Customer Reviews

Liteon 4X Blu Ray Reader Black Retail Pack

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

[See updates below]

Summary: At time of writing, it is cheaper to install this drive in a reasonably powerful HTPC than to buy a blu-ray disc player, assuming you have the HTPC already. As with any new technology, there are problems; these will be worked out as the technology matures. You should upgrade the firmware (CP56 recommended). The bundled software, PowerDVD, has limitations and problems which you can work around.

NOTE: This drive is a READER only. It does not write any kind of disc. This is stated clearly in the product description and I am not complaining: it is much cheaper than a writer, and fine for my HTPC.

THE DRIVE

The drive itself works fine so far (one month). As a very standard optical drive, it is as easy to install as any DVD drive. SATA is required for this model, of course, but the advantages of SATA is one reason I bought this drive. In operation, the drive is reasonably quiet.

Blu-ray content requires a reasonably powerful computer. My do-it-yourself HTPC is based on an Intel E6600, an Asus/Nvidia EN9600 video card, and Windows Vista SP1. These are adequate for quality playback on most discs, but I see a stutter occasionally (no more than once every 3 seconds) on Batman Begins, but not others. Blu-ray requires a video card and display or TV that supports HDCP. I was pleased to find that my 3-year-old Sharp Aquos LCD TV does support HDCP; I assume most or all modern LCD TVs and monitors do now.

My drive came with firmware version CP54 installed. I had two serious problems that were corrected by upgrading to CP56 (visit lite-on's support page):

1. Windows Media Center complained that the region number was incorrect, so I was unable to play a conventional Region 1 (USA) DVD, even after setting Region 1 in the control panel.

2. Using PowerDVD 7.3, I was able to play blu-ray movies for awhile, but then one day, every time I tried, I got an Information box that told me that certain key parts of the program needed to be updated (sorry, I don't have the exact message). It gave me the opportunity to update, to which I said yes, and after a brief pause, it said it was successful. Pressing the Play button again put me through the same sequence; I was no longer able to play movies I had already played on the same equipment.

Since both problems were corrected by upgrading the firmware, I recommend that all users upgrade to CP56 or newer by visiting lite-on's support page.

THE BUNDLED SOFTWARE

PowerDVD 7.3 BD, two channel edition, is included. It is capable of playing some blu-ray discs (Blade Runner, Stargate), and not others (Batman Begins).

Some people complain that the two-channel edition does not provide surround sound. For sure it does not provide Dolby Digital 5.1, but I do hear surround effects on my system, at least for Blade Runner blu-ray edition. There are two possible explanations: it could be that the movie includes a two-channel soundtrack with Dolby Pro-Logic (an early surround technology that is inferior to Dolby Digital 5.1); it could be that my updated Accurus digital processor is simulating surround sound in the same way it expands stereo music into full surround. I don't know which, but the surround I heard on the two-channel edition sounds appropriately surrounded, and comments from others on a different forum report the same thing (suggesting that the Pro-Logic theory is correct).

When I start Batman Begins (blu-ray edition), I get the piracy warning and the Warner logo, followed by an icon suggesting a disc read, then a black screen. For most movies, the black screen lasts a second or two, then the movie begins. For this movie, it stays black, and the application appears to be hung (can only terminate with Windows Task Manager). I worked around this problem by installing the trial (30-day) version of PowerDVD 8 Ultra, and it played fine, so I believe this is a problem with PowerDVD 7.3 BD, or some incompatibility with Windows.

One feature I really like is the speed control. You can set playback speed to 1x, 1.1x, 1.2x, 1.5x, 2x and higher, and similar speeds for reverse. For forward speeds less than 2x, it still plays the audio! but in a sped-up fashion. When watching The Wire (HBO series), we have often wanted to replay the previous episode, and this allows us to review some parts carefully and others more quickly.

One feature I really dislike is the permanent splash screen, which is visible at all times that the program is active but a movie is not playing/paused. It is bright red, shows their logo in a large size, and includes a cheesy picture. They should allow us to have a black background, or to substitute our own image.

You can upgrade to PowerDVD 8 Ultra for eighty five dollars (which is ten dollars less than if you bought it without upgrading from the bundled version). For me, there are just a few reasons for doing so: bug fixes (e.g. a fix to allow me to watch Batman Begins), full digital sound including some modern formats, and DVD-Audio (but: NO SACD!!).

There is a whole lot of stuff in PowerDVD 8 that I will never use. I wish there was a simple blu-ray CODEC that would allow those discs to be played through Windows Media Player instead.

I have found only one alternative blu-ray player software offering: WinDVD from Corel. It is on sale for eighty dollars. Unfortunately, their trial version does not allow you to watch blu-ray, and I am unwilling to take a chance without knowing it works properly. No doubt in the future there will be better alternatives.

