LG GSA-5163D Triple format DVD Burner

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LG '“ South Korea was
kind enough to send us their latest external DVD-writer; the LG GSA-5163D
Super
multi DVD Writer. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R
writing, 8x DVD+RW, 6 DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 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 is 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:

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These are the
specifications of this drive, found at the LGE
webpage:

The specifications
are very good, the only drawbacks we could see is that it only supports 40x CD
reading and writing. It should also write with P-CAV technology, which is
promising for low recording times and high average recording speeds.

What's inside the box?

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Let us start
out pretty easy by taking a look at what we got and what the box
contained.

 

The drive we
received was a retail drive that came in a nice looking box, but to us the
content of the box is more important:

Looks to be a
pretty good bundle, but let us take a detailed look at what we got.

This is what
the Retail bundle consists of:

• The drive
  itself
• Program
  installation CD (Nero 6 Express and Cyberlink Power DVD and Power Producer)
  
• Manual
• Software
  quick guide
• Power
  supply
• Power cable
• USB 2.0 cable
• Firewire cable

A very good
bundle, but we would still like to see some empty discs included. At least a 5X
DVD-RAM disc, as these are hard to find in many stores.

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

 

The drive has
a very nice look, in this image you can see the rubber stands of the external
enclosure.

 

Our sample was
produced in Korea and has a production date of December 2004.

 

On the back we
have the IEE 1394 Firewire connectors as well as an USB 2.0 connector. In
addition of course, is a power connector, and finally an on/off
switch.

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

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Test machine:

---

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

Hardware:

⋅
Motherboard: Abit IC-7 MAX3
i875P
⋅
Processor:
Intel Pentium 4 3,2GHz 800MHz FSB Prescott with Hyper
Threading support.
⋅
RAM: 1Gb PC4300 DDR
⋅
GFX: Asus GeForce 6800

⋅
Sound: SB
Audigy 2
⋅
Hard
disks: 400Gb Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 S-ATA connected to the Intel i875P S-ATA
controller.

System
set-up:

 

The LG GSA-5163D was connected to the IEE1394A Firewire
interface and identified itself as HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-5163D. DMA (Direct Memory Access) and autorun was enabled for all devices where it was
possible.

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
6.6.0.6
⋅
Ahead Nero CD/DVD Speed
v3.61
⋅
Ahead Nero InfoTool
v2.27
⋅
DVD-Identifier
3.5.1
⋅
K-Probe v2.4.2

Installation and supported features:

---

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

 

Our drive came
shipped with firmware A101, we updated the firmware to version A102 for this
review. The only drawbacks we could see are the inability to read CD+G as well
as missing Mt Rainier support along with a bit too small of a buffer. A larger
buffer would at least smooth up the data transfer to the drive a bit on stressed
systems.

We verified the
reported features with Nero:

No differences
noticed here either, and we could see that Nero supports bitsetting with this
drive.

Book type
changing:

---

The LG
GSA-5163B supports bitsetting and could 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.6.6.0.6) under the option 'Choose Recorder" to change the
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 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:

All in all a
very complete and good software package.

Now that we have
finished examining the drive and bundled programs '“ let us head on to the next
page, which is reading performance test…

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Reading performance:

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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
sports a specified read speed of 16X for DVD's and 40X for CD's.

Pressed
discs:

For this test
we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing PlexTools
v1.08 that is exactly 74 minutes long. Below you will see the produced
result:

 

The LG GSA-5163D did reach 40x at the
end. To see how this compares to other drives, look below:

AS we could
see it lags behind many of the other drives due to the lower reading speed of
only 40x compared to 48x for many of the other new drives. But the seek times
are among the best we have ever seen.

CD-Recordable
Discs:

For this test
we made a copy of the original PlexTools v1.08 CD. The
disc we used was a Verbatim 48X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Mitsubishi
Chemicals Corporation.

 

No big
differences compared to reading the original pressed disc.

Again slower
than the other drives, but the seek times is among the better we have
seen.

CD-ReWritable discs:

Again we made
a copy of the original PlexTools v1.08 disc, this time
we used a Verbatim High Speed (10X) CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals
Corporation.

