LG GSA-4120B - The Plextor 712A Killer?

[dolphinius_rex]

I was not particularly impressed with the drive. The DVD+R9s we burned were all coasters.

Kristopher

That's likely due to the lack of bitsettting.

[MadBurner]

When is this drive supposed to arrive in North America?

MB

[Ian]

I was not particularly impressed with the drive. The DVD+R9s we burned were all coasters.

Kristopher

I will admit that the drive is kinda flakey with DL media. It takes forever for it to recognize them and even then, there were a few times where it wasn't able to read them. Reinserting the discs fixed that though. A couple of screenshots:

Write:


Read:


I have not testing writing quality yet. My other test box is in the middle of being rebuilt. Talk about flakey.. this damn MSI mobo is driving me crazy.

btw.. you still need a screenshot of it writing at 12x?

[Ian]

nm.. I see you released your review today... without any 12x DVD+R or DVD-RAM tests. You under a tight deadline or something?

[Kennyshin]

nm.. I see you released your review today... without any 12x DVD+R or DVD-RAM tests. You under a tight deadline or something?

That's what made me curious, too. Even I have had over 50 disks that work at 12x well. I don't know whether LG or Hitachi could send DVD-RAM 5x media but they also arrived at the first revewers' homes with GSA-4120B sample drive. 5x DVD-RAM is not even faster than 4x DVD+RW though. More like 2.4x DVD+RW and a little faster than 2x DVD-RW but we use DVD-RAM for other purposes so it's unfair to compare them in that way.

[Kennyshin]

I was not particularly impressed with the drive. The DVD+R9s we burned were all coasters.

Kristopher

You mean you had no success recording DL with GSA-4120B.



I don't know what made the difference but the two guys in Seoul who reviewed 4120B had no coaster and no problem playing in DVD players. One of them buy hundreds of DVD movie titles a year so he actually enjoyed his DL-recorded movies. Thanks to him, I can also enjoy most of his collection though I like to buy the titles myself.

I emailed LG on Thursday this week and it'll be Sunday in 30 minutes here. I was still waiting for a reply today - LG works on Sat like most other South Korean companies.

[Kennyshin]

Here is A102 firmware mentioned.

http://www.storageinfo.co.kr/EzMODse/vi ... hp?t=18287

The original post is at dvdrwinfo.co.kr by a person with account mycaptin, a member of both forums.



http://www.dvdrwinfo.net/bbs/zboard.php ... ody&no=330

[Ian]

I was able to get some more info on the A102 firmware.

The A102-01 firmware was released recently to fix a few problems people were having with the A101 firmware (DVD-RAM write quality, DVD+R DL readability). From what I can gather, this new firmware is a temporary fix and is being used on drives currently in production. The final A102 firmware (A102-09) is currently being tested and will be released in a few days.

[Kennyshin]

I'm talking to LGE concerning the license part of DVD+RW booktype change. Why is DVDplusrw.org unavailable now?

OK, I can access the pages now.

[Scour]

http://technik.movie2digital.de/thread. ... 772a89cd44

I´m disappointed about the error-rates

[Ian]

I´m disappointed about the error-rates

Yeah, the discs were tested on a 166S though.

[Kennyshin]

Every KProbe scan results in that thread are done with LTD-166S. You can find some different results with SOHW-812/832S at CDFreaks.

[Scour]

Hello!

What´s the better drive for test. 166S oder a writer?

[aviationwiz]

Hello!

What´s the better drive for test. 166S oder a writer?

A writer. Tests have proven the LTD-166S and other readers to be highly inaccurate for scanning.

[Kennyshin]

KProbe is meant to be used with a Lite-On DVD writer.

[dolphinius_rex]

So far the best testing methods with K-Probe seem to be with the LiteON 401s/411s/811s. Results I've seen with 451s and 851s models, as well as most LiteON DVD-ROMs (the 167T excluded) are pretty much useless as far as I'm concerned. Also, I haven't seen anything to make me believe that testing with the LiteON 812s/832s is much better then the 451s/851s models...

Unfortunatly, there isn't really a good solution for PI/PO error checking for the consumer. This isn't what you want to hear, but it is the truth. My suggestion would be to spend $30 on a picky DVD-ROM and do a quick transfer rate test on your media at full speed with it. If the line is smooth, then the disc is most likely good enough to play back on most devices (depending on course on how picky the DVD-ROM is).

[Ian]

I agree with dolph. I haven't been too impressed with the results from the 812S, etc. That's primarily why I've stuck to my trusty 811 for KProbe testing. The only bad thing is that it won't read DVD+R DL discs.

