LG GSA-2166D USB 2.0 Super-Multi DVD±RW/RAM

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16 and DLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of Sony's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

When writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x, the GSA-2166D uses CAV. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that LG's new drive starts writing at about 6.7x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed as it reaches the end of the disc.

The GSA-2166D also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. In both cases the drive uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

LG's new DVD writer performed pretty well in our DVD writing tests. While its Z-CLV writing method put it at a slight disadvantage when writing to DVD+RW and DVD-RW discs, the GSA-2166D turned in some very good times with DVD+R and DVD-R media.

To check the media compatibility of the GSA-2166D, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

While not shown here, I also tried RiDATA's (Ritek) 16x DVD-R media. These discs did not seem to be supported by the GSA-2166D as the writing speed was limited to only 4x.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The GSA-2166D's writing quality varied a lot from one manufacturer to another. Looking at the graphs above, you can see that the media from Taiyo Yuden and Fuji yielded some pretty good results. Unfortunately, when scanned with the DW1640, the PI/PIF rates were higher than we'd like to see on some of the other discs. In particular, RiDATA's 16x DVD+R media. With these discs the PI/PIF rates were not only very high, there were a number of POF errors.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. When tested with KProbe, the GSA-2166D's writing quality appears to be pretty good. Unfortunately, when scanned with the BenQ DW1640 there were a number of PO Failures that caused some slow downs in the transfer rate tests.

To test the GSA-2166D's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media were used once again.

The GSA-2166D didn't do as well as I expected in our packet writing tests. The drive's writing speed was limited to only 4x, even when 6x DVD-RW and 8x DVD+RW media was used.

If you want to use DVD-RAM media with LG's new "Super-Multi" drive, you will need to use a packet writing program like Sonic's DLA or Nero's InCD. As you can see, InCD gives you a number of formats to choose from. For our tests I chose to use UDF 2.0.

To test the drive's DVD-RAM speeds I copied and pasted the same 4GB of files used in our other DVD packet writing tests.

While it doesn't look like it, the GSA-2166D is really writing at 5x. When you write data to a DVD-RAM disc, each sector is automatically verified. This verification adds extra time to the recording process. Nevertheless, the GSA-2166D performed very well in our tests. With its 5x reading and writing speeds, it's the drive to get if you need DVD-RAM support.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.0.16:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the GSA-2166D, I used Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 8x was not an easy task. The only media we found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's new 8x DVD+R DL discs. With Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media, the writing speed was limited to 6x and Memorex's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 4x.

With Nero, it took the GSA-2166D about 17:41 to write 8001MB of data. While faster than the drives from NEC and Plextor, it was almost two and a half minutes slower than the DRU-810A. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The GSA-2166D's writing quality could have been better with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. When scanned with the BenQ DW1640, the PIF rate was very high at the layer change. On top of that, there were a number of PO Failures. The results were better with the 2.4x DVD+R DL media from Verbatim and Memorex. However, as you can see, there is still room for much improvement.

The GSA-2166D also features 4x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, Verbatim's new 4x DVD-R DL media was used.

With its 4x writing speed, the GSA-2166D wasn't nearly as fast as the drives from NEC and Plextor. In our tests, it took LG's new drive 27:13 to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The GSA-2166D's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed and there were no readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

Overall, the performance of LG's new "Super-Multi" was pretty mixed. When writing DVD's, the GSA-2166D turned in very good times with DVD±R and DVD+R DL media. However, there were also a number of cases where the writing quality could have been better.Nevertheless, the drive was fairly quick when reading DVD's. The GSA-2166D had no problems reading single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x but slowed to only 8x when reading DVD videos.

The GSA-2166D also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds as high as 48x and had some very good seek times. When it came to writing CD's, LG's new drive gave us some mixed results. The GSA-2166D turned in some very impressive times when writing to CD-R media, but did not perform as well as I had expected in our rewriting tests. With all things considered, the LG GSA-2166D gets a 6 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.