Customer Reviews

LITE-ON 4x Blu-ray Disc SATA Internal Optical Drive iHOS104

5 star:		(30)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

I bought this drive as a 2nd drive in my computer, with the added ability to play Blu-ray discs. For the price it really can't be beat, especially since it includes good software that costs retail almost as much as the drive. It's also a very quiet drive. So far it plays everything I stick in it, with no problems. The picture on my new 23" HP 1080p monitor is drop-dead gorgeous and very stable. You do need a decent video card to use this drive, but the one that came with my new HP has a dedicated 512 mb of memory and works fine. It also has an HDMI output.

The only minus I can say about the BD drive is that it came with an SATA cable, but no power conversion adapter.

I was very skeptical about a BluRay drive that costs a little over $60 when everything out there is alost twice that.

I got the drive for a computer that is connected to my 46" TV to play my Netflix bluray rentals. The drive comes with some software but I did not install it because I had my own newer version of PoweDVD.

I played maybe 7 blurays with no issues whatsoever. Highly recommended for the price.

P.S.: The drive is not noisy either...

I have been looking for a good and inexpensive BD-ROM for quite sometime now(almost 1 yr+) and I am sure I got the right one

LITEON brand is not something would give me a lot of faith as far as product quality is concerned specially after reading lot of bad review for their eariler BD Drives but I saw quite a few good reviews of this newer model on [...] which convinced me to try this drive and I am really happy with it since I start using it a month back.

This Drive is fast, very quite and stable. It also comes with PowerDVD software which is pretty much what you will need to play Bluray on your PC(along with a compatible video card and monitor).

My title says it all

Great drive for the price.

Use "MAKE MKV" to convert main movie to mkv file [FREE SOFTWARE]

Use "Ripbot" to compress and encode using H.264/AVC codec [FREE SOFTWARE]

Final output is a file 1/3 size of original with pretty good HD quality

Summary:
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* you might need to purchase a power cable adapter (details below)
* device installs easily, is quiet, and works well with all DVDs, blu-rays, 3D blu-rays I threw at it.
* review does NOT include the PowerDVD software provided with the device. (used ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre instead)

IMPORTANT: this is a Blu-ray READER. I saw people complaining they cannot write with the device. If you need something to WRITE blu-rays or DVDs, this device is NOT for you.

Test Environment:
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* Win7 64bit home PC (Intel Q6600 Core2 quad 3GHz, 8GB RAM, NVidia 460GTX)
* regular movie DVDs (NTSC), 2D and 3D blu-rays

Details:
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I purchased the drive to add blu-ray reading capability to my PC which already has a LITE-ON DVD reader/writer installed. The device was factory packaged in a sturdy box inside a frame of eggshell cartons which provided good protection. The box contained:

* LITE-ON SATA blu-ray reader drive (factory mounted with black front bezel)
* 4 screws
* standard length SATA data cable
* DVD with software
* user guide
* silver front bezel (to replace the black factory mounted bezel if needed)

Installation:
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installation was very easy. I simply opened up my computer case, and screwed the device into an empty full size bay. The SATA cable was long enough to reach from the second bay from the top of my medium tower case (Antec 900) to the farthest end on the motherboard where the SATA port I wanted to use is located. The cable should be long enough for most applications. If you, however, are using a full-size tower like e.g. a Coolermaster HAF or Antec 1200, you should check whether the regular SATA data cable is long enough.

IMPORTANT:
check whether your computer's power supply has a SATA power plug available to use for the blu-ray reader. If not, you need to purchase an adapter cable (to be able to use the "regular" power plugs in your computer):

adapter cable 4-pin molex (female) to SATA

for example: "StarTech 6in 4 Pin Molex to SATA Power Cable Adapter" from Amazon)

I just went to our local electronics store to get one ($2.99)

Getting Started:
----------------
Once the bluray-reader was installed, my system booted without problems, and the device showed up correctly in the SATA boot menu. My OS (Win7 64 bit) loaded without problems as well, and installed drivers for the device. I went to the LITE-ON website, downloaded their firmware update utility, and updated the firmware.

