LG GSA-4167B Super Multi DVD-Writer Review

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LG '“ Germany was
kind enough to send us their latest DVD-writer the LG GSA-4167B Super multi DVD
Writer. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R, 8x/6x
DVD+RW/-RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 6x/4x DVD+R DL/-R DL writing, allowing Double/Dual
Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.

Company
information:

Let us take a look
at some of the company information found at the LG
website.

The Foundation of
LG

LG was established
in 1947 as Korea's first chemical company, also becoming the nation's first
electronics company with its expansion into home appliances in 1958. The new
Corporate Identity was launched including the change of the group name from
Lucky-Goldstar to LG in 1995.

Business
Fields

The wide array of
activities that LG conducts are coordinated within three highly focused business
sectors: Chemicals & Energy, Electronics and Telecommunications &
Services. Each sector has undergone systematic changes, with improved financial
compositions, restructured business portfolios and realigned equity investment
structures.

The split of two
holding companies LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp.

On March 2003, LG
introduced the holding company structure and recently, the demerger of two
holding companies - LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp. took place on July 1 to
separate the manufacturing and technology related businesses from the service
and retail operations. The separation is meant to maximize profits of LG
shareholders by boosting business specialization of key LG companies.

Increasing R&D
investment in 2004

With the
anticipations and expectations for the new structure, LG has set an ambitious
management goal for this year. In 2003, LG's ordinary profit stood at KRW 3.1
trillion on sales of KRW 85 trillion. In 2004, LG plans to raise ordinary profit
and sales by 42% and 12% year-on-year respectively. This year's ordinary profit
target is KRW 4.4 trillion and the sales target is KRW 95 trillion. LG plans to
increase the R&D investments by 31% from last year to KRW 9.4 trillion in
2004.

If you are
interested in reading more company information, please visit www.lg.co.kr/english

Drive specifications:

Now let us
take a look at the specifications of the LG GSA-4167B, found at LG's UK
website:

What's inside
the box?

On this page
we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the
drive and its technology.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Left Side

Right Side

Below you will
see the contents of the retail box:

• The
  internal drive itself
• Nero 6 OEM
  Suite
• LG DVD
  Writer Solution CD:
  1. PowerDVD
  2. PowerProducer Gold
  3. Nero
     Express
  4. InCD
  5. Acrobat
     Reader
• Super Multi
  DVD Drive CD:
  1. Owner's
     Manual
• IDE cable
  
• Audio cable
  
• 4 mounting
  screws   
• Quick Guide
  
• Guarantee
  information

Now it's time
to take a look at the drive itself:

On the neutral looking bezel we
found; an eject button, an emergency eject hole and a LED (green - for read
and write - we prefer a different LED colour though for writing). The logos
located on the loading tray include the Super Multi logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+R
DL logo, the LG logo, a DVD Forum DVD-Multi Recorder logo, and a CD-RW Ultra
Speed logo.

Top

On top of the drive we found one
sticker, and we can read it was manufactured in China (bottom left), dated
August 2005.

Underside

Side

On the back of
the drive starting from the left, we can see a reserved connector; analogue
audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or
master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

We installed
the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero
InfoTool:

 

From the
screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt.Rainier and CD+G support and a
larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware DL10, which was later
updated to DL11 and DL12.

And another
shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

But let us continue
this review and see how it really performs.

On the next page we
will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive
features…………

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Test machine:

For this
review we will be using a computer with the following configuration:

Hardware:

• Motherboard: ECS Elitegroup
  N2U400-A with Nvidia nForce 2 Ultra-400 and nForce MCP chipset.
• Processor:
  AMD Athlon XP 2800+ (Barton) 333 MHz FSB.
• RAM: 1 GB
  Infineon PC2700 DDR
• GFX: ATI
  Radeon 9600 XT
• Sound:
  Onboard C-Media AC97
• Hard disk:
  Seagate Barracuda ST3250823A 250 GB

System
set-up:

The LG GSA-4167B was connected as Secondary Master and
identified itself as HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices.

Software:

Windows XP
Professional is installed on the computer along with Service Pack 2 for Windows
XP. We will be using the following software in this review:

• Nero Burning ROM version
  6.6.0.16
• Nero CD/DVD Speed
  V4.06
• Nero Info Tool
  v3.03
• Slysoft CloneCD
  v5.2.5.1
• Exact Audio Copy
  v0.95 beta 2
• K-Probe v2.4.2 / v2.5.1

Features and techniques:

Features of the Super
Multi:

BookType
(bitsetting):

The LG
GSA-4167B supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL. As with the older drive LG
GSA-4163B, the drive does not support Bitsetting for DVD+RW media. This feature
can be controlled/changed with the Bitsetting option in Nero CD-DVD Speed or in
Nero Burning Rom 6, see below:

Now it's time
to take a closer look at the write technology used by the LG
GSA-4167B:

CD-Recordable:

The LG GSA-4167B uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its maximum
speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 33.77x.
Two drives for comparison are found below.