 

The drive
reads CD-RW discs faster than pressed discs and CD-R discs! Check how this
compares to other drives below.

Among the
faster drives for reading CD-RW discs, due to many drives reading CD-RW discs at
32x only. Again good seek times.

Audio '“
Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the
digital audio extraction performance of the LG
GSA-5163D, 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 (77:56:57).

 

The drive had
no problems with reading the audio disc at full speed and everything seems good,
so let us compare the result with other drives:

Good seek
times again, but lagging behind other drives speed wise as it reads at 40x only.

Advanced
audio '“ DAE quality test:

Before we move
on to testing DVD read speeds, we will take a last audio test. This time we used
the 'Advanced DAE Quality Test" feature in CD-Speed.

 

The extracting
quality should be excellent, but it does not support reading data from the lead
out nor from the subchannel.

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 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.

 

 

As we can see,
this drive reads both single layer and double layer DVD-Video discs at 8x speed.
That means that the drive is locked at 8x for reading DVD-Video discs.

The LG
GSA-5163D is among the slower readers for reading DVD-Video discs, this is due
to speed lock at 8x.

 DVD+R(W):

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

 

 

The reading
speed was locked to 10x for DVD+R and 8x for DVD+RW.

About average
compared to other drives, but we would like to see 16x reading of DVD+R media at
least.

DVD '“ DVD-R/RW:

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For this test
we used a Taiyo Yuden 4X DVD-R disc and a Verbatim 2X DVD-RW disc filled with about 4,4Gb of data. Our test results
are found below:

 

 

There are
hardly any differences compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

Nothing
changes here, we would still like to see 16x reading for DVD-R.

Overall
thoughts:

The drive is a
stable reader that offers good seek times. But it's not the speediest drive
around.

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-5163D state that the
drive is able to write CD-R discs at 40x. Let us find
out how the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

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Let us first
take a look at the CD-R write technology used by the LG
GSA-5163D:

 

As we could see, the
LG GSA-5163D uses Z-CLV (Zone-Constant
Linear Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 40x, this gives an average speed of 31.74x. This seems to be a bit
slower than other drives, let us take a look at two other drives
below.

 

The Mad Dog
MD-16XDVD9 uses CAV (Constant
Angular Velocity) to write at its rated
speed of 48x. This gives an average speed of 36.38x.

 

As we could
see the Plextor PX-712A uses CAV (Constant Angular Velocity) writing
strategy to reach it rated speed of 48X. This gives an average speed of 36.43x.

And as a last
test we wrote a disc containing 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 LG GSA-5163D used 3 minutes and 17 seconds to write the disc
at 40x. Let us see how this compares to other drives:

The LG
GSA-5163D is far from the fastest drive due to the lower writing speed of 40x
Z-CLV.

Write Quality:

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We will test
CD-R discs from a total of 8 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 LTR-52246S drive
with firmware 6S0F 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 average 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:	Memorex, thanks to Memorex for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	97m26s66f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	48x
Write Speed:	40x, but slowed down to 32x near the end.
Write Time:	3m:33s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.95
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

CMC Magnetics is not known for making the best CD-R discs, but
this result is pretty good. Disappointing that the drive slowed down to 32x
though.

 

Brand:	MMORE
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India
Code:	97m17s06f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 6: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:21s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.67
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Simply
perfect.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Moser Baer India for Mitsubishi.
Code:	97m34s23f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 3: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.73 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:23s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.90
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

Good quality with
Mitsubishi/Verbatim media as well.

 

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to conrexx for providing it
Manufacturer:	Ritek (JS Dye)
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:25s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.32
C2 Average/Sec:	0.00

An excellent result, probably
partially thanks to the new batch of Traxdata discs provided by
Conrexx.

 

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ Thanks to Miflop for providing it
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	97m24s01f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 1: Long Strategy (Cyanine or AZO)
Capacity:	79:59.72 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:19s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.02
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

A good result,
as expected with Taiyo Yuden.

 

Brand:	Prodisc
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	97m32s19f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.71 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:23s
C1 Average/Sec:	0.33
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

No problems
with this Prodisc media either.

