Lite-On SHM-165H6S Super AllWrite 16x DVD±RW/RAM

Model: Lite-On SHM-165H6S 16x "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: Lite-On IT
Provided By: Lite-On IT USA

In the world of optical storage, there are few companies that can claim the same level of success as Lite-On. While once a relatively new name in the industry, this Taiwanese company has taken it by storm, establishing themselves as one of the world's top manufacturers of optical storage products. More recently, Lite-On has expanded into the consumer electronics market and has even announced a strategic alliance with one of its biggest competitors, BenQ.

The latest addition to Lite-On's already impressive line of DVD writers is the SHM-165H6S. Announced in January, this new "Super AllWrite" drive is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 4x DVD-R DL, 5x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The SHM-165H6S also has many of the features we've come to expect from Lite-On, along with new ones like HyperTuning and OverSpeed. On top of that, the drive supports HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. Developed as a better alternative to markers and stick on labels, LightScribe lets users burn graphics and text onto the tops of specially coated discs.

With features and specs like this, it's hard not to be impressed by Lite-On's new DVD writer. But as you all know by now, we're not ones to take things at face value. In this review, we'll take an in-depth look at the SHM-165H6S's features and then see how it compares to some of the 16x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Can the SHM-165H6S deliver the performance and features that we've come to expect from Lite-On? Is it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading as we find out.

What's in the box?:

• Lite-On SHM-165H6S "Super AllWrite" DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• Nero Software CD
• CyberLink PowerDVD Software CD
• User's Manual
• Quick Installation Guide
• Front Panel Replacement Guide
• Beige Replacement Bezel
• LightScribe CD-R Disc
• Audio Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive Lite-On sent us for this review was manufactured in December of 2005 and had firmware HS06.For this review the drive's firmware has been updated to version HS0D.

Aside from the large LightScribe logo, there really isn't much of a difference between the SHM-165H6S and Lite-On's other "Super AllWrite" drive, the SHM-165P6S. The two drives not only share the same bezel design, but many of the same logos. Along the front of the tray you can see a few showing support for the DVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications, as well as Ultra Speed CD-RW media.

If black isn't your color, you're in luck. Lite-On also includes a beige replacement bezel with the SHM-165H6S.

Like Lite-On's other DVD writers, the SHM-165H6S also has a single LED. It lights up green when the drive is both reading and writing.

The rear of the SHM-165H6S is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

The specs below have been taken from Lite-On's website and the box the drive came in.

LightScribe:

Note: We took a much closer look at LightScribe technology in our review of the BenQ DW1625. In this review we'll just go over some of the basics and see how the SHM-165H6S performs with the bundled software.

The SHM-165H6S is the latest drive 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 SHM-165H6S, 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 created a few discs using Verbatim's LightScribe (v1.0 and v1.2) CD-R and DVD+R media. In all cases, the quality has been set to "best". The results are shown below.

Verbatim CD-R - 20 minutes		Verbatim CD-R v1.2 - 16 minutes

Verbatim DVD+R - 29 minutes		Verbatim DVD+R v1.2 - 21 minutes

As you can see, the LightScribe v1.2 media offers a considerable performance advantage. These discs utilize a new coating that allows for faster printing speeds. In some cases, it can cut as much as 30% off of the total printing time.

If you want to use LightScribe v1.2 media with your SHM-165H6S, simply update your computer's LightScribe host software. This update can be downloaded from Nero or the LightScribe website.

HyperTuning:

The SHM-165H6S is one of the first drives to feature Lite-On's new HyperTuning technology. Similar to BenQ's SolidBurn technology, HyperTuning automatically creates writing strategies for unknown, or unsupported, DVD±R and DVD±R DL media. Simply enable HyperTuning, insert your disc and burn. The new writing strategy is then created on-the-fly.

HyperTuning 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).

According to Lite-On, drives that support HyperTuning can store in memory up to five writing strategies. With each new burn, these writing strategies are further optimized until the maximum possible writing speed is achieved. Unfortunately, there currently is no way to view, deactivate or delete these writing strategies.

The big question here is whether or not HyperTuning works. To find out, we'll take a closer look at this technology in the performance section of this review.

OverSpeed:

The SHM-165H6S also supports Lite-On's new OverSpeed function. When enabled, the drive will try to write to your DVD±R and DVD±R DL media at a speed higher than it would normally be supported at. To do this, OverSpeed relies heavily on HyperTuning. When a disc is written at a higher than normal speed, HyperTuning will automatically create a new writing strategy for it.

