LG GSA-H10N Super-Multi DVD±RW/RAM

Model: LG GSA-H10N 16x "Super-Multi" DVD±RW/RAM
Manufacturer: LG Electronics
Provided By: LG Electronics USA

As one of the biggest names in the industry, LG Electronics doesn't need much of an introduction. Founded more than 40 years ago, this Korean company has grown to become one of the world's leading electronics manufacturers, offering everything from large home appliances to tiny mobile phones and MP3 players. LG is no stranger to the optical storage industry either. They've led the way in this area, developing and manufacturing a wide range of products for the OEM and retail markets.

In November of 2000, LG Electronics joined forces with Hitachi Ltd. and formed Hitachi-LG Data Storage Inc., or HLDS. This joint venture benefited both companies as it combined Hitachi's engineering expertise with LG's production and marketing capabilities. One of the best things to come from this joint venture was HLDS's series of "Super-Multi" drives. Featuring support for both the DVD Multi and DVD+ReWritable specifications, these drives have the ability to write to all major DVD formats, including DVD-RAM.

The latest addition to LG's already impressive line of "Super-Multi" drives is the GSA-H10N. Unveiled at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, the GSA-H10N is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 10x DVD+R DL and 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and has a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, the drive can read and write to DVD-RAM media at 12x, the fastest speed currently available. The GSA-H10N also includes features like 48x CD reading and writing speeds, 32x rewriting speeds, Super Link buffer underrun protection and an impressive software bundle from Nero and CyberLink.

With features and specs like this, LG's new "Super-Multi" drive sounds like it has a lot of potential. To give you an idea of what to expect from the GSA-H10N we'll take a look at its features and then see how it stacks up against the 16x and 18x DVD±RW drives from the competition. Does LG's new drive have what it takes? Keep reading to find out.

What's in the box?:

• LG GSA-H10N "Super-Multi" DVD±RW/RAM Drive
• DVD Writer Solution CD
• Quick Set-Up Guide
• Audio Cable
• Mounting Screws
• IDE Cable
• Warranty Information

Physical Features:

The drive that LG sent us for this review was manufactured in March of 2006 and had firmware version DL10. For this review we used firmware versions DL10 and DL11.

From the front, the GSA-H10N looks very similar to LG's previous "Super Multi" drive, the GSA-4167B. Both drives share the same basic design and have many of the same logos. Along with the large "LG" logo, you can see a few showing support for Ultra Speed CD-RW media and theDVD+ReWritable and DVD Multi specifications.

Below the tray you can see the GSA-H10N's single LED. Itlights up green when the drive is reading or writing.

 

The rear of the GSA-H10N is fairly straight forward. By looking at the picture below you can see the drive's IDE interface, power connector and audio output connectors.

Starting from the left of the IDE connection you'll see the jumper switch for master, slave and cable select. By default the drive's jumper position is set to master. Next to the jumper block is the analog audio connector. The connector on the far left is the digital audio output.

Technical Specs:

Most of the specs below have been taken from LG's website and the guide that came with the drive.

More Features:

By looking at the picture below, you can see that LG's new DVD writer is identified as an "HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-H10N".

The Nero screenshot also shows that the GSA-H10N has a maximum CD writing speed of 48x and a 2048KB buffer. This buffer is also backed up by some form of buffer underrun protection. In this case, the technology used is "Super Link." According to Nero, LG's new DVD writer can also write CD-Text and overburn. When testing the drive's capacity I found that the drive was able to overburn up to 95:10with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.

Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the GSA-H10N is a "two sheep" burner. This means that LG's new drive is capable of backing up titles protected by SafeDisc 2, including version 2.51.

Here is a screen shot from Nero's InfoTool. This program queries the drive to see what its reading and writing capabilities are. InfoTool had no problems detecting the GSA-H10N's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.

InfoTool also shows that the GSA-H10N is an RPC-2 DVD drive. This means that the drive's region is stored in the firmware. The drive's region can be changed five times and after that it cannot be changed anymore. A patched RPC-1 firmware can be downloaded here. Just keep in mind that it is not supported by LG nor by CDRLabs. Use it at your own risk.

