LG GSA-H55L 20x "Super-Multi" DVD±RW/RAM

Model: LG GSA-H55L 20x "Super-Multi" DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: LG Electronics
Provided By: LG Electronics USA

LG Electronics has been a leader in the industry for more than 40 years. 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. 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 LG has fully embraced Blu-ray and HD DVD, they haven't abandoned the DVD quite yet. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the company unveiled their latest "Super-Multi" drive, the GSA-H55L. Featuring some of the fastest reading and writing speeds available, the drive is capable of 20x DVD±R, 10x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. The GSA-H55L also boasts an impressive list of features including HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system and LG's new SecurDisc technology. With SecurDisc, users can protect their data against unauthorized access and increase the chances of it being recovered should the disc become damaged.

With features and specs like this, it's hard not to be impressed by LG's new "Super-Multi" drive. To give you an idea of what to expect from the GSA-H55L we'll take a look at its features and then see how it compares to some of the 18x and 20x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does LG's new drive have what it takes? More importantly, it the best bang for your buck? Keep reading to find out.

What's in the box?:

• LG GSA-H55L 20x "Super-Multi" DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• DVD Writer Solution CD
• Quick Set-Up Guide
• Audio Cable
• Mounting Screws
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive that LG sent us for this review was manufactured in March of 2007 and had firmware version 1.00. At the time of this review, this is the only official firmware available for the GSA-H55L.

The look of LG's "Super Multi" drives hasn't changed much over the last few years. While they've gotten new features and faster speeds, the basic design has remained the same. As you can see, the GSA-H55L is no exception. Aside from the new "SecurDisc" logo, there really isn't much of a difference between it and LG's previous "Super Multi" drives.

Below the tray you can see the GSA-H55L's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up green whenever the drive is reading or writing.

If black isn't your color, you're in luck. The retail version of the GSA-H55L also comes with a beige replacement bezel.

The rear of the GSA-H55L is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the drive's jumper position is set to master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from LG's website and the guide that came with the drive.

SecurDisc:

The GSA-H55L is one of the first drives to feature SecurDisc technology. Developed by LG Electronics and Nero, SecurDisc protects data on optical media at both the user and storage levels. At the user level, it uses password protection and AES-128 encryption to prevent unauthorized access. While this concept is nothing new, SecurDisc adds an extra layer of security by utilizing a hardware and software-based solution. To prevent modification, a digital signature can be applied to data so that its authenticity can be verified.

At the storage level, SecurDisc uses checksums to verify data integrity and readability. Using this feature, you can check to see if your data has been altered due to the physical decay of the media. SecurDisc also increases reliability through a redundancy-based defect management system. By fully utilizing the empty space on a disc, the technology can greatly increase your chances of reading a damaged disc.

Nero recently expanded SecurDisc's capabilities to include the ability to copy protect PDF files. When protected by SecurDisc, PDF's can only be read from the original DVD and cannot be copied to other media without the correct duplication password.

Right now, the only software capable of creating a SecurDisc CD or DVD is Nero Express 7. When you launch the program, you can see that there are two options on the "Data" menu. If you're writing to a CD-R or CD-RW disc, you'll want to create a SecureDisc Data CD. Likewise, you'll want to create a SecureDisc Data DVD when using DVD±R, DVD±RW, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media.

To add files to your compilation, click on the "Add" button or drag and drop them directly into Nero Express from Windows Explorer or My Computer. From here you can also password protect your files or digitally sign the disc using a private key. If you do not have a key, Nero Express can generate one for you.

Once you've provided the necessary information, Nero will burn the data to disc. During the burn process, SecurDisc's defect management system will fill the disc's empty space with redundancy and checksum data. This can add a considerable amount of time to the burn process. However, it will also increase the data reliability level. The higher the number, the greater the chance that you'll be able to recover your data if the disc becomes damaged.