RECOMMENDED:
At the time of purchase the drive came with outdated firmware. Go to the Lite-On website[...] select your country, and click on "Download". Select "Optical Storage", then "iHOS104". Then click on "Utilities", and get their "SmartPack" automated firmware upgrading utility.
The utility tries to install itself to run each time at Windows start. Disable that option in the utility since you don't need to run it frequently.

Then upgrade your firmware.

(I didn't try using the device with its existing firmware. It might work just fine. My personal experience though is to always update firmware/drivers/etc)

Using the device:
-----------------
I didn't install the software that came with the device, but used ArcSoft TotalMedia Theatre instead which I already had. I tried out several DVDs and blu-rays, and had no problems. The device is fast, and very quiet. I did not experience stoddering, or any other visual/audio impediments. The device stays cool even after several hours of playing.

The device also works well with 3D blurays (you need a 3D capable video card/tv for that).

Overall after using the device frequently within the last 2 days, my experience is very positive. If anything to the contrary happens, I'll update this review.

Update:
The drive also works well in my new Intel i7-based system (on an ASUS P8Z68 Deluxe motherboard connected to a SATA 2 port. I didn't try it with the SATA 3 ports). During the 3 weeks of using the blu-ray reader in my new system, I have happily no problems to report.

I got the drive a couple days ago... about 3 days earlier than the estimate, go Amazon. It works quite well. I did have some problems playing the movie "Funny People" and I think it has to do with the DTS decoding. The audio would drop out for about 3 seconds every 25 minutes or so. Not sure if it's the drive, software or disk though. Oh on the previews (also DTS) the audio could cut every 1 minute. And by the end of the movie the drops stopped so maybe it was a disk issue.
I was really concerned about the PowerDVD Version 8 as i didn't want to spend another 100 bucks on software. I have a HTPC and it's hooked to a denon receiver (Not capable of HD audio formats) and fancy B&W speakers. When i installed PowerDVD it says OEM 2Ch for the audio. However i've tested Many DVD's in Dolby and DTS 5.1 and it have not problems decoding. Dolby 5.1 in blu-ray works great and is a nice upgrade in quality and richness from DVD. However that one blu-ray had the issues with DTS decoding. With dvd's it seamed like DTS was a bit dead but i'm not sure how much they will have only DTS encoded movies in Blu-ray since Dolby seems to be the 'gold standard' if you will.
The other thing is i haven't figured out how to integrate PowerDVD into Windows Media Center, if i can do that it will be sweet.
Anyway good drive quick loading (just a few seconds at the start). I have an older 37inch 1080i tv and didn't think the picture would be much different than upscaled dvd, but even my wife who isn't into the details of all this stuff comments when we watch shows. It has truly upgraded my movies and for a more reasonable price than a stand alone player! Now for a 1080p projector and HD audio receiver... the fun never ends :)

Purchased one of these drives for my girlfriend's birthday in April. Tried installing on two different PCs and the eject button didn't work. Drive was recognized by BIOS and Windows on both systems (XP and 7), but as the tray cannot be ejected it really doesn't work all that well. Contacted Lite-On support and they blamed Amazon shipping. Got a replacement from Amazon with the same issue. I don't believe the packing was insufficient to protect the drive I just believe they have quality control issues.

In Short:
While the cost of this drive is well below the competitors, the effort of going through testing and getting replacements outweighs the cost savings by a considerable margin.

I have been using the drive for over a month now. Have ran about 8 different blu rays discs through it so far. All have worked with no problems. Hooked up easily. Comes with two different colored fronts. Also comes with a CD of PowerDVD 8 but only the basic version. This gives you 2 channel audio only. I only have 2 speakers so that is fine by me. You get 25% off if you want the upgrade to multi channel audio.

The only issue is the audio seems to pop when i pause and unpause.

I was skeptical on the cheap player and blu ray in general but I have been very impressed so far. I have a 24 inch monitor running 1920x1080 and it looks fantastic.

To make sure your machine has all the right parts before ordering check out this free tool.
[...]

works if you have other component hdcp ready, just need to download the powerdvd update, and plays my disc master and commander trouble free, awesomeness. 70 something bucks flat, no need to purchase additional software.

samsung syncmaster 204bw
intel i5 760
radeon 4890
4g ram
win 7 64 bit

Very solid drive for the price. I didn't care for the bundled software(powerdvd 8). Works great through my NVidia GTS250 on a 32" samsung 1080P.