Review: LG BH12LS35 Reviewed by: Vroom Provided by: LG USA Firmware: 1.00 Manufactured: February 2011

LG were kind enough to send us their latest
12x Blu-Ray recorder, the BH12LS35. The Drive supports 10x reading of Blu-Ray
SL media and 8x burning on Blu-Ray DL, and also it supports writing and reading
of DVD±R/RW, DVD-RAM and CD-RW media. For more info about LG and its products,
you can visit their website.

Drive Specifications

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Here are the specifications off the BH12LS35
that we found on the LG website.

Packaging

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Let’s take a look at the packaging.

Front.

Back.

Top.

Left
and right sides.

What’s inside the box

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Now it’s time to take a look at the drive
itself and what the drive came shipped with.

Our retail package contained the BH12LS35
drive, a software CD, an SATA cable and a four pin to SATA power converter
cable.

Now let’s take a closer look at the drive.

A
general view of the drive.

The
front of the drive is very stylish, with several logos, the super multi blue,
the LG logo and the Blu-Ray Disc logo. At the bottom we can see the blue led,
the emergency eject hole and the eject button.

Top
of drive

Bottom
of drive

The labels indicate that the drive was
manufactured in December 2010 in China.

On the rear we have the SATA power
connector and the data connector.

Now let’s head on to the next page were
we can take a look at the features of the drive….

Test machine

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

Hardware:

• Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P55A-UD4 (Intel P55
  chipset)
• Processor: Intel i7 750
• RAM: 4 GB Corsair dual channel kit DDR3 
• GFX: ATI HD 5670 (512 Megabytes GDDR5 HDCP compliant)
• Hard disk OS: Western Digital Black 1Tb
• PSU: Chieftec 500W
• Display: FujitsuSiemens 22”
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional (64 bit)

System setup:

The LG BH12LS35 was connected to one of the
main-board's SATA ports and reports as a HL-DT-ST BD-RE BH12LS35 Device.

From the screenshot from Nero InfoTool
above, we can see the LG BH12LS35 supports burning of BD-R, BD-R DL, BD-RE,
BD-RE DL and BD-ROM –R/RE DL reading. The drive came shipped with firmware
version 1.00 and no updates were available at the time of writing this review.

Installed software:

• Nero Multimedia Suite
  10
• Nero disc speed
• Nero Info Tool
• DVDFab 8
• Opti Drive Control
• Exact Audio Copy

 

Features and techniques

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Software Bundle:

Now let’s take a brief look at the supplied
software bundle. Please note that we may not use any of this software in this
review.

The Super Multi Blue Install Disc (for
windows) the LG BH12LS35 has the following software:

• CyberLink BD Advisor
• CyberLink LabelPrint
• CyberLink MediaShow
• LG Burning tool
• CyberLink PowerBackup
• CyberLink PowerDVD 9
• CyberLink PowerProducer
• CyberLink YouCam
• LG ODD Auto Firmware Update

The
first screen of the LG installation CD.

Software
install screen

BookType (BitSetting):

The LG BH12LS35 can only set  BitSetting
manually, and is capable of writing DVD+R and +R DL media with the DVD-ROM book
type, but after a reboot the setting goes back to +R/R DL.

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

Start Opti Drive Control and click
the Disc info button and you should get something like this:

DVD+R
with book type DVD-ROM

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

Writing technique

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Now it’s time to take a closer look at the
writing technology used by the LG BH12LS35.

For these tests we used Opti Drive Control,
and wrote a full disc at the drive’s maximum speed.

CD Recordable:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35 it should be able to write CD-R media at a maximum speed of 48x.

The LG BH12LS35 uses CAV, (Constant Angular
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 48X. This gives an average
speed of 34.51x and a total writing time of 2 minutes and 40 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

As we can see, the LG BH12LS35 is one of the
fastest drives when writing CD-R media.

CD Re-writable:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35, it should be able to write CD-RW media at a maximum speed of 24x.

The LG BH12LS35 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 24X. This
gives an average speed of 22.35x and a total writing time of 3 minutes and 57
seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

As we can see, the LG BH12LS35 is again amongst
the fastest drives when writing CD-RW media.

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16x DVD+R writing speed:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35, it should be able to write DVD+R/-R media at a maximum speed of 16x.

DVD+R

The LG BH12LS35 uses CAV, (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 16X. This gives an average speed
of 11.09x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 44 seconds.

16x DVD-R writing speed:

DVD-R

The LG BH12LS35 uses CAV, (Constant Angular
Velocity) to write at its maximum speed of 16X. This gives an average
speed of 10.53x and a total writing time of 5 minutes and 51 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The LG BH12LS35 is again very fast when
writing DVD±R media.

