BIOS: Technology Means Business

Would you like to have professional-looking labels on your own DVD/CD discs? Well, Lite-On’s SHW-16H5S is a low-cost (£40) LightScribe-enabled internal ATAPI/E-IDE half-height DVD burner (145x170x41.3mm, 900g) which comes bundled with excellent labelling software (Nero OEM Suite and CyberLink’s Power DVD 5) - everything you need to design and burn your laser-etched disc labels. No hassles with printers, no annoying stickers, no poor handwriting with markers - with LightScribe you can easily create fancy and unique DVD/CD disc labels in a matter of minutes.

LightScribe, a registered trademark of HP, is a direct disc labelling technology that burns text and graphics onto the surface of a CD or DVD using the disc drive’s laser and a specially coated LightScribe disc (one blank disc is supplied with the SHW-16H5S). The technology actually works using a nontoxic chemical which reacts to a LightScribe disc, thereby causing an ‘etch’.

The SHW-16H5S is able to write certified DVD+R DL (Double Layer) media at up to 8x, DVD-R DL (Dual Layer) media at 4x, single layer DVD+R and DVD-R at 16x, rewrite DVD+RW at 8x, rewrite DVD-RW at 6x, and read DVD-ROM media at 16x maximum. In real-world terms, it takes around 6 minutes to backup 4.7GB of data onto a certified single layer DVD+R or DVD-R media. Unfortunately, the SHW-16H5S’s CD recording is less impressive - it writes CD-R media at 48x - which is fine - but rewriting to CD-RW media is done at a maximum of 24x.

There’s even built-in Smart-Burn technology to help prevent buffer-under-run-free function, in addition to Smart-X technology which provides smooth and stable audio CD/VCD/DVD playback and high-performance DAE/VCD/DVD data extraction. The drive also supports fixed packet, variable packet, TAO, SAO, DAO, RAW mode burning and over-burn, as well as both 8cm and 12cm discs.

It can read and write to DVD single/dual layer, DVD-R (3.9GB and 4.7GB), DVD-R multi-borders, DVD+R, DVD+R multi-sessions, DVD-RW and DVD+RW, as well as CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-ROM/XA, Photo-CD, Multi-session, Karaoke-CD, Video-CD, CD-I FMV, CD Extra, CD Plus, CD-R, and CD-RW. Supported transfer modes include PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2 and Ultra DMA mode 4.

You can import your own digital photos or images or use LightScribe-enabled software, which comes with a variety of backgrounds. Available background types are Title, Content, and Full, which refer to how much radial space the label will cover. You can also choose circular or straight text.

Scribe time can be reduced by switching to a faster scribe mode. Instead of Best (which takes the longest), you can use Normal or Draft (which are quickest, but produce lighter visuals). You can also etch less content on your label by using either the Title Only or Title & Contents label option. And because LightScribe burns in concentric rings, using circular text instead of straight text will also speed up your scribe time.

As with most software, you can work on other tasks while LightScribe is in action. The downside is that unlike regular CDs and DVDs, once burned a LightScribe label is final and cannot be re-written. Thankfully, the software’s preview screen lets you see what your label will look like before it is burned. While you can’t erase text or graphics from your label, you can easily add more content to a label that is already burned (you can correctly align content with already existing titles and images). Unfortunately, you can only currently print LightScribe labels in black with greyscale.

No matter what you want to backup - important or personal data from a digital still camera, digital video camcorder, TV and the like - the SHW-16H5S is a good choice for recording large volumes of DVD audio and video. But the plain-looking device is not without its faults. Most noticeable is that its read speed is locked at 12x for DVD-R media, there’s only one single-coloured LED for read/write, re-writing to CD-RW media can only be done up to 24x, and it does not over-speed DVD±R media. But as far as writing quality goes, the drive can hold its own with any other on the block. [8]

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