LG GSA-5160D Super Multi external DVD-writer

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LG '“ South Korea was kind enough to send us the LG GSA-5160D Super multi DVD Writer. This drive supports 16x DVD+R, 8x DVD-R writing, 4x DVD±RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 2.4x DVD+R9 DL writing technology - allowing 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:

The listed specification of this drive was found on the German LG site:

Reading Speed

• DVD-R/-RW-/ROM : 10x / 8x/ 16x max.
• DVD-RAM : 2x, 3x, 5x
• DVD-Video (CSS) : 8x max. (Single / Dual Layer) 
• DVD+R/+RW : 10x / 8x max. 
• CD-R/-RW/-ROM : 40x max. 
• CD-DA (DAE) : 40x max.

Writing Speed

• DVD-R : 2x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV 
• DVD-RW : 1x, 2x, 4x CLV 
• DVD-RAM : 2x, 3x ZCLV, 3x '“ 5x PCAV (Ver. 2.1) 
• DVD+R : 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x, 12x, 16x ZCLV 
• DVD+R Double Layer : 2.4x CLV 
• DVD+RW : 2.4x, 4x CLV 
• CD-R : 4x, 8x CLV, 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x ZCLV 
• CD-RW : 4x, 8x, 10x CLV, 16x CLV, 24x ZCLV 

Supported Writing Modes/Formats 

• DVD-R : Disc at Once and Incremental / Recording 
• DVD-RW : Disc at Once, Incremental Recording and Restricted Overwrite 
• DVD-RAM : Random Write 
• DVD+R : Sequential Recording 
• DVD+R Double Layer : Sequential Recording 
• DVD+RW : Random Write 
• CD-R/-RW : Disc at Once, Session at Once, Track at Once and Packet Write 

Access Time (average) 

• DVD-ROM : 145ms 
• DVD-RAM : 165ms 
• CD-ROM : 125ms 

Max. Transferrate (Writing)

• DVD-R : 5.44 '“ 11.08 Mbytes/s 
• DVD-RW : 5.54 Mbytes/s 
• DVD-RAM (Ver.2.1) : 4,155 '“ 6,925 Mbytes/s 
• DVD+R : 9,28 '“ 22,16 Mbytes/s 
• DVD+R Double Layer : 3.32 Mbytes/s 
• DVD+RW : 5.54 Mbytes/s 
• CD-R : 2400 '“ 6000 KB/s (Mode 1) 
• CD-RW : 2400 '“ 3600 KB/s (Mode 1) 

Buffer

• 2 MB, Buffer Under-Run Prevention Function 

Interface

• IEEE 1394 and USB 2.0

Supported OS

• Windows 2000 Professional/ Windows XP Home Edition, Professional 

Dimensions (W x H x D)

• 161.8mm x 41mm x 242mm 

Weight

• 3500g 

Recommended Media

• CD-R : LG, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, SKC 
• CD-RW : LG, Ricoh, Mitsubishi Kagaku Medial, Verbatim 
• DVD-R : LG, Maxell, Taiyo Yuden, JVC 
• DVD-RW : LG, JVC, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, TDK 
• DVD+R : LG, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, Verbatim 
• DVD+RW : LG, TDK, FujiFilm, Ricoh 
• DVD-RAM : LG, Maxell, Panasonic 
• DVD+R Double Layer : Mitsubishi Kagaku Media 

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 external drive itself
• LG DVD Writer Solution CD:
  1. PowerDVD
  2. PowerProducer Gold
  3. Nero Express
  4. InCD
  5. Acrobat Reader
• AC/DC Power adapter
• Power supply cable
• USB 2.0 Cable 
• Firewire IEEE 1394 cable (6 pin to 4 pin)
• Firewire IEEE 1394 cable (6 pin
  to 6 pin)    
• CD software Quick guide
• Owner's manual
• Guarantee information

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

The LG external bezel is a bit different from the internal ones '“ it is silver and the front plate loading tray in a bit larger in height and width. On the faceplate we find the following logos: Super Multi, DVD+RW, LG, DVD-multi recorder and CD-RW US. Headphone connector and volume knob is missing. The drive uses one coloured led (green) for read and write (we prefer a different led colour though for writing).

