Lite-On eTAU208 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Lite-On eTAU208 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Lite-On IT
Provided By: Lite-On IT USA

In 1995, Lite-On Technology gathered a group of scientists and engineers to help jumpstart their optical storage research and manufacturing business. Lite-On Technology quickly established themselves as Taiwan’s leading CD-ROM drive manufacturer and by 1999 the business had been spun off into a separate company, Lite-On IT. Since then, Lite-On IT has continued to grow. By working closely with companies like BenQ and Philips, they've expanded into the consumer and automotive electronics' markets, becoming the world's second largest ODD manufacturer.

With the growing popularity of notebook and netbook computers, Lite-On has set its sights on the portable optical drive market. Over the last year or so, the company has introduced a number of new external slim DVD writers. One of the latest additions to this line is the eTAU208. This stylish and compact drive is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. Along with a unique top-load design, the eTAUS208 also features many of the technologies we've come to expect from Lite-On, as well as HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what the eTAU208 has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect from Lite-On's external slim DVD writer, we'll take a look at some of the drive's features and then put it through its paces to see how it performs. Is the eTAU208 the best choice for the person on the go? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Lite-On eTAU208 8x USB 2.0 DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Quick Installation Guide
• Software CD
• Vertical Drive Stand
• USB Y Cable

Physical Features:

The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in August of 2009 and had firmware FL02. For this review I used firmware versions FL02 and FL04.

The Lite-On eTAU208 is one of the smallest DVD writers to come through the 'Labs. Measuring 142.1 x 19.4 x 143.8 mm, it's not much larger than a couple of jewel cases stacked on top of one another. The eTAU208 is also constructed of a lightweight, black plastic. The glossy finish looks nice, but finger prints and smudges have a tendency to stand out.

On the top of the eTAU208 you can see a large "Lite-On" logo as well as a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications, and HP's LightScribe technology. There's also a white "STOP" button along the front of the top cover. This button contains the drive's LED and, when pressed, will stop the disc from spinning.

On the bottom, the eTAU208 has four small rubber feet to keep it from sliding around when placed on a flat surface. There's also a space where you can store the included USB cable when the drive is not in use.

The latch to open the top cover is located along the front of the eTAU208. When slid to the right, the top cover will automatically pop open.

Along the rear, you can see the eTAU208's USB 2.0 interface. This connector not only transfers data but provides power for the drive.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from Lite-On's website and the manual that came with the drive.

LightScribe:

The eTAU208 is one of the latest drives from Lite-On to feature LightScribe technology. Developed by HP, LightScribe lets you burn durable, silk screen quality labels directly onto your CD's and DVD's using the same drive that burned the data. According to HP, it's as simple as burning the data, flipping the disc, and then burning the label.

Of course you can't do this with just any drive, media or software. While LightScribe capable drives use the same laser when burning both the data and label, they have to be able to accurately control the laser's focus and position as well as the spindle speed. They also must be able to recognize LightScribe media. These special discs have a thin dye coating on the label side that absorbs laser light. This triggers a chemical reaction that produces a color change, allowing the user to print text, artwork or graphics.

Even if you have a LightScribe capable drive and media, you will need software that supports it. Most major software companies have pledged support for the technology. However, at the time of this review, the list of compatible software is still relatively short. For the eTAU208, Lite-On turned to Nero. Using the bundled software you can both create and burn LightScribe disc labels.

Once you've created your LightScribe label, you're ready to print it. Before you can do this, though, you will need to choose the contrast. Keep in mind this option not only changes the level of detail, it also affects the amount of time it takes to print the label. The higher the quality, the longer the process will take.

How long does it take to print a label? For testing purposes, we printed a disc using Memorex's LightScribe v1.2 color CD-R media, and the quality was set to "best". The results are shown below.

Verbatim CD-R v1.2 - 31 minutes

The eTAU208 features what Lite-On calls SmartWrite technology. Previously known as HyperTuning, SmartWrite automatically creates writing strategies for unknown, or unsupported, DVD±R and DVD±R DL media. Simply enable SmartWrite, insert your disc and burn. The new writing strategy is then created on-the-fly.

SmartWrite also works with supported media. When enabled, the drive will ignore the writing strategy stored in the firmware and instead create a new one. This is very useful if you are trying to record a disc that uses another company's MID code (I.E. fake TYG02 code discs).

OverSpeed:

The eTAU208 supports Lite-On's OverSpeed function. When enabled, the drive will try to write to your DVD±R media at a speed higher than what would normally be supported. To do this, OverSpeed relies heavily on SmartWrite. When a disc is written at a higher than normal speed, SmartWrite will automatically create a new writing strategy for it.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new DVD writer is identified as a "Slimtype eTAU208 1."