As long as you're not using the PDF copy protection, nearly any drive can be used to read a disc burned with SecurDisc. Files that are not password protected can also be read without any special software. However, if you want to verify the authenticity of the disc's contents or access password protected files, you will need to install a compatible version of InCD or InCD Reader.

LightScribe:

Note: We took a much closer look at LightScribe technology in our review of the BenQ DW1625. In this review we'll just go over some of the basics and see how the GSA-H55L performs with the bundled software.

The GSA-H55L is one of the latest drives from ASUS to feature LightScribe technology. Developed by HP, LightScribe lets you burn durable, silk screen quality labels directly onto your CD's and DVD's using the same drive that burned the data. According to HP, it's as simple as burning the data, flipping the disc, and then burning the label.

Of course you can't do this with just any drive, media or software. While LightScribe capable drives use the same laser when burning both the data and label, they have to be able to accurately control the laser's focus and position as well as the spindle speed. They also must be able to recognize LightScribe media. These special discs have a thin dye coating on the label side that absorbs laser light. This triggers a chemical reaction that produces a color change, allowing the user to print text, artwork or graphics.

Even if you have a LightScribe capable drive and media, you will need software that supports it. Most major software companies have pledged support for the technology. However, at the time of this review, the list of compatible software is still relatively short. For the GSA-H55L, ASUS turned to Nero. Using the bundled software you can both create and burn LightScribe disc labels.

Once you've created your LightScribe label, you're ready to print it. Before you can do this though, you will need to choose the contrast. Keep in mind this option not only changes the level of detail, it affects the amount of time it takes to print the label. The higher the quality, the longer the process will take.

How long does it take to print a label? For testing purposes, we created a few discs using Verbatim's LightScribe v1.2 DVD+R and color CD-R media. In both cases, the quality has been set to "best". The results are shown below.

Verbatim CD-R v1.2 - 21 minutes		Verbatim DVD+R v1.2 - 20 minutes

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that LG's new DVD writer is identified as an "HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H55L".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the GSA-H55L has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. In this case, the technology used is "Super Link." According to Nero, LG's new DVD writer can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 93:55with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the GSA-H55L is a "two sheep" burner. This means that LG's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the GSA-H55L's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the GSA-H55L is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for the GSA-H55L.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the GSA-H55L's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while LG's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The GSA-H55L also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using programs like Nero or CD Speed, you can set the book type of both DVD+R and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM". For whatever reason though, the drive does not let you set the book type of DVD+RW discs.

The GSA-H55L's software bundle is very similar to what LG has included with their previous DVD writers. The CD that comes with the drive contains a number of different applications from Nero including Nero Express 7, Nero BackItUp 2 and InCD 5 as well as PowerProducer 3.7 and PowerDVD 7 from CyberLink.

Nero Express 7 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. Redesigned to maximize ease-of-use, Nero Express gives users the ability to quickly and easily burn audio, data and video to CD or DVD.

The version of Nero Express that LG included with their new "Super Multi" drive is 7.4.909.0. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero BackItUp 2 - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This program from Nero lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard drive, image recorderor another computer on your LAN.

InCD 5 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW or DVD±RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

CyberLink PowerProducer 3.7 - If you're looking for a quick and easy way to capture and edit your video, look no further than PowerProducer from CyberLink. Right from the start, this wizard-based software gives you a number of options to select from. From here you can choose to create a new movie disc, edit an existing one or transfer video directly to DVD.

While you can capture your own video, PowerProducer gives you the ability to import video files in a number of different formats. Once added to your production, you can use the built-in editor to trim, merge or split your video clips. PowerProducer also allows you to set chapters within the video content and add your own custom menus, backgrounds, fonts and titles.

CyberLink PowerDVD 7 - CyberLink's PowerDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market right now. PowerDVD offers a complete set of navigation commands, including features like multi-angle viewing, dual subtitle display, digital zoom and parental controls.

PowerDVD can also be used to play back your VCD's, SVCD's or whatever video files you might have on your hard drive. Unfortunately, the version of PowerDVD bundled with the GSA-H55L only supports 2 speaker output. If you want to play DVD's with surround sound, you'll need to buy an upgrade first.

