LG GSA-4040B can burn 4x DVD-R disks only at 2x

[lgmayka]

Well, I finally got the straight scoop from LG technical support (800-243-0000, select Computer Products and then Customer Service). The support person says that he knows of no one in his office who has been able to burn DVD-R disks at 4x on the GSA-4040B.

It is simple enough to see. If you insert a disk, and then bring up Nero CD-DVD Speed 2.01, select Extra and then Disc Info:

1) Memorex 4x DVD-R disk comes up as manufacturer CMC, code CMC MAG.AF1, recording speed 2X.

2) Fujifilm 4x DVD-R disk comes up as manufacturer Taiyoyuden, recording speed 1X-2X.

This is after the update to the A300 firmware.

This speed limitation presumably comes from the drive firmware itself. Apparently, all DVD-burning products (Nero, B's, etc.) obey this limitation, and I see no way in any such programs to override it. Does anyone else have a workaround? Even if we could convince a program to try to burn at 4x, is the drive really telling us that it just can't do so reliably?

LG might reply that only certain brands of DVD-R media will burn at 4x. But the 4040B's own manual recommends the following DVD-R brands: Pioneer, FujiFilm, Maxell, TDK. Has anyone tried Pioneer, Maxell, or TDK 4x DVD-R disks in this drive to see if any register as 4x-able?

By the way, the drive does burn 4x DVD+R (from Memorex) and 2.4x DVD+RW (from CompUSA) at their rated speeds. The supposed 3x DVD-RAM disk included with the drive took about 40 minutes to burn 4.5GB, which looks more like 1.5x to me.

[Peter_Mann]

This is devastating news IMPO.
I just bought the drive so I could (eventually) burn 4X full time...and at the moment I am using DVD-R discs.

With 8X drives around the corner this smacks of a huge fiasco for LG
It seems like they took the 4020B , modded it and expected a 4X multidrive. I guess they were wrong.

What a major bummer

[Macedo]

Just ordered mine as well (see other thread )

I certainly hope they can rectify this asap. Otherwise I'll be returning it.

[lgmayka]

By the way, I should elaborate on my discussions with LG so that no one else gets fooled.

The first time I called (afternoon of 8/29/03), the support person assured me that he had personally burned many disks at 4x. He mentioned Memorex as at least one brand he used. When I told him that no program was even giving me an option of 4x speed, he guided me specifically to the Copy DVD capability of B's Recorder Gold 5.32. Sure enough, at a certain point in setting up the copy, Recorder Gold offers a speed of 4x. I was happy to see this, thanked the support person, and hung up.

When I actually clicked on the button to start the copy, Recorder Gold popped up a dialog box informing me that the drive will not permit such a high speed and asking whether I want to proceed at a lower speed. Grr.

I called LG again in the early evening of 8/29/03. This time I reached an honest support person who flat-out told me that no one in the office has been able to burn a DVD-R at 4x with the GSA-4040B. He was not optimistic that this situation would change any time soon, though of course he may not know whether LG's firmware developers are actually working on the issue or not.

The obvious question, which I posed to the second support person but got no answer, is: How can LG advertise a 4x speed unless LG's engineers were able to achieve that speed with reasonable reliability with at least one brand of DVD-R disks? So then, what is that brand? The first support person, if I remember correctly, mentioned that Pioneer is the only brand of 4x DVD-R disk that LG explicitly supports at that speed. Has anyone tried to burn a Pioneer 4x DVD-R in this drive? I myself don't want to blow $5 to sample a brand of media that I can't afford anyway.

[lgmayka]

Someone tell me if this is significant. I downloaded and installed DVDInfoPro, then ran it twice with my two different brands of 4x DVD-R disks in the GSA-4040B drive. For the Memorex disk, the DVDInfoPro's media information includes

Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.0x 2770KBps
Write Strategy Speed 4.0x 5540KBps

For the FujiFilm disk, DVDInfoPro reports

Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.0x 2770KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 1.0x 1385KBps
Write Strategy Speed 1.0x 1385KBps

Does this mean what I have been suspecting: That the Memorex disks are at least trying to be 4x, whereas the Fuji disks were never meant to be (despite their packaging which says 4x)? And that the root problem with the GSA-4040B is that it lacks a 4x write descriptor?

