LiteOn LDW-851S DVD +/- R Review - Conclusion
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One of the reasons I bought the LiteOn LDW-851S was LiteOn's history of making high quality, high speed, and tweakable drives. Through firmware updates -- similar to BIOS upgrades for motherboards and video cards -- the LDW-851S can be modified to include the ability to read media faster, automatically set book type (involves setting bits on the disk so other drives will view it as a DVD-ROM instead of a DVD+R/W), improve media compatibility, and most recently adding +R double layer writing ability.
Here's a glimpse of what the modified firmware can do, notice the red circled area.
NOTE These firmware updates are not supported by LiteOn, so using them will void the drive's warranty. I have tried many versions of the modified firmware and have had very good luck. I haven't been able to try the new double layer functionality simply because I cannot find reasonably priced DVD-9 media. Those interested in double layer functionality might want to investigate the more expensive SOHW-832S, which provides double layer support. (It's great the drives can do it, but where's the media?)
In short, I have been extremely happy with this drive. Any features it didn't have out of the box that I wanted have been provided either through LiteOn's frequent firmware releases or by third-party modified firmware. I have burned well over 50 disks with this drive and –- thankfully -- have not made a coaster yet. LiteOn has worked on improving the quality of the burns as well as the compatibility with new media as it is released. All the movies I have made or backed up have been easily read by standalone DVD player, a Philips Q50, and by an Xbox with the DVD kit. Remember that media will play a big part in DVD compatibility as well.
Highs
- Outstanding community support of LiteOn drives, particularly the LDW-851S
- No coasters
- Fast 8x burns of +R media
- Good quality burns, low error rates
- Price
- Ability to backup copy protected media
Lows
I highly recommend this drive for anyone looking to back up a high volume of data or back up their current DVDs. Without any reservation, we have awarded the LiteOn LDW-851S the coveted Dev Hardware Recommended award.
For more information on the third party communities check out the following sites:
http://codeguys.rpc1.org
http://www.cdfreaks.com
Thank you for reading this review of the LiteOn LDW-851S. If you have any questions or comment, please feel free to mention them in the comments section at the bottom of this page, or contact me at Memphist0@DevHardware.com. You can also find more computer hardware help on our forums, or visit our front page for more hardware news and information.
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