The GSA-H55L is LG's most feature packed DVD writer to date. Their new "Super Multi" drive not only supports all major DVD formats, it sports some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. The GSA-H55L is capable of 20x DVD±R, 10x DVD±R DL, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW and 12x DVD-RAM writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. LG's new drive also supports technologies like LightScribe and SecurDisc and includes a great software bundle from Nero and CyberLink. With all this, it's easy to see why the LG GSA-H55L gets the full 10 points for its features.

Installing LG's new "Super Multi" drive took only a couple of minutes. I took the GSA-H55L out of the box, left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 66. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the GSA-H55L comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink and Nero. If you have autorun enabled, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc. From here you read about the various applications, check out the manual or install the two software suites.

Installing Nero 7 Essentials is pretty straightforward. By default the setup program will install the entire suite onto your computer. If you don't want to install everything, select the custom installation. From here you can choose the components you want. Once you reboot, you'll be ready to start burning your own discs.

The software CD also contains the CyberLink DVD Suite. To start the setup process, select "Install CDS" from the main menu. From there, it's as simple as choosing the components you want, clicking next a few times and then waiting for the files to be copied over.

The Documentation:

Most of the GSA-H55L's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. While LG has gone out of their way to provide a nice interface, the documentation is in PDF format and will require you to install Adobe Acrobat before it can be read.

Electronic format aside, the manual is a good example of what we've come to expect from LG. It starts out by going over the system requirements and the functions of the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the GSA-H55L. While the diagrams are small, they are clearly labeled and easy to understand.

From here, the manual jumps into the physical installation of the drive. The instructions cover all the basics including how to set the jumpers, install the drive into an empty drive bay and hook up the cables. LG also provides a number of small diagrams showing what exactly a master or slave configuration should look like. The manual finishes up by going over the basic operation of the GSA-H55L. It explains how to insert and eject DVD's and how to get a disc out of the drive in case of an emergency. Unfortunately, the manual doesn't include any information on the GSA-H55L's LightScribe and SecurDisc technologies.

The GSA-H55L also comes with a "Quick Set-Up Guide." Like the manual, this fold out guide contains a good amount of information, including the drive's features, specs and system requirements. The guide also contains a set of instructions that take you step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, there are plenty of diagrams showing what to do. For most people, the "Quick Set-Up Guide" will be all they'll need to get the drive up and running.

Like LG's previous "Super-Multi" drives, the GSA-H55L was very easy to install. I had no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working. If you do run into trouble, the documentation LG has provided is more than sufficient. However, I would have liked to have seen a little more information on LightScribe and SecurDisc. With this in mind, I give the installation an 8 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.5 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.7.5 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. While the GSA-H55L's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, its transfer rates were fairly good.It started reading at 20.4x (3060 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.6x (6390 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

	LG GSA-H55L	Lite-On LH-20A1H	Samsung SH-S182D	Plextor PX-760A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.57x 20.47x 47.04x	36.09x 21.07x 47.72x	36.54x 20.89x 48.30x	36.76x 21.27x 48.63x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	103ms 104ms 174ms	96ms 111ms 167ms	105ms 114ms 178ms	96ms 113ms 172ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 3% 6% 9%	0% 1% 3% 6%	0% 1% 2% 4%

When reading pressed CD's, the GSA-H55L is rated at 48x. Unfortunately, like the LH-20A1H, it came up short of this mark. In our tests, the drive started reading at 20.47x but reached a maximum transfer speed of only 47.04x. Nevertheless, the GSA-H55L's seek times were pretty good.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

The GSA-H55L was a little faster when reading CD-R media.While this wasn't enough to top the drives from Lite-On and Plextor, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 48x in our tests. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were again quite good.

LG's new DVD writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The GSA-H55L read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 51.83x.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

Like the drives from Samsung and Plextor, the GSA-H55L's CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the LG GSA-H55L supports accurate stream, it does not cache audio data nor does it have the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD.