The Pioneer
DVR-110D uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at
its maximum speed of 40X. This gives an average speed of 30.05x.

The Samsung TS-E552U uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 40x. This gives an average speed of 34.39x.

For comparison
we have made the following table: 

As we can see
from the table, the LG GSA-4167B is average in speed where it comes to writing
CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The LG
GSA-4167B uses Z-CLV (Zone Constant Linear Velocity)
to write CD-RW media at its maximum speed of 32x, with an average write speed of
29.26x. Below are some other drives for comparison:

The NU DHW-164
uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular Velocity)
writing technology to write at 24X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is
23.16x.

 

The LaCie d2
DVD±RW Double Layer uses CLV (Constant Linear Velocity)
writing technology to write at 16X for CD-RW discs, the average speed is 16x.
For a better overview we present the following comparison table:

As we can see
from the table, the LG GSA-4167B is among the fastest drives writing
CD-RWs.

16X DVD+R/-R
Writing speed:

The LG
GSA-4167B uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD+R at the maximum supported speed of 16x. This
gives an average write speed of 12.68x and a writing time of 5 minutes 37
seconds.

The LG
GSA-4167B uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-R at its maximum speed of 16x. This gives an
average write speed of 12.69x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 21
second.

Below are some
write graphs from some other drives for comparison:

The NEC 3540A uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.81x and a writing time of 5 minutes and 58
seconds.

The Philips
DVDR16LS uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.33x and total writing time is 6 minutes
and 8 seconds. The average speed is lower and the writing time is higher than it
could have been due to the Walking OPC generation 2 using some time to
constantly adjust the writing quality, we could see this as constant dips in the
speed curve.

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 11.60x
and total writing time is 6 minutes and 12 seconds. Below, we made a comparison
table:

*1 - Actual
writing speed was max 14x due to USB-Bridge limitations.
*2 '“ Actual writing
speed was max 13x due to USB-Bridge limitations.

From the table
above, we can see that the LG GSA-4167B is the fastest drive when writing DVD+R
and DVD-R.

6X DVD+R DL
writing speed:

The LG
GSA-4167B supports 6x writing speed on DVD+R DL media.

The LG
GSA-4167B uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD+R DL at 6x. The average speed is 6.00x and total writing time is 19:05
minutes.

4X DVD-R DL
writing speed:

The LG
GSA-4167B supports 4x writing speed on DVD-R DL media.

The LG
GSA-4167B uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-R DL at 4x. The average speed is 4.00x and total writing time is 27:09
minutes.

8X DVD+RW
writing speed:

The LG
GSA-4167B uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity) to write DVD+RW at 8x. The average speed is 7.88x and total
writing time is 8:01 minutes.

6X DVD-RW
writing speed:

The LG
GSA-4167B uses CLV, (Constant Linear Velocity) to write
DVD-RW at 6x. The average speed is 6.01x and total writing time is 10:02
minutes.

Book type
(Bitsetting):

The LG
GSA-4167B supports Bitsetting, and can write DVD+R DL and DVD+R media with
DVD-ROM book type.

Here is how
you could check if your discs are really written with DVD-ROM book
type:

Start Nero
CD-DVD Speed and click the Disc info button and you should get something like
this:

DVD+R DL with book type
DVD-ROM

DVD+R with book type
DVD-ROM

Another quick
test is to start Nero CD-Speed and look at the disc information:

This should say
DVD-ROM.

Included software:

Now it's time
to look at the included software and to comment if needed. Notice that we may
not use the included software in our performance testing part of the
review.

LG DVD
Writer Solution:

Cyberlink
PowerDVD:

Cyberlink
PowerProducer Gold:

Nero Express
6:

In
CD:

Now that we
have finished examining the drive and its writing strategies, it's time to head
on to next page, which is reading performance
test…

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Reading performance:

For these
tests we will use Nero CD/DVD-Speed to read various CD and DVD's, including
audio discs and DVD-media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive
supports:

• DVD-ROM :
  16x
• CD-ROM :
  48x 

Pressed
discs:

For this test
we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing Creative Blaster Audigy install CD that
is close to 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

The LG
GSA-4167B reached 46.21x. Let's compare the result in the table below:

The LG
GSA-4167B performed above average reading pressed CD-ROM.