 

Brand:	Miflop Lite '“ thanks to Miflop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Digital Data Storage (using generic plasmon ID)
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:24s
C1 Average/Sec:	4.85
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

We did not
expect the best result from these discs, but the result is acceptable '“ but of
course not as good as with other media types.

Brand:	BenQ, thanks to Daxon for providing it
Manufacturer:	Daxon (but with Hitachi Maxell ATIP)
Code:	97m25s29f
Disc Type:	CD-R
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 9: Short Strategy (Phthalocyanine)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	52x
Write Speed:	40x
Write Time:	3m:17s
C1 Average/Sec:	1.883
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

No problems
with this disc type either.

CD-ReWritable:

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The LG GSA-5163D supports a CD-ReWriting speed of 24x, let us see
how this compares to other writers. Let us start with taking a look at the
writing strategy it uses:

 

The LG GSA-5163D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of 22.57x. This seems
to be about average compared to other drives, but let us include some other
results for comparison.

 

The Pioneer DVR-107D uses Z-CLV,
(Zone-Constant Linear Velocity), to write at its rated speed of 24x, this gives an average speed of 22.47x.

 

The Plextor PX-712A, with its P-CAV
(Partial-Constant Angular Velocity) write speed of
24X for Ultra Speed CD-RW discs is among the faster writers due to its high
starting speed of 21.12x.

And we did
also write a disc in Nero Burning ROM, the compilation we made was 650Mb large
and we wrote the disc with the Disc At Once write method.

 

The LG GSA-5163D used 3 minutes and 34 seconds for writing the
disc at 24x, let us compare this to some other writers:

Pretty close
to the fastest drives, despite the Z-CLV writing technology. Let us take a look
at the writing quality with two CD-RW discs:

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics, but with Mitsubishi dye and ATIP
Code:	97m34s24f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 4: Long Strategy (Phase Change)
Capacity:	79:59.74 (703MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	24x
Write Time:	3m:57s
C1 Average/Sec:	75.46
C2 Average/Sec:	0.0

There are at least
no C2 errors, but it's still not the best result we have seen with this disc
type.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Plasmon data systems
Code:	97m27s12f
Disc Type:	US CD-RW
Recording Layer:	Dye Type 2: Long Strategy (Phase Change)
Capacity:	74:41.00 (656MB)
Certified Speed:	24x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	4m:21s
C1 Average/Sec:	184.10
C2 Average/Sec:	0.01

Low quality discs,
and as we could see the result is not good, it wrote this disc type at only 16x
as well.

Summary:

Well, it's only 40x Z-CLV
writing, compared to 48x CAV/P-CAV for some other new drives. But it writes very
well at 40x and the quality with all tested discs is very good. CD-RW writing on
the other side could be improved.

But after
all, it's a DVD-Writer, so head on to next page and read about DVD-Writing
performance and DVD media compatibility…

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The
specifications of this drive tell us that it should write DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD-R discs at 16X speed. In this
part we will measure the write time for various types of DVD+/-R(W) discs. We do also focus on write quality and media
compatibility.

DVD-Writing performance:

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We will start with
taking a look at the writing strategy used and compare it to other
drives;

 

The LG
GSA-5163D uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write at 16x speed. This gives an impressive average speed
of 12.75x and a total writing time of 5m:30s. Let us
also take a look at writing a DVD-R disc:

As we could
see it uses P-CAV (Partial-Constant Angular
Velocity) to write DVD-R as well, but the average speed is even higher at
12.82x and the writing time is down to 5 minutes and 19 seconds! Impressive!!
Look below for the results from two other fast drives.

 

The BenQ DW1620 uses CAV
(Constant Angular Velocity) to write at 16x. This gives an average writing speed of 11.51x and the lowest time we have obtained are 5 minutes and
47 seconds. The drive uses a bit longer time than ideally since it uses running
OPC technology when writing (shown as small dips in
the transfer curve above).

 

The NEC
ND-3500AG uses CAV (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write at 16x. The average speed for
the NEC ND-3500AG is 11.70x and total writing time is 6
minutes and 4 seconds.