Nero also shows that the eTAU208 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is backed up by Super-Link buffer underrun protection as well. According to Nero, the eTAU208 can also write CD-Text and overburn. Unfortunately, it wasn't able to recognize our 99 minute CompUSA discs at all.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the eTAU208 is a "two sheep" burner and is capable of backing titles protected by SafeDisc 2.90. Like most drives, it did not pass the "three sheep" test.

Here is a screen shot from Erik Deppe's Opti Drive Control. Among other things, this program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. Opti Drive Control had no problems detecting the eTAU208's reading and writing speeds and supported disc types.

Opti Drive Control also shows that the eTAU208 is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. While there isn't an RPC-1 firmware available for the drive, there is a utility available that can make the drive region free.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the eTAU208's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities.  By looking at the screenshot above you can see that Lite-On's new drive supports LightScribe technology and can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media.

The eTAU208 also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using Nero, CD Speed or Lite-On's BookType Utility, you can set the book type for DVD+R, DVD+RW and DVD+R DL media. By doing so, your recorded discs will identify themselves as "DVD-ROM." This feature comes in handy if you have an older DVD player that has problems playing recordable media.

Lite-On has once again turned to Nero for their software bundle. The CD that comes with the eTAU208 contains the Nero 8 Essentials suite which includes Nero Express, Nero Vision, Nero Recode, Nero ShowTime and InCD. The disc also contains Nero Linux for those with Linux-based netbooks.

Nero Express 8 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that Lite-On included with their new DVD±RW drive is 8.3.6.0.  You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero Vision 5 - Nero Vision 5 is Nero's video authoring application. Thanks to a user friendly interface, Nero Vision makes it easy for users to capture, edit and then burn their favorite videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD or export it to Nero Digital format.

Nero Vision also lets users add things like transitions, custom backgrounds, animated menus and text effects. You can even use it to turn your photos into custom slide shows. 

Nero Recode 3 - This program from Nero can copy unprotected DVD videos onto recordable DVD media. If the source disc is larger than 4.7GB, Nero Recode has the ability to remove unwanted material and compress the contents so that it will fit onto a single blank DVD disc.

Nero Recode 2 will also let you convert your DVD movies to Nero Digital. Using Nero's own MPEG-4 audio and video encoder, an entire DVD movie can be compressed so that it will fit onto a CD. Better yet, Nero Recode 2 does this with little loss of quality.

Nero ShowTime 4 - Nero ShowTime is Nero's software DVD player. Along with support for DVD's, ShowTime can be used to play back VCD's, SVCD's and miniDVD's as well as any MPEG, AVI or Nero Digital files you might have on your hard drive.

InCD 5 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW or DVD±RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc.

While small in size, the Lite-On eTAU208 delivers an impressive number of features. This external slim DVD writer not only supports all major DVD formats, it offers some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available on a portable drive. The eTAU208 is capable of 8x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 6x DVD±R DL and 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 8x. Along with support for LightScribe, the drive includes many of the features we've come to expect from Lite-On as well as more advanced ones like SmartWrite and OverSpeed. With all this, it's easy to see why the Lite-On eTAU208 gets the full 10 points for its features.

Lite-On's new portable DVD writer was very easy to install. Thanks to its USB 2.0 interface, the entire installation process took only a matter of minutes.  With no jumpers to worry about, it was as simple as connecting the USB cable. Once connected to our test computer, it took only a matter of seconds for plug and play to install the necessary drivers. After making sure that the drive was recognized correctly in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the eTAU208 comes with a CD full of software from Nero. If you have autorun enabled on your computer, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

As you can see, this menu is pretty straight forward. To install the writing software, you will want to choose the "Install Nero 8 Essentials" option. After that, you will be taken to the Nero installation menu. 

By default the setup program for Nero 8 Essentials will install everything but InCD onto your computer. If you don't want to install the entire suite, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs. 

Installing Nero Linux is also pretty straight forward. The disc contains packages for both RPM and Debian-based Linux distributions and can be installed using the commands shown below.

The Documentation:

The bulk of the eTAU208's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. Similar to the ones included with Lite-On's other drives, the "User's Manual" covers a number of topics. It starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new portable DVD writer. The first section goes over the drive's supported formats, recording modes, and system requirements. The manual also spends a few pages going over the locations and the functions of the buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the drive.

From here, the manual jumps right into the physical installation of the eTAU208. The instructions are pretty brief since there really isn't much to do other than plug in the USB cable and turn the computer on. Nevertheless, Lite-On has provided a few diagrams showing how the drive should be hooked up. The manual continues on by going over the basic operation of the eTAU208. Along with information on how to use and maintain the drive, it includes instructions to create and burn your own LightScribe labeled discs.  Last but not least, there is a short troubleshooting section containing a list of common problems as well as their solutions.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer also comes with a "Quick Installation Guide." This fold out guide takes the user step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, there are plenty of diagrams showing what to do. For most people, the "Quick Start Guide" will be all they'll need to get the eTAU208 up and running.