CD-Recordable
Discs:

For this test
we made a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD. The disc we
used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation. 

Again the LG
GSA-4167B performed above average on CD-R read test.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made
a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD; this time we used a
Verbatim Ultra Speed (32X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation.

As we can see
above, the LG GSA-4167B is locked at 40x, reading CD-RW; now let us compare it
to other drives below.

Again the LG
GSA-4167B performed above average on CD-RW read test.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

We used Nero
CD/DVD-Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is slightly
larger than the disc used for the other tests, to be exact it's about 78 minutes
long (77:43:45).

The LG
GSA-4167B is locked at 40x while reading CD-DA. Let us compare the result with
other drives:

The LG
GSA-4167B performed around average on the Audio-CD.

* Some drives
including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually
moving the pickup.

Below is the
results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive
performed very well in both burst and secure mode.

Advanced
audio '“ DAE quality test:

Before we move
on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test, and this time we
used the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed. For this test we used
a CD-R DA media from MMORE (Thanks to MMORE (NL) for sending us this
media).

The extracting
quality is excellent and it should support everything, except reading the
Leadout.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use
Nero CD-Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of
DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at
16X.

DVD '“
DVD-Video:

For our DVD
reading performance tests we are going to start with a single and Double Layered
DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies, it's
useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you're going to extract
(rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD-Video Single Layer

DVD-Video Double Layer

As we can see
the drive is locked at 10x, while reading DVD-Video SL.

Now let us
test a pressed DVD-ROM disc. For this test we used the Half-Life 2
DVD-ROM.

The LG
GSA-4167B will reach 16x on DVD-ROM's.

The LG
GSA-4167B performed around average on the DVD-Video SL/DL tests.

DVD '“ DVD+R/RW:

For this test
we used a Verbatim 16X DVD+R and a Verbatim 8X DVD+RW with about 4.4Gb of data.
Below are the results:

DVD+R

DVD+RW

The LG
GSA-4167B performed averagely on DVD+R and DVD+RW. Now let us see how it will
perform on DVD-R/RW.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

For this test
we used a Verbatim 16X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 6X DVD-RW disc filled with
about 4.4Gb of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

There are
minor differences compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs, but they are very
marginal differences.

Once again the
LG GSA-4167B was average at reading DVD-R/RW.

DVD-RAM:

For this test
we used a Panasonic 5x DVD-RAM disc, and below is our result:

The LG
GSA-4167B reads DVD-RAM media at 5x, and read our test disc without
problems.

Overall
thoughts:

The LG
GSA-4167B is an acceptable reader, it's not the fastest reader in the world, but
during our read tests it proved reliable.

But now
it's time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW
discs…

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The
specifications of the LG GSA-4167B state that the drive is able to write CD-R
discs at 48x and CD-RW at 32x. Let us find out how the drive really performs in
speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R
discs:

For our data
writing tests, we simply set up a new compilation of 700Mb 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. (40x):

The drive took
3 minutes and 7 seconds to write the disc at 48x. Let us see how this compares
to other drives:

• Pioneer
  DVR-110D used 3 minutes and 34 seconds at 40x
• NU DHW-164
  used 3 minutes and 12 seconds at 40x
• Philips
  DVDR16LS used 3 minutes and 26 seconds at 40x
• Samsung
  TS-E552U used 2 minutes and 52 seconds at 40x
• LG
  GSA-4163B used 3 minutes and 15 seconds at 40x
• Philips
  DVDR1640P used 3 minutes and 17 seconds at 40x
• NU DDW-082
  used 3 minutes and 2 seconds at 40x
• Samsung
  TS-H552B used exactly 3 minutes at
  40x         
• Plextor
  PX-708A used 2 minutes and 58 seconds at 40x

Write Quality:

We will test
CD-R discs from different CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed,
we used the 'create data CD" function in Nero CD-Speed. The discs were written
at the maximum speed that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used
KProbe 2 which is a tool developed by a Lite-On employee. It runs under Windows
and works with drives made by Lite-On. Also note that different drives and
different reading speeds may affect the results obtained when scanning the
discs. We used a Lite-On SOHR-5238S drive with firmware 4S07 and scanned the
discs at 48X speed.

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.

Below are the
obtained results:

Brand:	Unbranded Printable. Thanks to SVP UK for sending us this media
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	48x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:7s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.15
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by
Taiyo Yuden have always had a good reputation and with the average C1 errors of
0.15 it goes into the group 'best quality discs" category.
Highly recommended!

Brand:	Infiniti Professional White Top '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:7s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.47
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

With a C1 average of
2.47 this disc goes into the 'good disc" category.