While I think that the PowerDVD upgrade is too expensive, the cost of the drive plus the upgrade still makes a less expensive option for watching blu-ray than buying a dedicated blu-ray DVD player.

UPDATE: Windows Media Center again complains about a standard DVD with Region 1, even though Region one is set, which forces me to use PowerDVD. The only thing that has changed since it worked before is playing a blu-ray movie (with PowerDVD). I suppose it is possible that... nah, Cyberlink wouldn't disable the free competition, would they?

UPDATE: I have seen the hardware/software refuse to believe that a disc was present in the drive, even after open/close to check. The solution is a power cycle of the computer. I saw this once before writing the original review (but forgot) and was reminded of it when it happened again yesterday.

If I were writing this review today, I would call it 2 1/2 or three stars because of the various bugs that it seems I have to live with. Perhaps the firmware will improve eventually.

UPDATE: The BluRay of "The Dark Knight" is not recognized by this drive. The player says no disc is in the drive, and that is confirmed by the Windows Explorer, even when the disc IS in the drive. "The Dark Knight" advises getting the latest firmware for your player, but the LiteOn site has a version from March 2008, which does not correct this problem. On encountering this error, I tried inserting another BluRay disc, which was recognized as before, so restarting the computer won't help (as it sometimes does). I would now rate this two stars for lack of working firmware for latest releases.

It works well. Easy install. But I have a 3.2 gig northwood and the first movie I tried to play kept freezing so I checked the CPU usage. 95%. I checked the specs and the minimum is 3.4 gig pentium D. Any core2duo is also supposed to work. But don't except this to work with a celeron or Pentium 4 because it is not going to. I'm kind of surprised that it takes so much CPU usage.

Update: The video card I had in my 3.2 gig system was an ATI X1950 pro and it still wouldn't play blu ray movies. The computer was five years old and agp, so I got a refurbed dell 530 out of the dell outlet with a Q6600 in it and put an 8800gt in there. I like to play 3D games and I was looking to upgrade anyway. This was a good excuse to push me over the edge. Now with the Q6600 and the 8800gt, I am using about 10% CPU when playing blu ray movies. The drive is nice, it wouldn't play every movie, but a free update of the software from cyberlink fixed that.

If you're building a new system, I recommend you consider another drive. This drive primarily has problems with Vista and new SATA controllers. I paired this up with a Asus microATX P5Q-EM motherboard with the latest firmware and drivers. The latest Lite-On firmware (CP56) didn't resolve any of the problems I had below.

(1) When Vista would wake from sleep, drive would be missing
(2) Drive would occasionally lock-up and make a "buzzing" sound when a Blu-ray disk was entered - this never happened with a standard DVD.
(3) Drive would occasionally lose power; could not open tray; required power to be unplugged from PSU to resolve.
(4) Drive wouldn't play some Blu-ray disks - probably 50% failure rate.
(5) Region code would occasionally disappear; preventing the drive from playing regular DVDs. Research indicated that firmware version CP56 would solve the region problem but it didn't work for me.

In summary, this drive required constant reboots to work, failed to play 50%+ of blu-ray disks, didn't work with Vista sleep (or at least the controller on my new MB), and took a frustrating amount of time to troubleshoot. I don't think I'll ever buy a Lite-On Product again.

Plays BD movies very well and is quiet. Cyberlink now has a PC "assessment tool" you can download and run against your PC that will give you feedback on missing drivers,whether your CPU is fast enough etc. It told me I had to update my Nvidia graphics drivers..however my problem was that I didn't have all my HDCP harware in place. As soon as I made an HDMI connection from PC to TV everything went fine.

I agree with earlier comments about the ugly splash screen from Cyberlink, but can live with it. The comments about 2 channel sound where helpful to know. However an SPDF Optical connection from my soundcard into my reciever sounded plenty surround-like (!)

My only dissappointment is with the physical size of the front bezel of the unit. The tray is the full width of the unit as oppossed to being a little less wide and sliding out from wihin the unit. As a result the trim on my case encases the unit..but the tray can't slide out then. I may return it for this reason (so I can get a unit that enables my space requirements) - however I have been very satisfied with all other aspects of the drive and Software.

Don't expect to run this device on a two- or three-year-old system. You need XP or Vista, 4 GB of RAM, a modern video card, and a Core 2 Duo or better to really exercise this thing. Given these caveats, If you're building a new PC, or doing a major upgrade binge, get the Lite-On DH-401S-08 Blu-Ray drive as a key add-on. If you have any type of wide-format LCD, 17" and up, you'll get a lot more entertainment value out of your new PC. (My specs are given below.)

