Test Bed, Audio/Video Extraction & Benchmarks:

We all know that no one buys a DVD burner just to burn DVDs. People buy DVD burners for its DVD burning capabilities, but also because they want a complete package. Such is why it's important to test not only DVD write speeds, but digital audio and video extraction.

  • Test Bed:
    • AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton) Processor
    • Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard
    • 512MB Corsair XMS PC3200 DDR RAM
    • Windows XP Home Edition SP1 OS
    • Enermax 470watt PSU
    • ATi Radeon 9500 Pro - Modified to 9700 Pro Video Card
    • Turtle Beach Santa Cruz DSP Sound Card
    • Western Digital Caviar SE 120Gig HD1
    • Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40Gig HD2
    • Lite-On SOHW-1633S DVD±RW Drive 1
    • Lite-On SOHW-832S DVD±RW Drive 2

Audio Extraction:

I'll be testing the Lite-On SOHW-1633S's 'ripping' abilities for both audio and video. Using an Audio CD and a DVD Video. For Audio tests, Easy CD-DA Extractor will be used to extract 19 tracks from a 71 minute Audio CD. I'll be extracting the audio tracks in standard CD quality WAV format.

3min51sec Total Extraction Time

The SOHW-1633S's maximum CD read speed is 48x, and as you can see above the drive reached a maximum of 46x. Keep in mind that the CD was only 71 minutes in length.

Video Extraction:

Up next is DVD Video extracting. With faster and faster DVD burning speeds coming out, it is natural that DVD read (ripping) speeds should be tested. I used DVD Decrypter to extract an entire DVD movie, totaling 7.5GB in size.

No compression used.

15min57sec Total Extraction Time

 

The SOHW-1633S successfully extracted all the the DVD movie's contents in just under 16 minutes.

Benchmarks:

Performance is always key, "How fast is it?" is a common question when it comes to computer technologies. So of course, the question also applies to the Lite-On SOHW-1633S.

I benchmarked the SOHW-1633S with Nero CD-DVD Speed. I used three discs to measure the drive's speeds. For CD reading I used the same 71 Audio CD as I did in the audio extraction test, a 4.3GB DVD for single layer (DVD5) testing and a 7.9GB DVD for double layer (DVD9) testing.

Audio CD

I was quite impressed with the CD read speeds the SOHW-1633S achieved. I nearly hit its max velocity of 48x once again and would of if not for the length of the CD used in the testing.

 

DVD (single layer)

In single layer DVD read speed, the SOHW-1633S went slightly below 16x. Impressive nonetheless.

 

DVD (double layer)

In double layer speed tests the SOHW-1633S only reached a maximum speed of slightly under 6x.

The SOHW-1633S passed all the benchmarks with flying colors.

Next: DVD Burning

 

 
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