8X DVD+RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35, it should be able to write DVD+RW at a maximum speed of 8x.

The LG BH12LS35 uses Z-CLV, (Zoned Constant
Linear Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This gives
an average speed of 7.79x and a total writing time of 7 minutes and 20 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The LG BH12LS35 was one of the fastest drives
when writing our test DVD+RW media.

6x DVD-RW writing speed:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35, it should be able to write DVD-RW at a maximum speed of 6x.

The LG BH12LS35 uses CLV, (Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 6X. This gives an average
speed of 6.04x and a total writing time of 10 minutes and 05 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The LG BH12LS35 was one of the fastest drives
when writing DVD-RW media.

8x DVD+R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35, it should be able to write DVD+R DL at a maximum speed of 8x.

The LG BH12LS35 uses P-CAV, (Partial Constant Angular
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 8X. This
gives an average speed of 6.79x and a total writing time of 16 minutes and 29
seconds.

8x DVD-R DL writing speed:

According to the specifications of the LG
BH12LS35, it should be able to write DVD-R DL at a maximum speed of 8x,
unfortunately the media used could only be burned at 4x.

The LG BH12LS35 uses CLV, (Constant Linear
Velocity), to write at its maximum speed of 4X, our write was completed
in 27 minutes and 36 seconds.

For comparison we have made the following
table: 

The LG BH12LS35 was amongst the fastest
drives when writing DVD+R DL media

Summary:

The LG BH12LS35 is very good performer
across all media groups, returning some of the fastest burns.

Let’s head on to the next page where we
will check reading performance….

Reading performance

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For these tests we will use Opti Drive
Control to read various BDs, CDs and DVDs, including audio discs and DVD-media.

CD reading performance:

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CD-ROM:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM, the
CD is close to 75 minutes in length. Below you will see the produced result:

The LG BH12LS35 reached 46.46x read speed.
Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The LG BH12LS35 was very fast when reading
our test CD-ROM.

CD Recordable discs:

For this test we made a copy of the CD. The
disc we used was a JVC 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by Taiyo Yuden.

The LG BH12LS35 reached 47.77x read speed.
Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The LG BH12LS35 was again a very fast drive
when reading our test CD-R

CD Re-writable discs:

Again we used a Verbatim Ultra Speed (24X)
CD-RW disc made by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation.

The LG BH12LS35 reached 40.84x read speed.
Let’s compare it with some other drives below.

The LG BH12LS35 was again a very fast drive
when reading our test CD-RW.

Audio – Digital Audio Extraction:

To test the digital audio extraction
performance of the LG BH12LS35, again we used Opti Drive Control 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 nearly 76 minutes in length (75:50:73).

The LG BH12LS35 reached 41.20x when reading
our test audio disc. Let’s compare it with some drives below.

The LG BH12LS35 was a fast drive when
reading our test CD-Audio disc.

DVD reading performance:

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

Pressed DVD Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we
are going to start with single and Double Layer 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 OTP)

The LG BH12LS35 appears to be riplocked,
and it was able to read our single layer disc at 12x and our double layer test
discs at 5x

We present the table below for comparison
with other Blu-ray drives.

The LG BH12LS35 was one of the slowest drives
when reading pressed DVD-Video discs.

DVD+R/RW:

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

DVD+R

DVD+RW

We present the table below for comparison
with other Blu-ray drives.

The LG BH12LS35 was among the fastest
drives when reading DVD+RW and DVD+R.                                                                                    

DVD-R/RW:

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

DVD-R

DVD-RW

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

We present the table below for comparison
with other Blu-ray drives.

The LG BH12LS35 was again one of the
fastest drives we tested on DVD-R and DVD-RW.

DVD±R DL discs:

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DVD+R DL:

The LG BH12LS35 read our DVD+R DL test disc
at 12x reading speed.

DVD-R DL:

The LG BH12LS35 read our DVD-R DL test disc
at 8x reading speed.

We present the table below for comparison
with other Blu-ray drives.

The LG BH12LS35 was the second fastest
drive that we have tested when reading our test DVD±DL media.

Blu-ray reading performance:

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BD-ROM SL

We selected a BD-ROM SL disc containing a
movie, Underworld.

The LG BH12LS35 read our BD-ROM DL media at
5x reading speed (26minutes & 10seconds).

BD-ROM DL:

We selected a BD-ROM DL disc containing the
movie, Quantum of Solace.

The LG BH12LS35 read our DL BD-ROM media at
5x reading speed (51 Minutes & 59 seconds).