CD Speed	LG GSA-H55L	Lite-On LH-20A1H	Samsung SH-S182D	Plextor PX-760A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	31.43x 18.12x 41.52x 10 Yes	36.45x 21.62x 48.15x 10 Yes	31.09x 17.78x 41.08x 10 Yes	31.35x 17.97x 41.48x 10 Yes

The GSA-H55L did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from Lite-On, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 41x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While the GSA-H55L started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

While the GSA-H55L was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 41x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

LG's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.66x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the GSA-H55L was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.

To see how well LG's DVD writer can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The GSA-H55L handled scratched discs relatively well. By looking at the screenshot, you can see that the drive considered only 55% of the CD to be "damaged". More importantly, none of the sectors on the disc were unreadable.

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

The GSA-H55L gave us some mixed results in this test. While the number of errors was very low, the scratches on the disc caused it to slow down considerably.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 and DLA 5.20:

For this test I randomly generated 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

The GSA-H55L has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Fuji's 48x media, the drive started writing at about 21.41x and reached a maximum speed of 48.29x at the end of the session. This gave LG's new "Super-Multi" drive an average writing speed of about 36.54x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

The GSA-H55L did fairly well in our CD writing tests. While not as fast as the drive from Plextor, it was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:44.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

The GSA-H55L's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

The GSA-H55L uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of three "zones" to reach its maximum speed. The drive starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 15 minute mark.The GSA-H55L writes at this speed until about the 40 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the end of the session.

LG's new DVD writer didn't do as well as some of the other drives in our rewriting tests. Due to its Z-CLV writing method, the GSA-H55L took 2:40 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:33 to do the same with DLA.

While the GSA-H55L's Z-CLV writing method didn't have much of an effect on its quick erase time, it took more than 5 minutes to do a full erase.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The GSA-H55L was fairly quick when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.54x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.05x.Unfortunately, its seek times were not as low as some of the other drives.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

The GSA-H55L had no problems reading DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-R discs at 16x, and both DVD-RW and DVD-R DL media at a respectable 12x.

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

LG's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.93x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.7GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The GSA-H55L's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 12x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't an issue for the GSA-H55L either. The drive started reading at 5.02x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 12.11x.

Nero CD Speed v4.7.5 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The GSA-H55L didn't do as well as the other drives when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of only 8x when reading both single and dual layer discs.

To see how well the GSA-H55L worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 and DLA 5.20:

To test the DVD writing performance of LG's new drive I used Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 16x DVD-R, Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and Verbatim 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 20x, the GSA-H55L uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that LG's new drive starts writing at about 8.4x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at the end of the disc.

The GSA-H55L also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the PX-760A when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, the GSA-H55L turned in some very impressive times with DVD+R and DVD-R media.

To check the media compatibility of the GSA-H55L, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SHM-165H6S (firmware HS0E) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640 (firmware BSLB). When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The GSA-H55L's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. The only real exception was RiDATA's 16x DVD+R media. While written at only 12x, the PI rate was fairly high throughout the entire disc.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. On discs written at 18x or less, the writing quality was pretty good. Unfortunately, when writing at 20x, the PI/PIF rates were very high near the end of the disc. As you can see, this caused some readability problems.

To test the GSA-H55L's packet writing performance I used DLA 5.20. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

The GSA-H55L turned in some impressive times when reading and writing to DVD-RW and DVD-RAM media. Unfortunately, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast asthe PX-760A when writing to DVD+RW discs.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the GSA-H55L, I used DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media from Verbatim, RiDATA and Memorex. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 10x was not an easy task. The only media I found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. With RiDATA's 8x DVD+R DL media, the writing speed was limited to 8x and the other discs would not work at anything faster than 4x.

The GSA-H55L had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 10x DVD+R DL writing speed, the drive took a little more than 14 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality was pretty good with the DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA. Aside from a few isolated spikes, the PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, the error rates were fairly high throughout the entire disc. Oddly enough, this didn't have any effect on readability.