By the way, when I put the Memorex 4x disk into my old DVR-103 drive with firmware version 1.90, I get

Available Write Descriptor CLV 1.0x 1385KBps
Write Strategy Speed 1.0x 1385KBps

[drdim]

I just bought the drive and I have succeeded burning 4x.
The medium I used was TDK DVD-R 4x. :)
I used Nero, I'm going to pick up some Ritek DVD-R 4x (Ritek G04 several other brands like traxdata uses it). It supposed to be a really good medium, I will have to wait and see.

[dodecahedron]

sad news...

[dodecahedron]

Someone tell me if this is significant. I downloaded and installed DVDInfoPro, then ran it twice with my two different brands of 4x DVD-R disks in the GSA-4040B drive. For the Memorex disk, the DVDInfoPro's media information includes

Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.0x 2770KBps
Write Strategy Speed 4.0x 5540KBps

For the FujiFilm disk, DVDInfoPro reports

Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.0x 2770KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 1.0x 1385KBps
Write Strategy Speed 1.0x 1385KBps

Does this mean what I have been suspecting: That the Memorex disks are at least trying to be 4x, whereas the Fuji disks were never meant to be (despite their packaging which says 4x)? And that the root problem with the GSA-4040B is that it lacks a 4x write descriptor?

By the way, when I put the Memorex 4x disk into my old DVR-103 drive with firmware version 1.90, I get

Available Write Descriptor CLV 1.0x 1385KBps
Write Strategy Speed 1.0x 1385KBps

to me this seems like the info returned by the prog is dependent on the drive, which could mean that the media themselves are fine and are 4x capable, but just not on this drive.

[myckee]

Well, I can't speak for -R discs, but I Just picked up this drive from FutureShop; it was a steal at only $199CDN. Anyway, I also picked up some Memorex 4x +R blanks. I have so far burned 4 dvd's and all were successful at burning at 4x speed with Nero 6.

I used DVDinfo and found out that the discs are made by Ricoh.

Code: Select all

                            Media Information                           
Region information                                    N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID                                    RICOHJPNR01
Format Capacity                                                     Blank
Free Blocks                                                     405405696
Free Capacity                                              4.38GB(4.70GB)
Book Type                                                           DVD+R
Media Type                                                          DVD+R
Media Id Code Speed                                         4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor                           CLV  4.0x   5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor                           CLV  2.4x   3324KBps
Data area starting sector                                          30000h
Linear Density                                                0.267um/bit
Track Density                                                0.74um/track
Number of Layers                                                        1


Incidently, when I bought the 5 pack of discs, the price on the shelf was $14.99, but when they went through the checkout, the price was only $9.98!! The price on the website says $14.99 as well, so I'm not sure if it is a mistake only at that store, or what, but I'm going to go back tomorrow and buy a truckload of them if they still come up as $9.98 for a pack of 5.

When I bought them, the guy told me the price and asked if I wanted more, but I had heard about certain brands not being any good and I didn't want to get burned. In retrospect I should have just bought a bunch and then returned them if they were junk. Oh well, hopefully if it was a computer glitch, it won't have been fixed by tomorrow.

I should also note that I have a cheap Samsung home dvd player. According to the player, manual and box, it only supports -R/RW, but my freshly burned +R play beautifully in it. I have a hunch that many players will actually play +R/RW even though it isn't documented.

[lgmayka]

OK, drdim reports burning TDK 4x DVD-Rs at 4x. So where's the least expensive place to get TDK 4x DVD-Rs? In fact, I don't seem to be able to find them at all on the Internet. Where did you get them, drdim? Everywhere on the Internet I look, TDK only seems to offer 2x DVD-Rs (and 4x DVD+Rs).

