LG WH10LS30 Super Multi Blue 10x Blu-ray Disc ReWriter

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 v4.7.7.16 are used to test read speeds, access 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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access 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 Roxio's Drag-to-Disc 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 v4.7.7.16 is used to test read speeds, access 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 new Super Multi Blue drive performed pretty well in our CD Winbench tests. In the transfer rate tests, the WH10LS30 started reading at 17.8x on the inside and reached a maximum speed of 43x on the outside of the disc. As you can see, this resulted in a very good overall CD Winbench score.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 WH10LS30	Plextor PX-B940SA	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.01x 20.78x 47.61x	31.40x 18.46x 41.39x	30.94x 17.80x 40.63x	36.43x 21.08x 48.18x
Access Times Random: 1/3: Full:	134ms 148ms 206ms	148ms 169ms 308ms	114ms 129ms 186ms	127ms 146ms 214ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 3%	6% 9% 6% 71%	1% 1% 8% 9%	1% 1% 2% 5%

The WH10LS30 didn't perform as well as I had expected when reading pressed CD's. While rated at 48x,LG's new Blu-ray Disc writer came up a little short of this number in our tests. On a more positive note, the WH10LS30's seek times were fairly good.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 WH10LS30	Plextor PX-B940SA	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	36.59x 20.96x 48.72x	31.66x 18.40x 42.02x	25.32x 14.58x 33.57x	36.95x 21.17x 48.93x
Access Times Random: 1/3: Full:	141ms 154ms 207ms	162ms 177ms 374ms	161ms 187ms 335ms	122ms 145ms 225ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 4%	0% 1% 3% 6%	2% 8% 6% n/a	1% 1% 2% 5%

The WH10LS30 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 48.72x in our tests.

LG's new Blu-ray drive had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The WH10LS30 read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 49.51x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 - 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 WH10LS30	Plextor PX-B940SA	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	30.60x 17.88x 40.42x	18.71x 11.01x 24.71x	18.72x 10.99x 24.74x	30.00x 17.48x 39.69x
Access Times Random: 1/3: Full:	134ms 152ms 203ms	157ms 180ms 319ms	155ms 179ms 319ms	119ms 142ms 215ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	0% 1% 2% 3%	0% 1% 2% 4%	0% 8% 6% n/a	1% 1% 2% 5%

While the WH10LS30 is rated at 48x when reading pressed and CD-R media, its CD-RW read speeds are limited to only 40x. As you can see, the drive had no problems reaching this speed in our tests.

CD Speed v4.7.7.7 (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 WH10LS30 supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	LG WH10LS30	Plextor PX-B940SA	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.80x 18.26x 40.69x 10 Yes	31.26x 18.84x 41.23x 10 Yes	31.27x 18.84x 41.36x 10 Yes	30.25x 17.91x 39.96x 10 Yes

The WH10LS30 did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not as fast as the Plextor PX-B940SA and Pioneer BDR-2203, it was able to rip pressed audio CD's at at respectable 40.69x.

CD Speed v4.7.7.16 (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 I used in the CD Speed tests.

CD Speed	LG WH10LS30	Plextor PX-B940SA	Pioneer BDR-2203	LG BH08LS20
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.20x 18.04x 39.81x 10 Yes	31.02x 18.79x 41.05x 10 Yes	24.83x 15.09x 32.76x 10 Yes	29.90x 17.99x 39.43x 10 Yes

LG's new Blu-ray drive was a little slower when ripping audio CD-R discs. Nevertheless, this didn't keep it from reaching a maximum DAE speed of 39.81x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

The WH10LS30 completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 28.94x. The drive did not create any errors, but for whatever reason, it was not able to pass all of the on-the-fly copying tests. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the WH10LS30 was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and lead in but failed to read the lead out section of the CD.