Top

Underside

On the underside of the external case we found one stickers and we can read it was made in Korea, dated November 2004.

On the back of the drive from left to right: 2 IEEE 1394 connector, USB2.0 connector, on and off switch and power connector. The drive is missing an audio out connector.

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

 

From the screenshot of Nero Info Tool above, we miss Mt.Rainier support and a larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware A302.

We noticed on the LG support page there was an update for the USB/firewire Bridge - so we updated it.

And another shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

We do not really find anything alarming here, but Mount Rainier and a larger buffer would have been nice.

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 and the included software…………

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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: SoundBlaster
  Audigy
  
• Hard disk:
  Samsung SP1614N 160 GB.

System
set-up:

The drive
was connected to the
USB2.0 interface and identified itself as HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-5160D. Autorun was
enabled for all devices.

We also connected the LG
GSA-5160D to the FireWire IEEE 1394 interface as you can see on the picture
above. (During our review we decided to use the USB 2.0 interface).

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:

• Ahead Nero Burning ROM version
  6.6.0.3


• Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed
  v3.61


• Ahead Nero Info Tool v2.27


• Slysoft CloneCD v5.0.4.5


• DVD-Identifier 3.6


• Exact Audio Copy v0.95 pre-beta
  5


• K-Probe v2.4.2

Now it's time
to take a closer look at the write technology used by the LG
GSA-5160D:

CD-Recordable:

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV, (Zone-Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 40X. The drive wrote the last
zone at 40.41X and this gives an average speed of 31.70x. Two drives for comparison are found
below.

The Philips DVDR1640 uses
CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity), to write at its maximum
speed of 40X. This gives an average speed of 29.86x.

The Samsung TS-H552B uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 40x. This gives an average speed of 34.27x.

 For comparison we have
made the following table: 

As we can read
from the table, the LG GSA-5160D got an average writing time on CD-R's.

CD-Rewritable:

The LG GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an
average speed of 23.31x. Below are some other drives for
comparison:

The Samsung
TS-H552B uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) writing technology to write at 32X for CD-RW discs, the average
speed is 30.21x.

 

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-4150D takes third place - compared with the others
that also write CD-RW at 24x.

16X DVD+R /
8X DVD-R Writing speed:

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.

The LG
GSA-5160D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity) to write DVD-R at 8x. The average speed is 7.80x
and total writing time is 8 minutes and 2 seconds.

The LG
GSA-4163B uses P-CAV, (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-R at 16x. The average speed is 12.90x and total
writing time is 5 minutes and 20 seconds.

The Samsung
TS-H552B uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
DVD+R at 16x. The average speed is 12.03x and total writing time is 5 minutes
and 58 seconds.

The Philips
DVDR1640P uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write at
16x. The average speed is 11.56x and total writing time is 5 minutes and 48
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 BenQ
DW1600A also uses CAV, (Constant Angular Velocity) to write
at 16x. The average speed is 11.32x and total writing time is 6 minutes and 7
seconds. Below, we
made a comparison table:

*Actual writing speed was 12X in
these areas for the Pioneer A08.

From the table
above, we can see that the LG GSA-5160D is one of the lowest drive writing DVD+R
at 16x, due to the Z-CLV Technique. The writing time on DVD-R 8x is good
though.

Features and techniques:

What is
double layer recording technology?

Introduced
by Philips and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (MKM) in 2003, double layer recording
technology offers two recordable layers on a single DVD disc, providing nearly
double the capacity of 4.7GB single layer DVDs. The two individual layers are
separated by a transparent buffer layer and are accessible from the same side of
the disc, so recording can occur completely uninterrupted.

When a
double layer disc is inserted into a compatible drive, the laser will focus on
one of the layers and attempt to read an ADIP (Address in Pregroove) signal.
From this signal, the drive is able to detect if the disc is a double layer
DVD+R disc and which layer it's focusing on. Once the media type and layer are
determined, the laser can adjust its range of focus to read one of the two
recordable layers.

Book type
(bitsetting).

