What's in the box?:
- LG GGW-H10N Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc ReWriter & HD DVD-ROM Drive
- BD Rewriter & HD DVD-ROM Drive Solution CD
- Owner's Manual
- 1 Verbatim BD-RE Disc
- SATA Cable
- SATA Power Cable
- Mounting Screws
- System Requirements for Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD Playback
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive LG sent us for this review was manufactured in March of 2007 and had firmware version 1.00. For this review we used firmware versions 1.00 and 1.01.
From the front, the GGW-H10N looks a lot like LG's previous Blu-ray Disc writer, the GBW-H10N. While different in color, the two drives share the same bezel design and have many of the same logos. Along with the large Super Multi Blue, Blu-ray Disc and HD DVD-ROM logos, you can see a few showing support for DVD+R DL, DVD-R/RW and Ultra Speed CD-RW media.
Below the tray you can see the GGW-H10N's single LED. Off by default, this LED lights up a bright blue whenever the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the GGW-H10N is pretty straightforward. By looking at the picture above you can see the drive's SATA interface and power connector.
Technical Specs:
The specs below have been taken from LG's website and the manual that came with the drive.
| LG GGW-H10N Super Multi Blue BD ReWriter & HD DVD-ROM |
|
| CD Write Speeds | 10x, 16x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 4x, 10x, 16x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 6x, 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x, 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| BD-R Write Speeds | 4x (Z-CLV) 2x (CLV) |
| BD-RE Write Speeds | 2x (CLV) |
| BD-R DL Write Speeds | 2x (CLV) |
| CD Read Speeds | 32x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 24x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speeds | 24x Max |
| DVD Read Speeds | 12x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 8x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 10x Max (DVD±R) 8x Max (DVD±RW) 6x Max (DVD±R DL) 6x (DVD-Video) |
| BD Read Speeds | 4x Max (BD-ROM Single Layer) 3.2x Max (BD-ROM Dual Layer) 4x Max (BD-R) 3.2x Max (BD-RE) 3.2x Max (BD-R DL) |
| HD DVD Read Speeds | 3x Max (HD DVD-ROM Single Layer) 2.4x Max (HD DVD-ROM Dual Layer) |
| Buffer Size | 4 MB (DVD, BD and HD DVD) 2 MB (CD) |
| Access Times |
250 ms (CD) 270 ms (DVD-ROM) 370 ms (BD-ROM) 340 ms (HD DVD-ROM) |
| CD Formats | CD-DA CD-ROM CD-ROM XA CD-I Video CD Photo CD CD-Extra CD-Text CD-R CD-RW |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-Video DVD+R/RW DVD-R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL |
| BD Formats | BD-ROM BD-R/RE BD-R/REDL |
| HD DVD Formats | HD DVD-ROM |
| CD Recording Modes | Disc At Once Session At Once Track At Once Packet Writing |
| DVD+R Recording Modes | Sequential Recording |
| DVD+RW Recording Modes | Random Write |
| DVD+R DL Recording Modes | Sequential Recording |
| DVD-R Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording |
| DVD-RW Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording Restricted Overwrite |
| DVD-R DL Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording Layer Jump Recording |
| BD-R Recording Modes | Sequential Recording Mode With And Without Pseudo-Overwrite |
| BD-RE Recording Modes | Random Write |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that LG's new Super Multi Blue drive is identified as a "HL-DT-ST BD-RE GGW-H10N."
The Nero screenshot also shows that the GGW-H10N has a maximum CD writing speed of 16x and a 4096KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. According to Nero, the GGW-H10N can write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 98:27with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.
Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the GGW-H10N is a "two sheep" burner. This means that LG's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.
Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the GGW-H10N's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 4MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the GGW-H10N is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. Unfortunately, a patched RPC-1 firmware is not yet available for this drive.
While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the GGW-H10N's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that LG's new drive can read and write to most BD and DVD formats and has the ability to read HD DVD-ROM discs.
LG's new drive also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using a program like Nero, you can set the book type of both DVD+R and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM". Contrary to what CD Speed may indicate, the drive does not let you set the book type of DVD+RW discs.
