LG BH14NS40 14x Blu-ray Disc ReWriter

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 Blu-ray Disc writers, the performance tests are normally broken down into six sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write, BD read and BD write. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is  used to test read speeds, access times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, CD Speed is used to give an overall speed rating.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 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 CyberLink's InstantBurn 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 v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write a 4.38GB image to our test media. Times are recorded. Then CyberLink's InstantBurn is used to test packet writing speeds. For this, 4GB of random files and directories are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

BD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the BD benchmarks, CD Speed v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access times, and CPU usage.

BD Write Tests: To test the BD write speeds, CD Speed's "Create Data Disc" feature is used to burn an entire BD-R/RE disc. Times are recorded. 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 BH14NS40	LG BH12LS38	Plextor PX-LB950UE	Sony BWU-500S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.89x 20.86x 47.44x	35.04x 20.92x 47.68x	35.86x 20.94x 47.42x	35.89x 20.81x 47.49x
Access Times Random: 1/3: Full:	123ms 128ms 197ms	131ms 146ms 213ms	116ms 135ms 202ms	115ms 128ms 197ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 1% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%	2% 1% 3% 6%	2% 1% 3% 6%

The BH14NS40 didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x, LG's new Blu-ray Disc writer came up a little short of this number in our tests. On a more positive note, the BH14NS40's access times were quite good. 

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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.

 

	LG BH14NS40	LG BH12LS38	Plextor PX-LB950UE	Sony BWU-500S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.67x 20.94x 48.59x	36.08x 21.14x 47.62x	36.64x 21.02x 48.57x	36.67x 20.94x 48.63x
Access Times Random: 1/3: Full:	130ms 128ms 203ms	135ms 149ms 213ms	121ms 132ms 200ms	121ms 136ms 198ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 1% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%	3% 2% 3% 6%	2% 2% 3% 6%

The BH14NS40 was a little faster when reading CD-R media. Thanks to this small speed boost, the drive was able to reach a maximum transfer speed of 48.59x in our tests.

While LG's new Blu-ray Disc writer had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media, it slowed down considerably when reading it back. As you can see, the drive reached a maximum transfer speed of only 35.16x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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. 

 

	LG BH14NS40	LG BH12LS38	Plextor PX-LB950UE	Sony BWU-500S
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	30.28x 17.56x 39.98x	30.68x 17.86x 40.51x	29.99x 17.39x 39.60x	30.01x 17.46x 39.65x
Access Times Random: 1/3: Full:	132ms 137ms 207ms	130ms 145ms 205ms	120ms 135ms 223ms	121ms 137ms 214ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 1% 3%	0% 1% 2% 3%	1% 2% 3% 6%	1% 2% 3% 6%

While the BH14NS40 is rated at 48x when reading pressed and CD-R media, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 40x. As you can see, the drive came very close to reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 (DAE) - 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 the LG BH14NS40 supports accurate stream, caches audio data and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from audio CD's.     

 

CD Speed	LG BH14NS40	LG BH12LS38	Plextor PX-LB950UE	Sony BWU-500S
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.47x 17.86x 40.25x 10 Yes	30.86x 18.28x 40.78x 10 Yes	36.23x 24.92x 47.84x 10 Yes	36.21x 21.69x 47.84x 10 Yes

The BH14NS40 did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not as fast as the drives from Plextor and Sony, it was able to rip pressed audio CD's at at respectable 40.25x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (DAE) - 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.

 

CD Speed	LG BH14NS40	LG BH12LS38	Plextor PX-LB950UE	Sony BWU-500S
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.18x 17.75x 39.79x 10 Yes	30.26x 18.07x 39.90x 10 Yes	35.90x 24.89x 47.30x 10 Yes	35.87x 21.59x 47.31x 10 Yes

The BH14NS40 was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media. While the drive still performed relatively well, it reached a maximum DAE speed of only 39.79x. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below. 

LG's new Blu-ray Disc writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 28.69x. The drive did not create any errors, but for whatever reason, it was not able to pass all of the on-the-fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the BH14NS40 was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.