Brand:	Infiniti Samurai Lava Red '“ Thanks to Medea International (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	SKC
Code:	97m26s26f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.09 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:5s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.73
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Another 'good disc"
result.

 

Brand:	RICOH '“ Thanks to RICOH Europe (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India Limited
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	1x-52x
Write Speed:	48x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:05s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.78
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

RICOH media '“
manufactured by Moser Baer India Limited and with its average of 0.78 it goes in
the 'best
discs" category. Recommended!

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine, AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	48x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:04s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.23
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Verbatim '“ a
well-known brand showed us an C1 average of 0.23 - it goes in the category 'Best
Discs".
RECOMMENDED!

Brand:	EMGETON Qauarelle '“ Thanks to Bell Technology (CZ) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Fornet International Pte. Ltd.
Code:	97m26s07f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	56x
Write Speed:	48x (Z-CLV)
Write Time:	3m:9s
C1 Average/Sec:	13.89
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The result is
ok.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

Due to requests from
our readers, we will add a few write quality tests with re-writable media.
Settings and testing procedures is the same as used earlier in this review, so
you may want to go back and read them if you are unsure. All discs used for
these tests have been written to before, but none have been written to more than
5 times.

CD-ReWritable
media:

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Systems Ltd.
Code:	97m27s12f
Disc Type:	High Speed CD-RW 8-24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	74:41.00
Certified Speed:	8x-24x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m
C1 Average/Sec:	47.05
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

This 24x media was
burned at 16x, and the result is ok.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s25f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 32x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	32x
Write Speed:	16x (CLV)
Write Time:	3m:14s
C1 Average/Sec:	5.72
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

The result is
good.

Summary:

The CD-R writing quality is
excellent, and the CD-RW quality is good.

So let us
head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance…

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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 write time for various
types of DVD+R/RW and DVD-R/RW discs. We will also focus on write quality and
media compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

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.

DVD+R

DVD-R

Look below for
the results.

The
results are the fastest when compared to other drives, due to the 16x P-CAV
technique. Let us see how the writing quality is.

Write quality:

You should first
notice that this is not a scientific and professional way to test the discs. But
according to our testing done in recent months, we would conclude that there is
a clear link between the quality reported when scanning the disc and the
playability of the disc in different devices. Also notice that different drives
report different amounts of errors. K-Probe was designed to work with
Lite-On
DVD-Writers, so we recommend
using a DVD-Writer from Lite-On. In this test we
use a Lite-On SOHW-1653S
DVD-Writer, as already said; remember that scans done with a Lite-On
DVD-ROM or Lite-On combo
drive can't be compared with the results obtained with a Lite-On
DVD-Writer. Also remember that
different PI/PO ECC sum settings along
with different reading speeds in K-Probe will affect the result, we use these
settings;  PI (Parity Inner) set to summarize 8
ECC blocks,
PIF
(Parity Inner Failures) set
to summarize 1 ECC block,
reading speed: 4X CLV
(Constant Linear Velocity). Setting the PI sum to 8 and the
PIF sum to 1 will give
a result that we may compare to the standards for DVD+R/RW and
DVD-R/RW.

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 a scan
from two pressed DVD discs:

This scan shows the results from a pressed DVD-Video disc
(GoldenEye).

 

This scan shows the
result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (The Green Mile). Notice the error jump
when shifting to the second layer (the error level actually drops from the end
of the first layer to the beginning of the second layer).

If you read below,
you will see that both the pressed DVD-discs are well within the
standards.

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 if you
want to look at the standards for yourself. Here is some data from the
ECMA standards (same for
DVD-ROM, DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW):

Random
errors:

A row of an
ECC Block that has at least 1 byte in error
constitutes a PI error. In any 8
consecutive ECC
Blocks the total number of PI errors before correction shall not exceed
280.

Here we see that a
PI error is defined as a row in an ECC block having 1 byte
or more containing errors and that the sum of PI errors in 8 ECC blocks after each
other should not exceed 280 PI errors.

But what is a row
and what is an ECC block? Again we
refer to the ECMA standards. We do
not copy and paste everything, but if you're interested, look in the
ECMA standards. A row is
182 bytes long where the last 10 bytes contain PI (Parity Inner)
information. An ECC block is 208 rows
long where the last 16 rows contain the PO (Parity Outer)
information. This gives us a maximum possible PI error amount of 208 errors per
block and for 8 blocks after each other this sum is of course 8 times higher,
giving a maximum possible amount of 1664 PI-8 errors. In practical use, a disc
with 1664 PI-8 errors is unreadable.

