LG BH08LS20 Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Rewriter

April 4, 2009

Review: LG BH08LS20
Reviewed by: The Kipper
Provided by: LG - USA
Firmware: 1.00
Manufactured: December 2008

LG USA was kind enough to send us the LG BH08LS20 Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Rewriter with LightScribe. LG, even though an early endorser of Blu-Ray, has made it possible for the consumer to experience writing and reading of Blu-ray media as well as all DVD media types along with CD-R/RW writing, which makes the LG BH08LS20 truly a “Super-Multi” drive. The LG BH08LS20 is an internal SATA drive.

In this review we will show the performance of the LG BH08LS20 by running the drive through many tests on a considerable amount of various CD/DVD/BD media.

Corporate Information:

I’m sure most CD Freaks members will be familiar with the LG Electronics brand name. LG Electronics has been manufacturing high performance and high quality DVD and Blu-ray drives for many years.

If you are interested in reading more about LG Electronic USA, please visit: www.lgusa.com.

Drive Specifications:

Let us take a look at the detailed specifications of the LG BH08LS20 Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Drive with LightScribe:

Writing Speeds:

BD-R: 8x Max
BD-R DL: 8x Max
BD-RE: 2.3x Max
BD-RE DL: 2x Max

DVD±R: 16x Max
DVD±R DL: 4x Max
DVD+RW: 8x Max
DVD-RW: 6x Max
DVD-RAM: 5x Max

CD-R: 48x Max
CD-RW: 24x Max

Read Speeds:

BD-ROM: 8x Max
BD-R: 8x Max
BD-R DL: 8x Max
BD-RE: 4.8x Max

DVD-ROM (Single): 16x Max
DVD-ROM (Dual): 12x Max
DVD±R: 16x Max
DVD±RW: 10x Max
DVD±R DL: 8x Max
DVD-RAM: 5x Max

CD-R/ROM: 48x Max
CD-RW: 40x Max

Seek Times:

BD-ROM: 180ms
DVD-ROM: 160ms
DVD-RAM: 180ms
CD-ROM: 150ms

Buffer: 4MB

What’s inside the box?

Let’s take a look at what comes with the retail package:

As we can see, the retail package contains almost everything you need to get started:

The LG BH08LS20 Super Multi Blu-ray Disc Drive with LightScribe
Serial ATA Cable
Power Adaptor (12volt to SATA)
Installation manual
Quick Setup Guide and Limited Warranty booklet
Mounting screws
LG Super Multi Blue Install Disc with CyberLink’s PowerDVD, Power2Go, MediaShow and PowerProducer.

LG DVD Writer Solution software CD

BD Advisor showing Blu-ray compatibility

Next let’s take a look at the details on the retail box:

Front

Back

Now let’s take look at some screen shots of the drive itself:

Front

Back

Top

Drive Sticker

On the top of the drive we found a sticker that shows it was made in Korea and has a production date of December 2008.

Bottom

Drive Right

Drive Left

Now, let us connect the drive and check out the features, program bundle and writing technology on the next page…

Test machine

For this review we are testing the LG BH08LS20 mounted inside of our Intel based system with the following components:

Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 @ 3.2GHz
Memory: 4GB, OCZ Reaper DDR2 1066
Video: SAPHIRE Radeon HD 4850 256-bit GDDR3
Sound: Realtek 8111B 8 Channels Audio, onboard
Hard Disks: 1X WD Raptor WD150GB, 1X WD 750 GB

Optical Drives: LG BH08LS20, BenQ DW1655, Lite-On DH203AH, Optiarc AD-7200A, Lite-On DH203AP, LG GH22LP20, ASUS DRW-20B1LT, and the Samsung SH-S223F.

Software:

Windows Vista Business SP1 64bit installed on our test system; we will also be using the following software for this review:

Book type (Bitsetting):

The LG BH08LS20 supports bitsetting, but at default it will write DVD+R, and DVD+R DL media with DVD+R, and DVD+R DL book type, respectively. The drive does not remember your Book Typesetting so you will need to change it every time.

With Nero CD-DVD Speed, we can see that the “Book Type" column in the Drive Settings area that all disc types are currently bitset to DVD+R, and DVD+R DL. When a disc is inserted in the drive, the Disc Settings area will show the Book Type.

We can also check if our discs are really written with DVD-ROM Book Type by clicking on the Disc Info tab. This should look something similar to the following screen shot:

A Little More About Blu-ray:

Until recently, optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW, and DVD-RAM relied on a red laser to read and write data. The new technology Blu-ray format uses a blue-violet laser, which explains the name Blu-ray.

Blu-ray drives can also be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

A blue-violet laser (405nm) has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm); this makes it possible to focus the laser with even greater accuracy. This will allow data to be packed more tightly, so it's possible to squeeze more data on the disc even though it's the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 enables Blu-ray discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray media is structurally different from DVD media. The Blu-ray disc consists of a single 1.1 mm thick polycarbonate substrate with a 0.1 mm thick cover layer on the bottom side of the disc, while the DVD disc is made of two 0.6 mm thick substrates. In both cases, two substrates are bonded together by a UV-cured resin adhesive:

DVD vs. Blu-ray disc structure

The larger 25 GB and 50 GB storage capacity of the Blu-ray disc is due to the higher density of pits and tracks on the disc. Unlike previous optical discs, Blu-ray uses a shorter-wavelength, tighter-focused violet laser to read and write pits that are about three times smaller than pits used in DVDs:

CD, DVD and Blu-ray laser beam color and size

CD, DVD and Blu-ray pits and tracks as seen by a scanning electron microscope

Blu-ray disc surface mapped by an atomic force microscope

Installation and Supported Features:

The installation was flawless; we hooked the drive up using a standard SATA cable

Here is the Nero InfoTool output for the drive and its supported features:

CD-DVD Speed reports the burst rate of 42 MB/s:

Disc Writing Technology

Writing Technique

Now let's take a closer look at the writing technology of the LG BH08LS20.

