Customer Reviews

Lite-On IHES208 8X Internal Blu-Ray Combo Drive (Black)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Disappointed to find drive rips Blu-Rays at same speed as 4x drive. If this is your use, save your money and buy a slower drive. The bottleneck is clearly drive speed.

Update 12-Jan-2010: Drive is very fast ripping DVDs. However, Blu-Rays rip 20% slower than my 4x LG. Very disappointed with Blu-Ray results. Otherwise, drive is great.

Update 25-Jan-2010: More information about the drive's slow Blu-Ray ripping performance is becoming available. Confirming my observations, there are reports that the shipping firmware limits dual layer Blu-Ray ripping to 4x. This is contrary to the specifications. However, you can increase the speed by using MediaCodeSpeedEdit software. Look for the program on cdfreaks website. With this software, the drive becomes a great performer.

Update: 30-Oct-2010: Drive won't read some commerical recordings. No problem on my older, slower drive. This drive was a real lemon. I lowered the rating to two stars.

Generally speaking, I'm a steadfast fan of Liteon drives. I've heard and read many comments that Liteon is a bargain brand or that they're cheap, but what many people don't know is that for the longest time, Liteon, along with LG, made most drives that were sold under the name-brand names, one classic example being Sony! (Although lately I've read that Liteon has been began outsourcing the manufacturing of some of their drives, which is ridiculous!) So, while others spent more money to get a "better, name-brand" drive, what they were really getting was a Liteon with a different label. Meanwhile, I'd get the same drive at a lower price, usually with bonus features enabled and/or supported from/by the factory, such as DVD book-type setting. Therefore, I've been buying Liteon drives for a few years now, and I've only ever replaced a Liteon drive when updating to new technology. Which leads me to the reason I bought this drive. I upgraded from a Liteon 24X DVD (iHAS424-08 - the one with the mediatech chipset/an actual Liteon drive, unlike the iHAS424-98!) which has been the best, most feature-rich drive I've ever owned. Unfortunately, the new bluray drive only lasted about 3 weeks of total installed time. I only used it to read/rip about 3 blurays and about 5 DVDs. It functioned well during that time until it started being dropped from Windows while reading a disc. The only way to get it to work again was to completely power-off the computer and restart, at which point it would work again but only for a few minutes. So, while it didn't completely die, it was circling the grave not long after first use! So, out of the 10 or 12 I've owned, this became the first Liteon drive that has failed for me.

The Good:

-Made by Liteon, which has been a good brand for me in the past.

-Nice all-around feature set; high disc compatibility, and lightscribe!

-The classic Liteon form factor; super short length compared to other brands!

The Bad:

-Apparently shipping with bluray rip-speed limits in firmware, though workarounds are available and relatively easy to implement...

-Doesn't include Smart-Erase capability.

-It died way too soon; it happens...

The Remarkable: Amazon's RMA service!

When the drive failed, I sent an email to customer service stating the problem succinctly and asked if it was possible to return the item and receive a replacement. To my surprise, less than 4 hours later on the same day, I received an email response that not only stated that I could return the item but actually included a printable, pre-paid return shipping label to use when sending the item back. But the shock didn't end there. It also stated that the replacement would be shipped immediately via one-day shipping at no further cost to me! Sure enough, by the end of the next day, I'd received a new replacement drive! Wow, now that's service, folks! Thanks, Amazon, for going above and beyond for a loyal customer!

The Conclusion:

-Well, I'll use the replacement drive for a while and update this review and hopefully be able to elevate my rating. Come on, Liteon; don't let me down twice!

First things first. This is the full retail package from Lite-On. It includes a silver bezel which is a really nice feature if you have a silver or aluminum case. In fact, it is one of only a couple Blu-ray drives available in North American with a silver bezel.

It does include some OEMed CyberLink software which I didn't really check out, but it is fairly obsolete version 7.x which is surprising since this Lite-On product is pretty new. (The current CyberLink software is 9.x.) It also includes a SATA cable if you don't have one lying around. The cable is a basic, cheap one, and you will probably want to spring for one of the right length and with locking tabs on it.

