LG GSA-H30N - Serial ATA Super Multi Drive

[Ian]

I came across the GSA-H30N on LG's Korean website. Does anyone have any info on it? From what I can gather, it supports Serial ATA.

http://www.lge.co.kr/FrontProductDetail ... =eprd30650

Writing Speeds:
DVD+R 2.4x, 4x, 8x, 12x, 16x
DVD+R DL 2.4x, 4x, 6x, 8x
DVD+RW 2.4x, 4x, 6x, 8x
DVD-R 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x
DVD-R DL 4x, 8x
DVD-RW 1x, 2x, 4x ,6x
DVD-RAM 2x, 3x, 5x, 12x
CD-R 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x, 48x
CD-RW 4x, 10x, 16x, 24x, 32x

Read Speeds:
DVD-R/-RW/-R DL/-ROM 16x / 12x / 12x / 16x max , CD-ROM 48x max

The only noticeable improvement over the GSA-H10N is that it has better seek times and supports 8x DVD-R DL writing speeds.

[dodecahedron]

yeah, but if those specs are right, it's only 8x DVD+R DL vs. 10x for the GSA-H10N/L.

other differences:
DVD-R DL: only 4x and 8x, no 2x, no 6x.
CD-R: no 4x, no 8x, slowest is 16x.

only 12x reading speed for -R/-RW

[[buck]]

yeah, but if those specs are right, it's only 8x DVD+R DL vs. 10x for the GSA-H10N/L.

OH NO!!! An extra ~1 minute per burn!?

[dodecahedron]

yeah, but if those specs are right, it's only 8x DVD+R DL vs. 10x for the GSA-H10N/L.

OH NO!!! An extra ~1 minute per burn!?

yeah, and 8x DVD-R DL is that much of an improvement over 6x, right ?
and this is so especially important, considering the huge popularity of DVD-R DL...
and shaving 5msec off access time for CD-R and DVD-ROM is a huge improvement too...

the slower reading speeds are the most significant difference between the 2 drives IMO.

[Ian]

only 12x reading speed for -R/-RW

It's hard to tell, but its 16x for -R and 12x for -RW.. same as the H10N.

I didn't notice that about the DVD+R DL writing speed. The GSA-H10N is fast at 10x. Too bad the writing quality isn't up to par at that speed.

[karangguni]

yeah, and 8x DVD-R DL is that much of an improvement over 6x, right ?
and this is so especially important, considering the huge popularity of DVD-R DL...

DVD-R DL is apparently very popular in Japan, particularly with DVD recorders (set top boxes). Maybe something similar in Korea.

The other possibility is they simply want to keep up with other drive manufacturers in terms of features, no matter how pointless or useless they might be. "NEC's ND-4570A has 8x DVD-R DL, so we had better implement that too". "Plextor and Samsung have released SATA drives, so we had better do that as well, before we get left behind in that market".

At least they didn't implement 18x CAV burning in this one

[Ian]

LG is a huge OEM supplier. I know that manufacturers like Dell are using SATA optical drives in some of their computers. I'm sure others are starting to ask for this feature as well.

[dodecahedron]

only 12x reading speed for -R/-RW

It's hard to tell, but its 16x for -R and 12x for -RW.. same as the H10N.

my bad, right you are, 16x read speed for -R.
but if we're nitpicking on trivial performance differences, the H10N/L reads -RW/+RW at 13x not 12x.

only 12x reading speed for -R/-RW

I didn't notice that about the DVD+R DL writing speed. The GSA-H10N is fast at 10x. Too bad the writing quality isn't up to par at that speed.

is this bad writing quality? i think not.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.php?p=1427529

in any case SATA is good.
when the H50L (or whatever) comes, with SATA & 16x DVD-RAM i'll buy my next LG drive.
hopefully by then LG will add DVD+RW bitsetting to their drives
till then i'll just have to manage with just 4 optical drives on the motherboard. i've also an IDE conroller card but my Toshiba DVD-ROM on it hangs up every once in a while, so i'm hesitant about putting more optical drives on it.

[MonsterMan]

'bout time more SATA burners came out...and it's an LG!!

Let's hope it's burn quality is as good as the 4167...

[Ian]

is this bad writing quality? i think not.
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.php?p=1427529

The writing quality must not be as good with the JL11 firmware. It's not very good, even when scanned with a Lite-On.





I had some older samples of Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. The drive wouldn't write to them at all at 10x. Retail stuff worked though.

[MonsterMan]

The scan dodec linked to is sweet...smokes all of my current burners for DL writing. Ian's scan...not so sweet.

I'll wait a bit for a full review

Besides, should have my new Core2 rig then...and I'll need all the SATA burners I can get...

[dodecahedron]

KennyShin posted some info about the H30N and pics @ cdfreaks
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=187193

[Ian]

Here's the store he got all the pics from:

http://pc.danawa.com/price_right.html?c ... ode=158822

I have yet to hear from LG as to whether or not we'll get this drive in the US (I'll have to bug em again this week). If I had to guess, I'd say that we won't.

[dodecahedron]

why ever not ?

[Ian]

It's the same reason why Samsung never brought their SATA drive over here. There are too many incompatibilities with various motherboard chipsets and their tech support people don't want to deal with it. On the other hand, I would not be surprised if someone like Dell started using them in their computers.

[dodecahedron]

point taken.
i guess it also depends if it's a native (true) SATA drive or it's a bridge of some kind.
well, at least it's a step in the right direction.

[dodecahedron]

update:
there's now a new drive, GSA-H30L. apparently H30N + LightScribe.
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=22120

[pika2000]

Here's a couple system screenshots of the GSA-H30L




Bitsetting is disabled, but luckily the default is DVD-ROM for all of them.