I should point out that OverSpeed does have some limitations. To prevent people from writing to all DVD±R media at 16x, the writing speed can only be bumped up one level. For example, if your disc was normally supported at only 8x, the SHM-165H6S would now give you the option to write to it at 12x. Oddly enough, this does not apply to DVD±R DL media as we were able to write to all of our test media at 8x when OverSpeed was enabled.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that Lite-On's new DVD writer is identified as a "LITE-ON DVDRW SHM-165H6S."

Nero also shows that the SHM-165H6S has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. In this case, it is Lite-On's SMART-BURN technology. According to Nero, Lite-On's new DVD writer can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity, it had no problems overburning up to 99 minutes with our CompUSA media.

Nero also gives you the ability to turn off the drive's SMART-BURN technology. While disabling this feature will allow the SHM-165H6S to write to CD-R media at whatever speed you want, it also disables the media condition checks and write monitoring that the drive does.This can cause your data to become corrupt.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the SHM-165H6S is a "two sheep" burner. This means that Lite-On's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the SHM-165H6S's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the SHM-165H6S is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's 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 SHM-165H6S'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 while Lite-On's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The SHM-165H6S also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using Lite-On's BookType Utility, you can set the book type forDVD+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.

I should point out that the SHM-165H6S can also set the book type of DVD+RW media after the data has been burned to disc. This "Write Now" feature is available in both KProbe and Lite-On's BookType Utility.

The SHM-165H6S's software bundle is very similar to what Lite-On has included with their previous DVD writers. The two CD's that come with the drive contain a number of applications from Nero including Nero Express 6, NeroVision Express 3, Nero Media Player, InCD 4, BackItUp and PhotoShow Express as well as PowerDVD 5 from CyberLink.

Nero Express 6 - 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. While the interface has been simplified, Nero Express still supports more advanced features like VCD and DVD creation, CD/DVD duplication, overburning, CD-Text and realtime audio filters

The version of Nero Express that Lite-On included with their new DVD±RW drive is 6.6.0.17. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

NeroVision Express 3 - NeroVision Express 3 is Nero's video authoring application. Using a user friendly interface very similar to that of Nero Express, NeroVision Express 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.

NeroVision Express 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 BackItUp - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This new program from Nero lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard disc, image recorderor another computer on your LAN.

Nero Media Player - Nero Media Player features on-the-fly encoding of audio CD's to MP3, HE-AAC, TwinVQ, WMA, and WAV format.The MP3 encoder uses the latest audio codec technology from Fraunhofer.While most of the plugins are unrestricted, the MP3 encoder included with this version of the program is limited to only 30 audio tracks.If you need to encode more you will probably want to upgrade to Nero's NeroMIX.

InCD 4 - 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 drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

PhotoShow Express - Lite-On's new drive also comes with Nero's all in one photo suite, PhotoShow Express. This software can do a number of things including edit and touch up your photos and organize them into various albums. PhotoShow can even be used to create musical slideshows. These slideshows can then be burned to disc or published to the web.

CyberLink PowerDVD 5 - CyberLink's PowerDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market right now. PowerDVD offers a complete set of navigation commands, including advanced features like multi-angle viewing, dual subtitle display, digital zoom and parental controls.This new version also adds features like DivX playback, audio time stretch and support for CyberLink's new Eagle Vision technology.

Unfortunately, the version of PowerDVD bundled with the SHM-165H6S only supports 2 speaker output. If you want to take advantage of DVD's encoded with DTS or use Dolby Pro Logic II, you'll need to buy an upgrade first.

The SHM-165H6S is Lite-On's most feature packed DVD writer to date. Their new "Super AllWrite" drive not only supports all major DVD formats, it sports some pretty impressive specs. The SHM-165H6S is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 8x DVD+R DL, 4x DVD-R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it can read and write DVD-RAM media at 5x. Along with support for LightScribe, the drive includes many of the features we've come to expect from Lite-On as well as new ones like HyperTuning and OverSpeed. With all this, it's easy to see why the Lite-On SHM-165H6S gets the full 10 points for its features.

Like the other Lite-On drives we've reviewed, the SHM-165H6S was very easy to install. From start to finish, the entire process took only a few minutes. After taking the drive out of the box, I set the jumper to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 33. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, Lite-On's new DVD writer comes with two CD's full of software. The first of these contains a number of different applications 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 OEM Suite" option. After that, you will be taken to the Nero installation menu.