For ease of installation, the eTAU208 is hard to beat. Thanks to its bus-powered, USB 2.0 interface, it's as simple as plugging in a single cable. If you do run into trouble, the documentation Lite-On has provided is more than sufficient. However, I would have liked to have seen a little more drive specific information. With this in mind, I give the installation an 8 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 and Opti Drive Control are used to test transfer speeds, access times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, Opti Drive Control is used to give an overall speed rating and is used in combination with CD DAE to see how well a drive reads scratched and dirty discs.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks, Opti Drive Control is used to test read speeds, access times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Roxio's Drag-to-Disc is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

Lite-On's new portable DVD writer performed fairly well in the CD Winbench portion of our tests. In the transfer speed tests, the drive started reading at about 10.1x on the inside of the CD and was able to reach 21.7x on the outside of the disc. While this helped give the eTAU208 a respectable overall score, its access time was not as low as some of the other portable drives we've looked at.

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

 

The eTAU208 performed better in our Opti Drive Control tests. The drive started reading at 9.32x and quickly accelerated, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 24.02x. Unfortunately, its access times were a little higher than we'd like to see.

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

 

The eTAU208 was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this small speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of 24.60x.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer had some trouble reading our 99 minute CompUSA media. If the session on the CD was larger than 96 minutes in size, the eTAU208 would not recognize the disc correctly. Using a disc with about 96 minutes worth of data, the drive reached a maximum transfer rate of 26.09x. 

 

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

 

The eTAU208 also reads CD-RW media at 24x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

Opti Drive Control v1.44 (DAE) - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the Lite-On eTAU208 supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

 

For a portable drive, the eTAU208 did very well in our DAE tests. The drive started out at 9.35x and reached a maximum speed of 24.22x.

Opti Drive Control v1.44 (DAE) - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

The eTAU208 was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. This time around, it reached a maximum DAE speed of 23.95x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 17.25x. While the drive was able to go through the tests without creating any errors, it was unable to pass all of the on the fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the eTAU208 was able to read the CD-Text and subchannel data but failed to read the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well the eTAU208 can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

As you can see, the eTAU208 considered the entire disc to be good. Contrary to what EAC indicated, this usually means that a drive is not able to retrieve error information and cannot determine which sectors are damaged or unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.  

Lite-On's portable DVD writer performed pretty well here. The scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The eTAU208 has a maximum CD writing speed of 24x. To reach this speed, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that the drive uses a total of four "zones." The eTAU208 starts writing at 10x and jumps to 16x at about the 21 minute mark. When it reaches the 42 minute mark, the drive changes to 20x and writes at this speed until about the 69 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 24x and stays there until the end of the session.

To test the drive's writing times,  I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.

The eTAU208 took about six minutes to write an entire 701MB CD. While most of the internal writers we've looked at lately can do this in half the time, this is pretty good for a portable drive.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52327S (firmware QS09) and read the discs at 32x. 

Moser Baer 52x

Taiyo Yuden 52x

Verbatim 52x

The eTAU208's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all. 

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using Drag-to-Disc from Roxio. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The eTAU208 also uses Z-CLV when rewriting at 24x. As with CD-R media, it starts writing at 10x and jumps to 16x at about the 21 minute mark. When the drive reaches the 42 minute mark, it changes to 20x and then to 24x at the 69 minute mark.

Lite-On's portable DVD writer did fairly well in our rewriting tests. The drive took 4:20 to write 400MB with Nero and 4:21 to do the same with Drag-to-Disc. Erasing wasn't a problem for the eTAU208 either. In our tests, it took 32 seconds to do a quick erase and 5:45 to fully erase the disc.

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - DVD-ROM:

For this test I used a single layer, single sided data DVD-ROM disc that is 4.37GB in size.

 

The eTAU208 performed pretty well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 3.21x and reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8.25x. Unfortunately, like in our CD read tests, the drive's access times were a little high. 

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 8x DVD-R and 6x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	5.84x	3.24x	8.26x	146ms	174ms	253ms	2%

Verbatim DVD-RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	5.85x	3.22x	8.29x	145ms	173ms	257ms	1%

Verbatim DVD-R DL
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	5.68x	3.33x	3.35x	163ms	215ms	111ms	1%

The eTAU208 had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In all three cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	3.68x	1.22x	5.00x	145ms	173ms	283ms	1%

Lite-On's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 5x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at about 1.22x and then quickly accelerates, reaching 5x at about the 1.6GB mark. 

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 8x DVD+R and 8x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD+R
 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	5.84x	3.30x	8.27x	134ms	165ms	243ms	1%

Verbatim DVD+RW

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	5.86x	3.21x	8.28x	131ms	151ms	249ms	1%

Verbatim DVD+R DL
 

The eTAU208's performance was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. Once again, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 8x.