Next, unlike the freakish "photoshopping" of the picture that Amazon displays, it does have LightScribe, although I did not test this functionality. Technically, this is an 8X BD-ROM drive and 16X DVD+/-RW drive. Synthetic benchmarks that I ran showed it is at least this fast. It is noticeably faster than other 16X DVD drives that I have from Pioneer.

Unfortunately, I am used to Pioneer drives. Compared to the Pioneer 5X BD-ROM drive, this is very cheaply made. To give you an idea, the Pioneer drive weighs over 35 oz while this item weighs just under 25 oz. Although the tray operation is quieter than Pioneers', it's case is thin, and it is loud. Even using Nero's DriveSpeed to slow it down to an 8X DVD, it is noticeably louder than a Pioneer at 16X when reading the majority of my media, which is DVD. When playing movies, the noise is a definite distraction and an ultimate deal-breaker.

In the end, I went with the Pioneer because it is not only quieter but also a better looking drive, and I have plenty of silver bezels for those as well as Lian-Li aluminum case bezels. If pure performance is your bag, then this is a very technically competent drive and you get LightScribe features over comparable offerings. If you don't care about the silver bezel, get the OEM version which is cheaper (but does not include the bezel or the cable or the software) because the software is worth passing on.

I used it to rip blu-ray discs to my NAS. It does the job quicker than the LG drive in my HTPC. No complaints. Oh wait, one complaint. Occasionally the drive doesn't resume properly from S3 sleep and the computer has to be restarted in order for Windows 7 to recognize any disc in the drive.

You know what they say, All good things come down in price for those who wait, well it finally did.

I ended up getting one of these for my Wife's Dell Precision 490 workstation, since this was one of the first Blu-Ray Burners that finally broke the $100 barrier and it was a Lite-On so I decided to go ahead and give it a try. It was easy to install and worked first time up with no problems.

It came with the following...

The BD-BDRW unit with both silver and black front piece casing

Bundled Software with Cyberlink\s 6 Suite (Which includes the burning Software and Power DVD 8 player)

SATA Red patch cord (To plug the drive into the MOBO)

Screws

ROM manual ejector pin (To open the front piece of the ROM without it being plugged in)

Well worth the 80 Bones I paid for it and would recommend buying another.

Computer Specs:

DELL Precision 490

Windows 7 Ultimate SP1

Two XEON Dual Core 2.0ghz processors

10GB Fully Buffered RAM

ATI 4650 1GB Video Card

Lite On BD-BRDW

ASUS DVDRW

Internal Memory Stick Reader

2 TB Western Digital Hard Drive

24 inch LED-LCD ASUS Monitor

1GB Internal NIC (Intergrated)

Logitech MK550 Wireless Keyboard and Mouse

I am an it professional with over 20 years of experience and this burner was easy to install, software went smooth as well.

Can't fault the player as it's the software and the discs that gave me the grief. It came with an older version of power dvd but wouldn't play some of my blu-ray discs correctly. Had to take some drastic measures to fix it but I'm good to go now. Too bad those scumbag studios seem to increase my desire to do things not to their liking by their implementation of copy protection mumbo jumbo...why's it so hard to be a paying customer?

Disappointed to find drive rips Blu-Rays at same speed as 4x drive. If this is your use, save your money and buy a slower drive. The bottleneck is clearly drive speed.

Update 12-Jan-2010: Drive is very fast ripping DVDs. However, Blu-Rays rip 20% slower than my 4x LG. Very disappointed with Blu-Ray results. Otherwise, drive is great.

Update 25-Jan-2010: More information about the drive's slow Blu-Ray ripping performance is becoming available. Confirming my observations, there are reports that the shipping firmware limits dual layer Blu-Ray ripping to 4x. This is contrary to the specifications. However, you can increase the speed by using MediaCodeSpeedEdit software. Look for the program on cdfreaks website. With this software, the drive becomes a great performer.

My computer was not compatible with this drive, so I had to request a refund. Fortunately, the retailer was accomodating.