In fact, TDK's own Web site does not claim that they offer 4x DVD-Rs. Here is their table of product codes:

DVD-R DVD-R47ABX 2x DVD-R 4.7 GB for General (Non-Authoring) Use
. DVD-R47SV20BX 2x DVD-R 4.7 GB for Authoring Use
DVD-RAM DVD-RAM94DY1BX ReWritable DVD-RAM, 9.4 GB, Double Sided, Type 1 for PC Use
. DVD-RAM52DY1BX ReWritable DVD-RAM, 5.2 GB, Double Sided, Type 1 for PC Use
. DVD-RAM47SY2BX ReWritable DVD-RAM, 4.7 GB, Single Sided, Type 2 for PC Use
DVD-RW DVD-RW47SBX ReWritable DVD-RW, 4.7 GB
DVD+RW DVD+RW47BX 2x DVD+RW, 4.7 GB, Single Sided
DVD+R DVD+R47CBX 4x DVD+R, 4.7 GB, Single Sided

This list could, of course, be out of date. But the question remains: Where can one actually get the 4x TDK DVD-R?

[lgmayka]

According to this thread

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php ... adid=74224

the author of DVDInfoPro (username nicw) was able to burn a RitekG04 DVD-R at 4x on the 4040B drive. It sounds like he will be investigating the issue further.

[Peter_Mann]

With the recent announcement of 8x discs all this mess regarding speeds is pathetic....oh well, whatchagonnado ?

Myckee,
dewd, I bought the drive at FShop too!
Picked up 7 3-packs of DVD-R for 7.95 at Staples (the last 7 packs they had).
I wanted to start out with DVD-R discs because they are supposedly more supported by stand alone players. I'll have to get some of theose 4X DVD+R discs today at FShop if they have any.

Check out this forum daily for great deals on parts in Canada:

http://www.pricenetwork.ca

Cheers!
Peter

[OC-Freak]

I have no problems writing Ritek 4X DVD-R (ritek G04). As well as ritek DVD+R (Identified as RICOHJPN). Actually most DVD+R media identified as RICOHJPN is made by ritek.

But princo (which is known to be low quality) made discs and some crap hong kong media (identified as AN31) allows only 2X but this did not surprise me since it's low quality media...

I think that TDK, maxell and verbatim works at 4X as well....for pioneer I do not know.

[Peter_Mann]

My Verbatim DVD-R discs will only burn at 2X.

[VEFF]

OC Freak and Inertia coming here, that is great! - two vets from two other big sites that I still try to frequent, in addition to cdrlabs.

[myckee]

@Peter Mann,

The discs are still only $9.99 for a 5 pack of 4x +r Memorex discs. I found out why. Best Buy Canada has them advertised for $9.99 and since both FutureShop and Best buy have a price match rule, they are on sale at FS. (As well, FS is owned by Best Buy so its not a real surprise.) The best thing is that FS doesn't advertise online or in store that they are on sale so most people don't know and they aren't sold out.

I was just there and bought 10 of the 12 boxes they had on the shelf.

[lgmayka]

In the United States, CompUSA is still offering 40% off all Memorex DVD media with a printout of this ad:

http://www.compusa.com/adproducts/html_ad/8_24/pg1.pdf

The sale ends today, 8/30. It only applies to one item at a time, but that item could be a 50-pack spindle of 4x DVD-Rs or DVD+Rs, effectively for $60.

The Memorex 4x DVD+Rs do burn at 4x on my 4040B drive. I successfully returned the supposed 4x DVD-Rs because they only burn at 2x on that same drive. I doubt that CompUSA would have accepted the return--without a restocking fee--except that the package actually came with 51 disks. After burning one, I was still able to honestly say that "all 50 disks are still there and unused."

[lgmayka]

So if Ritek is the one brand of 4x DVD-Rs that multiple users report as able to burn at 4x on the 4040B drive, where is the least expensive place to buy it in spindles of, say, 25 disks? The best I've found is

http://www.allmediaoutlet.net/P-DVD-R-4XRitek-LOGO.html

$39 for 25 disks, including shipping. Anything better?

