LG GGC-H20L Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc & HD DVD-ROM

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 Combo drives, the performance tests are normally broken down into five sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read, DVD write and BD read. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 and DiscSpeed are used to test transfer speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing, DiscSpeed 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 Sonic's DLA 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 DiscSpeed is used to test transfer speeds, seek 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 Sonic's DLA 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, DiscSpeed is used to test transfer speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

LG's Super Multi Blue drive gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. While its overall score wasn't as high as the Sony's, its access time and transfer rates were fairly good. The GGC-H20L started reading at 19.3x (2910 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 39.3x (5910 / 150) on the outside.

Nero DiscSpeed 4 - 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 GGC-H20L	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	Sony BWU-100A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	30.98x 17.83x 40.61x	25.14x 14.62x 33.26x	30.94x 17.80x 40.63x	24.89x 14.39x 32.83x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	112ms 132ms 194ms	144ms 165ms 305ms	114ms 129ms 186ms	137ms 145ms 273ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 7% 9%	0% 1% 3% 6%	1% 1% 8% 9%	0% 1% 3% 3%

LG's new drive performed a little better in our CD Speed tests. The GGC-H20L started reading at 17.83x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 40.61x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that its seek times were also quite good.

Nero DiscSpeed 4 - 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 GGC-H20L	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	Sony BWU-100A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	31.14x 17.77x 40.91x	25.42x 14.68x 33.66x	31.08x 17.77x 40.83x	25.17x 14.30x 33.29x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	111ms 141ms 212ms	147ms 169ms 317ms	123ms 156ms 229ms	148ms 160ms 242ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 7% 9%	0% 1% 2% 4%	1% 1% 8% 10%	0% 2% 3% 4%

Like the other drives, the GGC-H20L 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 40.91x.

While LG's new Super Multi Blue drive 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 10.56x.

Nero DiscSpeed 4 - 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 GGC-H20L	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	Sony BWU-100A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	30.59x 17.64x 40.04x	18.79x 10.96x 24.57x	30.56x 17.74x 40.00x	18.54x 10.71x 24.43x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	113ms 132ms 199ms	130ms 141ms 221ms	120ms 135ms 203ms	152ms 162ms 244ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 8% 9%	1% 2% 3% 4%	1% 1% 8% 10%	0% 2% 3% 4%

The GGC-H20L also reads CD-RW media at 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

Nero DiscSpeed 4 (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 while the LG GGC-H20L supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	LG GGC-H20L	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	Sony BWU-100A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.77x 18.14x 40.36x 10 Yes	25.06x 15.11x 33.14x 10 Yes	30.72x 18.00x 40.30x 10 Yes	18.66x 10.98x 24.75x 10 Yes

The GGC-H20L performed very well when ripping pressed audio CD's. With a maximum DAE speed of 40.36x, it had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

Nero DiscSpeed 4 (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 used in the data CD tests.

CD Speed	LG GGC-H20L	ASUS BC-1205PT	LG GGW-H20L	Sony BWU-100A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.48x 18.16x 39.91x 10 Yes	24.87x 15.04x 32.81x 10 Yes	30.44x 17.99x 39.86x 10 Yes	18.46x 10.88x 24.31x 10 Yes

LG's new Super Multi Blue drive was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. While the drive came very close, it wasn't able to reach 40x this time around. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

The GGC-H20L completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 28.93x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the GGC-H20L was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.