While InfoTool gives us a quick glance at the GSA-H10N's features, DVDINFOpro provides a little more information on some of the drive's reading and writing capabilities. By looking at the screenshot above you can see that while LG's new drive can read and write to DVD+R DL, DVD-R DL and DVD-RAM media, it does not support the Mt. Rainier format.

The GSA-H10N also supports a feature called "bitsetting." Using programs like Nero or CD Speed, you can set the book type of both DVD+R and DVD+R DL media to "DVD-ROM". For whatever reason though, the drive does not let you set the book type of DVD+RW discs.

The GSA-H10N's software bundle is very similar to what LG has included with their previous DVD writers. The CD that comes with the drive contains a number of different applications including Nero Express 6 and InCD 4 as well as PowerProducer 2 Gold and PowerDVD 5 from CyberLink.

Nero Express 6 - With Nero Express, Nero has taken the features and performance people have come to expect from Nero Burning Rom and combined them with a user friendly interface. While the interface has been simplified, Nero Express still supports more advanced features like VCD and DVD creation, CD/DVD duplication, overburning, CD-Text and realtime audio filters.

The version of Nero Express that LG included with their new DVD±RW drive is 6.6.0.19. You can download the latest version of the software from Nero's website.

Nero BackItUp - If you're looking for a way to quickly and easily backup your data, Nero BackItUp is the answer. This new program from Ahead Software lets you backup your data to CD/DVD, hard disc, image recorderor another computer on your LAN.

InCD 4 - InCD is Nero's packet writing software. Like Roxio's Drag-to-Disc or Sonic's DLA, it allows a person to use their CD-RW or DVD±RW drive as a big floppy disk. The person can then drag and drop files onto a CD-RW or DVD±RW disc. Many people consider InCD to be one of the best packet writing tools because of its simplicity and performance.

CyberLink PowerProducer 3 - If you're looking for a quick and easy way to capture and edit your video, look no further than PowerProducer 3 from CyberLink. Right from the start, this wizard based software gives you a number of options to select from. From here you can choose to create a new movie disc, edit an existing one or record video directly to DVD.

PowerProducer lets you create a number of different movie discs. Looking at the menu below, you can choose to create a DVD, VCD, or SVCD. If your drive supports DVD-VR or DVD+VR, you can also create an editable DVD.

While you can capture your own video, PowerProducer will also let you add any MPEG-1, MPEG-2, AVI or DivX video clip to your project. Once you have them imported, you can use the built in editor to trim, merge or split your video clips or add special effects. PowerProducer also allows you to set chapters within the video content and add your own custom menus, backgrounds, fonts and titles.

CyberLink PowerDVD 6 - CyberLink's PowerDVD is one of the more popular software DVD players on the market right now. PowerDVD offers a complete set of navigation commands, including advanced features like multi-angle viewing, dual subtitle display, digital zoom and parental controls.

Unfortunately, the version of PowerDVD bundled with the GSA-H10N only supports 2 speaker output. If you want to take advantage of DVD's encoded with DTS or use Dolby Pro Logic II, you'll need to buy one of CyberLink's enhancement packs.

With the GSA-H10N, LG has come through with yet another feature packed "Super-Multi" drive. Along with support for all major DVD formats, it sports some of the fastest DVD reading and writing speeds available. The GSA-H10N is capable of 16x DVD±R, 8x DVD+RW, 6x DVD-RW, 10x DVD+R DL, 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds and a maximum DVD read speed of 16x. On top of that, it can read and write DVD-RAM media at 12x. LG's new drive also includes features like a 2MB buffer, Super Link buffer underrun protection and a software bundle from Nero and Cyberlink. Unfortunately, it lacks bitsetting support for DVD+RW media. Even then, the LG GSA-H10N scores a 9 out of 10 for its features.

Installing LG's new "Super-Multi" drive in our test computer took only a couple of minutes. After taking the GSA-H10N out of the box, I left the jumper set to master and installed it on the secondary IDE chain by connecting the IDE cable and power connector. When I turned on the computer the BIOS detected it as a drive supporting UDMA 66. After making sure that the DMA was enabled in the Device Manager, I was ready to start installing the software.