The LG
GSA-5160D supports Bitsetting and can write DVD+R and DVD+R9 DL media with
DVD-ROM book type.

In our tests
we used the Bitsetting option in Nero CD-DVD Speed to change the
book-type:

Or you can use Nero
Burning ROM (V.6.6.0.3) under the option 'Choose Recorder" to change the
booktype:

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

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

DVD+R with book type
DVD-ROM

DVD+R9 DL with Book type
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:

• 16x on DVD-ROM
  
• 8x on DVD-Video (CSS)
  SL/DL
  
• 10x on DVD±R
  
• 8x on DVD±RW
  
• 2x, 3x, 5x on DVD-RAM
  
• 40x on CD-R/RW

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-5160D had no problems reaching 41.22x, let us see how this compares to other
drives and look below:

From the table
we can read '“ the LG GSA-5160D does what the specification indicates; it can
read CD-Rom's at 40x.

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-5160D
drive does what it is suppose to do according to the specifications.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made
a copy of the original Creative Blaster Audigy install CD; this time we used a
Verbatim Ultra Speed (24X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation.

As we can see
above, the LG GSA-5160D drive had no problems reading this CD-RW disc at full
speed; let us compare it to other drives below.

The reading
speeds are better than the listed official specifications on the LG GSA-5160D
drive.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the
digital audio extraction performance of the LG GSA-5160D, we again 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 drive
reached 41.20x reading the audio disc back, let us compare the result with other
drives:

The LG
GSA-5160D drive performed very well '“ but not the fastest one so far, due to the
40x read limitation.

Below is the
results produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive
performed excellently 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.

The extracting
quality is excellent and it should support everything, except reading
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 dual 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

We can see
that this drive is locked at 10x for reading DVD-Video SL discs. (The official
specifications stats max 8x though). To see how the transfer rate is on a Data
DVD we used the 'Half-Life 2" DVD-ROM:

DVD-ROM

As we could see, there is
no speed limit when reading the data DVD-ROM. Due to the limitation in the
USB/firewire bridge, it would probably read up to the 17x mark.

The LG
GSA-5160D performed well according to the official listed specifications. Due to
the Read/Rip lock the drive is around average compared with other
drives.

DVD '“ DVD+R(W):

For this test
we used a Plextor (Taiyo Yuden) 8X DVD+R and a Verbatim 4X DVD+RW with about
4,4Gb of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

The reading
speed was locked to 8x for DVD+RW, which is fairly normal for most new
drives.

The LG
GSA-5160D performed according to the official listed specifications, and the
results are average when compared to other drives.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

For this test
we used a Maxell (Taiyo Yuden) 4X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 4X 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.

Again the LG
GSA-5160D performed according to the official listed specifications, and the
results are average compared to other drives.

Overall
thoughts:

The LG
GSA-5160D performed according to the official listed specifications, and overall
an OK reader.

 

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-5160D state that the drive is able to write CD-R
discs at 40x and CD-RW at 24x. 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 used
3 minutes and 20 seconds to write the disc at 40x. (Actual write speed
40.1x).  Let us see how this compares to other drives:

• 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 a total of 6 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 K-Probe 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 4S06 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.

Why wait any
longer? Below are the obtained results:

 

Brand:	EMTEC '“ Thanks to MPOTEC (G) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Systems Ltd.
Code:	97m27s18f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703 MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:21s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.00
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

EMTEC CD-R
High Performance, this
media got an average of 1.00 - C1 errors and is consider as 'Best disc
quality".

 

Brand:	MMORE '“ Thanks to MMORE (NL) 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:	40x
Write Time:	3m:20s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.67
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

MMORE media - manufactured
by Moser Baer India Limited and with it's average of 0.67 it goes in the
'best
discs" category.

 

Brand:	Plextor
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:	40x
Write Time:	3m:20s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.16
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Media made by Taiyo Yuden
have always had a good reputation and with the average 0.16 it goes into the
group 'best discs". Highly
recommended!

Brand:	Sky Ultra'“ Thanks to Sky Media (CH) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Systems Ltd.
Code:	97m27s18f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 8: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:19s
C1 Average/Sec:	2.52
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Sky CD-R with Plasmon
media code got an average of 2.52 and goes into the category 'Good quality
discs".