For these tests we used CD-Speed and wrote a full disc at the drives maximum speed.

CD-Recordable:

According to the specifications of the LG BH08LS20, it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48X on supported media.

The LG BH08LS20 uses P-CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X, this gives an average speed of 36.57X.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As we can see from our chart the LG BH08LS20 was the fastest (time wise) at writing our test CD-R media.

CD-Rewritable:

The LG BH08LS20 uses Z-CAV 2-Zone (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 24X, this gives an average speed of 23.40X.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from the graph, our LG BH08LS20 is among the fastest at CD-RW writing, with a time of 3 minutes and 46 seconds.

16X DVD+R

The LG BH08LS20 should be able to write DVD+R media at a maximum speed of 16X.

The LG BH08LS20 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16X. This gives an average write speed of 11.91X and a writing time of 5 minutes 46 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from the graph, our LG BH08LS20 is one of the fastest at DVD+R writing, with a time of 5 minutes and 46 seconds.

16X DVD-R

The LG BH08LS20 should be able to write DVD-R media at a maximum speed of 16X.

The LG BH08LS20 uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD-R at the maximum supported speed of 16X. This gives an average write speed of 11.91X and a writing time of 5 minutes 41 seconds.

Here we have prepared a table to show how the LG BH08LS20 compares with other Blu-ray drives:

As you can see from the graph, our LG BH08LS20 is a fast burner with our DVD-R writing, with a time of 5 minutes and 41 seconds.

8X DVD+RW

The LG BH08LS20 uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8X. The average speed is 7.85X and total writing time is 7:18 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from our graph the LG BH08LS20 was among the fastet when writing to our test DVD+RW, with a time of 7 minutes and 18 seconds.

6X DVD-RW

The LG BH08LS20 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-RW at 6X. The average speed is 6.03X and total writing time is 10:04 minutes.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from our graph the LG BH08LS20 was at the top of the competition writing DVD-RW, with a time of 10 minutes and 04 seconds.

4X DVD+R DL

The LG BH08LS20 supports 4X writing speed on DVD+R DL media.

The LG BH08LS20 uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R DL media at 4X which gives an average write speed of 3.95X and a total write time of 27 minutes and 23 seconds.

4X DVD-R DL

The LG BH08LS20 supports 4X writing speed on DVD-R DL media.

The LG BH08LS20 uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R DL media at 4X. The average speed is 3.94X and the total writing time is 27 minutes and 57 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from our chart above the LG BH08LS20 posts very competitive times when we compare it at 4X writing on both DVD+DL media.

DVD-RAM

The specifications for the LG BH08LS20 state that the drive is capable of writing DVD-RAM at 5X. Let’s take a look at the write strategy for this media.

5X DVD-RAM Writing

The LG BH08LS20 uses P-CAV (Partial Constant Angular Velocity), to write at is maximum speed of 5X. This gives an average speed of 4.57X and a total writing time of 12 minutes and 21 seconds.

Summary

The LG BH08LS20 performed well with our writing tests and, able to meet or exceed the published specifications in regards to writing speeds.

Let’s move on ahead and check out the reading performance on the next page…..

Reading performance:

We will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD media.

Pressed CD-ROM discs:

We used an original pressed CD-ROM disc containing 72.39.55 minutes of data.

The LG BH08LS20 reaches the reading speed of 48.41X.

For comparison we have made the following table:

As you can see from our chart the LG BH08LS20 is one of the fastest drives reading pressed CD-ROM discs with respectable seek times.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we used a Maxell CD-R disc manufactured by Ritek; the disc was burned full with data using Nero CD-DVD Speed.

The LG BH08LS20 reached 48.68X when reading the copied CD-R disc.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The LG BH08LS20 is right there as the top performer when reading CD-Recordable discs, with some nice seek times.

CD-Rewritable discs:

We made another Data CD with Nero Express “Copy Entire CD”, this time we are using a Verbatim DataLifePlus Ultra Speed+ (32X) CD-RW disc.

The LG BH08LS20 read our CD-RW disc back at 40.52X speed.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The LG BH08LS20 was one of the fastest at reading our CD-Rewritable disc.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction

To test the digital audio extraction performance of the LG BH08LS20 we used Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is 74 minutes in length.

The LG BH08LS20 reached 39.21X when reading our audio disc

For comparison we have made the following table:

The LG BH08LS20 performs nicely when reading the Audio-CD disc.

Advanced audio – DAE quality test:

For the Advanced Audio DAE test we used the “Advanced DAE Quality Test” feature of Nero CD-DVD Speed. The CD-R media used is a 40X certified Memorex Music CD-R manufactured by Ritek. (Thanks to Memorex USA for sending us this media.)

The LG BH08LS20 will permit “On-The-Fly” copying speeds through 4X; the drive does not support reading data from the Lead-Out.

DVD reading performance:

DVD-Video “Pressed Disc”

We utilized Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the reading performance. We will perform the reading performance testing on various types of DVD discs. To start off with we will test the LG BH08LS20 at reading “Pressed” DVD-Video discs both Single Layer and Double Layer.

DVD-Video Single Layer

DVD-Video Double Layer

The LG BH08LS20 reads both SL and DL pressed DVD-Video discs at 8X.

For comparison we have made the following table:

The LG BH08LS20 is not a fast reader with pressed DVD-Video Single Layer and DVD-Video Double Layer reading tests.

DVD+R/RW:

For testing the read speed of DVD+R and DVD+RW discs we used Verbatim 16X DVD+R and 8X DVD+RW. Both Discs were written with 4.38GB of data using Nero CD-DVD Speed. (Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this media.) See the results below:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

We have prepared this table to show you how the LG BH08LS20 reads DVD+R/RW media as compared with other drives:

The drive posts respectable speeds when reading our test discs, reading the DVD+R disc at over 16.62X speed and the DVD+RW disc at 10.34X speed.

