What's in the box?:
- LG GSA-H22N 18x "Super-Multi" DVD±RW/RAM Drive
- DVD Writer Solution CD
- Quick Set-Up Guide
- Audio Cable
- Mounting Screws
- Warranty Information
Physical Features:
The drive that LG sent us for this review was manufactured in June of 2006 and had firmware version 1.00. For this review we used firmware versions 1.00 and 1.01.
From the front, the GSA-H22N looks very similar to LG's previous "Super Multi" drives. It shares the same basic design and has 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-H22N's single LED. Itlights up green when the drive is reading or writing.
The rear of the GSA-H22N 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.
| LG GSA-H22N 18x DVD±RW/RAM | |
| CD Write Speeds | 48x, 40x (CAV) 24x (Z-CLV) 16x (CLV) |
| CD Rewrite Speeds | 32x, 24x (Z-CLV) 16x, 10x, 4x (CLV) |
| DVD+R Write Speeds | 18x, 16x (CAV) 12x (P-CAV) 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD+RW Write Speeds | 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R Write Speeds | 18x, 16x (CAV) 12x (P-CAV) 8x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x (CLV) |
| DVD-RW Write Speeds | 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2x, 1x (CLV) |
| DVD+R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x, 2.4x (CLV) |
| DVD-R DL Write Speeds | 8x, 6x (Z-CLV) 4x (CLV) |
| DVD-RAM Write Speeds | 12x, 5x (P-CAV) 3x, 2x (CLV) |
| CD Read Speeds | 48x Max (CD-ROM/CD-R) 40x Max (CD-RW) |
| DAE Speed | 40x Max |
| DVD Read Speeds | 16x Max (DVD-ROM Single Layer) 12x Max (DVD-ROM Dual Layer) 16x Max (DVD±R) 12x Max (DVD±RW) 12x Max (DVD±R DL) 8x Max (DVD-Video) 12x, 5x, 3x, 2x (DVD-RAM) |
| Buffer Size | 2MB |
| Access Times |
120 ms (CD-ROM) 140 ms (DVD-ROM) 200 ms (DVD-RAM) |
| CD Formats | CD-Audio CD-ROM CD-ROM/XA CD-R CD-RW Photo CD Video CD CD-Extra CD-Plus CD-Bridge CD-I FMV CD-Text |
| DVD Formats | DVD-ROM DVD-R/RW DVD+R/RW DVD+R DL DVD-R DL DVD-RAM |
| CD Recording Modes | Disc At Once Session At Once Track At Once Packet Writing |
| DVD+R Recording Modes | Sequential Recording |
| DVD+RW Recording Modes | Random Write |
| DVD+R DL Recording Modes | Sequential Recording |
| DVD-R Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording |
| DVD-RW Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording Restricted Overwrite |
| DVD-R DL Recording Modes | Disc At Once Incremental Recording Layer Jump Recording |
| DVD-RAM Recording Modes | Random Write |
More Features:
By looking at the picture below, you can see that LG's new DVD writer is identified as an "HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H22N".
The Nero screenshot also shows that the GSA-H22N 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 93:58with CompUSA's 99 minute CD-R media.
Using Alex Noe's Weak Sector Utility we were able to determine that the GSA-H22N 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-H22N's maximum reading and writing speeds, recording modes, buffer underrun protection and 2MB buffer.
InfoTool also shows that the GSA-H22N 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-H22N'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-H22N 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.