Here's how to do it: When you install the Lite-On drive and software, go on the Web and get the latest updates to the bundled CyberLink software. It's likely that the drive will not play movies out of the box unless you do this. Be persistent, because CyberLink doesn't always make the updates terribly easy to find. (A straightforward Google search helped.) Also, if you can afford it, get the AnyDVD HD software, which allows you to mount Blu-Ray movie discs on a virtual drive in the system tray, and removes many compatibility problems. (If you have a monitor that is already HDCP-compliant, which I recommend, you can skip AnyDVD HD, which costs up to $120, making it difficult to justify.)

Once you've updated the CyberLink software, pop your disk in. In my system, Blu-Ray discs have never taken more than ten seconds to initialize. Once I got the software squared away (which in the end wasn't that hard), my experience has been absolutely flawless. The best my system can do on a fairly old Dell 2001fp 20.1" monitor is 720p - and yet the quality is SUBSTANTIALLY better than anything you've ever seen on standard-def. Visuals are just stunning. The bundled software supports only stereo HD sound without an expensive upgrade, which I find I can live without quite comfortably. A 24" or better HDCP-compliant monitor is definitely my next purchase. (I may revise this review after I've done that.)

I ***highly*** recommend this drive. If you know what you're doing, you can add a whole new dimension to your PC experience. System specs: Lian-Li V350B uATX case, Asus P5E-VM HDMI, e6750@3.48 GHz (8x435@1.42V), 8 GB G.Skill DDR2-1000, 2x250GB Seagates in RAID 0, Lite-On BD-ROM, Pioneer dual-layer, HD 3870 512MB, Vista 64-bit.

Comes with Cyberlink PowerDVD player software for Windows. This device worked OK in Vista x64 and in Linux. The drive is comparatively quiet. It had trouble reading slightly scratched blu-ray discs from Netflix, but my impression is that blu-ray discs put more data on the disc so their tolerance for scratching is lower. The replacement discs worked fine, so the drive is OK. Grabbing audio CD data from the drive is fast, too. I'm happy with the purchase.

This device is a Philips product branded as Lite-On. It's a good solid drive and comes with everything you need to get going. SATA cable, BD software. You'll want to check out the Minimum Requirements for the Cyberlink PowerDVD 7.3 software if you intend to play Blu-Ray movies. If you have trouble watching movies, don't blame Lite-On. Your PC may not be up to speed.

For watching Blu-Ray movies you'll want a nVidia Purevideo HD capable video card or ATI equivalent. Make sure your video drivers are up-to-date. If you're using your PC with a digital monitor or HDTV you'll need to be sure they are HDCP capable too. I have a AMD x2 3800+, and a GForce 8600GTS and it has trouble keeping up on MPEG4 50GB Blu-Ray movies. I can get things to play smooth with some tweaking, but beware. If you thinking of using an old single core PC with a non Purevideo HD video card... forget it!

The drive is quiet and reads discs like a champ. The PowerDVD software is a huge bonus!

I purchased this drive used from a seller on Marketplace and well I couldn't be happier. Came with the Cyberlink Power DVD Blu-ray Edition Software. The software works just great. The drive runs great, the Movies look Great, and the sound is awesome considering that I'm using my PC's(hp Pav Elite m9300z) Coax(spdif) connection to my Sony STR-K790 Reciever. I get only 5.1 DD or DTS 5.1 onl most movies, except for ground hog day which I only get PCM 48 (gotta use Prologic II fro that one)

Good Blu-Ray Drive. SATA IS VERY FAST AND easy to setup.

I bought this for my home theater PC so that I could watch blu-ray movies without having to buy a separate blu-ray unit or an HDMI switch. Unfortunately I needed a new video card in order to have enough power to watch blu-ray movies. The drive front bezel was too large to fit through the opening on my media PC case and the button placement was just enough off that the button placement on my media PC case doesn't actually hit the button. The bezel comes off so this was easily solved, though does leave me slightly concerned about getting dust into the drive. However once I had a suitably powerful video card I've watched a number of movies and enjoy the crisper quality.

All my (only) three blu-ray discs played without problems (Blade Runner, Celine Dion and Shakira).

I took one star out of it, because it DID NOT read DUAL LAYER DVDs I have recorded here (from Ridata). Other DVDs and CDs media read normally.

I even updated its firmware to the latest version. But still didn't read my recorded DL DVDs. And... strangely, at Lite-On site, the firmware available for this drive says it DOES NOT read DVD-RAM also... as I don't have any media like that, I can't tell much...

But it is not a big problem, because in my computer I have a CD/DVD recorder (from LG) and it reads all CD and DVD formats.