Now let’s see how it will perform on DVD-R/RW discs.

DVD-R/RW:

For testing the DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance we used Taiyo Yuden 16X DVD-R and Verbatim 6X DVD-RW discs.

Below you will find our test results.

DVD-R

DVD-RW

We have also provided this table to show how the LG BH08LS20 compares with other drives for reading these media:

The drive performs on the top end; reading the DVD-R disc at over 16X speed and the DVD-RW disc at over 10X speed.

DVD±R DL:

For this test we used DVD±R DL discs filled with data.

DVD+R DL

DVD-R DL

Below we have provided a table to show how the LG BH08LS20 compares with other Blu-ray drives.

The drive performs average while reading DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL at just over 8X speed.

DVD-RAM

For this part of our test we are using a Maxell 5x DVD-RAM filled with 4.27GB of data. Our test results are found below:

The LG BH08LS20 will read DVD-RAM at 5X; reading this disc in 14 minutes and 50 seconds.

Summary

The LG BH08LS20 is a fast reader while reading CD media and Single Layer DVD but performs on average when compared with the rest of the pack when reading Dual Layer DVD media.

Now it’s time to head on to the next section: Writing Quality with CD-R and CD-RW discs…

Writing Quality with CD-R/RW discs

The specifications of the LG BH08LS20 state that the drive is able to write CD-R discs at 48X and CD-RW discs at 24X. Let’s find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

For our data writing tests, we simply burned a full disc using CD-Speed (create data disc) function and burned the discs at the maximum speed allowed.

Let us find out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Write quality:

We will test CD-R discs from many different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data CD” function in Nero CD-DVD Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used Nero CD-DVD Speed’s Advanced Disc Quality Scan and combined this with a Transfer Rate Test to test if the resulting disc was readable. Also note that different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the discs. We used a BenQ DVD DW1655 with firmware BCIB under Advance Quality Scan and scanned these discs at 16X CLV speed; as well as a Disc Quality Scan at 48X speed.

There is more than one way to handle C1 and C2 error detection/correction, but a simple and common way is to detect and correct up to two errors per frame in each stage and detect three or more errors:

E11: 1 error detected and corrected by C1 layer
E21: 2 errors detected and corrected by C1 layer
E31: 3 or more errors detected but not corrected by C1 layer

The sum of these (per second) is called the Block Error Rate: BLER=E11+E21+E31

E32: 3 or more errors detected but not corrected by C2 layer

Any E31 is un-correctable by the C1 layer and will result in the bytes in that frame being redistributed into multiple frames which are passed to the C2 layer.

Any E32 is un-correctable by the C2 layer and will result in interpolation being used for Audio CDs or will result in third layer error correction being use for Data CDs.

Different drives have different ways of reporting these errors in a Disc Quality scan. Lite-On CD-RW drives will report C1 and C2 errors this way:

C1=BLER=E11+E21+E31
C2=E32

BenQ DW1655 Disc Quality

C1=BLER=E11+E21+E31
C2=E32

BenQ DW1655 Advanced Disc Quality

All errors are reported separately as well as BLER=E11+E21+E31

Here is an easier way to look at Disc Quality Scanning:

A written CD-R disc will always have some C1 errors; C1 errors are easily corrected by the drive’s error correction capabilities. The next level of errors is C2, while C2 errors could also be corrected by most drive’s error correction capabilities; they are not wanted on a good quality disc. A good disc should not contain any C2 errors, and preferably have an average C1 error amount of below 2.0 for the best discs, or at least below 10.0 averages for good quality discs. After C2 errors, there are only un-correctable errors that will make a disc unusable.

So, in short, our analysis will be based on these guidelines to determine the quality of the burned discs which will be Quality Scanned on our BenQ DW1655:

CD-R/RW quality scans guideline

Below you will see our obtained results:

Writing Data CD-R discs

For our data writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 703MB using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to write a disc at the highest speed. (48x):

The LG BH08LS20 completed this burn in 2 minutes and 44 seconds.

Now let’s take a closer look at writing quality using CD-R media with the LG BH08LS20.

Quality Scan with BenQ DW-1655

TRT with the BenQ DW-1655

The LG BH08LS20 burned this test media with C1 average errors of 3.41, a good quality burn.

Quality Scan with BenQ DW-1655

TRT with the BenQ DW-1655

The HP media manufactured by CMC Magnetics has burned with good quality.

Quality Scan with BenQ DW-1655

TRT with the BenQ DW-1655

The LG BH08LS20 burned with a higher C1 error average than we like with this Daxon media from Imation.

Quality Scan with BenQ DW-1655

TRT with the BenQ DW-1655

The LG BH08LS20 produces an “Excellent” quality burn, this time with our Taiyo Yuden media; check out the C1 and C2 errors.

Quality Scan with BenQ DW-1655

TRT with the BenQ DW-1655

Our Verbatim CDR Test disc manufactured by CMC Magnetics burned with excellent results.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Quality Scan with BenQ DW-1655

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

We would like to see better results with our 32X Verbatim test media.

Summary:

CD-R writing quality was overall Excellent with the LG BH08LS20. We would like to see better performance when burning 32X high speed CD-RW media.

Now let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD recordable performance….

Write quality:

The specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD±R at 16x and DVD+RW/-RW at 8x/6x. In this part, we will measure the writing times for various types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and media compatibility.

Disc Quality Scanning - PI/PO:

DVDs use an error detection and correction system (ECC) which is usually transparent to the end-user, but we can get an idea of the "quality" of a disc by performing Disc Quality Scanning, which shows how many errors the drive is detecting and correcting behind the scenes.