Software Installation:

As I mentioned earlier, the GSA-H10N comes with a CD full of software from CyberLink and Nero. If you have autorun enabled, the menu pictured below will automatically come up when you insert the disc.

You can view information on the different applications in the software bundle by clicking on the menu buttons. Otherwise, you can start the setup process by clicking the "Install" button. After picking your language of choice, you'll be presented with a number of installation options.

From here you can choose to install PowerProducer, PowerDVD, Nero Express, InCD or the Acrobat Reader. After clicking next a few times and waiting for the files to be copied over, you'll be able to start burning your own CD's and DVD's. And no, you don't need to install a special driver if you want to write to DVD-RAM discs. InCD 4 supports all rewritable DVD formats, including DVD-RAM.

The Documentation:

Most of the GSA-H10N's documentation is located on the software CD in electronic format. As you can see, LG has gone out of their way to provide a nice interface. However, the documentation is still in PDF format and will require you to install Adobe Acrobat before it can be read.

Electronic format aside, the manual is a good example of what we've come to expect from LG. It starts out by going over the functions of the various buttons and connectors located on the front and back of the GSA-H10N.While the diagrams are small, they are clearly labeled and easy to understand. From here, the manual jumps into the physical installation of the drive. The instructions cover all the basics including how to set the jumpers, install the drive into an empty drive bay and hook up the cables. LG also provides a number of small diagrams showing what exactly a master or slave configuration should look like. The manual finishes up by going over the basic operation of the GSA-H10N. It explains how to insert and eject DVD's and how to get a disc out of the drive in case of an emergency.

The GSA-H10N also comes with a "Quick Set-Up Guide." Like the manual, this fold out guide contains a good amount of information, including the drive's features, specs and system requirements. The guide also contains a set of instructions that take you step by step through the installation process. While a little short on words, there are plenty of diagrams showing what to do. For most people, the "Quick Set-Up Guide" will be all they'll need to get the drive up and running.

Like LG's previous "Super-Multi" drives, the GSA-H10N was very easy to install. There were no problems getting the drive or the software installed and working correctly. If you need help for some reason, the documentation LG has provided is pretty good, even though most of it is in electronic format. With this in mind, I give the installation a 9 out of a possible 10.

While CPU, memory, OS and other variables don't often make a huge difference, there are some nonetheless. We have a computer that is used only for testing hardware. We do this so all tests can be compared reliably.

Test System:

For DVD writers the performance tests are broken down into four sections: CD read, CD write, DVD read and DVD write tests. Each benchmark test has been run three times. The score given is an average of the three. DMA has been enabled in device manager for all IDE devices supporting it.

CD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the CD-ROM benchmarks, CD WinBench 99 v3.0 and CD Speed v4.51 are used to test read speeds, seek times and CPU usage. For DAE testing both CD Speed and CD DAE are used. CD Speed is used to give an overall DAE speed rating and CD DAE is used to give the track by track extraction speeds and to check the extracted tracks for errors the drive may have created.

CD Write Tests: To test the write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 650MB and 700MB to our test media. Times are recorded. To test rewrite scores, Nero is used again to time how long it takes to write 400MB of random files and directories. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

DVD Read Tests: For the read performance section of the DVD benchmarks CD Speed v4.51 is used to test read speeds, seek times, and CPU usage.

DVD Write Tests: To test the DVD write speeds, Nero Burning Rom is used to write 4GB to our test media. Times are recorded. Then Sonic's DLA is used to test packet writing speeds. The same files are copied and pasted in Windows Explorer and timed.

CD Winbench 99 Scores:

The CD Winbench test is as close as we can get to testing every day usage. It fires off eight different applications using scripts. This tries to mimic the activities of a person loading these programs onto their own computer.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive gave us some mixed performance in our CD Winbench tests. While the GSA-H10N's overall score wasn't as high as some of the other drives, its transfer rates were fairly good.It started reading at 21.2x (3183 / 150) and reached a maximum speed of about 42.3x (6350 / 150) on the outside.

