LG GSA-4160B DL Recorder - Page 11

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

The LG GSA-4160B supports DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW and DVD-RAM writing. The maximum supported speeds are 16X Z-CLV for DVD+R, 8X Z-CLV for DVD-R, 4X CLV for DVD±RW, 2.4X CLV for DVD+R9 and 5X Z-CLV for DVD-RAM media.

Nero Burning Rom reported speeds are shown below, after inserting a DVD+R 16X certified disc.

Note that when the software identifies a disc as 8X, the 2X writing speed option is not available. However, if the maximum speed is 4X, 2X writing speed is available..

By using Nero CD-DVD Speed with DVD-R and DVD+R media, we are able to see the 16X, 12X, 8X Z-CLV recording technology being applied by the recorder.

• DVD+R media @ 16X

• DVD+R media @ 12X

• DVD+R media @ 8X

• DVD-R media @ 8X

The drive uses three zones to reach the 12X writing speed (6X->8X->12X) and 6 zones to reach the 16X writing speed (6X->8X->10X->12X->14X->16X) .

- Supported media list

LG officially, doesn't list the supported media at any of 8X, 12X or 16X. The user has to insert a disc to check the maximum reported recording speed for the specific media, so it's basically a test and see process. Depending on the inserted disc, the drive may lower its recording speed.

- Burning Tests

We burned 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media. We used the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc.

• DVD-R/-RW media

Best performance came with MMore 8X media. The drive needed 7:46mins to complete a successful burn. It should be noted that Traxdata and 3A 8X certified media was burned at 4X. On the other hand, no 4X certified media could be burned at a higher speed other than the certified maximum (i.e. 4X).

• DVD+R media

When we tried to test the 16X writing performance of the LG recorder, we were saddened, observing that the media list is rather short for 16X recording. CMC Magnetics and Traxdata 16X certified media could not be burned at 16X speed. Traxdata 16X media, for example, could be burned only at 4X! Although we had the A302 firmware version installed that is supposed to support Philips +R 16X certified media, the recorder can only burn at 4X.

On the other hand, there is a wider range of 8X media that can be burned at 12X. Best results came with Verbatim 16X media. The drive needed only 6:04mins to complete a successfully burn.

- Comparison with other drives

With the +R media format, the LG GSA-4160B performed very well, taking second place, with the LiteON drive being the fastest in this comparison chart. On the other hand, with the -R media format, you can see big differences in speeds. This is because the LiteON and the LG models offer up to 8X -R recording, while the NEC and Pioneer models offer up to 16X -R recording. But again, if compared with several 8X reorders, the LG model is one of the fastest available.

With DVD re-writable media, the fastest burner was the LiteON, while LG gets third place with both DVD+RW and DVD-RW media.

- DVD Overburning Tests

Using Nero CD-DVD Speed, we tested to see if the drive can overburn using DVD+R and DVD-R media. Unfortunately, the drive does not support overburning, giving the following error with all inserted media.

• DVD-R media

• DVD+R media

- DVD+MRW Tests

The drive doesn't support the Mount Rainier feature.