There are two layers or stages of error detection and correction on all DVD media; these are called Parity Inner (PI) and Parity Outer (PO). Data is arranged in ECC blocks containing rows and columns of user data with additional columns of PI error correction and rows of PO error correction.

An ECC block contains 32 KByte of user data with some added control data, scrambled and arranged in 192 rows and 172 columns with an additional 10 columns of PI error correction and 16 rows of PO error correction.

The Parity Inner stage is performed first, and up to 5 bytes in a row can be corrected. Any row with one or more errors is counted as a Parity Inner Error (PIE). Any row with more than 5 errors is considered un-correctable and is counted as a Parity Inner Failure (PIF).

The Parity Outer stage is performed next and will detect and attempt to correct any errors that are still left after the PI stage. Any column that has errors is counted as a Parity Outer Error (POE), and any column that has un-correctable errors is counted as a Parity Outer Failure (POF). If a POF occurs the drive can sometimes re-read the problematic spot and correct the problem; this happens only during normal reading and not during scanning, however.

Disc Quality scanning is influenced by the drive performing the test, and that's why different drives report different results and even the same drive will report (slightly) different results when scanning the same disc again. Please note that PI/PO and Jitter scans only test some aspects of disc quality and that other important aspects are not revealed.

But what is a good scan? That is a discussion that we don’t think will end soon, as different drives report different amount of errors, some players are more picky about media than others, and so on. But as a comparison we present you with scans from two pressed DVD discs:

The scan above shows the results from a pressed, Single Layer DVD-Video disc (Flicka).

The above scan shows the result from a pressed Double Layer DVD-Video disc (I am Legend).

The Lite-On DVD burners used in this review report errors as follows:

PIE per 8 ECC blocks (rows with 1 or more bytes in error)
PIF per 1 ECC block (rows with 6 or more bytes in error)

We want to see as low error numbers as possible.
PIE per 8 ECC blocks should be no higher than 280.
PIF per 1 ECC block should be no higher than 4.

Both the pressed DVD-discs above are well within the standards if we ignore the single PIF spike in the DL scan.

If you want to look at the standards for yourself, download the ECMA 267 Standard for DVD-ROM, the ECMA 337 Standard for DVD+R/RW and the ECMA 338 Standard for DVD-R/RW at http://www.ecma-international.org.

Notice that there are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, tracking errors and so on that also will affect the readability of a DVD disc – but for this we do not have measuring equipment available.

Also, another note is that we have scanned the discs at 4X speed, by lowering the speed to 2X (DVD-R/RW)/2.4X (DVD+R/RW) or 1X the amount of reported errors may drop on some discs. We scanned at 4X CLV due to lower speeds taking too much time.

To see if there is a connection between the reported amount of errors and readability of the discs we also include the reading curve from a BenQ DW-1655 DVD-Writer which by default is able to read DVD±R media at 16x speed or our Optiarc AD-7200A. A small speed reduction near the end is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading failures is a bad sign.

Jitter:

Jitter is a very complex subject and even more difficult to explain when we start to use optical drives designed for the home market to measure jitter values.

Let’s first look at the DVD specification for pressed DVD discs (in the bold part courtesy of Pioneer Electronics).

“The DVD design target is that when the worst-case disc allowed by the specification, considering the economics of production, is played using the worst-case pickup that can be produced in volume economically, the byte error rate after error correction will still be 1 x 10-^-20, which is good enough to be acceptable for computer applications.

Since the above target is for "after error correction," the error correction capability must be calculated. Considering the trade-off between error correction capability and the overhead of the added redundancy, the DVD format was set to one ECC block per 32 KB. This requires a byte error rate before correction of 1 x 10^-2.
In order to achieve good economy on both the part of the discs and the playback mechanisms, the current disc tilt specification was determined as a result of the efforts on both sides.

As will be explained hereafter, it is difficult to make the error rate a specification of the disc itself. Therefore, a jitter standard is set by the DVD specifications. A simple calculation based on a normal distribution requires that the jitter rate be under 15.4%, and experimental results indicate that jitter must be fewer than 16%, to achieve the required error rate. Since the disc tilt varies within a revolution, it was decided to adopt the design concept that jitter must remain within 16% at the instantaneous peak value of tilt. Since it is actually very difficult to measure the peak value, the concept became to measure the average jitter at fewer than 15%, and the byte error rate at under 5 x 10-3.”

What is Jitter?

In basic terms, we could say jitter is a product of “pit and land distortion” In other words, when the drive reading the disc has to compensate by means of a “tilt servo” which constantly tries to move and refocus the PUH lens for optimum tracking and tries to compensate for the imperfections of pits and lands on the pressed or recordable media. This is further compounded by the hardware used for recording and playback. Not only is the record and replay process limited by the resolution of the optical pickup, it is also horribly non-linear. In addition, the playback of the pits is subject to non-linear crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track, and also from pits in nearby tracks.

The things that causes jitter divide into three main types.

Variation in pit length and width.
Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track.
Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks.

Variation in pit length and width:

The recorded pits themselves are not perfectly accurate. Anything which causes variations in the sizes of the pits will produce jitter. A prime culprit of this is sudden variations in laser power (laser noise). If laser power varies, then the laser beam itself changes and will vary in intensity and possibly focus. This will cause the pit length and width to also vary and we now have jitter.

Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track:

If the pits are not totally accurate, then the laser beam spot may overrun a pit and gather data from the adjacent pit in the same track, or if the “land” is to short, then the laser beam spot can be influenced by the adjacent pit and this is called inter-symbol interference. Inter-symbol interference is worse at low recording velocities, because the pits are shorter and closer together. And it is the cause of "deviation" of the pit lengths.

Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks:

Crosstalk between pits in adjacent tracks is caused by the laser beam spot being larger than the width of the track. It is a largely random contribution and is worse at lower recorded velocities, because the highest frequency components of the readout signal in the wanted track, with which the crosstalk is competing, are weaker.