Let us see how
long time it needs to create a disc with Nero. We used Nero burning Rom to set
up a new UDF/ISO compilation containing 4483Mb of
data, and started the write process. We used the Disc-At-Once write
method.

DVD+R

DVD-R

The DVD+R disc was finished in 5 minutes and 32 seconds, while
the DVD-R disc was finished in 5 minutes and 25 seconds.

*Actual
writing speed is 12x.

LG GSA-5163D
is holding a steady lead along with its internal version brother GSA-4163B. With
a recording time of 5 minutes and 19 seconds we expect that few other drives are
able to deliver faster speeds, even in the future. Currently this drive is THE
fastest DVD-Writer, impressive! Let us see if it could follow up and provide
good writing quality as well.

Write quality:

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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 is 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 what 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
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 PIE-8 errors. In practical use a disc with 1664 PIE-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 are what 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.

And 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 to 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-3500AG DVD-Writer. The reason why
we have changed 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 DVDR 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; does it look clean with no dips it should be good, a small
slowdown near the end is accepted.

DVD+R media
compatibility and write quality:

---

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON.AZ3
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	-
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	-
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	-

We do only have a
few test samples of this media, and since it's not supported at 16x we did not
see any reasons to waste a disc. Disappointing that this media is not supported,
as Daxon is a pretty good quality manufacturer. According to LG, there were no
plans for supporting this media, at least not in next firmware '“ which is even
more disappointing.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	MCC004
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:30s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.64
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Simply perfect
'“ do we need to say more?

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.M01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:32s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	16.38
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.34

Not perfect,
but still very good and should not cause any troubles.

Brand:	Traxdata
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R04
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:35s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	143.10
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	2.93

What is this?
The K-Probe result indicates a very poor quality disc that should normally be
unreadable, but the reading curve is perfect. How could this be? Our best guess
is that it has to do with the varying reading capabilities of different drives.
We verified the error levels with a BenQ drive so it looks like the disc is not
as good as it should be.

Brand:	That's Write
Manufacturer:	Philips/CMC Magnetics
Code:	Philips.C16 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:32s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.70
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.17

Another very
good result.

Brand:	TDK
Manufacturer:	TDK
Code:	TDK 003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:30s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.93
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Again '“ a very
good result!

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK R03 (Revision 001)
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:59s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.34
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

The drive did
not have any problems with this media.

Brand:	Verbatim
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Singapore
Code:	MCC003
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:12s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.08
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

Not as perfect
as we hoped, the drive wrote this media at 6x only (12x are selectable), and the
reading curve shows slight problems near the end as well. Which leaves room for
improvement.

 

Brand:	UNIVERSAL
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	PRODISC.R03
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.75
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

The drive
performed very well with the Prodisc media and we have no problems recommending this
media.

Brand:	Platinum
Manufacturer:	Ricoh by Ritek
Code:	RICOHJPNR02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:36s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.05
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

A slight
increase in error near the end, but nothing to worry about.

 

Brand:	That's Write '“ thanks to That's Write for providing it.
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC.MAG.E01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.50
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Another media
type that works problem free.

Brand:	Miflop extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	YUDEN000T02
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	6m:35s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.45
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

And Taiyo
Yuden does of course work excellent!

 

Brand:	BenQ, thanks to Daxon for providing this media!
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON.AZ2
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.87
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.00

Again…
excellent!

 

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto Disc
Code:	OPTODISC.OR8
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	8m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.43
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

NOTE! This test
is re-done using firmware A103, the performance with A102 is very poor with this
media. Now there is no problems and the result is better than
expected.

 

Brand:	Prodye Video
Manufacturer:	Unknown
Code:	Plasmon1C01
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.12

The quality of
the written disc is good, but it's only supported at 4x. According to LG there
are no plans to implement support for this media.

 

Brand:	Fortis
Manufacturer:	Daxon with Sony tech.
Code:	SONY.D11
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.52
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

There are no
problems with this media either.