CD Speed v4.51 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used a pressed CD containing one Mode 1 data track. The disc is 74:38 in size and is full of data and directories.

	LG GSA-H10N	Plextor PX-760A	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	NEC ND-4550A
Transfer Speed Average: Start: End:	35.57x 20.42x 46.78x	36.76x 21.27x 48.63x	36.68x 21.95x 48.50x	35.60x 20.54x 47.09x
Seek Times Random: 1/3: Full:	114ms 130ms 175ms	96ms 113ms 172ms	103ms 116ms 168ms	137ms 145ms 219ms
CPU Usage 1x: 2x: 4x: 8x:	1% 1% 3% 21%	0% 1% 2% 4%	2% 4% 7% 12%	17% 1% 3% 6%

When reading pressed CD's, the GSA-H10N is rated at 48x. Unfortunately, like the ND-4550A, it came up short of this mark. In our tests, the drive started reading at a respectable 20.42x but reached a maximum transfer speed of only 46.78x.

CD Speed v4.51 - CD-R Media:

For this test I made a copy of our pressed test CD. I used 12x rated Memorex Gold 74 minute media for the tests.

LG's new writer did a little better here. While the GSA-H10N still wasn't able to reach 48x in our tests, its transfer speeds were faster than what we saw with pressed media.

The GSA-H10N had no problems recognizing our 99 minute CompUSA media. The drive read our test disc from start to finish, reaching a maximum transfer speed of 49.46x.

CD Speed v4.51 - CD-RW Media:

For this test I made a copy of a pressed test CD. I used some PNY 80 minute CD-RW media for the tests.

Like the other drives, the GSA-H10N had to slow down to read CD-RW media. While not as fast as the drive from Plextor, it had no problems reaching a maximum transfer speed of 40x in our tests.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.51 - Pressed CD:

For this test I used Pure Funk. The CD is almost exactly 74 minutes. This helps to squeeze the maximum performance out of the CD.

Exact Audio Copy can tell us a lot about a drive's capabilities. You can see from the screen shot that while the LG GSA-H10N supports accurate stream and has the ability to retrieve C2 error information from the CD, it does not cache audio data.

CD Speed	LG GSA-H10N	Plextor PX-760A	Lite-On SHM-165H6S	NEC ND-4550A
Average: Start: End: DAE Quality: Accurate Stream:	30.73x 17.95x 40.68x 10 Yes	31.35x 17.97x 41.48x 10 Yes	37.03x 21.26x 48.93x 10 Yes	30.94x 17.99x 40.12x 10 Yes

The GSA-H10N did fairly well in our DAE tests. While not nearly as fast as the drive from Lite-On, it hadno problems ripping pressed audio CD's at 40x.

To get a better look at the quality of the extracted audio we use CD DAE. CD DAE is actually designed to be an audio ripping program. It converts the CD-DA on the CD to .wav files. We use it in our testing because it can also be used as a quick and easy way to test the quality. Where CD Speed tests the DAE as one large session, CD DAE extracts each CD track individually. It actually extracts each track twice and then compares them to check for any errors. Every error a drive creates could be a hiss or pop you would hear later in the audio tracks.

While the GSA-H10N started out a little faster when extracting our test CD with CD DAE, its average and maximum speeds were slower than what we saw with CD Speed.

CD DAE and CD Speed v4.51 - CD-R Media:

For this test I used a copy of the Pure Funk CD. It's burned onto the same Memorex Gold 74 minute media I used in the CD Speed tests.

While the H10N was a little slower when extracting audio from CD-R media, this didn't keep it from reaching amaximum DAE speed of 40x in our tests. So how did it do in CD Speed's advanced DAE tests? Take a look below.

LG's new DVD writer completed CD Speed's advanced DAE tests with an average score of 29.03x. The drive had no problems passing all of the on-the-fly tests and did not create any errors. If you look at the advanced features, you can see that the GSA-H10N was able to read the CD-Text, subchannel data and even the lead in and lead out sections of the CD.

To see how well LG's "Super-Multi" drive can read scratched and dirty discs, I used CD Speed's ScanDisc utility to see how many sectors were damaged or unreadable. This is a very rough, but good way to test the drive's error correcting abilities.