[drdim]

lgmayaka: I only bought one TDK DVD-R and it was on local computer store. My other media is cheap ass SW DVD-R and some HP dvd+r, I'm also going to try Optodisc dvd-rw. Some time next week I should receive Ritek 4x (G04) DVD-R.

Check out http://www.dvdrhelp.com/media there you can search for different media codes, writers used for writing the media and read comments by people. I haven't seen anyone with 4020B or 4040B complaining about media that doesn't work except the shitty dvds that doesn't work good with any writer.

[lgmayka]

I went to

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia

and entered search criteria:

Media type: DVD-R
Media size: 4.7GB
Burn speed: 4x
Burnt with this DVD writer: LG GMA-4040B

Exactly one result appeared:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/dvdmedia.php?dv ... List+Media

Exactly one person reported that DVD-R media of brand Legacy but of media code RITEKG04 did burn at 4x on the 4040B. I also tried the Iomega Super DVD Writer (which is perhaps a rebranded 4040B) but got zero results.

This evidence continues to substantiate the notion that the safest, and perhaps almost the only, choice of 4x DVD-R media for the 4040B is RitekG04.

[drdim]

lgmayka: Well the LG is quite new and therefore there aren't so many ppl who have tested it yet. I have searched for LG 4020B to see which mediums probably work good with LG ad found that most good ones do.
Ritek G04 seem to work great on every dvdburner and they are quite cheap so I suppose they are the ones to get.

[dodecahedron]

maybe you should also try LG GSA-4040B

[Telstar]

So if Ritek is the one brand of 4x DVD-Rs that multiple users report as able to burn at 4x on the 4040B drive, where is the least expensive place to buy it in spindles of, say, 25 disks? The best I've found is

http://www.allmediaoutlet.net/P-DVD-R-4XRitek-LOGO.html

$39 for 25 disks, including shipping. Anything better?

If you have a PC Club store nearby, then you could get a 25-pack 4x DVD-R discs made by Ritek for $29.99 before tax:

http://www.pcclub.com/product_detail.cf ... o=A3458853

The price will last until 10/15 according to the in-store display. Just got a spindle with the following media info:

Media Information
Region information N/A not a DVD-VIDEO
Media code/Manufacturer ID RITEKG04
Format Capacity Blank
Free Blocks 411107328
Free Capacity 4.38GB(4.71GB)
Book Type DVD-R
Media Type DVD-R
Media Id Code Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 1.0x 1385KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 2.0x 2770KBps
Available Write Descriptor CLV 4.0x 5540KBps
Write Strategy Speed 4.0x 5540KBps
2x Speed OPC beta 06
2x Speed OPC power 0F
2x Write Strategy field 1 12 A8 88 80
2x Write Strategy field 2 88 80 00 00 00 00
4x Speed OPC beta 05
4x Speed OPC power 1B
4x Write Strategy field 1 0E 10 08 09
4x Write Strategy field 2 97 06 0D 0B
4x Write Strategy field 3 00 00 00 00
4x Speed OPC beta multi-pulse 06
4x Speed OPC power multi-pulse 21
4x Write Strategy field 4 13 A8 87 95
4x Write Strategy field 5 99 99 88 80 00 00
4x Write Strategy field 6 00 00 D0 00 00
Data area starting sector 30000h
Linear Density 0.267um/bit
Track Density 0.74um/track
Number of Layers 1

[lgmayka]

maybe you should also try LG GSA-4040B

Not listed. (It's a drop-down choice, not a text entry.) GMA-4040B was the drive's original name in South Korea, Europe, etc.:

http://www.dvdrhelp.com/forum/archive/t167401.html

[lgmayka]

If you have a PC Club store nearby, then you could get a 25-pack 4x DVD-R discs made by Ritek for $29.99 before tax:

Thanks, that's an amazing price if you can buy it locally (without shipping) and if you do get RitekG04 disks. Note that a poster today (8/30/03) on that very Web page claims to have gotten RitekG03 disks instead.