The first ever Blu-Ray /HD DVD combo drive deserves a pretty good overall rating. The LG BD-RE GGW-H10N drive impressed us with its compatibility with the various formats, responding well in most of the writing and reading tests.

Reading speeds for CD and DVD formats are fast enough. Error correction with CD media is at best average, and in the case of DVD, the drive's performance leaves space for improvement, especially when it comes to reading scratched DVD-Video discs (DL).

Writing quality is adequate with both DVD+R and DVD-R media. The drive produced some very high-quality burnings with specific MIDs. The relatively low supported writing speed (8x max) looked quite promising in the beginning of the tests, although it seems that the Z-CLV writing strategy needs some improvements, in order to avoid digital errors in the outer regions of some DVD recordable discs. However, all the DVDs we burned were readable, with the exception of the Ritek DVD-R DL disc. Rewritable DVDs were burned flawlessly. The support for booktype and DVD overburning features are also positive for the LG drive.

BD-R, BD-RE and BD-R DL writing and reading sessions, which is probably the most important part of this drive's capabilities, were a great success, except from a readability issue with the TDK BD-R SL disc.

The BD-ROM and HD DVD movie playback was also checked and was quite impressive. The titles were streamed through analogue connections to the PC monitor, and playback was smooth and flawless. Of course, you should seriously take into consideration the hardware requirements for playback, for both HD DVD and BD movies, since the decoding process is a very CPU/GPU intensive task, especially when it comes to decoding MPEG-4 video.

Overall, HLDS has built a reliable drive that goes beyond your usual needs. Although the device is considered as a premium product that could attract demanding users only, it could be a good replacement for that old DVD burner connected to your high-end PC if you need the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats as well. The drive is currently priced at $1200.

Pros

• First combo drive ever with BD-RE and HD DVD-ROM playback support
• ATAPI / Serial ATA Host Interface
• Supports both the booktype and overburning features with DVD recordable media.
• Very good CD writing quality
• Adequate DVD writing quality
• Successfully completed writing and reading tests with Blue Ray discs

Cons

• Average CD error correction mechanism
• Average DVD error correction mechanism
• Not affordable for most users ($1200, E-shop price)