Brand:	ProDVD
Manufacturer:	UME Disc '“ Hong Kong.
Code:	AML 002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.36
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.16

Not that bad '“ considering these
discs are very low quality. Unfortunately only supported at 4x, and according to
LG there are no plans to implement support for this media.

Brand:	Commodore
Manufacturer:	Interaxia AG
Code:	VDSPMSAB002
Disc Type:	DVD+R
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:39s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	8.74
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.13

Another very
low quality media type, and the result is not good near the end. Unfortunately
only supported at 4x, and guess what? Right, LG has no plans to implement
support for this media either.

Head on to
next page and read about DVD-R compatibility and write quality as well as
DVD+/-RW writing quality and
speed...

---

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

---

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON016S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	-
Write Time:	-
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	-
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	-

This media is
unfortunately only supported at 4x, and since we only have a limited amount of
this media we see no reason to waste a disc. And again '“ LG has no plans to
implement support for this media.

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	MCC03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:22s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.78
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

Impressive!
Low writing time and low amount of errors.

Brand:	Miflop Extreme '“ thanks to Miflop media for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:19s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.23
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

As expected
with Taiyo Yuden, very good! This media also holds the speed record so
far.

 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Singapore
Code:	MCC02RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:49s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.30
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.01

No problems
with this media, highly recommended.

Brand:	BenQ '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	DAXON008S
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.05
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

NOTE! This test
is re-done using firmware A103, the performance with A102 is very poor with this
media. Now there are no problems and the result is very good.

Brand:	Traxdata '“ Thanks to Conrexx for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKG05
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:43s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	3.55
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

No problems
with this media. But beware of lower grade media that is floating around on the
market as A grade.

Brand:	MiFlop Extreme '“ thanks to MiFlop for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:51s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.00
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.10

A good result
'“ just like we expect with Taiyo Yuden.

Brand:	BenQ
Manufacturer:	Daxon '“ but with Sony ADIP.
Code:	SONY08D1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:47s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.37
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

Another great
result, there are quite some of them now. 😉

Brand:	Datawrite
Manufacturer:	Prodisc '“ but with Fujifilm technology and ADIP.
Code:	FUJIFILM03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8X
Write Speed:	8X
Write Time:	7m:44s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.37
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.04

Simply
impressive, this is the best result we have ever obtained with this
media.

Brand:	UNIVERSAL
Manufacturer:	Prodisc
Code:	ProdiscF01
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:48s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	1.26
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.05

Another
excellent result.

Brand:	Samsung
Manufacturer:	Opto disc
Code:	OPTODISCR008
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:52s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	26.26
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.03

NOTE! This test
is re-done using firmware A103, with firmware A102 this media was written at 6x
only. Now the result is pretty good.

Brand:	Unbranded
Manufacturer:	Gigastorage
Code:	GSC003
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	9.36
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.06

NOTE! This test
is re-done using firmware A103, the performance with A102 is very poor with this
media. Still wrote at 6x only, but the quality is much better.

Overall
thoughts: Feed the drive with known quality
media and it will smile back at you and continue to surprise you with excellent
results. But don't feed it with unknown or low quality media. Overall it's an
excellent writer '“ but the media support could still be improved.

Re-Writing data:

---

The LG GSA-5163D supports rewriting DVD-RW at 6x and DVD+RW at 8x speed, let us write two discs in Nero CD/DVD speed and Nero
Burning ROM to see how fast it is.

Here are the
writing results for writing the 6x DVD-RW disc:

 

LG GSA-5163D
uses CLV writing technology to write the DVD-RW disc at 6x. Total recording time
is just over 10 minutes.

And here are
the results with 8x DVD+RW writing:

 

The 8x DVD+Rw
disc was written using Z-CLV writing technology and the total writing time is
around 8 minutes.

Writing Quality with DVD Re-Writable discs:

---

Due to request from
our readers we will add a few write quality tests with ReWritable media.
Settings and testing procedures are the same as used earlier in this review so
you may want to go back and read them if unsure. All discs used for these tests
have been written to before, but none have been written to more than 25
times.

DVD+ReWritable
media:

Brand:	Unbranded '“ thanks to LG for providing this media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media/CMC Magnetics
Code:	MKMA03
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:54s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	21.59
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.18

While there
were no problems reading back the disc the amount of errors is a lot higher than
usual with this media.

