LG
GSA-4120B DL Recorder - Page 1
is
one of the biggest players in the optical storage indrustry. LG has
the biggest market share in many countries and usually, its burners
are well tuned and with unique features. In Novemeber 2000, Hitachi
and LG
formed a new joint venture to manufacture optical storage drives
under the name "HL-DS".
"...Based on the cutting-edge development technology of Hitachi
Ltd. and the advanced mass production technology and high-level marketing
performance of LG Electronics Inc., we have been succeeding in creating
technical synergy effect and is one of the leading company of the world
in optical storage drive industry. "
is
a joint company consisting of Hitachi, Ltd. and LG Electronics, Inc.,
which started business in January of 2001. We develop and sell
optical data
storage
disc drives for PC OEM and keep top share in the world. Our main products
are DVD writable drives, DVD-ROM drives, CD-RW drives, CD-ROM drives
and its combination drives. Development sites are located in Tokyo (Japan)
and in Pyungtaik (Korea)."
Company Profile
Company Name : Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc.
Established : November 22, 2000 (business started on January 1, 2001)
Head office Location : 4F MSC Center Building
22-23 Kaigan 3-chome, Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0022 Japan
Phone : +81-3-5427-8600
Representative Director, CEO : Kazuya Hori
Capital Stock : JPY 1,500M
From the establishment of the company, we' ve handled a wide range
of optical storage drive products including DVD-RAM, DVD-ROM/CD-RW Combination,
DVD-ROM, CD-RW and CD-ROM drives. Recently, we' ve developed the world's
first Super Multi Drive which supports all DVD write formats. HLDS tries
to be the first in supplying the consumer with the products that they
desire..."
The competition is already tough, with Plextor, LiteON and Optorite
having released their 12X DVD+R burning solutions, but none of these
drives support DVD+R DL and DVD-RAM burning. From that point
of
view, the LG GSA-4120B is a winner, or is it? How well will the LG drive
perform in our usual tests? Let's find out...
- Official press release
HLDS announced the drive on 18th May 2004 and according to the press
release:
"...Tokyo,
May 18, 2004 ---Hitachi-LG Data Storage, Inc. (CEO: Kazuya Hori) has
developed GSA-4120B, the world's first Super Multi drive with 5x DVD-RAM.
The Super Multi drive supports not only
DVD-RAM but all writable DVDs. The shipment is scheduled to start in June, 2004.
GSA-4120B is the successor to the conventional Super Multi drive,
the GSA-4082B. This is the first time in
the world that DVD-RAM can be written at 5x. What's more, the GSA-4120B is
capable of writing +R at
the industry's top level speed of 12x, and is also compatible with +R double
layer discs. It reads and writes
CD-R and CD-RW, and reads DVD-ROM and CD-ROM as well, which makes this drive
compatible with
a total of 9 types of discs.
The GSA-4120B is a built-in type Super Multi drive that can read/write
all types of DVDs and CDs. Not only does it write DVD-RAM at the world's
fastest speed of 5x, it also write +R at 12x, DVD-R at 8x, DVD-RW and
+RW at 4x, all of which are the industry's highest speeds. Unquestionably,
this drive has the most up-to-date functions, such as CPRM which is
becoming a hot topic in Japan due to the start of digital TV broadcasting,
multi-boarder
and quick format used with DVD-R/RW, and the multi-session and the
background format used with +R/RW.
By increasing the speed of writing DVDs, this drive succeeded in shortening
the time used for making DVDs, and in speeding up data backup processes.
Moreover, by supporting 5 types of writable DVD formats, it is also
the best choice for users who use DVD recorders which have grown popular
nowadays. Furthermore, this drive succeeded in increasing the writing
speed of CD-R substantially, with the write speed of 40x max.
The GSA-4120B was developed in collaboration with related companies,
by gathering all of the companies latest technologies for overall
development from key components to the product itself. It inherits from
its predecessor, the conventional technologies for stable writing such
as the built-in LD driver with highly reliable write strategy and the
buffer-under-run prevention function. In addition, as with its predecessor,
it boasts a compact design which is convenient for installations in
all PC form factors..."
The key technologies developed in order to realize this product are as follows.
- Compact and high power optical pick up for 12x write: A high power laser allowing high speed recording is embedded. Its unique heat radiation structure acquires speed and stabilization, realizing high performance.
- 1 chip LSI (DSP) for 5x DVD-RAM and 12x +R: Not only
accomplished speeding up the high function LSI (DSP) developed for conventional
products that process all formats (DVD-RAM/R/RW, +R/RW, CD-R/RW, DVD-ROM
and CD-ROM), but also succeeded in devising a single chip system instead
of the conventional 3 chips (DSP, MPU, SDRAM). This one chip LSI contributes
to the reduction of current consumption, high reliability and compact design.