I can't believe that we're back to doing "stress tests" with discs. I used to do this with CD's before C1/C2 error testing software was available. But hey, it does work.

[Scour]

Hello!

Are the test results in a 166S show more or less errors than a writer?

[Scour]

Hell Ian!

I read that you will bring soon your 4120-review, when exactly ?

[Ian]

Still waiting on 5x DVD-RAM media... I'm hoping it should be here early next week.

[themaster]

http://technik.movie2digital.de/thread.php?threadid=15834&sid=f66064e4802972d813b38b772a89cd44

I´m disappointed about the error-rates

Unfortunately I confirm with 166s the burned dvd of 4120b have very bad quality, all except ritek g04 with official firmware of 166s have a slow down after the 3° GB.

I think seriousely to change this unit with a nec 2510a.

I have very disappointed to discover that only dvd-ram without cartridge are usable with lg.

[MrWGT]

Hi...

http://technik.movie2digital.de/thread.php?threadid=15834&sid=f66064e4802972d813b38b772a89cd44

I´m disappointed about the error-rates

Unfortunately I confirm with 166s the burned dvd of 4120b have very bad quality, all except ritek g04 with official firmware of 166s have a slow down after the 3° GB.

I think seriousely to change this unit with a nec 2510a.

I have very disappointed to discover that only dvd-ram without cartridge are usable with lg.

Which media have you tested and with which firmware have you read them?

I've a LG GSA 4120, a Benq 800@822 and a Lite-On 165s for reading. I can do a kprobe scan with the 165 or with nero cd-dvd speed with the benq and the 165s. But up to now all (ok, say 90%) of my 4120 burned media showed a better or similar nero cd-dvd speed scan (with my benq) as the benq burned media. The 165 uses a patched firmware for 16x DVD-R reading and i've no problems reading my dvds burned with the 4120 up to the end with high speed.

And maybe you've heard about the c't comparison between KProbe, Nero cd-dvd speed and the plextor tool? They compared the scans of three different burned dvds with the three programs with the "real scan results" of the same three medias scanned on a calibrated hardware from audiodev.

The result: No scan of the user programs showed any similarity with the audiodev scans. Also the PI/PO max/avg. values showed no similarity. The worst dvd media which showed > 1400 PI in audiodev scans had < 20 with kprobe and a 832! PI peak in audiodev scan: None in KProbe, Nero or Plextor tool on the same position.

Conclusion of c't: KProbe is the worst (with 832), nero cd-dvd-speed (Nu-82) is worse and the plextor tool (with 712?!?) is bad. They only show how good that media is readable in this particular drive!

My conclusion: I'm happy if the scans on my hardware shows a low PI/PO because i could read them back in my drives if i've problems with that media in other drives.

Regards,

Gerd

[Scour]

Still waiting on 5x DVD-RAM media... I'm hoping it should be here early next week.

Which manufacturer?

[themaster]

Hi...

http://technik.movie2digital.de/thread.php?threadid=15834&sid=f66064e4802972d813b38b772a89cd44

I´m disappointed about the error-rates

Unfortunately I confirm with 166s the burned dvd of 4120b have very bad quality, all except ritek g04 with official firmware of 166s have a slow down after the 3° GB.

I think seriousely to change this unit with a nec 2510a.

I have very disappointed to discover that only dvd-ram without cartridge are usable with lg.

Which media have you tested and with which firmware have you read them?

I've a LG GSA 4120, a Benq 800@822 and a Lite-On 165s for reading. I can do a kprobe scan with the 165 or with nero cd-dvd speed with the benq and the 165s. But up to now all (ok, say 90%) of my 4120 burned media showed a better or similar nero cd-dvd speed scan (with my benq) as the benq burned media. The 165 uses a patched firmware for 16x DVD-R reading and i've no problems reading my dvds burned with the 4120 up to the end with high speed.

And maybe you've heard about the c't comparison between KProbe, Nero cd-dvd speed and the plextor tool? They compared the scans of three different burned dvds with the three programs with the "real scan results" of the same three medias scanned on a calibrated hardware from audiodev.

The result: No scan of the user programs showed any similarity with the audiodev scans. Also the PI/PO max/avg. values showed no similarity. The worst dvd media which showed > 1400 PI in audiodev scans had < 20 with kprobe and a 832! PI peak in audiodev scan: None in KProbe, Nero or Plextor tool on the same position.

The 166s has many problems to reading dvd-r at high speed. The burning must to be perfect. Plus that high error PI/PO I have a slow down in final part of dvd when I bench with cdspeed, with same dvd-r media but writed with pioneer 107d or plextor 708a I haven't any problem.

[Kennyshin]

THG has a new article about three DL writers.

http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/200 ... ng-03.html