CDRLabs.com

Posted: **Sat Jan 14, 2006 3:49 pm**

I wonder why there is no LG 4166 reviews ?

I'm quite pleased by this drive with the last 1.01 firmware, and wonder why there is no review available anywhere ?

Some good burns I've done so far :

A Plextor DVD-R 8X in case burned @8X, scan done on a BenQ 1620 :

A Verbatim DVD+R 16X (MCC004) printable in case, made in Taiwan :
LG 4166 1.01 burn :

Scan done on a BenQ 1620 :

Posted: **Sat Jan 14, 2006 7:34 pm**

Hello!

The burns looks very good

4166 are rare, only know the 2166 (external) at Cdrlabs, but with 1.00

I heard rumors that newest 4166 have already 1.02-FW

Posted: **Sat Jan 14, 2006 8:28 pm**

I've had the drive for a few months. After experiencing the 2166's less than stellar performance, I figured I'd give LG a chance to fix things. Now.. I'm just waiting for them to put out an official firmware update.

Which reminds me. I should email them, asking wtf is going on with their firmware updates.. or should I say the lack there of.

Posted: **Sun Jan 15, 2006 7:21 pm**

Scour wrote:Hello!

The burns looks very good

4166 are rare, only know the 2166 (external) at Cdrlabs, but with 1.00

I heard rumors that newest 4166 have already 1.02-FW

4166 rare ? Not so rare here in France :
http://www.i-comparateur.com/acheter-x10p0026422.htm
http://www.prixdunet.com/details/LG_GSA4166/

Yeah, drives from december come with 1.02 firmware (seen @ www.actualis.com & "Computer Broker" store in Paris).
The public release seems to be (very) near as far as I know.

By the way, the last ala42's MCSE support 4164 & 4166 drives (they have the same bootcode & are the same).

What else ? My little daughter loves LS

:

Posted: **Sun Jan 15, 2006 8:26 pm**

ItalianJob wrote:4166 rare ? Not so rare here in France

Sorry, I meant reviews of the 4166 are rare

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 2:18 am**

Hmmm, I'm still suspicious of overall write quality since the drive uses a Panasonic chipset...
I look forward to the review Ian.

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:10 am**

Wesociety wrote:Hmmm, I'm still suspicious of overall write quality since the drive uses a Panasonic chipset...
I look forward to the review Ian.

Yeah, a Panasonic MN103 chipset is used in LG 4164 and LG 4166 :

LG 4163 / 4165 and 4167 use Renesas chipset (4167) :

What was used by the 4160 ? And was the 4160 a good drive ?

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:38 am**

Wesociety wrote:Hmmm, I'm still suspicious of overall write quality since the drive uses a Panasonic chipset...
I look forward to the review Ian.

is there reason to think that a Panasonic chipset is no good (bad writing quality) ?

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 8:57 am**

dodecahedron wrote:is there reason to think that a Panasonic chipset is no good (bad writing quality) ?

Maybe because Panasonic's own drives don't deliver good writing quality?

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 10:21 am**

Ian wrote:
dodecahedron wrote:is there reason to think that a Panasonic chipset is no good (bad writing quality) ?

Maybe because Panasonic's own drives don't deliver good writing quality?

I've only had a bad burn with 1.01 firmware and it was on a Memorex 8X RitekG05 crap (that didn't burn also on PX-716UF 1.09). Maybe LG firmware's developers did a good job ?
Or maybe Panasonic are better now. It's possible...
This has nothing to do with Panasonic, but I see that last Liteon's drives are getting better & better. Seems more & more difficult to find a very bad 16X burner now.

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 12:54 pm**

Along with Panasonic's own drives, the Teac/BenQ DQ60 with a Panasonic chipset had not so good writing quality.

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 3:03 pm**

Wesociety wrote:Along with Panasonic's own drives, the Teac/BenQ DQ60 with a Panasonic chipset had not so good writing quality.

Yeah, the whole chipset seems to suck!

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:09 pm**

Wesociety wrote:Along with Panasonic's own drives, the Teac/BenQ DQ60 with a Panasonic chipset had not so good writing quality.

Saw some good scans from 4166-burned media. Looks like the LG had the best writing quality, other drives with Panasonic-chipsets like Benq DQ 60 lloks not so good.

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 4:44 pm**

The chipset is only the brain of the optical drive, not the eye... I think there is a chance the LG 4166 has still a good optical part in it.

Some more good burn I saw :

- YUDEN T02 @8X with firmware 1.00

- A DVD-R 8X (TYG02) @8X burned on a LG 4166 fw 1.01 and scanned on a NEC @ 5X

- A burn I did : a Yuden T01 (Maxell in case) DVD+R 4X @ 4X :

Scan on my old BenQ 1620 :

- A Datawrite DVD+R 8X in spindle @ 8X

Scan :

Want more ? :wink:

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:38 pm**

That's weird to see it jump from 4x to 8x recording on the burn speed graph. Isn't there usually a jump to 6x (or it just starts at 6x)??

Posted: **Mon Jan 16, 2006 5:42 pm**

dolphinius_rex wrote:That's weird to see it jump from 4x to 8x recording on the burn speed graph. Isn't there usually a jump to 6x (or it just starts at 6x)??

8X Z-CLV (4X-8X) :-?

Strange decision... I takes 9 min for a 8X burn.

But 16X CAV

I takes < 6 min for a full 16X burn (and I know the 4167 did a bit better Ian

because of P-CAV)

Posted: **Tue Jan 17, 2006 9:20 am**

Hello!

The quality looks good, maybe the LG-guys do a good fine-tuning with newer FWs