Some other factors to consider:

There are many aspects to consider when we add Recordable DVD media into the mix. We are now dealing with an organic dye, which is inherently unstable. We must also consider the equipment we are using to measure jitter is aimed at the home market. So we must also take into account variations between drives that we are unable to calibrate for such tests.

Now let’s look at some of the hardware limitations of the drives we are using to measure jitter.

If there is no tilt, then the jitter value includes components from light source noise, circuit noise, disc noise, standard interference between symbols (inter -symbol interference), and some small amount of crosstalk from the neighboring tracks.

Next we consider manufacturing variation in the circuitry.
Variation due to the circuitry have noise-like characteristics, and increase the minimum jitter level, but are thought to have a very small effect on tilt margin. Factors such as offset in the servo circuit, however, both increase the jitter level and decrease tilt margin.

How we will measure jitter:

We will be using a Lite-On DVD writer to conduct these tests along with Nero CD-DVD Speed at 4x scanning speed. In the screen shot below we can see a PI/PIF scan including a jitter test (the purple graph in the lower window) we carried out on a single layer DVD+R media.

Now, let's find a reasonable average jitter level. Experimental results indicate that 8% average value or less is a desirable figure, based on the DVD specification. That does not mean that jitter average values above 8% are bad. In fact, many optical drives will quite happily read recordable DVD media with jitter values of more than 14% average without any problems. Other drives, including standalone DVD players may begin to struggle reading discs with average jitter values above 10%. So there is a fairly wide range of acceptable values. One must test our own playback devices to see what they can cope with.

However, for the purpose of having a basic guideline we can use in our reviews, we present a rating system for average jitter values.

Less than 8% (average) = Very good
8% - 9% (average) = good
9% - 12% (average) = average
Above 12% (average) = poor

Here is an easier explanation on how to read the test results

Maybe this got too technical, and you are wondering what to look for in your Nero DiscSpeed/CD-Speed Quality Scans?

Use this as a guideline for good discs:

PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 280.
PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes that exceed 4.
Jitter: An average jitter value of 8% or less is considered to be very good. You should not worry too much if the average value is slightly above this figure.

And as always; lower is better

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On DH20A3P with firmware XV5H or our Lite-On DH20A3H with firmware YV64 along with CD-Speed to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the BenQ DW-1655 with firmware BCID or our Optiarc AD-7200A with firmware 1.Z3 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH20A3P

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

The LG BH08LS20 produces a very good quality burn with our Verbatim MCC004 test disc and a jitter average of 7.66%.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH20A3P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

Excellent results with our Taiyo Yuden test media.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH20A3P

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

The LG BH08LS20 writes with excellent results on our TDK Printable media.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

Here we see a very respectable burn with this Philips media.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

Excellent results with our Memorex test media manufactured by Daxon.

Let’s now move onto testing DVD+RW.

DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

We used the same test procedures as in our DVD+R tests.

Below are our obtained results.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

The LG BH08LS20 writes with impressive results with our 8X high speed DVD+RW media.

Summary:

The LG BH08LS20 performs overall with excellent results on our DVD+R/RW test media.

Now let’s look at DVD-R/RW performance and quality on the next page…..

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

The result is excellent with this very popular Taiyo Yuden media burned at 16X.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

Here we found an excellent quality write with our verbatim test disc.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

The LG BH08LS20 writes to this Philips media with very good to excellent results.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

An excellent burn using our Maxell media on the BH08LS20 drive.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

The LG BH08LS20 produces a good quality burn with this TDK media.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

For this test we used the same testing procedures as in our DVD-R tests.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with Optiarc AD-7200A

Very Good quality when writing our Verbatim DVD-RW test media.

Summary:

The LG BH08LS20 writes to our various test media with overall excellent results.

Very good quality while burning our DVD-RW test Disc.

Let’s head on to the next page where we will test DVD R DL writing performance and quality……

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing performance and quality:

The LG BH08LS20 supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 4x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we wrote an image file of a DVD-Video compilation of as near full capacity as possible with Nero Burning ROM. We then used one of our Lite-On burners along with CD-Speed to test the discs quality; we then finally ran a Transfer-Rate-Test on our BenQ DW-1655 using Nero CD-DVD Speed.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

The quality scan shows very good results with these 4 X DL media from Verbatim.

We will be testing both of our DL burns with our stand alone players in the “Author’s Page” of this review.

DVD-R DL:

Here we will show you how the LG BH08LS20 performs with our 4X media from Verbatim.

Quality Scan with Lite-On DH203P

TRT with BenQ DW-1655

Overall a very good to excellent quality burn with our Verbatim test media.

Summary:

The LG BH08LS20 writing quality on our tested DVD±R DL media was very good to excellent.

On the next page, we take a look at DVD-RAM writing performance.....

DVD-RAM Performance:

The LG BH08LS20 drive also supports writing and reading the DVD-RAM format; reading and writing at 5X.

Lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it has differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

We can see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots. These tick marks are "address information" ("Pre-mastered Pit Header Field") which is embedded onto the disc. This is header information in front of data sector area, and is the same format as HDD and MO.

A DVD-RAM’s disc can be formatted in the following formats:

FAT32
UDF 1.02
UDF 1.50
UDF 2.00
UDF 2.01
UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done as “background processes”. Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish, you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any “hangs” or CPU slowdowns.

DVD-RAM has error correction, but also has error replacement to spare sectors as a "defect management" function. This gives higher reliability than other DVD formats.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100,000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors.

Lets us take a look at how the drive performs:

Maxell branded 5x media manufactured by Maxell.
Thanks to Maxell USA for providing this media.

Writing Maxell 5x without verification

Writing Maxell 5x with verification

Transfer Rate test

As we can see, the LG BH08LS20 writes 5x DVD-RAM without any problem; reads back the disc at 5x speed in 14:50 minutes.