According to our
tests the specified max PI-8 sum of 280 for good discs seems to be a good
guideline, as some readers have problems reading discs when the PI-8 errors is
over 300 and most players starts to have problems when the PI-8 error level
reaches 600 or more.

But what are the
PIF errors that K-Probe
reports? They are Parity Inner Failures, meaning errors left after PI
correction. Only the ECMA 337 standard
describes the Parity Inner Failures. So how is a Parity Inner Failure defined?
Here is what the ECMA 337
states:

'If a row
of an ECC Block as defined in 13.3 contains more than
5 erroneous bytes, the row is said to be 'PI-uncorrectable"."

In theory, an
ECC block may in the worst case have 208 PIF since every ECC block is 208
rows long. But the ECMA 337 standard goes further and
specifies the max amount of accepted PI Failures (uncorrectable errors) allowed on a good disc:

'In any
ECC Block
the number of PI-uncorrectable rows
should not exceed 4."  

This means that when
the PIF sum is set to 1,
the maximum error value should not exceed 4. The theoretical maximum value for
PIF is 208
errors.

But what makes a
disc unreadable? A POF (Parity
Outer Failure) error will make the disc unreadable, but K-Probe
does not display the POF's.

Notice that there
are other aspects such as disc reflectivity, jitter, 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 CLV 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 NEC ND-3540A DVD-Writer. The reason why we
have changed the reader is that some companies disliked that we used a modified
firmware to obtain 16x reading speed. So to please them, we are now using a
drive that reads DVD+R/-R media
at 16x as default. A small speed reduction near the end
is still accepted on good discs, but serious reading problems or reading
failures is a bad sign.

Easier
explanation on how to read the test results.

Maybe this got too
technical, and you are wondering what to look for in KProbe
reports?

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.

And as always; lower
is better

And look at the
reading curve; if it looks clean with no dips it should be good, a small
slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests
we will be using a Lite-On SHW-1635S drive with firmware YS0G along with KProbe
to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4550A with
firmware 1.06 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	Emgeton '“ Thanks to Bell Technology (CZ) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Infodisc technology Co., Ltd.
Code:	INFODISCR20
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:4s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.27
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Very good
result!

Brand:	FUJIFILM
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:52s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.41
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Very good
burn, this media is rated at 8x and was burned at 12x.

Brand:	Maxell
Manufacturer:	Maxell
Code:	MAXELL 002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.61
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Another 8x
certified media burned at 12x and the result is very good.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JNP R02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:50s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.94
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

And another 8x
certified media burned at 12x, and also this time the result is very
good.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JNP R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:52s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.33
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

This 16x
certified media, was burned at 12x, but the result is very good
though.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:39s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.37
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

A very high
quality burn from a good quality media.

DVD+ReWritable media:

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RICOH Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPNW21
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.10
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The result is
excellent for this DVD+RW media.

As we can see
from the KProbe result the PI values exceeds 280 at some places of the disk, but
the read-back curve was perfect though.

To sum it
up: So
far the LG GSA-4167B writes DVD+R and DVD+RW media with very good quality. All
the test discs had a perfect read-back curve. Let's find out if the drive can do
as well with DVD-R/RW media.

On the next
page you will find the DVD-R/RW writing
results...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On SOHW-1635S drive with firmware YS0G along with KProbe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the NEC ND-4550A with firmware 1.06 along with CD-Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	Emgeton '“ Thanks to Bell Technology (CZ) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Infodisc Techology Co., Ltd.
Code:	INFODISC-R20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	22.17
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The result is good.

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAG AM3
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.48
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Very good result!

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY 16D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.38
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The results are excellent.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.14
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Very good result.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded '“ Thanks to SVP (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.69
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Another very good result.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEKF1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	5m:28s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.28
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Once again another very good result.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:31s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

As we can see from the KProbe result the PI value is higher in the beginning of the disk then throughout the disk. The total PIF value is remarkable low!

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx Europe for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEK W06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:5s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.21
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

The result is good.

Brand:	Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim (UK) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RW 6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:2s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.78
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

The PI errors are higher at the beginning than throughout the disk, but overall the result is very good.

To sum it up: Overall, the write quality is very good on DVD-R and DVD-RW media.

Head on to next page and read about DVD+R DL compatibility and write quality...

---

DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing speed and
compatibility:

The LG
GSA-4167B 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 6x/4x. Let us first
take a look at the media's we will use:

Let's find the
manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use
CD-Speed:

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us
this media.

The media is
made by Ricoh Co. Ltd. (Made in Taiwan).  Thanks to Ricoh Europe (Germany)
for sending us this media.

The Traxdata
media is manufactured by RITEK. Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this
media.