The GSA-H55L also features 10x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim and RiDATA was used.

Surprisingly, the GSA-H55L was even faster when writing to DVD-R DL media. This time around, it took the drive only 13:26 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The GSA-H55L's writing quality was again pretty good. The error rates stayed within acceptable limits and, aside from the dip when reading back Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media, there weren't any readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

While LG's new "Super-Multi" drive has a few rough spots, it performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. The GSA-H55L flew through our DVD writing tests, turning in some impressive times with DVD±R, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media. Unfortunately, there were a few cases where the writing quality could have been better. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the GSA-H55L either. The drive was able to read single layer data DVD's and DVD±R media at 16x, but slowed to only 8x when reading DVD videos.

The GSA-H55L also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R discs at speeds as high as 48x and had some fairly good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, the GSA-H55L gave us some mixed results. While the drive turned in some impressive times when writing to CD-R media, its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the LG GSA-H55L gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

Over the last year or so, we've had a number of LG's "Super-Multi" drives in the 'Labs. Offering a good mix of value, performance and features, these drives have become the choice of enthusiasts as well as some of our favorites. With the GSA-H55L, LG has gone all out. Their new drive offers some of the fastest DVD writing speeds available as well as technologies like SecurDisc and LightScribe. While all of this is impressive, the GSA-H55L still has a few rough spots that need to be worked out.

The GSA-H55L is the first drive from LG with the ability to write to both DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x. While the drive performed very well with both formats, it was considerably faster when writing to DVD-R discs, taking less than 5 minutes to burn an entire 4.7GB DVD. This level of performance carried over to our rewriting tests where the GSA-H55L turned in some very goodtimes with DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. Writing to DVD±R DL media wasn't a problem for LG's new drive either. Thanks to its 10x writing speed, the GSA-H55L took about 14 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

When it came to media compatibility, the GSA-H55L gave us some mixed results. While the drive wrote tomost of our test media at its rated speed or better, only four types worked at 20x. On the other hand, the GSA-H55L's writing quality was fairly good for the most part. However, there is still room for improvement, especially when writing to DVD-R media at 20x. Hopefully, LG can address this in a future firmware update.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive also performed relatively well in our DVD read tests. While the GSA-H55L's seek times were a little higher than I would have liked, it was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R media at 16x. The drive also read DVD±RW, DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media at an impressive 12x, but slowed to only 8x when reading DVD-Videos.

Reading CD's wasn't a problem for the GSA-H55L. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. LG's new drive wasn't as fast in our DAE tests. However, it still ripped audio CD's at a respectable 40x. When it came to writing CD's, the GSA-H55L performed as expected. The drive had no problems holding its own when writing to CD-R media. However, itsZ-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage in our rewriting tests.

When it comes to features, LG's new drive definitely delivers. To prevent buffer underruns, the GSA-H55L has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Super Link buffer underrun protection. The drive also supports HP's LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling system and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R and DVD+R DL media. Most notable though, is the GSA-H55L's SecurDisc technology. This hardware and software-based solution not only protects your data against unauthorized access and copying, it ensures maximum reliability through a redundancy-based defect management system.

While LG's "Super-Multi" drives are usually very affordable, they seem to be charging a premium for their SecurDisc technology. With the GSA-H55L going for nearly $90 at stores like Best Buy, it's one of the more expensive DVD writers currently available.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD-R and DVD+R media at 20x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL media at 10x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW and DVD±R DL media at 12x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Features Super Link buffer underrun protection
• Supports LightScribe and SecurDisc technologies
• Good CD writing quality
• Includes software from Nero and CyberLink
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Includes extra bezel

Lows:

• High PI/PIF rates when writing to DVD-R media at 20x
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed discs
• Reads DVD-Videos at only 8x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• Cannot do write quality testing
• Has a 2048KB buffer
• Overburns to only 93:55