For those of you who are not familiar with DVD-RAM, you may probably think that something went wrong during the write process with the verification turned on, since the 5x media was written at 1.3x and 2x, respectively. But don’t worry, that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM discs. The reason for the lower writing speed is the drive constantly reads back the data after writing it to verify that it’s written correctly. We can also call it a “bullet proof” writing/verify technique, with no data loss/errors.

Let's head to the next page, where we look at BD writing performance....

Blu-ray Features:

A Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a next generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of many leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of High Definition (HD) video, as well as for high capacity of data storage.

Blu-ray Format Type:

Similar to DVD-RAM, a Blu-ray disc can be formatted in the following types: UDF 1.50, UDF 2.00, UDF 2.50, UDF2.60, and FAT32.

Before using BD-R and BD-RE media for writing files on the disc, we must logically format the media. Once we have logically formatted a BD-R or BD-RE disc, it can be used to write files just as you would do with a Pen Drive, Flash Drive, hard disk or DVD-RAM. In the illustration below we will use Panasonic UDF Formatter (DVDForm) version 5.1.1.0 to format a BD-RE disc.

DVDForm offers several format types for BD-RE disc

It took 37 seconds to quick format a BD-RE disc in FAT32

BD-RE Single Layer discs formatted with FAT32

Now we will attempt to do a quick format on a BD-RE media with format type UDF2.5.

Formatting a BD-RE disc in UDF2.5

BD-RE Single Layer discs formatted with UDF2.5

Let’s move along to check out the LG BH08LS20’ reading and writing performance

Reading and Playability of commercial BD-ROM SL/DL:

Here we will look at how the LG BH08LS20 performs when reading and playing back commercial BD-ROM discs.

BD-ROM SL

The LG BH08LS20 read our SL BD-ROM at a speed of 4.84X.

BD-ROM DL

Reading of BD-ROM DL is done at 4.8X.

Both discs also play back perfectly on our test system using PowerDVD Ultra which is included in the software package from CyberLink.

Now we will move along and take a look at the writing abilities for this drive…….

BD-R and BD-R DL Writing Speed and Quality:

To demonstrate burning data on a Blu-ray disc, we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed with Create Disc feature. We will use ImgBurn when we burn Hi-Def video. The ScanDisc test is performed in the LG BH08LS20 drive to check if there is any issue with the burned disc.

Now let us take a look how the drive performs on various BD-R media:

CD-DVD Speed reports this media is capable of writing at 8X.

Verbatim BD-R with MID VERBATIMa is supported up to 8X speed.
Thanks to Verbatim for providing this media.

Writing Verbatim BD-R with nearly 25GB of video at 8X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As we can see, the LG BH08LS20 writes these 2X BD-R media from Verbatim at 8X with no problems.

CD-DVD Speed reports this media is capable of writing at up to 6X.

Writing our TDK BD-R at 6X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The LG BH08LS20 had no issues with this media from TDK Corp.

Nero CD-DVD Speed reports this media is able to write at 6X.

Memorex BD-R 2x media with MID: MEI T01.

Writing Memorex BD-R 2X MEI T01 at 6X speed with ImgBurn

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the BH08LS20 had no problems with this media.

Sony BD-R 6x media with MID: NN3 002.

Writing Sony BD-R 6X at 8X speed

ImgBurn Log

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The LG BH08LS20 reads and writes our Sony Blu-ray (BD-R) test media without any problems.

Now let’s take a look at how the LG BH08LS20 performs with our BD-R DL test media.

Disc Info

DVD Identifier

Burning with ImgBurn at 6X

ImgBurn Log

Transfer Rate Test

ScanDisc Test

The LG BH08LS20 burned our HD Video to our test disc in 43 minutes and 35 seconds.

Disc Info

DVD Identifier

Burning with ImgBurn at 8X

ImgBurn Log

Transfer Rate Test

ScanDisc Test

The LG BH08LS20 burned our HD Video to our test disc in just under 43 minutes.

Let’s move on to testing the drive at writing to our BD-RE test media.

BD-RE Writing Speed and Quality

Now let us take a look at how the drive performs on various BD-RE media:

Verbatim BD-RE 2X media with MID: VERBATIM0.
Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media.

Writing Verbatim BD-RE 2.3X

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As we can see, the LG BH08LS20 wrote to the 2x BD-RE Verbatim media in about 39 minutes. Transfer rate test as well as ScanDisc show no problem.

TDK BD-RE 2x media with MID: TDKBLDWBA.

Writing TDK BD-RE 2.3X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The drive performs well with this TDK Blu-ray media.

Sony BD-RE 2X media with MID: SONY ES1.

Writing Sony BD-RE 2.3X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem with this Sony Blu-ray media.

LG BD-RE 2X media with MID: LGEBRES01.

Writing LG BD-RE 2.3X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem in writing and read-back with this LG Blu-ray media. Transfer rate test and ScanDisc test are both good.

Now let’s take a look at how the LG BH08LS20 performs with our BD-RE DL test media.

Panasonic BD-RE 2X media with MID: MEI T01.

Writing Panasonic BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem in writing and read-back with this Panasonic BD-RE media.

Summary:

As we can see, the LG BH08LS20 drive supports writing all of BD-R/DL media at 6-8X speed with ImgBurn. We will also test with CDSpeed and provide our findings below.

The BH08lS20 also reads and writes BD-RE single and double layer discs without any problem. ScanDisc tests show no problem at all.

Write times shown below are when using ImgBurn

Writing BD-R/RE and BD-R DL with CDSpeed

Now we will burn our BD-R/RE and BD-R DL media with Nero’s CDSpeed for comparison. Thanks to nikoneko Ya for providing these discs.

Sony BD-R media

Writing this Sony BD-R at 8X

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The LG BH08LS20 writes to this media at 8X in 13 minutes and 15 seconds using CDSpeed; no problems with the Transfer Rate Test or DiscScan test.