 

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	97m15s17f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 7: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.70 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:18s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.37
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Also, this media goes into
the category 'best quality discs" for its C1
average with 1.37.

 

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:	40x
Write Time:	3m:19s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.76
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Verbatim - a well-known
brand, showed us an average of 0.78 it goes in the category 'Best
Discs".

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 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	8x-24x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:01s
C1 Average/Sec:	137
C2 Average/Sec:	0.09

The LG
GSA-5160D did not like this media at all '“ the result is not good.

 

Brand:	Verbatim '“ Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	97m34s24f
Disc Type:	Ultra Speed CD-RW 24x
Recording Layer:	Phase Change
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	16-24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	3m:54s
C1 Average/Sec:	6.62
C2 Average/Sec:	0

Some high
spikes in the beginning of the disc, but the result is ok.

Summary:

The results are just
excellent! Overall, it does a fantastic job writing to CD-R Media.

 

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/-R at 16x/8x and DVD+RW/-RW at 4x. 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/-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.

As we can see, the LG GSA-5160D performed average writing DVD+R at 16x and the writing speed on DVD-R at 8x which is good. 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-832S 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-ROM disc (Baldurs Gate DVD-ROM).

 

This scan shows the result from a pressed DVD-Video disk (Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). 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-3520A 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:

 

Brand:	Fuji
Manufacturer:	Philips Electronics
Code:	PHILIPS C 16
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1x-16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:14s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.27
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

We can clearly see that the PI is higher at the beginning at the disc. The burn is good.

Brand:	Swisstec '“ Thanks to Sky Media (CH) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Limited
Code:	Plasmon 1C01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.33
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.14

This 8x certified media was burned at 4x, and the results are very good.

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY D11
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:13s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.40
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Perfect results.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK Corporation
Code:	TDK 002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.95
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

This 8x certified media was burned at 12x. The result is excellent.

Brand:	Tevion
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN R02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.86
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

This 8x certified media was burned at 12x. The result is very good.

Brand:	That's
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Tyden Company Limited
Code:	YUDEN 000 T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.56
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

This 8x certified media was burned at 12x. The result is excellent.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	12x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	7m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.45
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

We can see that the PI is a lot higher at the end on the disc. The result is very good.

DVD+R 16x media

Brand:	Unbranded'“ Thanks to LG Korea for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	n/a
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	6m:12s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.03
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Very good result!

DVD+ReWritable media:

Brand:	Fujifilm
Manufacturer:	Ricoh Company Limited
Code:	RICOH JPN W11
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1-4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:16s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.12
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The results are perfect.

Brand:	Sony
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY S11
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1-4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:20s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.59
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

The results are excellent.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	Philips Electronics
Code:	PHILIPS 041
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	1-4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:20s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.80
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Another excellent result.

Brand:	Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM A02
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:24s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.74
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Yet another excellent result.

So far the LG GSA-5160D writes DVD+R and DVD+RW media with excellent results. Let's us find if it also came do this on 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 the NEC ND-3520A to read back the DVD-R's and the
Plextor PX-712A to read back the DVD-RW's.

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Sony Corporation
Code:	SONY 08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.23
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Excellent
results.

Brand:	Sky Media - Thanks to Sky Media (CH) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Plasmon Data Limited
Code:	PLASMON 1A
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	75.64
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

The KProbe scan shows
high PI and high PIF spikes at the end of the disc. The result is not good, but
the disc was at least readable.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK Corp
Code:	TTH01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.03
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Very good
results.

Brand:	That's - Thanks to LG Korea for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden Company Limited
Code:	TY G02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:03s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.78
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.01

Another very good
result.

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek Corporation
Code:	RITEK G05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:04s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	6.17
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.07

And another good
result.

Brand:	Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 02R G20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.04
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The Kprobe scan shows
higher PI at the end of the disc - the reading curve is perfect.

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK Corporation
Code:	TDK 601 saku
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:46s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.94
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The results are
excellent.