BD-R:

The LG BH12LS35 read our BD-R disc at 8x
reading speed (12 minutes & 22 Seconds).

BD-RE:

The LG BH12LS35 read our BD-RE at 6x
reading speed (20 minutes & 48 seconds).

Summary:

The LG BH12LS35 is a fast reader for BD-R
media, but unfortunately a slow one with BD-RE and original BD Discs.

Now let’s head over to the next page where
we will test CD-R/RW writing performance……

The specifications of the LG BH12LS35 state
that the drive is able to write CD-R/RW discs at 48x/24x. Let us find out how
the drive really performs in speed and quality.

Writing Data CD-R discs:

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

Write quality:

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We will test CD-R discs from many different
CD-R manufacturers. To really measure the write speed, we used the “create data
CD” function in Nero Disc Speed. The discs were written at the maximum speed
that the drive supports. For the quality test, we used Opti Drive Control, Disc
Quality Scan and combined this with a Transfer Rate
Test to test if the resulting disc was readable. Also note that
different drives and different reading speeds may affect the results obtained
when scanning the discs. We used an Optiarc AD-7240S with 1.04 firmware and
scanned the discs at 48X speed.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• C1=BLER=E11+E21+E31
• C2=E32

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

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

In short, our analysis will be based on
this guideline to determine the quality of the burned disc:

CD-R/RW
quality scans guideline

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Below are the obtained results:

An excellent result to start our tests.

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The result is very good.

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The result is good, but we would to see an
improvement on this media with a firmware update.

Writing Quality with Re-Writable discs:

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The result isn’t that good, the disc was
heavily used. Also the burn time was very fast and we had no issues with the
transfer rate test.

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Summary:

The quality on CD-R media was above very
good, and close to excellent, on CD-RW media the quality wasn’t that good, but
this might also have to do with the fact that the disc was heavily used. We
hope that a firmware update will improve the CD-RW burn quality and also the
quality on Verbatim media.

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

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

Write quality:

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Disc Quality Scanning - PI/PO:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The above scan shows the result from a
pressed Double Layer DVD-Video disc (The Green Mile).

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

·        
PIE per 8 ECC blocks (rows with 1 or more bytes
in error)

·        
PIF per 1 ECC block (rows with 6 or more bytes
in error)

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

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

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

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

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

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

Jitter:

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

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

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

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

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

What is Jitter?

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

The things that causes jitter divide into three main
types.

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

 

Variation in pit length and width.

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

Crosstalk from nearby pits in the same track.

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

Crosstalk from pits in adjacent tracks.

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

Some other factors to consider

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

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

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

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

How we will measure jitter.

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

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

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

·        
Less than 8% (average) = Very good

·        
8% - 9% (average) = good

·        
9% - 12% (average) = average

·        
Above 12% (average) = poor

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

Maybe this got too technical, and you are
wondering what to look for in your Opti Drive Control Quality Scans?

Use this as a guideline
for good discs:

·        
PI (Parity Inner): No larger areas on the disc
should exceed 280 PI-8 errors, do not worry too much about high single spikes
that exceed 280.

·        
PIF (Parity Inner Failures): No larger areas on
the disc should exceed 4 PIF-1 errors, do not worry too much about high single
spikes that exceed 4.

·        
Jitter: An average jitter value of 8% or less is
considered very good. You should not worry too much if the average value is
slightly above this figure.

And as always; lower is better

DVD+R media compatibility and write
quality:

DVD+R media compatibility and write quality:

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In these tests we will be using a Lite-On IHAS624
with firmware GL24 along with Nero DiscSpeed to measure the disc quality. We
will also be using the Optiarc AD-7240S with firmware 1.04 along with Nero
DiscSpeed for our read-back tests.

An excellent result. Low levels of PIF
errors, and also very low levels of Jitter. A great way to start our tests.

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A good result, PIF levels are within
limits, and once again we have very low Jitter.

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An excellent result for this media.

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Another result that is very close to
excellent, PIF and Jitter levels are again very low.

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DVD+RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

Below are our obtained results.

Considering this a used re-writable disc,
the result is very good.

Summary:

The LG BH12LS35 writes DVD+R with excellent
writing quality, on almost every disc we tested. The thing that impresses is
the low Jitter.

On our tested DVD+RW media, writing quality
was very good.

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

DVD-R media compatibility and write quality:

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In these tests we will be using a Lite-On iHAS624
with firmware GL24 along with Nero Disc Speed to measure the disc quality. We
will also be using the Optiarc AD-7240S with firmware 1.04 along with Nero Disc
Speed for our read-back tests.