By now most people should be pretty familiar with this menu. From here you can install Nero 6, NeroVision Express, Nero Media Player, Nero PhotoShow Express or InCD 4. You can install each component individually, or everything but InCD and PhotoShow Express in one shot. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

The second software CD contains a copy of PowerDVD 5 from CyberLink. If you have autorun enabled, the installation menu will come up when you insert the CD.

Like the Nero suite, this DVD playback software is very easy to install. To start the setup process, simply select "Install PowerDVD 5.0" from the menu. From there, it's as easy as entering the serial number, choosing the location where you want to install the program and then waiting for the files to be copied over.

The Documentation:

The manual that comes with the SHM-165H6S is a good example of what we've come to expect from Lite-On. It starts out by getting the user familiarized with their new DVD writer. The first section goes over the drive'ssupported 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 SHM-165H6S. This section covers everything from setting the jumpers to hooking up the cables and mounting the drive in your computer. While the instructions are short, the diagrams Lite-On has provided are pretty good. If you're not sure about how to configure your computer, the manual also has a few examples along with the corresponding jumper settings.

The rest of the manual covers a number of topics including how to use and maintain the SHM-165H6S. Lite-On has also provided a fair amount of information on the drive's LightScribe technology, including instructions on how to create and burn your own labels. Last but not least, there is a short troubleshooting section containing a list of common problems as well as their solutions.

Lite-On's new DVD writer also comes with a "Quick Start 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 SHM-165H6S up and running.

In the end, installing the SHM-165H6S and the bundled software was pretty easy. Between the guide and manual, most people shouldn't have any problems getting the drive up and running. I also have to give Lite-On credit for including a section on LightScribe. 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 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.50 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 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 Sonic's DLA 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 CD Speed v4.50 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files 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 "Super AllWrite" drive did pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer rate tests, the SHM-165H6S started reading at 19.9x (2990 / 150) on the inside and reached a maximum speed of about 43.8x (6578 / 150) on the outside. While this helped give the drive an impressive overall score, its access time wasn't as low as the other drives.

CD Speed v4.50 - 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.

	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	Plextor PX-750A	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.68x 21.95x 48.50x	29.40x 16.96x 38.86x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x	35.63x 20.45x 47.28x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	103ms 116ms 168ms	135ms 143ms 250ms	137ms 145ms 219ms	114ms 126ms 183ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	2% 4% 7% 12%	0% 1% 2% 4%	17% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 3% 36%

Lite-On's new writer performed very well when reading pressed CD's. The SHM-165H6S flew through CD Speed's transfer rate tests, reaching a maximum read speed of 48.50x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that its seek times were also quite good.

CD Speed v4.50 - 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.

Like the other drives, the SHM-165H6S 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 more than 49x.

Lite-On's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The SHM-165H6S read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 53.47x! This is pretty good for a drive rated at only 48x.

CD Speed v4.50 - 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.

When reading CD-RW media, the SHM-165H6S's transfer speeds are limited to only 32x. While Lite-On's new writer had no problems reaching this speed in our tests, it was still the slowest out of the four drives here.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.50 - 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 the Lite-On SHM-165H6S supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.

CD Speed	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	Plextor PX-750A	NEC ND-4550A	LG GSA-4167B
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	37.03x 21.26x 48.93x 10 Yes	29.19x 16.95x 38.73x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes	30.81x 17.50x 40.79x 10 Yes

Like Lite-On's previous DVD writers, the SHM-165H6S did very well in our DAE tests. With a maximum speed of 48.93, the drive had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

Lite-On's new DVD writer was a little slower when extracting our test disc track by track with CD DAE. The drive started out at an impressive 22.3x but came up a little short of 48x in the end.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.50 - 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 SHM-165H6S was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. Nevertheless, it had no problems reaching amaximum DAE speed of 48x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

Lite-On's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 34.95x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the SHM-165H6S was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well Lite-On's new drive 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

The SHM-165H6S did surprisingly well here. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 53% of the CD to be "damaged". On top of that, none of the sectors on the disc were 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.

The SHM-165H6S gave some mixed results in this test. While it had the lowest number of errors, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16 andDLA 4.95:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 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 SHM-165H6S has a maximum CD writing speed of 40x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.06x and reached a maximum speed of 48.79x at the end of the session. This gave Lite-On's new DVD±RW an average writing speed of about 36.96x.

