The iHAS524 DVD writer is Lite-On's first optical scribing drive that features the LabelTag technology. But we will get to that later. The product was announced earlier this year, namely in spring, but only now, nearing the winter holidays, does it finally reach the European market segment. The product is designed as an inexpensive way to create your own optical disk labels, without the use of additional software.

The specifics of the drive are the following: DVD+R/-R disks can be written at maximum speeds of 24x, 12x is the speed for DVD-RAM and DVD+R/-R DL, while scribing DVD+RW can only be achieved at the lower speed of 8x and only 6x speeds can be achieved when inscribing DVD-RW disks. Still, the drive has a good reliability provided by the 2MB of buffer memory and its SATA interface.

The two special features of this device are the integrated SmartErase and LabelTag functions. The SmartErase is an easy and effective way of erasing data found on written disks. The LabelTag is, however, the more interesting ability of this drive. The LabelTag gives end-users the possibility to put circular text labels right on the data side of a regular single-layer DVD or CD, and the labeling itself is actually done simultaneously with the data-writing process, which makes it quick, easy and convenient.

Not only that, but there are no compatibility issues involved with this procedure. All tagged disks will still be easily read by other optical drives. The iHAS524 is the first Lite-On DVD burner to boast such a technology, which is especially impressive considering that this product is aimed for the lower market segments.

The product was presented during CeBIT 2009. Its ability to both scribe data and create tags makes it excellent for archiving and backup tasks using optical storage disks. The product will be sold in a bundle with Nero 8 and it will be very soon available in European stores, at the estimated price of 49 Euro.