We start our tests with an impressive
result. PIE/PIF and Jitter levels are all very low for this media.

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Another excellent result, with an
impressively low Jitter level.

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Again the result is excellent.

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The result is excellent for this media, and
once again PIE/PIF and Jitter are impressively low.

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The result here is again excellent, and all
this finishes with a perfect TRT.

DVD-RW media compatibility and write quality:

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

Considering this a re-writable disc, the
result is once again excellent, followed with a perfect Transfer Rate Test.

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Summary:

The DVD-R/RW writing quality was excellent.
Every burn we made had low levels of PIE/PIF and some burns had very impressive
Jitter levels.

 

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

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

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The LG BH12LS35 supports the DVD+R DL/-R DL
standard for writing Double Layer/Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at
a writing speed of 8x.

DVD+R DL:

For these tests we used Opti Drive Control
to burn our test disc. We then used a Lite-On iHAS624 along with Opti Drive
Control to test the disc’s quality; we then finally ran a read-back test on our
Optiarc AD-7240S.

The result is excellent, jitter is excellent,
and also the jitter level is one of the lowest we have seen so far on dual
layer media. Also a perfect TRT to complete the test.

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DVD-R DL:

The result is excellent for this media and
Jitter levels were the lowest we had in our tests, also the PIE and PIF levels are
very low, and the disc has a perfect TRT.

Summary:

The LG BH12LS35 writing quality on our
tested DVD+R/-R DL media was excellent, and we saw some impressive results on
PIE & PIF levels. The Jitter levels on +/-R DL discs were outstanding.

Let’s head on to the next page, where we
test BD-R/RE writing performance....

An Introduction to Blu-Ray

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

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

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

Now let’s take a look at the track pitch and compare it with that
of DVD

As
we can see in the above screenshots, the storage density of Blu-ray is much
higher than DVD. The Blu-ray laser beam spot is also much narrower than that of
DVD.

Blu-Ray Error specification:

In
the above table we present some of the specifications for reported errors on
Blu-ray media. At present we have no equipment or software available for
measuring these errors.

BD-R writing tests

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The
specifications of the LG BH12LS35 state that the drive is able to write BD-R at
12x. Let us find out how the drive really performs with media.

For
these tests we will be using the LG BH12LS35 for the Transfer rate
tests, and the Liteon iHBS112 for the disc quality scan. Since there is
no standard speed to measure the quality of the burn, we will be selecting the
8x speed of the drive.

 

Verbatim BD-R 25GB

For
this test we used Nero Disc Speed to create our test disc.

The drive completed the burn in 13 minutes
and 12 seconds, and it was able to overspeed this media to 8x. However buffer
was stuck at 50% on all Blu-Ray burns.

As we can see the LG BH12LS35 has no
problems reading back the disc at 8x.

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Verbatim BD-R 6x 25GB

This was the only media we had, and could
reach 12x speed, but as we can see from the burn test, the drive slowed down to
8x. Burn time was 11 minutes and 34 seconds. So far this is the fastest time we
had.

While the transfer rate test looks perfect,
we can’t say the same about the disc quality scan. Unfortunately at this point
we only had one disc to test.

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Maxell BD-R 4x Printable 25GB

As we can see, the drive can overspeed this
media to 8x. Burn time was 13 minutes and 10 seconds.

The
transfer rate test is perfect, but the quality scan doesn’t look very nice.

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BD-R LTH Type 2x

 

It took 45 minutes and 10 seconds to burn
this Verbatim LTH media at 2x.

A perfect transfer rate up to 8x.

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BD-RE:

The
specifications of the LG BH12LS35 state that the drive is able to write BD-RE
discs at 2x. Let us find out how the drive really performs.

BD-RE 25GB

The LG BH12LS35 burned our test BD-RE media
from VERBATIM in 39 minutes and 42 seconds. Also the burn speed was 2.3x and so
far it’s the fastest burn we had from –RE media.

Now let’s see how the LG BH12LS35 read’s
and scans our test disc.

A perfect Transfer Rate Test at 6x. LDC
errors look a little high.

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BD-RE 25GB

The LG BH12LS35 burned our test BD-RE 25GB
media from TDK in 39:44 minutes. Again the burn speed was 2.3x.

Now let’s see how the LG BH12LS35 reads and
scans our test disc.

Again the LDC and BIS levels
are a little high, but the TRT is perfect.

Summary:

The LG BH12LS35 had no problems in creating
and reading our test discs. The disc quality results are generally very good,
with the exception of the Maxell media that didn’t have a very smooth
read back curve.