Testing
procedure:
We created an ISO Image from
a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of 8103
MB. We then wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 6. Below are the
results:

Ricoh Media

Nero reported
a successful burn with the Ricoh media in 44 minutes 48 seconds.

Traxdata media

Nero once
again reported a successful burn with the Traxdata media in 44 minutes 19
seconds

Verbatim media

Nero once
again completed the burn successfully with the Verbatim media in 28 minutes and
49 seconds. According to the total writing time, there must be an slowdown at 4x
since the writing time is to high for 6x.

Let us take a
look at the K-Probe results:

Brand:	Ricoh '“ Thanks to Ricoh Europe (D) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Co. Ltd.
Code:	RICOH JPN D00
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	44m:48s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.15
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

High PI errors
in the beginning and at the end of the disk.

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	RiTEK Corporation
Code:	RITEK D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	44m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	81.01
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.64

Very high PI
and PIF on the first layer of the disk, but the disk were still readable though
without any noticeable problems.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	6x *
Write Time:	28m:49s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.71
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The PI errors
are higher on the second layer, but overall the result is good.

* As mentioned
before, this media got properly a slowdown to 4x during the burn, since the
total writing time is to high for 6x.

Let's compare
the LG GSA-4167B results with some other DL capable drives.

*1 Verbatim DVD+R DL
*2
Traxdata DVD+R DL
*3 Ricoh DVD+R DL
*4 DataWrite DVD+R DL

DVD-R
DL

As mentioned
in the beginning of this page, the LG GSA-4167B supports the DVD-R DL standard
at 4x. Let us first take a look at the media we will use:

Let's find the
manufacturer and media information too, for this we will use
CD-Speed:

This media is
manufactured by Mitsubishi Kagaku Media. Thanks to Verbatim for sending us this
media.

Again, we used
Nero Burning Rom 6 to write the DVD Image:

The LG
GSA-4167B used 27 minutes and 25 seconds to write the Verbatim DVD-R DL 4x media
at 4x.

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8145MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:25s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.43
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Overall this
media was burned with very good quality.

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

We only have 3
standalone DVD-Players and 1 standalone DVD+R/W recorder available to test the
DVD+R DL media (BookType: DVD-ROM) and the DVD-R DL media (BookType: DVD-R)
with:

• Aiwa DVD
  Player XD-DV370
• Medion
  DVD/Div-X Player MD7457
• Red Star
  DVD-Player 230G
• Mustek
  R100A DVD+R/W Recorder
  

Compatibility
results: 

All DVD
Standalone devices played the LG GSA-4167B burned DVD+R DL medias. But only one
DVD Standalone devices would play the DVD-R DL media.

Summary: Very good quality on
the DVD-R DL media, but the quality on some DVD+R DL media could have been
better. The DVD standalone compatibility results, for the DVD+R DL media is very
good.

Before we
round off this review, let us run the drive through some advanced tests at next
page…

---

To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the LG GSA-4167B. These tests are: 'Sheep Test", protected audio discs and some special disc tests.

The 'Sheep Test":

 For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That's because the logo of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer's ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns".

• No sheep: Can't backup any Safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
• 1 Sheep: Can backup Safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
• 2 Sheep: Can backup Safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
• 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators Womble, has written a guide concerning the 'Sheep Test" that can be found here.

In the screenshot below taken from CloneCD, we see the LG GSA-4167B supports everything.

The LG GSA-4167B supports DAO-RAW recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and sub-channel data.

As we can see from the table the LG GSA-4167B is a 'Two Sheep Burner", but it however failed to write the Safedisc V2.90 and Sheep3 tests.

Copy protected Audio:

For our protected audio test, we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test: 

Celine Dion: A New Day Has Come; protected with key2audio version 3.

 

Herbert Gé¶nemeyer: Mensch - This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4 .3(build 12b)

And Michelle: Leben!; protected with Cactus Datashield 200.5.1.91 '“ 5.10.090.

Results:

DVD-RAM:

The LG GSA-4167B is a so-called Super Multi drive, meaning is also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also support the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it got differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

 

You could see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots, supposedly these spots are used for calibration while writing and reading.

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 in the '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.

Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests:

Panasonic branded DVD-RAM media certified at 2-5x:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-RAM:MXL16]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type :       [DVD-RAM] - [DVD-RAM]
Manufacturer Name :      [Hitachi Maxell Ltd.]
Manufacturer ID :        [MXL16]
Supplementary Info :     [Not Specified]
Formatted Capacity :     [2,236,704 Sectors = 4.58 GB (4.27 GiB)]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : Drive = HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B [FW DL12]
** INFO : Write Capabilities = DVD+R DVD+R-DL DVD+RW
** INFO : Write Capabilities = DVD-R DVD-R-DL DVD-RW DVD-RAM
** INFO : Disc = [DVD-RAM:MXL16]
** INFO : Reference Speed : 1x DVD = 1385 kBps
** INFO : An Writeable Disc Is Recommended For Accurate Results
** INFO : Write Speeds (Supported By This Drive On This Disc) Listed Below

** INFO : GET PERFORMANCE Write Speed Descriptor(s)
Descriptor #1 =  6925 kBps ( 5.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]

** INFO : MODE SENSE Write Speed Descriptor(s) [Legacy Command]
** WARNING : MODE SENSE Is Obsolete And Not Always Properly Supported
Descriptor #1 =  6925 kBps ( 5.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 00h - Physical Format Information
0000 : 16 0f 04 42 00 03 10 00  00 26 5f 5f 00 00 00 00   ...B.....&__....
0010 : 80 20 00 10 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 22 00 00 00 00   . ........."....
0020 : 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01f0 : 00 00 00 00 52 0a 00 79  36 36 36 73 34 34 34 1a   ....R..y666s444.
0200 : 1a 00 00 11 22 81 85 88  88 00 85 88 88 01 84 87   ...."...........
0210 : 87 01 84 87 87 0a 0c 0e  0e 0a 0c 0e 0e 09 0b 0d   ................
0220 : 0d 08 0b 0d 0d 4d 58 4c  31 36 0d 20 20 20 20 20   .....MXL16.
0230 : 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
0240 : 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20
0250 : 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00        ...........
0260 : 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 79  04 70 36 36 36 79 80 80   .......y.p666y..
------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DVD Identifier V4.2.0 - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Panasonic Hard Black branded DVD-RAM certified at 2-3x:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-RAM:Matsushita Electric Industrial CO.,LTD.-M01J3004]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type :       [DVD-RAM] - [DVD-RAM]
Manufacturer Name :      [Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd.]
Manufacturer ID :        [Matsushita Electric Industrial CO.,LTD.]
Supplementary Info :     [M01J3004]
Formatted Capacity :     [2,236,704 Sectors = 4.58 GB (4.27 GiB)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : Drive = HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4167B [FW DL12]
** INFO : Write Capabilities = DVD+R DVD+R-DL DVD+RW
** INFO : Write Capabilities = DVD-R DVD-R-DL DVD-RW DVD-RAM
** INFO : Disc = [DVD-RAM:Matsushita Electric Industrial CO.,LTD.-M01J3004]
** INFO : Reference Speed : 1x DVD = 1385 kBps
** INFO : An Writeable Disc Is Recommended For Accurate Results
** INFO : Write Speeds (Supported By This Drive On This Disc) Listed Below

** INFO : GET PERFORMANCE Write Speed Descriptor(s)
Descriptor #1 =  4155 kBps ( 3.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]

** INFO : MODE SENSE Write Speed Descriptor(s) [Legacy Command]
** WARNING : MODE SENSE Is Obsolete And Not Always Properly Supported
Descriptor #1 =  4155 kBps ( 3.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 00h - Physical Format Information
0000 : 16 0f 04 42 00 03 10 00  00 26 5f 5f 00 00 00 00   ...B.....&__....
0010 : 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0020 : 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01f0 : 00 00 00 00 52 0a 00 71  2d 2d 2d 6d 29 29 29 1a   ....R..q---m))).
0200 : 1a 00 00 11 22 04 02 00  82 04 02 81 82 05 02 00   ...."...........
0210 : 81 06 03 01 00 0a 0b 0b  0c 0a 0b 0c 0c 09 0a 0b   ................
0220 : 0b 09 0a 0a 0b 4d 61 74  73 75 73 68 69 74 61 20   .....Matsushita
0230 : 45 6c 65 63 74 72 69 63  20 49 6e 64 75 73 74 72   Electric Industr
0240 : 69 61 6c 20 43 4f 2e 2c  4c 54 44 2e 0d 20 20 20   ial CO.,LTD..
0250 : 20 20 20 20 20 4d 30 31  4a 33 30 30 34 0d 20 20        M01J3004.
0260 : 20 20 20 20 20 01 01 82  00 6a 2d 2d 2d 82 92 93        ....j---...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DVD Identifier V4.2.0 - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can read above the Panasonic DVD-RAM 5x media is made by Hitachi Maxell Ltd. and the Panasonic DVD-RAM 3x media is made by Matsushita Electric Industrial CO. LTD.

But now the interesting part '“ writing and reading DVD-RAM media.