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK004
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:41s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	15.08
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.51

A very good
result with this media.

Brand:	Daxon '“ thanks to Daxon for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Daxon
Code:	Daxon.D42
Disc Type:	DVD+RW
Capacity:	4483MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:21s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.47
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.07

Very low
amount of errors and an excellent result.

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Made in Singapore)
Code:	MCC01RW6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:01s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	13.74
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

Nothing to
complain about here.

Brand:	RiData '“ thanks to RiData for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW04
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	14m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	41.96
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	1.44

While the
result is not as good as with other rewritable discs '“ there are still no
noticeable problems.

To sum it
up:
The LG GSA-5163D shows solid performance along with good quality on the
DVD-Rewritable tests.

But let us
now look at the most interesting aspect of this drive; Double Layer DVD+R writing…

---

DVD+R Dual Layer
writing speed and compatibility:

---

The LG GSA-5163D supports 4x DVD+R double layer writing speed; let us
see how it performs quality and speed wise.

Testing
procedure: We created a new compilation
using Nero 6 and wrote it using the Disc-at-once writing
method: 

Verbatim DVD+R9 Double layer 2.4x written at 4x. Total writing time is 27 minutes and 6
seconds. 

Brand:	Verbatim Data Life Plus
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi (Taiwan)
Code:	MKM 001
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	2.23
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.02

No spikes at
the layer change and all in all a very good result with the Verbatim Double
Layer Disc

Brand:	Traxdata '“ thanks to traxdata for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	Ritek.D01
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	2.4x
Write Speed:	2.4x
Write Time:	44m:17s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	35.62
PI-8 uncorrectable errors(PO) Avg/Sec:	0.53

Again we could
see that there are slight problems with the Ritek Double Layer media. But the
discs should still be usable.

Here are some
comparison results against other drives:

The discs
worked fine in our standalone player, as long as we set the book type to
DVD-ROM.

Summary: The drive has no
problems with DVD+R Double layer media, just remember to set the book type to
DVD-ROM.

Before we
complete 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-5163D.

The 'Sheep test":

---

For this test,
we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called Sheep Test?
That is because the symbol 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 could be found here.

In the
screenshot below we see that the LG GSA-5163D supports all available write and
read features in CloneCD:

The LG
GSA-5163D supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode. This means that it can write
uncorrected data and subchannel data.

Below are our
results from the 'Sheep Tests":

The LG
GSA-5163D qualifies as a two sheep writer but can't produce functional backups
of Safedisc 2.90 protected discs. This makes the LG an average choice for
backing up protected games.

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:

 

Westlife: World of our own is
protected with Cactus data shield 100.

 

Natalie Imbruglias White Lilies
Island.
This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield
200

 

Shakira: Laundry Service,
which is protected with Key2Audio version 2.

 

And finally
Celine Dion: A New Day Has
Come, that is protected with Key2audio version 3

Results:

The LG
GSA-5163D did not have any problems with reading the protected audio
discs.

DVD-RAM:

---

The LG
GSA-5163D is a so-called Super Multi drive, which means it also supports the
DVD-RAM format.

Lets look at
the recording side of the DVD-RAM disc and as you can see, there are 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:

Maxell branded DVD-RAM media
certified for 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)]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
**
INFO : An Empty Writable Disc Is Recommended For Accurate Results
** INFO :
Drive = HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B [FW A101]
** INFO : Write Capabilities =
DVD+R DVD+R-DL DVD+RW DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-RAM
** INFO : Disc =
[DVD-RAM:MXL16]
** 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]
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 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...............
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DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com
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But now the
interesting part '“ writing and reading DVD-RAM media.

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 2.35x.  But
don't worry - that is normal for the DVD-RAM format, the reason for the 'low"
speed is that the drive constantly reads back the data after writing it, to
verify that it's written correctly. We could call it a 'bullet proof"
writing/verifying 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 disc that we wrote:

As we can see
from the pictures above, the disc was read back at 5x using the P-CAV
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-5163D we used
the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According
to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn to about
95 minutes:

 

Media used is
Ritek 99 minutes media. And we also wrote a 94 minute disc in Nero:

 

Unfortunately,
the drive could not write to more than 95 minutes, but what about reading 99
minute discs?