Sony BD-R DL media

Writing this Sony BD-R DL at 2X

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problems with our BD-R DL (Sony media) furnished by nikoneko Ya

Write times shown below are when using CDSpeed

Blu-ray playback test

Since we burned 6 of our test discs with HD Video, we tested them with our stand-alone BD player; here is a table to show those results:

In addition to testing with our Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-ray player, the LG BH08LS20 plays back our High Definition Blu-ray movies with the included software from CyberLink without any issues.

Let’s head on to the “Author’s Page” where we will conduct some real world tests with the LG BH08LS20 Drive……

Introduction:

On this page, the author of the review has the freedom to run tests that she/he thinks will enhance the review. These tests, are unlike our standard tests, which we try to keep consistent throughout the whole review team, so that our reviews are as consistent as possible. This page gives the reviewer the opportunity to show some advanced and real world tests that other review team members may not be able to run.

Real World Tests:

Real world tests are designed to simulate what normal users might use their drives for in everyday use. For example, burning to LightScribe media and writing discs with a burning application.

LightScribe

The LG BH08LS20 as a LightScribe drive enables images to be burned onto LightScribe Discs, both CD and DVD. Make a label whenever and wherever you want with your PC and burner. It is Simple, Compatible and Flexible.

On January 4, 2004, HP announced an innovative new technology to address the problem of labeling CD’s and DVD’s. LightScribe technology allows consumers to create silk-screen quality labels on their CDs or DVDs by burning text and graphics directly onto a disc, eliminating the need for adhesive labels.

But, before we continue - Let us first take a look at some information found at the LightScribe site:

About LightScribe:

CREATE SILKSCREEN-QUALITY LABELS FOR ALL YOUR CDS AND DVDS, RIGHT FROM YOUR COMPUTER:

Until now there hasn't been much choice when it comes to creating labels for your CDs and DVDs. Messy markers or sticky adhesive labels were pretty much the only affordable option. But imagine creating professional-looking labels using the same laser that burns your data-right inside your CD/DVD drive! Well, now it's easy with LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology.

LABEL-MAKING REDEFINED:

LightScribe technology is an integrated system that combines the CD or DVD drive of your LightScribe-enabled computer with specially coated discs and enhanced disc-burning software to produce precise, laser-etched labels. You can design and produce labels to express your creativity and personality-the sky's the limit!

With LightScribe, the disc is the label. This amazing technology is the no-hassle way to create elegant labels for all your CDs and DVDs. Simply burns your music mix, digital-video/photo archives, or business application. Then flip the disc and burn your own unique label.

LightScribe Direct Disc Labeling technology is now available in PCs, external USB optical DVD writers, labeling software, and a variety of brand name discs. Remember, the LightScribe logo indicates a LightScribe-enabled product, so be sure to look for it at your favorite retail locations. Also check out the Looking for LightScribe page for a list of companies that make LightScribe-enabled products.

How it Works:

A RADICAL REVOLUTION IN DISC LABELING:

Once you've burned your first LightScribe label and experienced the amazing result, you'll never want to use a permanent marker or sticky label again. LightScribe makes it easy. It truly is a revolution in disc labeling.

JUST HOW DOES IT WORK?

How can you burn a label onto your disc right from your computer? Suppose you have just created a music CD of your favorite songs. Now you want to make a label that contains the song titles, artists' names, and some personal information and design elements to make it special.

Burn your tracks onto the data side of the disc. Flip the disc over to the label side and put it back in the drive. Burn your label by opening your favorite LightScribe-enabled label-making software and going to the CD template work area. Now you do all of your creative design work-imported pictures, copy, and artwork. When you are satisfied with what you have done, click "print." It really is that simple! No ink, no messy markers, no clumpy adhesive labels, just an amazingly beautiful label right before your eyes.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO KNOW MORE?

Your LightScribe-enabled CD/DVD disc drive contains a special laser that pumps light energy into a thin dye coating on the label side of the disc. The light from the laser causes a chemical change in the dye coating that shows up as a visible point on the disc. With laser precision, LightScribe delivers closely controlled light energy to multiple points on the disc as it spins in the drive. The result is a high-resolution reproduction of the artwork, text, or photos you composed in the software application.

In this review we decided to use SureThing Deluxe labeler instead of the supplied label making module in Nero.

The LightScribe Media:

Verbatim has come out with a set of different colored CD/DVD media which allows a wider choice of backgrounds to burn your designs to; below is an image of the colors available:

Designing and burning with SureThing Labeler:

The SureThing program is very easy to work with and we made a graphical label to test our LightScribe feature. After we were satisfied with the layout we pressed Print Label (LightScribe).

In the print option we selected “Best quality” and OK to print the label in the Print Dialog windows where we are presented with a warning to ensure that we have placed the disc in the drive with the LightScribe label side down.

After clicking on OK we find the label is being printed with our LG BH08LS20 drive.

Below is the result of our LightScribe label printing; as you can see the LG BH08LS20 does a nice job burning our LightScribe label to our test media.

Nero Burning Rom:

In the following tests we will burn discs from the main media groups with Nero Burning Rom.

CD-R:

The LG BH08LS20 burned our test CD-R at 48X in 2 minutes and 57 seconds.

DVD R:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn an ISO compilation containing 4483MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

The LG BH08LS20 burned our test DVD R at 16X in 5 minutes and 7 seconds.

DVD DL:

In this test we will measure the time for writing to DVD R DL discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn a Double Layer Disc containing 7.95 GB of video.

The LG BH08LS20 burned our test DVD R DL at 4X in 27 minutes and 27 seconds.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility test:

We only have 2 standalone DVD-Players available to test the DVD±R DL discs written during our DL write tests:

Samsung BD-P1400 Blu-ray player
Sharp TV/DVD Combo

Compatibility results:

Both our DVD Standalone devices played the DVD±R DL media burned by the LG BH08LS20 without any problems.