Opti Drive Control v1.44 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

 

	Transfer Speed			Access Times			CPU Usage
	Average	Start	End	Random	1/3	Full
Lite-On eTAU208	5.77x	3.17x	8.16x	137ms	159ms	253ms	1%

The eTAU208 didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of 8x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well the eTAU208 worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith using Nero Showtime. The drive had no problems playing back these movies and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0 and Drag-to-Disc 9.0:

To test the DVD writing performance of Lite-On's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x, the eTAU208  uses Z-CLV. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at 3x and jumps to 4x at the 0.4GB mark. When it reaches the 1.75GB mark, the drive changes to 6x. The eTAU208 writes at this speed until about the 3.6GB minute mark. At this point, the writing speed increases to 8x and stays there until the very end of the session.

The eTAU208 also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases, the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum writing speed.

The eTAU208 didn't perform as well as other portable drives when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, it took more than 13 minutes to burn an entire DVD. Looking at the scores above, you can see that the eTAU208 was actually faster when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

To check the media compatibility of the eTAU208, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below. For these tests, SmartWrite and OverSpeed were left disabled.

So what about writing quality? Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates. For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter. 

The eTAU208's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few small spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were fairly good for the most part.

To test the eTAU208's packet writing performance I used Drag-to-Disc 9.0. Verbatim 6x DVD-RW, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 7.11.10.0:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the eTAU208, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

The eTAU208 performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media. Thanks to its 6x writing speed, the drive took 26:56 to write 8001MB of data to DVD+R DL media and 28:19 to do the same with DVD-R DL discs. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Verbatim's 8x DVD-R DL media didn't fair quite as well. When tested with KProbe, the PI rate was a little higher than we'd like to see. The worst results were with Memorex's 8x DVD+R DL media. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the error rate was very high throughout the first layer of the disc.

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of the eTAU208 was pretty mixed. While not as fast as other portable drives when writing to DVD±R discs, it turned in some fairly good times with DVD±R DL, DVD±RW and DVD-RAM media. The eTAU208 was also relatively quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, the drive was able to read data and video DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 8x. 

The eTAU208 also did relatively well in our CD read tests. While its access times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive read both data and audio CD's at speeds as high as 24x. Writing CD's wasn't a problem for the eTAU208 either. For a portable drive, it turned in some respectable times and the writing quality was quite good. With all of these things considered, the Lite-On eTAU208 gets a 7 out of 10 for its performance.

Like some of the other portable DVD writers we've looked at recently, the eTAU208 can write to both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 8x. Unfortunately, it wasn't nearly as fast as drives like the ASUS SDRW-08D1S-U as it took more than 13 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. Nevertheless, the eTAU208 performed pretty well with other types of recordable media. The drive turned in some respectable times with DVD±RW and DVD-RAM discs and, thanks to its 6x DVD±R DL writing speed, it took less than 25 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

Finding compatible media really wasn't an issue with the eTAU208. The drive wrote to all of the DVD±R media I tried at 8x and, with OverSpeed enabled, it was able to write to some older 4x DVD±R discs at this speed. The eTAU208's writing quality was also fairly good with most of the DVD±R media I tried. However, with some DVD±R DL discs, the PI/PIF rates were higher than we'd like to see. Hopefully, Lite-On can address this in a future firmware update.

The eTAU208 also performed fairly well in our DVD read tests. While its access times were a little higher than I would have liked, the drive was able to read data and video DVD-ROM's as well as most recordable media at 8x. 

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the eTAU208 either. While its access times were again a little high, the drive read all types of CD media at 24x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at speeds as high as 24x. As a writer, the eTAU208  performed as expected. The drive was relatively quick when writing to CD-R and CD-RW media and its writing quality was quite good.

When it comes to features, Lite-On's new DVD writer definitely delivers. A truly portable drive, the eTAU208 is powered completely off a computer's USB bus. Without the need for an AC power source, you can burn and play DVD's wherever you go. The drive also includes support for Lite-On's SMART-BURN, SmartWrite and OverSpeed technologies as well as HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. To top it all off, Lite-On includes software from Nero for both Windows and Linux-based computers.

One thing the eTAU208 definitely has going for it is its price. Available in your choice of white, black, blue or red, the retail version of the drive can be picked up for as little as $45 through vendors like Newegg.com, ZipZoomFly and Amazon.com.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD±R media at 8x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD±R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 8x
• Reads DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Reads and writes to DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Features 24x CD-R and CD-RW writing speeds
• Good CD writing quality
• Supports SMART-BURN, SMART-X, SmartWrite and OverSpeed technologies
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Compact and lightweight design
• Built-in USB cable holder
• Powered off the USB bus
• Includes Windows and Linux software from Nero
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R DL media
• Not as fast as other portable drives when writing to DVD±R media
• Does not support 99 minute CD-R media