To test the SHM-165H6S's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fujimedia rated at 48x. The results are below.

Lite-On's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the SHM-165H6S was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:32, beating the drives from NEC and LG by about 25 seconds.

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-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

The SHM-165H6S'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 and 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 DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

While the SHM-165H6S uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 13 minute mark..

While the drives from NEC and LG can rewrite at 32x, the SHM-165H6S has a maximum rewriting speed of only 24x. As you can see, this put Lite-On's new DVD writer at a disadvantage in our tests.

The SHM-165H6S also erases at 24x. While this didn't have much of an effect on the drive's quick erase times, it took nearly four minutes to do a full erase.

Nero CD Speed v4.50 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The SHM-165H6S performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.45x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.20x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were also relatively good.

Nero CD Speed v4.50 - 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 4x DVD-R and 2x 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 DL

The SHM-165H6S had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, it was able to read DVD-R and DVD-RW media at 12.3x, but slowed to 8x when reading DVD-R DL discs.

Maxell 5x DVD-RAM

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 3x and accelerates, reaching 5x at the 1.6GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.50 - 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 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The SHM-165H6S's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.In both cases, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of about 12.3x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't a problem for the SHM-165H6S either. While not as fast as the drive from LG, it reached a respectable 8.07x in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.50 - 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.

The SHM-165H6S didn't slow down very much when reading single layer DVD videos. It started out at about 6.62x and reached a maximum read speed of 16.04x. Lite-On's new drive was also fairly quick when reading dual layer discs. By looking at the screenshot below, you can see that the drive's transfer speeds peaked at about 8.22x.

To see how well the SHM-165H6S worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Plextor's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x 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 16x, the SHM-165H6S uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that Lite-On's new drive starts writing at about 6.7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The SHM-165H6S 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.

Lite-On's new drive performed fairly well in our DVD writing tests. While its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, the SHM-165H6S turned in some respectable times with DVD+R and DVD-R media.

To check the media compatibility of the SHM-165H6S, 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, Hyper Tuning and OverSpeed were left disabled.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. 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 SOHW-1673S 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.

When tested with KProbe, the SHM-165H6S's writing quality appears to be pretty good. With the exception of Optodisc's 16x DVD+R media, the error rates remained fairly low. Unfortunately, the results weren't nearly as good when scanned with the BenQ DW1640. Looking at the CD Speed screenshots, you can see that the jitter level and PI/PIF rates jumped up considerably near the 0.8GB mark. Surprisingly enough, this didn't seem to have any effect on readability.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the results were pretty good for the most part. If you look at the CD Speed screenshots, you can see that in most cases the jitter level and PI/PIF rates jumped at the 0.8GB mark. However, it wasn't nearly as bad as what we saw with DVD+R media.

So what about HyperTuning? Is it nothing more than a marketing gimmick or does it really work? To find out, I retested some of the more problematic media with it enabled. I first burned a few discs to give HyperTuning a chance to optimize the writing strategy. After that, I got the results you see below.

With some media, like Daxon's 16x DVD-R discs, there was a notable improvement in writing quality when HyperTuning was enabled. Unfortunately, these cases were few and far between. With most of the media I tested, HyperTuning seemed to have little effect or, as in the case of RiDATA's 16x DVD+R discs, the writing quality was actually worse than when it was disabled.

Of course, HyperTuning may work better with unsupported media. However, Lite-On has done an excellent job in this regard and we were not able to find any media not supported by the SHM-165H6S.

To test the SHM-165H6S's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 5x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The SHM-165H6S didn't do as well as the other drives in our packet writing tests. When writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW media, it trailed behind the PX-750A and GSA-4167B by a good 30 seconds. Unfortunately, this gap grew to as much as four minutes when writing to DVD-RAM discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the SHM-165H6S, I used Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL and RiDATA 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 8x was not an easy task. The only media we found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's new 8x DVD+R DL discs. With the other DVD+R DL media, the writing speed was limited to 4x.

The SHM-165H6S did very well in this test. With Nero, it took the drive a little more than 17 minutes to write 8001MB of data. If you do the math, this is a good minute faster than the drives from NEC and LG. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was fairly good with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. While there were a few spots where the jitter levels got a little high, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the results weren't as good with Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. While written at a slower speed, the PI/PIF rates were higher this time around, especially when tested with the BenQ DW1640. The worst results were with Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. The PI/PIF rates were not only considerably higher, there were a number of PO Failures.