 

There are no
problems reading the 99 minute test disc.

Now, that
concludes our LG GSA-5163D review, head on to the last
page to read our conclusion…

Positive:

---

• Supports 4x DVD+R9 Double Layer writing
• Supports 16x P-CAV DVD+/-R writing speed
• Very good writing quality with most disc types
• Currently the worlds fastest DVD-Recorder.
• Good writing quality with double layer media.
• Supports DAO-RAW writing.
• Fast and perfect audio extraction.
• Supports bitsetting.
• Multiformat drive, also supports DVD-RAM.
• Solid and good drive design, quiet operation compared to other drives.
• 'Two sheep" writer '“ positive when backing up copy protected games.
• Supports backing up all protected audio discs.
• Good retail bundle and good documentation

Negative:

---

• Only 10x DVD+/-R and 8x DVD+/-RW reading speed.
• Poor DVD-media support and few discs supported at higher speed than what they are certified for.
• LG shows little interest in adding support for unsupported media.
• Only 40x CD-Writing and 24x CD-ReWriting.
• Does not support Mt. Rainier.
• Supports overburning only up to 95 minutes.
• Does not bitset DVD+R DL media to DVD-ROM automatically.
• Does not support bitsetting on the DVD+RW format.
• Does not support disc quality checking/scanning features like Lite-On, BenQ and Plextor drives supports.

Conclusion:

---

It seems like LG did a good job with this drive, but let us summarize the most important points and features.

 The main positive points: The drive is one of the few multiformat drives in the world, also supporting DVD-RAM. And you can't forget the fact that it's currently the worlds fastest DVD-Writer with recording times below 5 minutes and 20 seconds for a full single layer disc. Another strong point is that it has good writing quality with almost all disc types and formats. Beside this, it supports reading protected audio discs and is an ok drive for backing up protected computer games.

The main negative points: There is only one noticeable negative point, and that is the media support, out of the discs we tested a total of 7 discs were not written at certified speed (or higher). This is a bit much compared to other drives we have reviewed in the past. LG do for sure need to improve media compatibility '“ especially since discs from known manufacturers like Mitsubishi and Daxon do not work at certified speed. We informed LG about the unsupported discs earlier '“ but they showed little interest in adding support for most of the currently unsupported discs. Beside this there are only minor issues like a bit low CD-Writing speed and a bit low reading speed of many disc types.

To sum it all up, this is the best we could say: 'The worlds fastest DVD-Writer, which also offers good quality. But stay away from unknown disc types with this drive." The drive has earned our 'Editors choice" award, even though the drive is not perfect, it still has some noticeable strengths; worlds fastest writer, good writing quality and supports all formats including DVD-RAM. This makes it quite unique and it really deserves the editor's choice award.

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread. This forum thread may also be used to ask questions around this drive or request additional tests.

Thanks to:

Conrexx for providing the  media used in this review. Conrexx technology is the supplier of Traxdata media as well as other Ritek media brands for whole Europe.

 For providing the That's Write media used in this review. That's Write focus on providing quality media at reduced prices in Europe.

 For providing some of the Memorex media used in this review. Memorex is one of the largest providers of all types of media for larger parts of the world.

 For providing us with Mirror and Miflop Extreme media. Miflop media aims at providing both cheap (INFOSMART) and expensive (Taiyo Yuden) quality media.

For providing the RiData media used in this review. RiData is a Ritek brand and thus you are sure to get Ritek manufactured discs when buying RiData media.

 For providing the Daxon and BenQ media used in this review. Daxon manufacture high quality media for many large OEM customers lke BenQ and Sony.

 For providing the Verbatim DVD+R9 Double Layer media used in this review. Verbatim provides high quality media almost over the whole world.

Looking for CD and DVD-Media in Norway? Visit www.norwaydisc.no the Norwegian specialist on CD and DVD Media!