In House Review - LG GSA-H55L 20x Super-Multi DVD±RW/RAM

[Ian]

Today, CDRLabs brings you an in depth look at LG's latest "Super-Multi" drive, the GSA-H55L. This highly anticipated drive features some of the fastest 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 has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. LG's new drive also offers a number of features, including support for technologies like LightScribe and SecurDisc.

In this review we'll take a look at some of the features found on the GSA-H55L and see how it compares to some of the 18x and 20x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does LG's new "Super-Multi" drive have what it takes? Is it the fastest DVD writer around? You'll have to read the review to find out.

[url=http://www.cdrlabs.com/reviews/index.php?reviewid=303]
LG GSA-H55L 20x Super-Multi DVD±RW/RAM[/url]

If you have any comments or questions about this review or the LG GSA-H55L, please post them in the forum.

[Wesociety]

I can't believe that manufacturers are still putting CSS "encrypted" DVD rip-locks on their drives. With a market saturated with drives and almost no new features around, you figure they would make ripping as fast as possible to boost drive specs and beat the competition.

Too bad it can't write MKM001 at 10x with stock firmware.
I bet it will produce some decent results with a firmware hack or mod when swapping the MKM003 strat in for MKM001.

[Ian]

Yeah, I don't think Pioneer even has a riplock anymore. At least on their higher end drives.

Also, Best Buy has the GSA-H55L on sale this week for $69.99:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp ... 7717727747

[Scour]

Nice review like always

But tbh, I still like LGs with Renesas-chipsets more.

And the quality with MCC 03RG20 is much to bad, I use this media often

[Ian]

I have a feeling the Renasas chipsets are going to be a thing of the past. In the last year or so, we've seen a lot of drives with Panasonic chipsets from LG.

And the quality with MCC 03RG20 is much to bad, I use this media often

I don't know how LG missed the problems with Verbatim and TY -R media. Their QA people should have caught this before the drive shipped. I'm not expecting a fix any time soon either.

[ala42]

I have a feeling the Renasas chipsets are going to be a thing of the past.

I do not think so. LG has ported a Panasonic style firmware to the Renesas chipset for the Blu-ray GGW-H10N, already having a Renesas style firmware for the previous Blu-ray GBW-H10N. This step makes sense only if they continue using Renesas chipsets.

[Scour]

This step makes sense only if they continue using Renesas chipsets.

But maybe not for DVD-writers?

Only H42 and H62 use atm Renesas, I guess

[Ian]

Only H42 and H62 use atm Renesas, I guess

And those have CD-R writing quality issues.

In the end, it probably comes down to cost. If Panasonic is cheaper, they'll probably use more of theirs in the future.

[Wesociety]

I do not think so. LG has ported a Panasonic style firmware to the Renesas chipset for the Blu-ray GGW-H10N, already having a Renesas style firmware for the previous Blu-ray GBW-H10N. This step makes sense only if they continue using Renesas chipsets.

Maybe they are porting a Panasonic style firmware to the Renesas chipset drive so that they can be accustomed to working on Panasonic style firmwares now and into the future when they go all Panasonic. [/silly speculation]

At least LG does a better job at developing and tuning Panasonic chipset drives than Panasonic does themselves. My one and only Panasonic DVD burner was terrible.

[Ian]

LG has finally released some firmware updates for the GSA-H55L and GSA-H55N.

GSA-H55L 1.01 - http://lgodd.lge.com/fwdrv/DVD-WRITER/GSA-H55L_101.exe
GSA-H55L 1.02 - http://lgodd.lge.com/fwdrv/DVD-WRITER/GSA-H55L_102.exe

GSA-H55N 1.01 - http://lgodd.lge.com/fwdrv/DVD-WRITER/GSA-H55N_101.exe
GSA-H55N 1.02 - http://lgodd.lge.com/fwdrv/DVD-WRITER/GSA-H55N_102.exe

No idea what has been changed. Hopefully it improves writing quality at 20x and media support.

[Phoenix '97]

This week, I bought an H55N, as well as 100 MCC 03RG20 (Verbatim 16x) media. Before doing anything, I flashed the drive to firmware 1.03.

I'm wondering what kind of interface burst transfer rate you can get with the IDE version of the drive. I found that on the JMicron IDE controller on my Gigabyte 965P-DS3, I can only get about 25MB/sec or so. Writing at 20x requires 27MB/sec. When burning the said media at 20x, I noticed that, starting at about 90%, the drives buffer seemed to be jumping up and down, likely indicating the interface was being saturated. However, the entire burn to this DVD-R (4488MB) only took 4:47.

As far as readability is concerned, reading back the said disc on my BenQ 1640 did give the same unrecoverable read error displayed on the review, however reading back the same disc on the H55N itself resulted in a slight dip down to 12x at the very end of the disc, with the drive being able to successfully finish the test.

[Ian]

New firmware for the GSA-H55L and GSA-H55N.

[Ian]

More firmware for GSA-H55L and GSA-H55N.

v106
- Added write strategy for POLAND media (EMTEC : MJC M005)

[Scour]

Wow, FW-Updates for LG