Product Reviews

DVDs are a cheap and convenient way of sharing your home videos or backing up your files. If you only occasionally burn a DVD, then it may not matter how long it takes a DVD writer to burn a single disc. But if you regularly write large numbers of discs, then you can save a lot of time by using a fast DVD writer.

LiteOn's SuperAllWrite LH-20A1P is the first internal DVD writer we've seen that claims to write single-layer discs at 20x. However, even 18x rated DVD writers can only burn DVDs at an average speed of 10x or perhaps 11x. This is because all DVD writers are rated according to their maximum write speed, and this is a speed that they only reach when burning at the fast-spinning edge of a disc. This means that a well-engineered

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drive with good overall performance can best faster rated competitors.

The LiteOn neatly proves this point. The SuperAllWrite managed just 9.3x in our DVD-R benchmark and 9.4x in our DVD+R test. Thankfully, it was more impressive when writing to DVD+R DL discs, which it managed at 5.7x and it reached a speed of 5.5x in our DVD-R DL test. This puts it among the quickest dual-layer drives we've seen. Writing to DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs didn't throw up any surprises, though the LiteOn was very quick writing to CD-R discs.

A copy of Ahead's Nero Recode software is bundled with the SuperAllWrite. This allows you to recompress a two-layer DVD movie, so it'll fit onto a single-layer DVD, as long as the original is not copy-protected. Most DVD writers don't include this useful tool. Nero 7 Express Essentials is included for burning DVDs and Nero ShowTime 3 Essentials is provided for watching DVDs. The other accessories included in the box are an audio cable, a generous choice of three differently coloured fascias and mounting screws.

This DVD writer is fast at writing two-layer DVDs and comes with some good software. It's cheap too, costing a mere £27, which is very reasonable for a boxed, non-OEM product. But if you use 4.7GB DVDs more often than the 8.5GB variety we recommend that you look elsewhere.