It can overspeed our test media from 4x to
8x.

Let’s round off this review on the
Authors page, with some real world and advanced tests....

Real world tests

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Introduction:

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

Audio Extraction:

For this test we used Exact Audio Copy
(EAC) to extract the audio to our hard drive. According to EAC the LG BH12LS35
supports caching, accurate streams, audio cache and C2 error detection.

Below are the results produced by EAC:

Burst
Mode

Secure
mode

The LG BH12LS35 has a poor performance, in
both tests as we can see. At this point I would like to say that I tried
different versions of EAC, different SATA ports, different settings and also
different PCs and one netbook (the drive was connected to a USB case), and the
result was the same. As we can see from the Opti Drive Control the drive should
be able to reach 44X, so I installed easy cd-da extractor to be sure
that there was nothing wrong with my hardware. Here is the result.

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Nero Burning Rom:

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

CD-R:

For our data writing tests, we simply set
up a new compilation of 693MB using Nero Burning ROM software. Writing method
used is DAO (Disc At Once), and the disc is set up as a non-multisession disc
with “finalize disc” enabled. The screenshot below shows how long it takes to
write a disc at the highest speed. (48x)

The LG BH12LS35 burnt our test CD-R at 48x
in 2 minutes and 38 seconds.

DVD+R:

In this test we will measure the time for
writing to DVD+R discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn a backup disc
containing 4293MB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method, selected
speed was 16x.

1

The LG BH12LS35 burned our test DVD+R at 8x
in 5 minutes and 48 seconds.

DVD DL:

In this test we will measure the time for
writing to DVD+R DL discs. We used Nero Burning Rom to burn a copy of the movie
Cars, containing 7.8GB of data. We used the Disc-At-Once write method.

The LG BH12LS35 burned our test DVD+R DL at
8x in 16 minutes and 28 seconds.

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CSS Encrypted DVD-Video ripping tests:

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

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

For this test we will use Fengtao software
DVDFab.

DVD-Video
single layer “Dario Argento's Phantom of the opera”

DVD-Video
double layer “Iron Man”

Blu-Ray
SL movie, “Underworld”

Blu-Ray
DL movie, “Quantum of Solace”.

Thanks
to Fengtao
software – For providing a full DVD Fab
license.

The LG BH12LS35 is riplocked, and the
results aren’t as we expected.

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BD Advisor & LightScribe

BD Advisor

Here we will check the compatibility with
Cyberlink’s BD Advisor software.

There are two options, the first is one for
Blu-ray, and the second will check if your hardware can display 3D.

As we can see our hardware can playback a Blu-ray
disc.

My monitor isn’t capable of displaying 3D,
so you if we click on the info button we can see the following message in our
browser.

LightScribe

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The drive also features LightScribe. In the past myce.com/blog has covered the LightScribe feature
so we want spent much time on it. LightScribe is a direct print method,
you need t a drive that has LightScribe and some LightScribe media.
Once you burn your data, you flip the disc and use your favorite label print
software to print your label into your disc.

For more info about LightScribe you
can visit their website by clicking here.

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This concludes our LG BH12LS35 review.
To read the final conclusion, click on the link below

Positive:

• Excellent write quality with DVD-R/RW and
  CD-R media.
• Very good write quality on DVD+R/RW and
  CD-RW
• Stylish design, with a blue LED.
• Very good build quality.
• Supports BitSetting (BookType DVD-ROM) on
  DVD+R/+R DL.
• Excellent software bundle.
• Supports 3D, with the correct display
  monitor.

Negative:

• Slow read speed on pressed DVD and BD
  discs.
• You need to manually set the booktype,
  and after a reboot you have to do the same thing again.

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points:

The LG BH12LS35 is a well built drive, it
also comes with a very good software package that will cover all your burning
and viewing needs. It has excellent write quality on DVD+R and DVD+/-R DL media.
Also the write quality is very good on CD-R/RW, DVD-R, DVD-/+RW media.

It was able to overspeed the all the BD
media we tested, except the LTH, and the burn quality and Transfer Rate Tests
look very good.

It can change the booktype on +R and +R DL media.

The LG BH12LS35 has a stylish design. It
also has a blue LED indicating reading or writing of media.

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The main negative points:

Slow read on pressed DVD and BD movies.

You have to manually change the booktype
every time you reboot your PC.

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To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The LG BH12LS35 is an excellent drive, stylish
and reliable, burns all CD/DVD media with excellent quality, and the
performance overall is excellent”.

Because of the good burn quality we decided
to rate this as “Excellent”.

 

Thanks to:

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