19x. Holding the eject button for 7 seconds just to get the drive to achieve 50x reading is a pain in the arse as well.

However, both of these drives are very competent, and should do everything you need them to do. Which is better? Hard to say.

[dodecahedron]

From what I can gather (and I haven't run full tests yet) the Aopen is very slightly faster than the LiteOn, because it calibrates media faster once you've put in a few examples of the media you're burning (all Ricoh drives "learn" about new media so each burn should be slightly better than the last as the drive refines the strategy each time, and also starts the test-writes at the previous calculated "ideal" strategy -- I don't believe LiteOn does this).

do any other drives do this, i mean "learn" about media as it goes along?

how's this "learning" done? i mean how's the information kept? does it flash its own firmware chip to update the info database?

what exacly is the drive leaning about the media? what exactly is the drive refining?

mmm...this is very interesting

[jase]

Do a backup of any Ricoh firmware. Compare it with the standard file.

Have a look at addresses 0000h to 8000h (varies from drive to drive but thereabouts). On the official firmware this will be blank (areas with nothing but FFs), but the backed up one contains data on the burn strategies. So yes, the drive does reflash itself on every burn. It is very cool

The only problem is, over time this can become corrupt, leading to very bad burns or a non-responsive drive, which you need to reflash to get working again. This unfortunately has the side-effect of resetting all the learned strategies back to zero.

[TheWizard]

Hey Wizard, have you already forgotten? We just went through all this, and you even contributed:

http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=8780

SMART-BURN isn't buffer underrun protection. It is technology to optimize the overall quality of a burn by selecting the optimum burn speed, power level, etc. LiteOn doesn't even have a name for their buffer underrun technology anymore (unless it is the mysterious "Just Burn" referred to in the above therad). But your basic point is still valid. All the buffer underrun technologies do a good job at preventing coasters.

cfitz

I'm not trying to start an argument, but I always thought Smart-Burn was the equivalent of buffer underrun protection and I read so on this very site from Ian's review of the LTR-48125W. See the quoted text below from that review:

"Like Lite-On's other drives, the LTR-48125W also features SMART-BURN buffer underrun protection and SMART-X extraction monitoring technology."

[cfitz]

Well, lets go to the source, LiteOn themselves:

SMART-BURN features :

1. Buffer Under Run Error Free
2. Running Optimum Power Calibration
3. Automatic Writing Strategy & Burning Parameters
4. Automatically decrease burning speed when Laser power over margin due to poor media quality or high temperature

(from http://www.liteonit.com/english/english-s-tech-7.htm )

Looks like you got this one right! (Jase also mentioned that at one point LiteOn was using "SMART-BURN to refer to all of this.)

However, the latest LiteOn I have describes SMART-BURN as "Automatically checks media quality and sets the limit of burning speed to ensure successful writing sessions and data instantly (can be turned off). Hmmm.... nothing about buffer underrun there. To me that covers only the last three points listed above.

And Nero lists "buffer underrun protection" and SMART-BURN as separate features in the options tab for the drive. You can't disable the buffer underrun protection but can disable SMART-BURN. That makes it sound like they are two different things, and agrees with the description in the literature that came with my drive.

I guess we will never know, because there is no common consensus. But then it doesn't really matter, does it? It's really just a marketing term after all. Damn marketing suits!

Well, I guess I've learned my lesson - I'll be staying out of the SMART-BURN thicket from here on out!

cfitz

[TheWizard]

Makes no difference to me what they call it, just as long as it gets the job done.

[dodecahedron]

jase, do you know the answers to some of the other questions i asked?

do any other drives do this, i mean "learn" about media as it goes along?

<snip>

what exacly is the drive leaning about the media? what exactly is the drive refining?

[jase]

I haven't seen any other drives exhibit this behaviour. My Teac 24x does seem to calibrate faster on media it has burned before, so it may be doing the same thing, I'm not sure.

IIRC what the Ricoh-based (NEC, Ricoh, some Samsung, Aopen, Artec) drives do is store the strategy they burned a certain ATIP at, and start the calibration the following time at that value so over time the burn quality should improve/be refined.

[dodecahedron]

thanks jase.
interesting.
like you said, that's really cool!