CSS Encrypted DVD-Video ripping tests:

Most modern DVD burners don’t have Video riplock and in most cases will read a pressed DVD-Video SL disc at 16x speed. However, some drives use a CSS riplock when it comes to extracting data from the disc. If you attempt to rip a pressed DVD-Video with CSS encryption to your hard drive, the ripping speed may be locked at a much lower speed than 16X.

To test this feature, we needed a reference from a drive that we know does not employ CSS riplock. We choose the BenQ DW-1655 as a reference drive for this purpose and ripped an SL and DL pressed DVD-Video to our hard drive using DVDFab Platinum (full disc option).

We should point out, that ripping and compressing a DL DVD-Video disc to DVD 5 format is quite CPU intensive. The more power your system has, the less likely your system power will affect the results. The PC used in this review is equipped with a fast Intel Quad Core processor and fast hard drives. We checked to make sure our review PC was not having an impact on the results.

Below we can see our reference results.

SL CSS encrypted DVD Video disc “Flicka” (BenQ DW-1655 reference result)

Time taken = 8 minutes 55 seconds

DL CSS encrypted DVD Video disc “MI3” (BenQ DW-1655 reference result)

Time taken = 12 minutes 56 seconds

Now let’s test the LG BH08LS20 using the same testing procedures.

SL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (Flicka):

The LG BH08LS20 is CSS riplocked and ripped our test DVD-Video SL disc in 15 minutes and 59 seconds.

DL CSS encrypted DVD-Video (MI3):

The LG BH08LS20 is CSS riplocked and ripped our test DVD-Video DL disc quite fast in 29 minutes and 20 seconds.

The LG BH08LS20 ripped our test discs without problem; we would like to point out that it is also a relatively quiet drive.

MINI DVD discs:

In this section we are going to test if the LG BH08LS20 is capable of writing and reading mini DVD-RW discs with a capacity of 30 minutes/1.37 GB.

The Memorex media is made by Verbatim. Thanks to Memorex for sending us this media.

The LG BH08LS20 had no problems in writing our test mini DVD-RW disc.

Now let’s check if the LG BH08LS20 can also read back our test disc.

The LG BH08LS20 read back our test mini DVD-RW disc without any problems.

Video-CD disc:

For our final test we wanted to see how the LG BH08LS20 would read a Video-CD, for this test we created a 76 minute Video-CD with Nero Burning ROM 8, and used NERO CD-DVD Speed to read the disc back. Below is our result:

The LG BH08LS20 had no problems in reading our test VCD.

We are also able to play the VCD test disc with WMP.

This concludes our LG BH08LS20 review, lets head on to the last page to read our Conclusion…

Conclusion

Positive:

Reads BD-R at 8x and BD-RE media at 5x (Very Impressive)
Writes BD-R and BD-R DL at 8x
Writes both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x
Writes CD-R media at 48x
Has LightScribe support
Quiet drive operation
Writes DVD+RW media at 8x and DVD-RW media at 6x
Supports 5x writing on DVD-RAM
Very Good to Excellent DVD and CD-R writing quality
Solid construction with SATA interface
Full featured Software Bundle from CyberLink

Negative:

Reads BD-ROM SL and DL media at 4.8x
Reads DVD-Video SL and DL at 4.8x
Writes DVD±R DL at only 4x

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The LG BH08LS20’s ability to read High-Definition movies in the Blu-ray format make this drive a must have for any desktop PC or Home Theater PC (HTPC).

The BH08LS20 is one of the first drives to support writing BD-R media at 8X. The BH08LS20 performs very well when writing to all our BD media in half the time of earlier Blu-ray burners and LG has managed to drop the price of the BH08LS20 to less than half of what its earlier predecessors cost.

Writing of DVD-R and DVD+R media with the LG BH08LS20 at 16X with very good to excellent writing quality gives this unit the ability to be a single drive solution for Blu-ray as well as a CD and DVD burner.

Writing of CD-R/RW media, 40X and 24X respectively is more than an added bonus, the LG BH08LS20 is also a very fast CD-R/RW reader.

There are a couple concerns that we would like to mention as our feedback. As previously noted, the drive reads BD-ROM at a slow rate of 4.8X in about 25 minutes for single layer and 51 minutes for dual layer BD-ROMs. We would like to note that other brands supports reading BD-ROM at 8X in about 13 minutes for single layer and 27 minutes for dual layer BD-ROMs.

We also would like to mention that the drives writes DVD+R DL at 4X, which we think is quite slow for today’s standards.

The drive supports SATA interface for quick and easy installation (SATA cable included in the box) and with a software bundle from CyberLink for Blu-ray Disc, DVD and CD burning and authoring, really making the LG BH08LS20 a multi format drive solution.

The drive is rip-locked hence reads DVD-Video SL and DL at 4.8x only. We also would like to mention that the drives writes DVD+R DL at 4x, which we think is quite slow for today’s standards.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “The LG BH08LS20 is a Blu-ray Disc writer/ reader giving you the ability to watch high-definition content on your PC. Additionally its capability to write DVD and CD-R media with excellent quality establishes this drive as an All-In-One solution.” We therefore award the LG BH08LS20 with the CDFreaks’ 4 star rating and our “Safe Buy” award.

We found that the retail version of LG BH08LS20 is listed at cheapest price of $249 (March 1^st, 2009).

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to

	Verbatim USA – For providing the media used in this review.
	nikoneko Ya – For providing several of the BD media used in this review.
	Memorex USA – For providing the media used in this review.
	ExtremeMhz – For providing the Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media used in this review
	Rima.com USA – For providing Taiyo Yuden media used in this review.
	Advanced Media/Ritek-USA – For providing the media used in this review.