CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 9.4.26.0 and InstantBurn 5:
For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep.
The BH12LS38 has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x. To reach this speed, it uses CAV, or Constant Angular Velocity. With Taiyo Yuden's 52x media, the drive started writing at about 21.62x and accelerated, reaching a maximum speed of 48.78x at the end of the session. This gave LG's new drive an average writing speed of about 36.68x.
To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden media rated at 52x. The results are below.
| Size in MB | Size in Time | LG BH12LS38 |
Plextor PX-LB950UE |
Sony BWU-500S |
Lite-On iHBS112 |
| 701MB | 79:44:21 | 2:40 | 2:47 | 2:48 | 2:49 |
LG's new drive did very well in our CD writing tests. Thanks to its 48x CD writing speed, the BH12LS38 was able to write an entire 701MB CD in 2:40.
To test the drive's writing quality I used Nero CD Speed. This utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors as well as the jitter level on a disc. For these tests I used a BenQ DW1640 and read the discs at 32x.
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 MBI 52x |
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The BH12LS38 writing quality was very good. Looking at the screenshots above, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors. More importantly, there were no C2 errors at all.
For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using InstantBurn from CyberLink. Verbatim's 24x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.
While the BH12LS38 uses CAV when writing to CD-R discs, it uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, when rewriting at 24x. The drive starts rewriting at about 16x and then jumps to its maximum speed at the 9 minute mark.
| Software | LG BH12LS38 |
Plextor PX-LB950UE |
Sony BWU-500S |
Lite-On iHBS112 |
| Nero | 2:28 | 2:49 | 2:48 | 2:48 |
| InstantBurn Write | 2:27 | 2:42 | 2:40 | 2:50 |
| InstantBurn Read | 3:05 | 1:55 | 1:55 | 1:05 |
LG's new drive did very well in our rewriting tests. Thanks to its 24x rewriting speed, the BH12LS38 took 2:28 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:27 to do the same with InstantBurn
| LG BH12LS38 |
Plextor PX-LB950UE |
Sony BWU-500S |
Lite-On iHBS112 |
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| Quick Erase | 15 seconds | 17 seconds | 17 seconds | 19 seconds |
| Full Erase | 3:53 | 4:13 | 4:10 | 4:11 |
The BH12LS38 also erases at 24x. At this speed, it took the drive 15 seconds to do a quick erase and 3:53 to fully erase the disc.
