Liteon lvw models reliability

[Zaphod_Beeblebrox]

I bought a LVW 5001 (I think it was 5001) about one and a half years ago, the circutry died after 3 months (minimal use) and the warranty agent lost the unit which took six months to resolve, meanwhile I bought a video capture card and only use that video backup etc now, the warranty agent replaced the unit with a 5005 which was never used except to test it when I brought it home and to play the odd DVD on and to broadcast television throughout the house with one of those TV sharing units, the 5005 quickly became unable to play new DVD's at all ,, I thought I would see how it was working a few days ago and it would not format the original disk that came with it and then refused to play anyhthing since. I was quite anoyed as I use it to with a unit that broadcasts video throughout the house and it is ideal as it will play video and free to air as well as any AV input (Pay TV).
I fixed it by replacing the burning unit with a liteon DVD burner I was using in my PC (also unhappy with that also,,, and I've been a fan of liteon from the first) ,.. so I can still watch DVD's elaswhere in the house... but I think the reliability of these units is woeful in my experience

[Keith Watson]

Like you I have doubts about the reliability of the Liteon LVW-500X recorders. I have four of them, a 5001, two 5005's (different versions) and a 5007. All of them have given me fits from time to time. Only the first one, the 5001, cost what I consider serious money. The others I bought for about 50% to 25% of the cost of the first one.

Anyway, I have found that I have had to reload the firmware from time to time, usually after a power bump. The problems encountered would vary.

After about 10 months of moderate use with the earlier model 5005 it would not read, record or format DVD+R/RW discs. However, it would do just fine with DVD-R/RW discs and CD's. That same unit developed a tendency to score any DVD placed into it after I had it for about 6 months (more about this later). The eventual fix for this unit was to remove the DVD drive in the 5001 unit and place it in the 5005 and reflash the firmware. So far this unit has been fine.

A similar condition of not writing DVD+RW occurred with the newer version of my 5005. Simply reflashing the firmware corrected this.

I bought a display model of the LVW-5007 for a clearance price and had a lot trouble getting the builtin TV-Guide to work correctly. After upgrading the firmware twice it now works correctly. For some strange reason this unit locks up for no apparent reason and appears to be more finicky about the quality of the DVD+RW discs used in it. When it locks up the only way to get control of it is to unplug the power cord. This has caused problems because afterwards the drive might not load a good recorded DVD. Like with the other units, simply reflashing the unit has corrected the problem so far.

Now for the problem of the scored DVD discs. After removing the good 5001 DVD drive that was used in one of the 5005 units, I installed the bad drive in the 5001. The scoring problem was still there. An visual inspection did not show anything wrong that I could see. However, while testing the 5001 without the main cover on I found that placing pressure on top of the drive at the spindle location changed the sound coming from the drive. Without pressure it sounded like the disc was wobbling in the drive, probably the source of the scoring of the discs. Some folded cardboard, when placed between the metal shield and the drive's plastic housing, reduced the wobbling sound and stopped the scoring of the discs. The amount of cardboard was a trial and error effort because the 5001 cover, when installed, will also put some pressure on the metal shield. Too much pressure causes the tray gear train to make noises when ejecting and loading.

Finially, I bought the Liteon units because of cost and because the firmware could be changed to get around macrovision and add the three hour LP mode. For superior recording results I rely on my Panasonic and Toshiba harddrive recorders. They are much more reliable and give better recording results as well.

[pinetop]

I had two 5005s both were problem childs. Both went back to Kmart. Ended up getting a great deal on a Sony RDR-GX7, I couldn't be happier. It doesn't record to every DVD format, it will not make a VCD, or a ill playin audio CD. It just makes great DVD-Rs.
I love my Liteon burner, but will never buy a Liteon DVD Recorder.