is Smart Burn = Burn Proof?

[krwell]

I'm thinking about getting a Lite On CDRW. It says it has Smart Burn... is that the same as Burn Proof?


Thanks

 

[MDFusion]

Smart-Burn

Smart-Burn stands for Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for BURNing. Smart-Burn is not just a buffer underrun protection technology like you might think, but a whole system that gives the best quality write available and assures the user that they will not have to worry about coasters or bad quality media. To do this Lite-On has combined media condition checks, variable speed writing, OPC tests and buffer underrun technology. The idea is very similar to Sanyo's FlexSS-BP and Plextor's PoweRec technologies.



Essentially Smart-Burn can handle three different situations. The first case is where the media is listed in the database located in the drive's firmware. If this is the case, the drive will take the writing strategy and speed listed in the firmware's database and use this when writing to the media. The second case is when media is not listed in the database. In this case, the drive goes with a default strategy. It will run some OPC, or Optical Power Calibration, tests to check the characteristics and current conditions of the media. From the results of these tests, the drive can choose the best laser power and speed for the media being used. The last case is when you insert some bad quality media. It will again start with its default strategy, but will use a variable speed. This means that if problems do pop up while it is writing, it may change its writing speed so that the session can complete without any problems.

As I mentioned above, the drive also has some buffer underrun protection. In Lite-On's previous drives they used Sanyo's BURN-Proof technology. This time around they turned to a Taiwanese company called MediaTek. If you have not heard of MediaTek yet, you probably will very soon. MediaTek is quickly becoming a large player in the optical storage chipset industry. Lite-On claims it works as well as BURN-Proof and from my experiences it really does.

Interestingly enough, Nero identifies the drive's Smart-Burn support as BURN-Proof. I did ask Ahead Software about this and they said that there had been a request to leave the buffer protection as BURN-Proof.

This info comes from
CD-R Labs

 

[Sundog]

Similat to burn-proof, but not exactly the same.

 

[krwell]

Wow thanks MDFusion

 

[majewski9]

Smart burn is probaly better since at least on the lite on drives with smart burn carry a premium. I have a Lite On 16x10x40x and it only has burn proof and that works great.