CD Speed - ScanDisc

The GSA-H10N didn't handle scratched discs as well as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at. While there weren't any unreadable sectors on the disc, the drive considered more than 76% of the CD to be "damaged."

You can also get an idea of how well the drive can read scratched and dirty discs by using CD DAE. CD DAE will extract the audio tracks twice and then compare them. From this information we can see what the drive's average speed was and how many errors it generated.

LG's new DVD writer did much better this time around. As you can see, the scratches on the disc had little effect on the drive's speed and the number of errors remained relatively low.

CD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 4.95:

For this test I randomly generated 650MB and 700MB of files and directories to test the time it takes the drive to write and close a CD. All of the files are between 1MB and 25MB in size and no more than 10 directories deep. All of the times below include not only the actual writing time, but the lead in and out times too. This gives a more realistic idea of how long it takes to write a CD.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive uses Z-CLV, or Zone CLV, to reach its maximum writing speed. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it uses a total of five "zones" to reach 48x. The GSA-H10N starts writing at 16x and quickly jumps to 24x at the 6 minute mark. When it reaches the 21 minute mark, the drive changes to 32x and then to 40x at the 43 minute mark.The drive writes at this speed until about the 68 minute mark. When it reaches this point, its writing speed increases to 48x and stays there until the end of the session. This gave the GSA-H10N an average writing speed of about 33.55x.

To test the drive's writing times, I wrote our test data to some Taiyo Yuden manufactured Fuji media rated at 48x. The results are below.

With its Z-CLV writing method, the GSA-H10N wasn't as fast as some of the other DVD writers we've looked at. Nevertheless, it was able to write an entire 650MB CD in 2:58.

To test the drive's writing quality I used Lite-On IT's KProbe2. Written by Karr Wang, this utility can be used to test the number of C1 and C2 errors on a disc. For these tests I used a Lite-On LTR-52246S (firmware 6S0F) and read the discs at 32x.

Fuji 48x (Taiyo Yuden)

Memorex 52x (CMC)

Verbatim 52x

The GSA-H10N's writing quality was very good. By looking at the KProbe screenshots, you can see that the discs burned by the drive had a low number of C1 errors and there were no C2 errors at all.

For the rewriting tests I created 400MB of files on the hard drive and wrote them in DAO mode using Nero. To test the packet writing speeds I copied and pasted the same files off the hard drive onto a CD-RW disc using DLA from Sonic. Verbatim's 32x Ultra Speed CD-RW media was used for these tests.

LG's new drive also uses Z-CLV when rewriting at 32x. By looking at the screenshot above, you can see that it starts writing at 16x and jumps to 24x at about the 6 minute mark. The drive writes at this speed until about the 21 minute mark. At this point, the writing speed increases to 32x and stays there until the very end of the session.

LG's new DVD writer did very well in our rewriting tests. Thanks to its 32x rewriting speed, the GSA-H10N took 2:14 to write 400MB with Nero and 2:12 to do the same with DLA.

The GSA-H10N also erases at 32x. In our tests, it not only had the fastest quick erase time out of the four drives here, it was able to do a full erase in an impressive 3:08.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-ROM:

A little editorial note here. Like a CD-ROM, you will get different benchmark results depending on what kind of discs you are using. You are probably going to get varying results from a full data disc to a single layer movie disc. You're also going to get different results for single and dual layer discs.

The CD Speed website recommends using a single layer DVD-ROM disc with a capacity of at least 4GB. If you use a dual layer disc you probably won't get the best results because most DVD-ROM drives slow down to read them. Some even slow down to read single layer DVD-Video discs. To make a long story short, I am using a 4.37GB single layer, single sided disc for this test.

The GSA-H10N performed very well when reading single layer DVD-ROM's. In our tests it started reading at 6.80x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 16.46x. Looking at the other scores, you can see that the drive's seek times were also quite good.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-R, DVD-RW and DVD-RAM:

First, we'll look at the drive's DVD-R and DVD-RW reading performance. For this I made copies of our DVD-ROM test disc using some general use 4x DVD-R and 2x DVD-RW media from Verbatim and then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. For the DVD-RAM tests, media from Maxell was used. The results are below.

