I’ve heard a disturbing rumour that the new 40x LiteOn doesn’t to a great job of writing Audio CDs. It is alleged to create disks that are prone to scratch like noises and jumps.
I’d heard that the LiteOn was not as good at copying protected CDs, but that the quality of the burn for ordinary CDs was fine.
As I’ve recently purchased a 40x LiteOn I’d like to get to the bottom of this.
Could someone put the record straight for me please?
The Lite-On is superior when it comes to backup protected data/games. When it’s down to audio I don’t know since I don’t have the drive (yet ;)).
Can’t see why there should be any problems.
If this is really the case I guess LiteOn will solve it with a firmware-update.
I have an LTR-32123 and it burns audio just fine. No complaints.
Now, if I could just rip CDS…
Thanks for the input.
I have done some limited testing and cannot fault the performance of the LTR-40125S in burning standard audio CDs.
I imagine that if this was a widespread problem then it would be well documented in the forums by now and not just a rumour.
Thanks again.
Can you check your drive if it has the ability to copy copy-protected audio-cds? Apperently the 40sp is the only LiteOn drive which is able to overread into lead-in/-out
For example:
Cactus Data Shield 200, available on Natalie Imbruglia - White Lilies Island, protection can be recognized by the copyright terms of Midbar on the back of the cd-cover.
Key2Audio, available on Shakira - Laundry Services, protection can be recognized by the recordlabel being Sony (or affiliate), a warning on both sides of the cd-cover (“cd can’t be played in pc/mac”) and most of the times it has a Sony DADC logo in the inner ring on the backside of the cd.
Anybody tested this?
I have neither of these albums, but can borrow Shakira from a friend.
Will CloneCD 3.3.4.1 or Nero 5.5.7.8 recognise and copy these?
This from [link http://www.gotapex.com/reviews.php?rev=40x/p2.html /link]
Audio copy protection is just now making itself known in America, with the soundtrack More Fast and Furious being the best known example. MF&F uses Cactus protection to make the audio files appear as 0k tracks. You can still play them, but not in all drives, and ripping becomes impossible in theory. The Plextor choked here; it was unable to even recognize the MF&F disk at all, which made it unplayable. Not a big deal, it’s a crappy disc. But the Lite-On at least saw the 0k tracks and could play them. Also, I was able to rip all but the last track using Exact Audio Copy (EAC); Feurio and Music Match sadly would error out in the attempt. If ripping your music is important and you worry about copy protection, the Lite-On is really your only choice of the two drives.
just try if you can play it in Winamp, Nero, Feurio, EAC, Windows cd-player, etc… but making a copy with CloneCd is also good… my LiteOn LTD163 won’t do anything with Key2Audio, never recognizes a disc…
BTW, no problem copying/ripping More Music from Fast and Furious… it is also Cactus Data Shield 200. No problem here for my Plextors, but again… my LiteOn won’t read anything…
Hmm… interesting article you are referring to, it is a comparison between the 40sp Plextor and 40sp LiteOn
Apparently the Plextor can’t do Cactus Data Shield 200…
BUT…
Apparently the LiteOn can do Cactus Data Shield 200…
If this is true then there is no use in buying the more expensive Plextor!!! It can’t do audioprotections and it can’t do SafeDisck 2.51.021
My old Liteon 1610C copied Shakira’s CD.
My 40125S was making bad audio–skips, clicks, and pops. I was using Taiyo Yuden media and I tried writing at slow speeds, but I was unable to solve the problem.
I didn’t even know about the problem for a week, because I was only burning data, which worked fine at 40x with my media. Then someone on Usenet mentioned the problem, and upon testing I found out my drive did the same. This person was able to get good sounding disks eventually, by matching the right media with the right speed, but nothing I tried worked.
End of story: I exchanged the drive for another and it now burns audio CDs perfectly fine and fast.
Glad to hear that you got the problem sorted DeadReckoning. My Lite-On.
Once I get hold of a copy of the Shakira CD I should be able to duplicate it with CloneCD, but that will duplicate the original with the copy protection in tact. I’ll also try to rip it to MP3 and see what I get.
I just bought a Liteon 40125S and i have had mixed results regarding copying audio. I made a copy of linkin park in less than 3 minutes at 40X and it runs fine. But when i borrowed a friends cd compilation, it keeps on saying that its copyrighted on Nero( s even if its a personal compilation that my friend made) and keeps on making copies with scratching noises on it. I tried several speeds but i still am unsuccesful. Dont know what to make out of the LITEON now. 
There is a lot of variability depending on production date… A March 2002 LTR-40125S works extremely well, but has somewhat noisier operation than a Feb 2002 unit, which has some quirks… Both with the same FW.
thats weird. how can u tell when the drive was made?
Bar code sticker with manufacture date on top of the drive.
which country r u in?
Hmmm… i just pulled my LITEON out (I have a pull out type case) and found that mine was made on FEB, in china. So i guess mine is the “better” type. It is a bit noisy. I will try the same CD that was making the scratching noise on monday on my LACIE 8X scsi office burner and see if it makes a scratchy copy. I will reserve my opinion until monday. I will let you guys know . . .
Finally I got the CD and was able to copy it with CloneCD, although the Lite-On would not recognise it, even from within Clone. Fortunately my DVD did.
I mounted the image with Daemon tools and sucessfully MP3’ed it too.
Originally posted by Orinoco
I’ve heard a disturbing rumour that the new 40x LiteOn doesn’t to a great job of writing Audio CDs. It is alleged to create disks that are prone to scratch like noises and jumps.
I just burned a 99 minutes Audio-CD-R, it works perfect…no scratching at all…but I searched for quality MP3’s first (192 KB/s or more), maybe that made the diference…
I burned it with my Lite-On 40x ofcourse…
Greetzzz,
Sauron