Brand:	Traxdata - Thanks to Conrexx (NL) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek Corp.
Code:	RITEK W04
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	2x
Write Time:	30m:00s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.16
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

This 4x certified media
was burned at 2x. The result is good though.

Brand:	Verbatim - Thanks to Verbatim (D) for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corporation
Code:	MCC 01RW 4x
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	15m:02s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.85
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Perfect reading curve and
the KProbe scan is very good.

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

 

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

---

 

DVD+R Dual Layer writing speed and compatibility:

The LG GSA-5160D supports the DVD+R9 DL standard for writing Dual Layer discs with a size of 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 2.4x. 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 DVD Identifier 3.6:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD+R-DL : MKM-001-000]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type :       [DVD+R DL] - [DVD+R DL]
Manufacturer Name :      [Mitsubishi Kagaku Media]
Manufacturer ID :        [MKM]
Media Type ID :          [001]
Product Revision :       [Not Specified]
Blank Disc Capacity :    [Not Supported By Method 2]
Recording Speeds :       [1x , 2.4x]
                         [Method 2 Might Not Always Detect All Speeds]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 : e1 0f 32 10 00 03 00 00  00 fc ff ff 00 22 d7 ff   ..2.........."..
0010 : 00 00 00 4d 4b 4d 00 00  00 00 00 30 30 31 00 40   ...MKM.....001.@
0020 : 25 25 37 0c 02 2f 63 02  2f 63 21 23 0d 0e 14 14   %7../c./c!#....
0030 : 02 01 01 10 00 21 23 0d  0e 14 14 02 01 01 10 00   .....!#.........
0040 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

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

Manufacturer and media information:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier: [DVD+R-DL : RITEK-D01-001]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc Type:              [DVD+R DL]
Manufacturer ID:        [RITEK]
Manufacturer Name:      [Ritek Co.]
Media Type ID:          [D01]
Product Revision:       [001]
Disc Application Code:  [General Purpose]
Recording Speeds:       [1x , 2.4x]
Blank Disc Capacity:    [4,173,824 Sectors = 8,152.0MB = 7.96GB (8.55GB)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
0000 : e1 0f 32 10 00 03 00 00  00 fc ff ff 00 22 d7 ff   ..2.........."..
0010 : 00 00 00 52 49 54 45 4b  00 00 00 44 30 31 01 40   ...RITEK...D01.@
0020 : 25 25 37 00 00 28 64 00  28 64 19 1b 0b 0b 0e 0f   %7..(d.(d......
0030 : 01 00 00 00 00 19 1b 0b  0b 0e 0f 01 00 00 00 00   ................
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

The media is made by Ritek (Made in Taiwan).  Thanks to Conrexx Technology B.V. (The Netherlands) for sending us this media.

Testing procedure: We created an ISO Image of the largest DVD-Video disc we had (Nemo, 7.91 GB (8.495.888.384 bytes)) using DVD-Decrypter. Then we wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 6. Below are the results:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Traxdata media

The LG GSA-5160D used 44 minutes and 25 seconds for writing the Mitsubishi Kagaku media at 2.4x and 44 minutes and 41 seconds for writing the Traxdata media at 2.4x. Let us take a look at the K-Probe result:

Brand:	Unbranded '“ Thanks to LG Korea for providing the sample.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8103MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	44m:25s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.19
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The KProbe result is good/ok.

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:	2.4xx
Write Time:	44m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	18.63
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The result is ok, and we can see that the 2^nd layer got higher PI. And now it's time to take a look at some reading tests with various DVD-Writers.

First we will try to read the discs back in the LG GSA-5160D drive:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Traxdata media

As we could see, the LG GSA-5160D had no problems reading the discs. Let us try some other drives to read the Dual Layer discs:

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Traxdata media

The Plextor DVDR PX-712A shows a perfect reading curve on both media.

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Traxdata media

The Lite-on SOHW-1633S also shows a perfect reading curve on both media.

Mitsubishi Kagaku Media

Traxdata media

The same goes for the LG GSA-4163B

Let's compare the LG GSA-5160D with other DL capable drives.