The GSA-H10N performed very well when reading DVD-R and DVD-RW media. In our tests, the drive read DVD-RW discs at 13x and DVD-R media at an impressive 16x.

Verbatim DVD-R DL

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive had no problems reading Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The GSA-H10N started reading at 5.16x and reached a maximum transfer speed of 12.36x.

Maxell 12x DVD-RAM

LG's new drive has a maximum transfer speed of 12x when reading DVD-RAM discs. By looking at the screenshot you can see that it starts reading at 5.90x and accelerates, reaching 12x at the 2.7GB mark.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD+R and DVD+RW:

Next we'll look at the drive's DVD+R and DVD+RW reading performance. For this I made a copy of our DVD-ROM test disc using some 4x DVD+R and 2.4x DVD+RW media from Verbatim. I then ran our usual DVD read tests with CD Speed. The results are below.

The GSA-H10N's performance with DVD+R and DVD+RW media was very similar to what we saw with DVD-R and DVD-RW media.The drive read DVD+R discs at 16x and DVD+RW media at 13x.

Verbatim DVD+R DL

Reading Verbatim's double layer DVD+R media wasn't an issue for the GSA-H10N. With a maximum transfer speed of 12.38x, it had no problems taking the top spot in CD Speed's transfer rate tests.

Nero CD Speed v4.51 - DVD-Video:

For these tests I am using the US version of Transformers: The Movie on DVD. The disc is over 4GB and single sided.

The GSA-H10N didn't do as well as some of the other drives when reading DVD videos. In our tests, it reached a maximum speed of about 4.8x when reading both single and dual layer discs.This is pretty slow considering there are drives out there that can reach speeds as high as 16x.

To see how well the GSA-H10N worked as a DVD player, I watched a few scenes from Transformers: The Movie and Star Wars: The Phantom Menace using WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD 5. The drive had no problems playing back these movies with either program and was fairly quiet.

DVD Write and ReWrite Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4 andDLA 4.95:

To test the DVD writing performance of LG's new drive I used Verbatim 16x DVD+R, 16x DVD-R, 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW media. To get the writing times, a 4.38GB image was burned to our test discs using Nero.

The GSA-H10N is one of the few drives to use P-CAV, or Partial CAV, when writing to DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x. By looking at the screenshots above, you can see that LG's new drive starts writing at about 7.2x and accelerates, reaching its maximum speed at about the 3.7GB minute mark.

The GSA-H10N also features 8x DVD+RW and 6x DVD-RW writing speeds. While the drive uses CLV when writing to DVD-RW media, it uses Z-CLV to reach its maximum DVD+RW writing speed.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive performed very well in our DVD writing tests. While not as fast as the drives from NEC and Plextor when writing to DVD+RW media, the GSA-H10N turned in some of the fastest DVD+R, DVD-R and DVD-RW writing times we've seen.

To check the media compatibility of the GSA-H10N, I ran a few tests using some of the media available in my area. The media types, along with the average time it took the drive to write our 4.38GB image, are listed below.

So what about writing quality? Testing a drive's DVD writing quality isn't easy. Until now, there were very few options, unless you wanted to shell out thousands of dollars for a certified test machine. Thanks to KProbe, we can test a disc's PI (Parity Inner) and PIF (Parity Inner Fail) rates.For these tests I used a Lite-On SOHW-1673S (firmware JS07) and read the discs at 4x with the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8 and 1 respectively. For comparison, I also tested the discs on a BenQ DW1640. When combined with Nero CD Speed, the DW1640 is able to report PI Errors, PI Failures, Parity Outer Failures and even jitter levels. For this test, the discs are read at 8x with both the PI and PIF ECC sums set to 8.

So what are "good" results supposed to look like? With KProbe, the PI errors should not exceed 280 and the number of PIF errors should stay below 4. When testing with CD Speed, the number of PI errors should stay below 280 as well. However, because it scans with an ECC sum of 8, a higher number of PIF errors is acceptable, as long as they do not exceed 32. Since POF errors are uncorrectable, we really don't want to see any of them at all.

