The 48x Lite-On comes packed with features, but there is one that really stands out as it is one feature you just can't live without. This feature is called Buffer Under-run Protection. First seen in Plextor CD-RWs, the feature is a life saver and pretty much eliminates the dreaded buffer under run errors we once got with the 16x and below drives.

     Buffer Under-run Protection is part of Lite-On's Smart-Burn technology. Smart-Burn is the abbreviation of Smart Monitoring & Adapting Recording Technology for Burning. Smart-Burn technology is known by many different names, but whatever you call it, it is the single most important feature on a burner today. When this technology was first introduced, it all but eliminated errors and buffer under runs while burning a disk. This technology helps maintain optimum laser power calibration while burning and will even decrease burning speeds when encountering poor or damaged media or high temperatures. Most importantly, if you system should pause and interrupt the burning process, such as by opening a program causing strain on the system, the burner will pause and then resume where it left off once your system returns to normal operation.

     Another great feature is SMART-X. SMART-X is the abbreviation of Smart Monitoring & Adjusting Read-speed Technology for eXtraction. SMART-X technology helps the drive rip music/VCD data as fast as possible with less errors, even on a poor quality media such as dirty or scratched media. The drive will estimate if the ripped data will result in audio noise or interruption and will reduce the rip speed to achieve more reliable data. SMART-X provides you with the fastest rip speed as possible, on the other hand, if you just want to listen music or watch movie directly, it is not necessary for the drive to maintain a high speed to read data. The drive will automatically  work under a lower speed to maintain better playability.

     This drive also features VAS (Vibration Absorber System). VAS is used to reduce the vibration and noise during normal operation. Another unique feature of the Lite-On burners is they use a flash ROM for convenient in the field upgrades. Lite-On CD-RW drives have also been known to "overclock" quite easily by flashing the ROM. I'm not going to explain how this is done because it is something you should do at your own risk, but it is possible to turn a slower drive into a faster drive by simply flashing the ROM. Very cool...