- High-precision LD power learning control for 12x write:
By adopting the newly developed high precision LD power control learning
method which applies DVD-RAM's LD power learning method, recording
quality at 12x is secured.
- Stable and high speed disc rotation mechanism: Stable
operation is also secured at high speed disc rotations to realize high quality
write/read.
- Features
The LG GSA-4120B supports 12X DVD+R, 8X DVD-R, 4X DVD±RW,
5X DVD-RAM and 2.4X DVD+R DL writing according to the official specifications.
As a CD recorder it supports 40X CD-R and 24X US-RW writing along with
40X CD-ROM reading.
Below are the full specs for the drive:
Drive |
LG GSA-4120B |
Media |
DVD |
CD |
Transfer Rate Read |
16X DVD-ROM |
40X CD-ROM |
10X DVD±R |
8X DVD±RW |
40X CD-RW |
2X, 3X (CLV), 5X (Z-CLV) DVD-RAM |
2.4X DVD+R9 |
Transfer Rate Write |
12X DVD+R Z-CLV |
40X CD-R Z-CLV |
8X DVD-R Z-CLV |
4X DVD±RW CLV |
24X CD-RW Z-CLV |
5X DVD-RAM Z-CLV |
2.4X DVD+R9 CLV |
Access Time |
145ms |
125ms |
Mechanism |
motorized Tray load mechanism for horizonal and vertical use |
Interface |
IDE / ATAPI |
Burst Transfer Rate |
PIO mode 4 / Ultra DMA 33 |
Cashe Memory |
2MB |
Audio |
headphone jack and volume control at front plus digital-out and line-out at the back (MPC compatible) |
Media/Modes supported |
DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+RW,
DVD-Video, DVD-RAM, CD-ROM, CD-ROM XA, CD-Audio, CD Extra, CD
Text, CD-IReady, CD-Bridge, Photo-CD, VideoCD, Hybrid CD |
Writing methods |
DAO(disc at once), SAO(session at once), TAO(track at once) with zero gap, variable or fixed packet, multisession |
Weight |
0.9kgr |
Dimensions |
146(W) 184.7(D) 41.3(H) mm (without bezel) |
The drive does not support Mount Rainier, as is the case with almost all
new DVD recorders for either the CD or DVD formats. It uses the well known
RPC II region
control,
allowing
a user to change the drive's region at most 5 times. The region free lock can
be overcome however with un-official firmware.
Below are the drive's main specs as given by NeroInfoTool and DVDInfoPro:
- The drive
We received the bulk version of the LG GSA-4120B - we would like
to thank OMP Europe for providing us with the sample unit - which
included burning software from Ahead (Nero Express and InCD) and CyberLink
(PowerDVD, Power Producer Gold) along with a second disc, the
owner's manual and warranty card.
The front of the drive is rather typical of LG drives, including
the "Super
Multi", "DVD+RW", "US-RW" and "DVD
Multi Recorder" logos. There is no DVD+R DL format logo... On
the rear panel you will find the analogue and digital audio outputs
(SPDIF), the IDE selection pins, the IDE connector and the power input.
Removing the screws and opening the drive's cover voids the drive's warranty. For reference reasons, we post the following pictures. Click on the photos for an enlarged view.
The main chipset seems to come from TDK and
its part number id is: R8J32005FP
- Installation
The device was connected in our test PC and was identified as "HL-DT-ST
DVDRAM GSA-4120B" under WinXP.
The drive arrived with vA101 firmware revision, meanwhile LG had released a newer firmware revision (A102) that was used to perform all the reading/writing tests.
In this review, we will be comparing the drive with the LiteON SOHW-1213S, Plextor PX-712A and Optorite DD1203 since all drives have similar specifications. A rather interesting roundup for all who wish to buy the fastest currently available DVD burner...
- Testing software
In order to perform our tests we used:
- Nero CD-DVD Speed v3.12
- CDVD Benchmark v1.21
- ExactAudioCopy v0.9 beta5
- Nero Info Tool v2.24
- KProbe v2.2.2 (Reader: LiteOn LDW-811S firmware vHS0Q, LiteOn SOHD-167T firmware 9S14 Reading speed 8X CAV)
- PlexTools v2.15 (Reader: Plextor PX-712A firmware v1.03, Reading speed 8X CLV for CD-R)
- DVDInfoPro v2.54
- Nero Burning Rom v6.3.1.17
- DVD Decrypter 3.2.2.0
- CopyToDVD 3.0.22