The SHM-165H6S also features 4x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

With its 4x writing speed, the SHM-165H6S wasn't nearly as fast as the drive from NEC. In our tests, it took Lite-On's new drive 28:04 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The SHM-165H6S's writing quality was pretty good with the DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. The PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed and, aside from a few dips at the layer change, there were no readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

When it comes down to it, the performance of Lite-On's new "Super AllWrite" drive was hit and miss. When writing DVD's, the SHM-165H6S turned in good times with DVD±R and DVD+R DL media, but wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to DVD±RW and DVD-R DL discs. Writing quality was also an issue as there were a number of cases where the PI/PIF rates were quite high. On the other hand, the SHM-165H6S was fairly quick when reading DVD's. In our tests, it was able to read single layer DVD's at 16x and both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at a respectable 12x.

The SHM-165H6S also did pretty well in our CD read tests. The drive had no problems reading all types of media at its rated speeds and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, Lite-On's new drive gave us some mixed results. While the SHM-165H6S turned in some very impressive times when writing to CD-R media, its 24x rewriting speed put it at a slight disadvantage. With all things considered, the Lite-On SHM-165H6S gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

For the last few years, Lite-On has been content to release drive after drive, with a speed bump or two being the only real difference between each generation. With the SHM-165H6S, Lite-On's engineers have bucked this trend, introducing a truly innovative drive. Along with support for DVD-RAM and LightScribe, it features two new technologies: HyperTuning and OverSpeed. While welcome additions, there were a few performance aspects that kept the SHM-165H6S from getting top marks in our review.

The SHM-165H6S performed relatively well when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x. At this speed, it took the drive a little more than 6 minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD. The SHM-165H6S also performed as expected when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. However, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives we've tested. The SHM-165H6S's DVD+R DL writing performance did make up for this somewhat. Thanks to its 8x writing speed, the drive took less than 18 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

When it came to media compatibility and writing quality, the SHM-165H6S gave us some mixed results. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speeds, but was not able to write to any 8x DVD±R discs at 16x, even with its OverSpeed function enabled. Writing quality was also an issue with the SHM-165H6S. As we showed you in our tests, there were a number of cases where the jitter level and PI/PIF rates were very high. Hopefully, Lite-On can fix this in a future firmware update.

Lite-On's new drive did pretty well in our DVD read tests. It was able to read both single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD-Videos at 16x and had some relatively good seek times. Reading recordable media wasn't a problem for the SHM-165H6S either. In our tests, it read both DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x and DVD±R DL discs at a respectable 8x.

The SHM-165H6S was also fairly quick when reading CD's. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 49x and CD-RW discs at 33x. On top of that, it was able to rip audio CD's at an impressive 48x. The SHM-165H6S also performed pretty well when writing to CD-R media. Lite-On's new drive not only turned in some impressive times, its writing quality was quite good. Unfortunately, due to its 24x CD-RW writing speed, the SHM-165H6S did not do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests.

When it comes to features, Lite-On's new drive definitely delivers. Along with old favorites like SMART-BURN and SMART-X, the SHM-165H6S supports two of Lite-On's more advanced technologies, HyperTurning and OverSpeed. While OverSpeed let us write to our media at a higher than normal speed, HyperTuning could still use some tweaking. In most cases, we saw little to no improvement in writing quality when it was enabled. Last but not least, the SHM-165H6S features HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system. An alternative to markers and stick on labels, LightScribe lets you burn graphics and text onto the tops of specially coated discs.

In the end, it usually comes down to price. For what it offers, Lite-On's new drive is surprisingly affordable. Current prices vary depending on the seller, but the retail version of the SHM-165H6S can be picked up for less than $50 on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 4x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 5x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R and DVD±RW media at 12x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 8x
• Good transfer speeds with pressed and CD-R media
• Features 48x CD-R and 24x CD-RW writing speeds
• Excellent DAE speeds
• Supports SMART-BURN, SMART-X, VAS, HyperTuning and OverSpeed technologies
• Good selection of writing and rewriting speeds
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R/RW and DVD+R DL media
• Includes software from Nero and CyberLink
• Supports 99 minute media
• Includes both black and beige bezels
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Slower than other drives when writing to DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media
• Cannot write to 8x DVD±R media at 16x
• Writes to CD-RW media at only 24x
• Reads CD-RW media at only 32x
• Has a 2048KB buffer