* Verbatim DVD+R9 DL
** Philips DVD+R9 DL
*** Traxdata DVD+R9 DL

Standalone DVD-Player compatibility:

We only have 3 standalone DVD-Players available and 1 standalone DVD+R/W recorder to test the DVD+R9 DL media (Book Type: DVD-ROM).

• 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 4 standalone devices played the DVD+R9 DL burned Medias.

Summary: Excellent/good write quality and standalone compatibility results.

 

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-5160D. These tests
are: 'Sheep Test", protected audio discs and some special disc tests.

Copy protected data
discs:

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


• 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 could be found here.

In the
screenshot below take from CloneCD v5.0.4.5, we see the LG GSA-5160D supports
everything.

The LG
GSA-5160D supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write
uncorrected data and subchannel data. Drive used to verify that the tests works
are JLMS XJ-HD166S. Below are our results from the 'Sheep Tests":

As we can read
from the table the LG GSA-5160D is a 'Two Sheep Burner". But it failed to write
the SD290 and the 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:

 

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

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

Results:

The LG GSA-5160D had no
problem to detect and rip the two protected audio cd's at full speed.

DVD-RAM:

The LG GSA-5160D 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 lighter 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:

Maxell branded DVD-RAM media
certified at 5x. (Thanks to LG Korea for providing it).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique
Disc Identifier :
[DVD-RAM:MXL16]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc
& Book Type :       [Not Available] - [Not
Available] - [DVD-RAM]
Manufacturer Name :     
[MXL16]
Supplementary Info :     [Not
Specified]
Formatted Capacity :     [2,295,072 Sectors =
4,482.6MB = 4.38GB
(4.70GB)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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 83 85 88  88 82 85 88 88 81 84 87  
...."...........
0210 : 87 81 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..
0270 :
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  
................
0280 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00   ................
0290 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00   ................
02a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
02b0 : 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 7b 0a 00 87  
............{...
02c0 : 39 39 39 82 37 37 37 22  22 00 00 16 2c 00 83
86   999.777""...,...
02d0 : 86 00 83 86 86 02 82 85  85 02 82
85 85 0d 10 12   ................
02e0 : 12 0d 10 12 12 0c 0f
11  11 0c 0f 11 11 7c 01 7d   .............|.}
02f0 : 39 39 39
7c 8a 8a 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  
999|............
0300 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00   ................
0310 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00   ................
0320 : cd 0a 00 a2 46 46 46
a0  44 44 44 29 29 00 00 1b   ....FFF.DDD))...
0330 : 37 08 06
03 03 08 06 03  03 09 07 04 04 09 07 04  
7...............
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
[
DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com
]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Verbatim branded DVD-RAM certified
at 3x

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique
Disc Identifier :
[DVD-RAM:Matsushita*-M01J3002]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc
& Book Type :       [Not Available] - [Not
Available] - [DVD-RAM]
Manufacturer Name :     
[Matsushita Electric Industrial CO.,LTD.]
Supplementary Info
:     [M01J3002]
Formatted Capacity
:     [2,236,704 Sectors = 4,368.6MB = 4.27GB
(4.58GB)]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
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  2c 2c 2c 6e 2a 2a 2a 1a   ....R..q,,,n***.
0200 : 1a 00 00
11 22 05 02 81  81 05 02 81 81 06 03 00  
...."...........
0210 : 81 06 03 00 00 0a 0b 0c  0c 0a 0b 0c 0c 09 0a
0b   ................
0220 : 0b 09 0a 0b 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 32 0d
20 20        M01J3002. 
0260 : 20 20
20 20 20 01 01 82  00 6a 2c 2c 2c 82 94
96        ....j,,,...
0270 : 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0280 :
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  
................
0290 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00   ................
02a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00   ................
02b0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00  00 00 00 00 7b 0a 00 71   ............{..q
02c0 : 2d 2d 2d
6e 2b 2b 2b 24  24 03 00 17 00 02 82 84  
---n+++$$.......
02d0 : 85 01 83 85 86 03 81 83  85 03 81 83 84 13 14
17   ................
02e0 : 17 13 14 17 17 12 13
15  16 12 13 14 15 82 00 66   ...............f
02f0 : 2e 2e 2e
82 8e 8d 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
 ................
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DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com
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As you can read above,
the Maxell DVD-RAM 5x media is made by Maxell and the Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x media
is made by Matsushita Electric Industrial CO. LTD. (Panasonic).

