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SEPTEMBER 19, 2007
External 20x Super LightScribe Drive LH-20A1HX
f rom LITE-ON
The chance to take a look at an external version of the LITE-ON DVD/CD drive with LightScribe labeling abilities was too good to miss. I don’t know about you but I hate those labels that you print on special paper, peel off and, using some magic apparatus, attempt to place the label perfectly on the top side of a CD or DVD. Has anyone ever gotten one of those to work? Good for you if you did! The idea of being able to just flip the CD/DVD over in the drive and burn a label onto it is enticing. Let’s see if it works.
The LH-20A1HX from LITE-ON (in stores or on-line from $65.00 to $101.00) was shipped to me for testing as well as some Verbatim LightScribe DVDs and CDs to use. It is important that you know this recording/labeling media costs about twice as much as the non-LightScribe versions we all know and love.
Opening the box I found:
A 20X External DVD drive with Super ALLWrite and LightScribe Features.
Nero 7 Essentials Software
USB Cable
Quick Installation Guide
A vertical Stand
Power Supply
See the LITE-ON website for specifications and downloads.
I plugged the power supply into the wall socket and the drive into one of the Lenovo ThinkPad USB ports. The drive was recognized quickly. I then installed the Nero 7 Essentials Software. So far so good, I was on my way to nifty labels without hassles. I copied a video DVD of a trip we took to Antarctica in 1996. Followed the instructions and flipped the DVD so the recorded side was up and the label side down. I then designed a label by using a stock photo of some ice and added our names, the destination, and the year. It all looked good in the preview. I clicked on print and nothing happened. I will spare you the long search for an answer. I found it in the Lightscribe.com download area. They have a diagnostics download that will find and fix many issues. After it ran I restarted the ThinkPad and had no trouble printing many sample labels.
My first burned label, with a photo and text covering the entire DVD, took 39 minutes even though the software estimated 19. The next full coverage label took 44 minutes and the software estimated 30. A label with only text was completed in 27 minutes. You can expect most labels to take a while to complete. I did create a very simple label using very small text and no background that took only 4 minutes. It is fine for archival labeling purposes but not as impressive as the labels that include photos or screenshots of what is on the DVD. It is possible that the internal version of the LITE-ON drive would take less time to print the LightScribe label.
I found the LightScribe website contained a wealth of information including a number of label templates, the diagnostics mentioned previously, and a great FAQ troubleshooting area for various label burning tools. I had some problems when I attempted to combine a LightScribe label template with text using Nero Essentials “Make Label or Cover” module. The template printed but the text did not. LightScribe does not reproduce color at this time. It does a sort of brassy grayscale. It still was very good but not enough contrast to make it perfect. It is possible to go back to a completed label and add content according to the LightScribe site.
After spending more time reading the FAQ pages on the LightScribe website I found several answers that helped me improve the contrast in the printed label. They required resetting the properties for printing text and backgrounds using Nero Essentials. After changing those I created a second label using the Africa photo collage for comparison. The results were stunning. I suggest making those changes if you want really striking contrast in photos as well as great black text in your LightScribe labels. Of course it takes longer to print them to the DVD/CD but the wait is well worth it.
If you have a recent but older version of a burning software product you may be able to upgrade them for LightScribe labeling use by going to the company’s website. While Nero Essentials v7 is useable I would suggest you consider the more robust full version of Nero or other burning/video software if you plan to do more with video editing/burning.
Of course the LH-20A1HX will burn many DVD or CD types including DVD+R, DVD+RW, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R9, DVD-R9, DVD-RAM, DVD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, and CD-ROM. I tested many of these for data burning in this drive and found it comparable to my other drives. There is no LightScribe DVD R9 media for testing at this point even though the drive will burn media to DVD R9s. The drive specifications do say that 20X burning is only possible when using 20X media. It would be a waste of money but, in a pinch, you can use LightScribe capable media in a non-LightScribe DVD/CD drive.
The External 20x Super LightScribe Drive LH-20A1HX from LITE-ON is a product that works well for me. I like the external version as I can move it from one system to another and it is easy to install. Once I found a way to make the label burning software work using the LighScribe Diagnostics tool it performed as advertised. Changing the properties made the results even better. I have no experience with other LightScribe label capable software or hardware so cannot compare the speed of this drive with others. LITE-ON has created a dependable DVD/CD burner that also makes LightScribe labels that will NOT come unglued.
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