I also put these discs through a "stress test" by reading them back at 16x with the DW1640. By reading these discs back at this speed, we can see if there are any readability issues caused by the number of errors or high levels of jitter.

The GSA-H10N's writing quality was pretty good with most of the DVD+R media we tested. In most cases, the PI/PIF rates stayed well within acceptable limits. The only exception was RiDATA's 16x DVD+R media. When tested with KProbe and CD Speed, there was a large PI spike at the 2.7GB mark.

I should also point out that the jitter rates were higher than we're used to seeing. Looking at the CD Speed screenshots, you can see that there were a number of cases where it exceeded 18%. While I hesitate to write this off as some sort of fluke, the high jitter rates did not seem to have any effect on readability.

Lastly, here are some results from our DVD-R test media. While the writing quality varied from one manufacturer to another, the PI/PIF rates were fairly good for the most part. If you look at the CD Speed screenshots though, you can see that the jitter rates were again quite high.

To test the GSA-H10N's packet writing performance I used DLA 4.95. Verbatim 8x DVD+RW, Verbatim 6x DVD-RW and Maxell 12x DVD-RAM media were used once again.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive performed pretty well in our packet writing tests. While not the fastest drive here, it turned in some fairly good writing times with DVD-RW and DVD+RW media. Most impressive though, was the GSA-H10N's performance with DVD-RAM media. Due to its 12x writing speed, it was nearly twice as fast as the drives from the competition.

Double Layer DVD Write Tests - Nero Burning Rom 6.6.1.4:

To test the double layer DVD writing performance of the GSA-H10N, I used Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL, Verbatim 2.4x DVD+R DL, Memorex 2.4x DVD+R DL and Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL media. I created about 8GB of random files and directories on my hard drive and then burned them to our test discs with Nero.

Finding DVD+R DL media that would work at 10x was not an easy task. The only media we found that would work at this speed were Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL discs. With Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media, the writing speed was limited to 6x and Memorex's Ritek manufactured discs would not work at anything faster than 2.4x.

The GSA-H10N had no problems taking the top spot in this test. Thanks to its 10x DVD+R DL writing speed, the drive took a little more than 14 minutes to write 8001MB of data. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The writing quality wasn't as good as I had expected with Verbatim's 8x DVD+R DL media. While the error rate started out fairly low, it jumped up considerably on the second layer. The results were better with Verbatim's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. However, there is still room for improvement as there was an excessive number of PI Failures. The worst results were with Memorex's 2.4x DVD+R DL media. The PI/PIF rates were very high at the layer change and there were a small number of PO Failures.

The GSA-H10N also features 6x DVD-R DL writing speeds. To test the drive's writing times, DVD-R DL media from Verbatim was used.

This time around, it took the GSA-H10N about 19:12 to write 8001MB of data. While faster than the drives from Lite-On and NEC, it trailed behind the PX-760A by a small margin. So what about writing quality? Take a look below.

The GSA-H10N's writing quality was pretty good with Verbatim's 4x DVD-R DL media. The PI/PIF rates stayed within acceptable limits when tested with both KProbe and CD Speed and there were no readability problems.

Performance Revisited:

While LG's new "Super-Multi" drive has a few rough spots, it performed pretty well throughout most of our tests. The GSA-H10N flew through our DVD writing tests, turning in some impressive times with DVD±R, DVD+R DL and DVD-RAM media. LG still needs to tweak the firmware some as there were a few cases where the the writing quality could have been better. Reading DVD's wasn't a problem for the GSA-H10N either. The drive was able to read single layer, data DVD-ROM's and DVD±R discs at 16x, but slowed to only 5x when reading DVD videos.

The GSA-H10N also did relatively well in our CD read tests. The drive read pressed and CD-R discs at speeds near 48x and had some fairly good seek times. When writing CD's, the GSA-H10N performed as expected. While not as fast as some of the other drives we've looked at, its writing quality was quite good. With all things considered, the LG GSA-H10N gets a 7 out of 10 for the performance section of this review.