Panasonic DVD-RAM 5x without verification

Panasonic DVD-RAM 5x with verification

Panasonic DVD-RAM 3x without verification

Panasonic DVD-RAM 3x with verification

For those not familiar with DVD-RAM, you might think that something went wrong during the write process, when the verification option is turned on - since the 5x media was written at 2.36x and the 3x media written at 1.45x. But not to worry - that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM discs, the reason for the 'low" 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.

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. Let's try to read back the 2 discs that we wrote:

Panasonic DVD-RAM 5x

Panasonic DVD-RAM 3x

As we can see from the pictures above, the 5x media was read back at 5x using the P-CAV technique and the 3x media at 3x using the CLV technique.

Since we have no equipment at the present time to perform any quality measuring tests with the DVD-RAM format it will be skipped, but on the other side it should not be necessary since the RAM writer - verifies the written data by default itself.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the LG GSA-4167B, we used the over-burning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed.

For this test we used an Infiniti Professional Compax 99min/900mb CD-R. (Thanks to Medea International (UK) for providing the disc).

The LG GSA-4167B reported an over-burning capacity of 96 Minutes and 4 Seconds.

To test if the LG GSA-4167B is capable to read 100 Min CD-Rs, we used a 100 minutes CD-R written with another drive:

As we can see for the picture above the LG GSA-4167B had no problems reading a 100 minutes CD-R.

This concludes our LG GSA-4167B review, lets head on to the last page to read our conclusion…

Positive:

• Good
  writing quality on most media
• Supports
  DVD±R writing with 16x P-CAV technique
• Supports
  CD-R/RW writing at 48x/32x
• Supports
  DVD+RW/DVD-RW writing at 8x/6x
• Can write
  DVD+R/+R DL certified media at higher speed
• Supports
  Bitsetting for DVD+R/+R DL (sets auto. BookType to DVD-ROM)
• 'Two sheep"
  writer
• Supports
  DAO-RAW writing
• Supports
  DVD-RAM at 5x
• Extracts
  CD-DA at high speed
• Can rip
  copy protected Audio-CDs
• Can
  overburn CD-Rs up to 96 min
• Can read 99
  min CD-Rs
• Excellent
  documentation/Owner's Manual on CD
• Very good
  Software package

Negative:

• Does not
  support Mt. Rainier
• Reads
  CD-DA/RW only at 40x
• Reads
  DVD-Video SL/DVD±R/±RW/±R DL only at
  10x/10x/8x/8x
• Does not
  support DVD-ROM Bitsetting on DVD+RW media
• Green LED
  for both reading and writing

Conclusion:

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

The main
positive points:
There is no doubt about it, the LG GSA-4167B with it's 16x
P-CAV DVD writing strategy is a fast burner, what's more, it can burn fast with
good quality as can be seen in our test results. It can also read and write to
all common media formats, including DVD-RAM.

Bitsetting on
DVD+R/+R DL is also a welcome inclusion and ensures good compatibility with set
top DVD players. The LG GSA-4167B also displayed good CD-DA performance and also
good CD-R over-burning capabilities.

The
documentation was also of a very high standard and should provide enough
information for the beginner as well as more experienced user. Also worth
mentioning was the included software package which should cover every scenario
you are likely to come across while using this drive.

The main
negative points:
There
is hardly anything negative about this drive, but we would like to mention that
other drives offer faster read speed on CD-DA/CD-RW/DVD-Video SL/DVD±R/±RW/±R DL media. Finally, as a last point - the
drive did not offer DVD-ROM Bitsetting on DVD+RW media.

To sum it all
up, this is what we would say: 'One of the
worlds fastest DVD±R Writer that supports writing on all available DVD format,
and there for the name 'Super Multi Drive". One drawback though, is the slow
read-back speed of some media types, which the competition supports at a higher
speed".

Based on our tests
and experiences during this review '“ we give the LG GSA-4167B our 'Safe Buy
award".

By using our
price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we found the drive listed at
44 $, and at getprice the drive is
listed at 41.53 €. (November 2005).

You
may comment on this review below or in this
forum thread.

Thanks
to:

Bell
Technology spol s.r.o. '“ Czech Republic for providing the media used
in this review.

SVP
Communication '“ The United Kingdom for
providing the media used in this review.

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK
Europe '“ The Netherlands for providing the media used in this
review.

Medea
International '“ United Kingdom for providing the media used in this
review.

Ricoh Europe '“ For
providing the media used in this review.

E-Net
Distribution '“ United Kingdom for providing the media used in this
review.

MMORE
International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the media used in
this review.

Verbatim - Germany and United Kingdom for providing the
media used in this review.