LG DVD Multi GMA-4020B drives began to appear in local stores of Japan. LG and Hitachi have jointly developed and produced the drive under the name HLDS (Hitachi LG Data Storage). The Hitachi version first hit Japanese stores several months ago and LG has only very recently started promoting the drives aggressively. 32,800 Yen is far from being cheap considering Pioneer's latest 4x DVD-R/2x DVD-RW drive DVR-A05/105 is selling for under 30,000 Yen and Ricoh's 2.4x DVD+R/2.4x DVD+RW drive MP5125A costs as low as 19,000 Yen. LG is said to add DVD+R and DVD+RW support later into its DVD Multi drives. LG GMA-4020B costs 50% more in Seoul.
Pictures courtesy of Impress Corporation.
CD: 12x CD-R, 8x CD-RW, 32 CD-ROM Read
DVD: 2x DVD-RAM, 2x DVD-R, 1x DVD-RW, 10x DVD-ROM Read
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20021130/ni_i_dd.html
http://www.lge.com
LG DVD Multi GMA-4020B
For more pictures, click the above URL.
The LG GMA-4020B is basically the same thing as Hitachi DVD Multi drive GMA-4020B here.
Hitachi DVD Multi GMA-4020B
32,800 Yen a little over 250 US dollars or 250 Euro. Maybe 260 or 270 even. Not sure of the changing currency ratio.
120 Japanese Yen = 1 USD = 1 Euro = 1,200 South Korean Won.
The quoted numbers are prices directly available at offline retail shops in downtown Tokyo and the VAT (not included in the 32,800 Yen) is 5%.