LG GGW-H20L Super Multi Blue Blu-ray Disc ReWriter & 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 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. 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 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.7.5 are used to test read speeds, seek 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 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 CD Speed v4.7.5 is used to test read 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, CD Speed v4.7.5 is used to test read speeds, seek 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 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 the GGW-H20L's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other Blu-ray Disc writers we've looked at, its access time and transfer rates were fairly good. The drive started reading at 19.3x (2900 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 39.3x (5900 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	31.08x 17.77x 40.83x	25.93x 14.04x 34.40x	25.17x 14.30x 33.29x	24.75x 14.34x 32.67x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	123ms 156ms 229ms	186ms 236ms 366ms	148ms 160ms 242ms	145ms 158ms 237ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 8% 10%	1% 1% 3% 5%	0% 2% 3% 4%	0% 2% 3% 4%

Like the other drives, the GGW-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 40.83x.

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 10.41x.

CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	30.56x 17.74x 40.00x	18.99x 10.89x 25.08x	18.54x 10.71x 24.43x	18.61x 10.74x 24.57x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	120ms 135ms 203ms	188ms 217ms 351ms	152ms 162ms 244ms	130ms 141ms 221ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 8% 10%	1% 1% 2% 5%	0% 2% 3% 4%	1% 2% 3% 4%

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

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 GGW-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 GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.72x 18.00x 40.30x 10 Yes	25.59x 14.04x 33.84x 10 Yes	18.66x 10.98x 24.75x 10 Yes	18.66x 10.96x 24.75x 10 Yes

The GGW-H20L performed very well when ripping pressed audio CD's. With a maximum DAE speed of 40.30x, it had no problems taking the top spot in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.7.5 - 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 GGW-H20L	LG GGW-H10N	Sony BWU-100A	I-O DATA BRD-AM2B/U
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.44x 17.99x 39.86x 10 Yes	25.40x 14.17x 33.46x 10 Yes	18.46x 10.88x 24.31x 10 Yes	18.48x 10.90x 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 GGW-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 GGW-H20L was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.