After being impressed by the GSA-4167B, I went into this review eager to see what LG's new "Super-Multi" drive could do. While the GSA-H10N has a few rough spots that need to be worked out, the drive offers a good mix of value, performance and features that should make it a big hit among consumers and enthusiasts alike.

It shouldn't be too surprising that what the GSA-H10N does best is write DVD's. Thanks to its P-CAV writing method, it took about five and a half minutes to write an entire 4.7GB DVD, beating even Plextor's 18x DVD±RW drive by a small margin. This level of performance carried over to our rewriting tests where the GSA-H10N turned in some very goodtimes with DVD-RW, DVD+RW and DVD-RAM media. Writing to DVD±R DL media wasn't a problem for LG's new drive either. Thanks to its 10x writing speed, the GSA-H10N took a little more than 14 minutes to burn 8GB of data.

With a drive like the GSA-H10N, media compatibility and writing quality are just as important as speed. Fortunately, finding DVD±R media that would work at 16x really wasn't an issue. The drive wrote to most of our test media at its rated speeds and was even able to write to some 8x DVD+R discs at 12x. When it came to writing quality though, the GSA-H10N gave us some mixed results. While the PI/PIF rates were pretty good with most of the DVD±R media we tested, the jitter levels were higher than we'd like to see. This is a little concerning, as we didn't see anything like this with LG's previous drives. However, it did not seem to have any effect on readability.

LG's new "Super-Multi" drive also performed relatively well in our DVD read tests. Along with some fairly good seek times, the GSA-H10N was able to read single layer DVD-ROM's and DVD±R media at 16x. The drive also read DVD±RW discs at 13x and both DVD±R DL and DVD-RAM media at an impressive 12x, but slowed to 4.8x when reading DVD-Videos. While this doesn't have any effect on movie playback, there are better drives out there if you want to rip DVD movies.

The GSA-H10N was also fairly quick when reading CD's. In our tests, the drive read pressed and CD-R media at speeds near 48x and CD-RW discs at 40x. This level of performance carried over to our DAE tests, where the drive ripped audio CD's at 40x. As a writer, the GSA-H10N performed reasonably well. It had no problems holding its own in our rewriting tests. However, due to its Z-CLV writing method, it wasn't as fast as some of the other drives when writing to CD-R media. Nevertheless, its writing quality was quite good.

Like LG's previous "Super-Multi" drives, the GSA-H10N also has its share of features. Along with support for all major CD and DVD formats, it has a 2MB buffer that is backed up by Super Link buffer underrun protection. While this buffer is a little smaller than what we'd like to see on a 16x DVD writer, this system worked flawlessly in our tests. The GSA-H10N also has a good number of writing and rewriting speeds to choose from and has the ability to set the book type of DVD+R and DVD+R DL media. To top it all off, LG has included an interesting mix of software from Nero and CyberLink.

In the end, it usually comes down to price. For what it offers, LG's new "Super-Multi" drive is surprisingly affordable. Available in your choice of black or beige, the the GSA-H10N can be picked up for less than $40 through some of the online vendors found on Pricegrabber.

Highs:

• Writes to DVD±R media at 16x
• Writes to DVD+RW media at 8x
• Writes to DVD-RW media at 6x
• Writes to DVD+R DL media at 10x
• Writes to DVD-R DL media at 6x
• Reads single layer DVD-ROM's at 16x
• Reads DVD±R media at 16x
• Reads DVD±RW media at 13x
• Reads DVD±R DL media at 12x
• Reads and writes DVD-RAM media at 12x
• Features 48x CD-R and 32x CD-RW writing speeds
• Features Super Link buffer underrun protection
• Good CD writing quality
• Includes software from Nero and CyberLink
• Supports bitsetting for DVD+R and DVD+R DL media
• Affordably priced

Lows:

• Questionable writing quality with some DVD±R and DVD+R DL media
• Had a hard time reaching its rated speeds when reading pressed and CD-R discs
• Reads DVD-Videos at only 4.8x
• Cannot set the book type of DVD+RW media
• Cannot do write quality testing
• Has a 2048KB buffer
• Overburns to only 95:10