LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc ReWriter & HD DVD-ROM

Model: LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc ReWriter & HD DVD-ROM
Manufacturer: LG Electronics
Provided By: LG Electronics USA

LG Electronics is one of Korea's oldest and most respected consumer electronics firms. Since the introduction of their first radio in 1959, the company has grown to become one of the world's top electronics manufacturers, offering everything from large home appliances to tiny mobile phones. LG is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. Working closely with companies like Hitachi, they've lead the way in this area, developing and manufacturing a wide range of products, including the industry's first "Super-Multi" drives.

While an early endorser of the Blu-ray Disc format, LG has taken a more neutral stance by developing products that support both Blu-ray and HD DVD. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the company unveiled their first dual-format Super Multi Blue drive, the GGW-H10N. This all in one solution combined a Blu-ray Disc writer and an HD DVD-ROM drive into a single unit, giving users the ability to enjoy movies in both formats and store up to 50GB of data onto a single Blu-ray disc. As impressive as this all was, the GGW-H10N's $1000 price tag prevented it from being a viable option for those hoping to avoid the format war.

Shortly after the launch of the GGW-H10N, LG announced two new Super Multi Blue drives, the GGW-H20N and GGW-H20L. With these new drives, LG has taken Blu-ray writing technology to the next level. The GGW-H20N and GGW-H20L are not only capable of 4x BD-R DL and 2x BD-RE writing speeds, they are the first drives with the ability to write to BD-R media at 6x. LG's engineers also eliminated many of the GGW-H10N's shortcomings by giving the drives' CD and DVD writing speeds a much needed speed boost, as well as adding support for DVD-RAM. The GGW-H20L ups the ante even further with support for HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system.

Needless to say, this is only a taste of what LG's new Super Multi Blue drive has to offer. To give you an idea of what to expect, we'll take an in-depth look at the GGW-H20L's features and then see how it compares to some of the Blu-ray Disc writers from the competition. Are 6x BD-R writing speeds enough to put the GGW-H20L on top? More importantly, is it the drive for you? Keep reading as we find out.