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

Maxell DVD-RAM 5x

Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x

For those who
are not familiar with DVD-RAM, would probably think that something went wrong
during the write process since the 5x media was written at 2.33x and the 3x
media written at 1.57. 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:

Maxell DVD-RAM 5x

Verbatim 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.

We would also
like to mention that we use the DVD-RAM format '“ formatted as FAT32 on a daily
bases at our review-lab in Germany.

Overburning:

To test the
overburning capabilities of the LG GSA-5160D, we used the overburning test in
Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn
approximately 97 minutes.

  

The picture
above shows us that the LG GSA-5160D did not have any problems reading 99
minutes long CD's. The reading curve is very nice indeed.

Power consumption:

We were
wondering how much the power consumption is for this external drive so we did
some tests/measurements with a Digital energy meter:

Off mode (external drive switched
in OFF/standby mode)

On mode (external drive switched
in ON mode)

Operation mode

 

Now, that
concludes our LG GSA-5160D review, head on to the last page to read our
conclusion…

Positive:

• Supports DVD+R/+R9 DL writing at 16x/2.4x
• Extracts CD-DA at full speed with EAC
• Excellent writing quality on CD-R's
• Very good writing quality on DVD±R/RW
• Write some certified media at higher speed
• Supports DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 DL media
• Can Rip Protected audio discs
• 'Two sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Can write CD-R's up to 97 minutes
• Can read CD-R's up to 100 minutes
• Supports DVD-RAM up to 5x
• Excellent documentation/Owner's Manual on CD
• Very good Software package
• Nice design
• Easy to install (Plug & Play)

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• No DVD-RAM 5x media included
• Other drives offer 48x/32x writing on CD-R/W media
• 16x Z-CLV leads to slower burns when compared with 16x CAV and 16x P-CAV
• 10x/8x reading speed DVD±R/DVD±RW media
• Does not support DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+RW media
• Media compatibility could be improved
• Can't overburn to 99/100 minutes

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points: The first point we would like to mention is the DVD+R9 DL support at 2.4x. The LG GSA-5160D also extracts CD-DA disc at full speed '“ included copy protected audio CD's, which is an advantage when ripping/extracting music. Very good writing quality on CD-R's, and DVD media too. Further, the drive also supports DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 media, which leads to high compatibility on i.e. DVD standalone devices. Due to 'two sheep" burner and the DAO-RAW writing mode - the drive can be used to backup copy protected CD's. It also supports writing CD-R's up to 97 minutes, and can read back overburned CD-R's up to 100 minutes. Since the LG GSA-5160 is a super-multi drive it also read and write DVD-RAM discs up to 5x. And as a last point we would like to point out the excellent documentation/owner's manual and the very good software package that comes with the retail drive.

The main negative points: We would like to start with: other drives offer 48x/32x writing on CD-R/W media. Also, other drives offer faster read speed on DVD±R/DVD±RW media, and other drives offer 16x writing on DVD-R. And 16x Z-CLV leads to slower burns when compared with 16x CAV and 16x P-CAV. Finally, as a last point - the drive does not offer DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+RW media.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'A very good external DVD±R/RW/+R9 DL and CD-R recorder, which also supports the DVD-RAM format".

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber.com we found the drive listed at $ 125.95 (18. January 2005). And at www.getprice.de we found the drive listed at 132 EUR (18. January 2004).

 

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

 

Thanks to:

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe '“ The Netherlands for providing the Traxdata DVD-R, DVD+R9 DL, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 24x used in this review.

 

EMTEC (MPOTEC GmbH) - Germany for providing the CD-R 52x media used in this review.

 

MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the CD-R 52x media used in this review.

 

 

Sky Media Manufacturing sa '“ Switzerland for providing the DVD+R 8x, DVD-R 8x and CD-R 52x media used in this review.

Verbatim GmbH - Germany for providing the DVD+RW 4x, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 4x, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 24x media used in this review.