detail information

To round off this review, we will run some advanced tests on the LG GSA-4163B. These tests are: 'Sheep Test", protected audio discs and some special disc tests.

Copy protected data discs:

For this test, we will use the Sheep tests made by Alexander Noé. Why is it called sheep test? That's because the logo of the first 1 to 1 copy program called CloneCD is a sheep. When looking at supported writers, you will notice that the feature list has sheep to indicate if a feature is supported or not. In this case we are interested in the writer's ability to backup/write weak sectors. Also called: 'Correct EFM encoding of regular bit-patterns".

• No sheep: Can't backup any safedisc 2 versions without the help of software tricks
• 1 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2 up to version 2.4x without software tricks
• 2 Sheep: Can backup safedisc 2, including version 2.5x
• 3 Sheep: Can write all possible weak sectors, few if any writers could do this.

One of our forum moderators Womble has written a guide concerning the 'Sheep Test" that could be found here.

In the screenshot below take from CloneCD v5.0.4.2, we see the LG GSA-4163B supports everything.

The LG GSA-4163B supports DAO-RAW96 recording mode, which basically means, it can write uncorrected data and subchannel data. Drive used to verify that the tests works are JLMS XJ-HD166S. Below are our results from the 'Sheep Tests":

As we can read from the table the LG GSA-4163B is a 'Two Sheep Burner". But it failed to write the SD290 and the Sheep3 tests.

Copy protected Audio:

For our protected audio test, we used the Exact Audio Copy program. We inserted the protected audio discs and if the drive was able to recognize the disc we tried to extract the music tracks to the hard drive. First let us look at the discs we had available for this test:

Herbert Gé¶nemeyer: Mensch - This disc is protected with Cactus Datashield 200.0.4 .3(build 12b)

And Celine Dion: A New Day Has Come; protected with key2audio version 3.

Results:

The LG GSA-4163B had no problem to detect and rip the two protected audio cd's at full speed.

DVD-RAM:

The LG GSA-4163B is a so-called Super Multi drive, meaning is also supports the DVD-RAM format.

This drive is one of few drives that also support the DVD-RAM format, lets us look at the recording side of the disc, and as you can see it got differences from the other DVD+R/W/R9 DL and DVD-R/W discs.

You could see a very fascinating pattern of darker spots, supposedly these spots are used for calibration while writing and reading.

A DVD-RAM's disc can be formatted in the following formats:

• FAT32
• UDF 1.02
• UDF 1.50
• UDF 2.00
• UDF 2.01
• UDF 2.50

By formatting a DVD-RAM disc with FAT32 it will act like a removable hard drive and all writing will be done in the 'background processes". Meaning you do not have to wait for it to finish - you can start or work with other applications while the DVD-RAM is working without noticing any 'hangs" or CPU slowdowns.

Lets us take a look at the media we are going to use in these tests:

Maxell branded DVD-RAM media certified at 5x. (Thanks to LG Korea for providing it).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-RAM:MXL16]
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Disc & Book Type :       [Not Available] - [Not Available] - [DVD-RAM]
Manufacturer Name :      [MXL16]
Supplementary Info :     [Not Specified]
Formatted Capacity :     [2,295,072 Sectors = 4,482.6MB = 4.38GB (4.70GB)]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : An Empty Writable Disc Is Recommended For Accurate Results
** INFO : Drive = HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B [FW A101]
** INFO : Write Capabilities = DVD+R DVD+R-DL DVD+RW DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-RAM
** INFO : Disc = [DVD-RAM:MXL16]
** INFO : Write Speeds (Supported By This Drive On This Disc) Listed Below
** INFO : GET PERFORMANCE Write Speed Descriptor(s)
Descriptor #1 =  6925 KBPS ( 5.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]
** INFO : MODE SENSE Write Speed Descriptor(s) [Legacy Command]
Descriptor #1 =  6925 KBPS ( 5.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 00h - Physical Format Information
0000 : 16 0f 04 42 00 03 10 00  00 26 5f 5f 00 00 00 00   ...B.....&__....
0010 : 80 20 00 10 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 22 00 00 00 00   . ........."....
0020 : 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01f0 : 00 00 00 00 52 0a 00 79  36 36 36 73 34 34 34 1a   ....R..y666s444.
0200 : 1a 00 00 11 22 83 85 88  88 82 85 88 88 81 84 87   ...."...........
0210 : 87 81 84 87 87 0a 0c 0e  0e 0a 0c 0e 0e 09 0b 0d   ................
0220 : 0d 08 0b 0d 0d 4d 58 4c  31 36 0d 20 20 20 20 20   .....MXL16.    
0230 : 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20                  
0240 : 20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20  20 20 20 20 20 20 20 20                  
0250 : 20 20 20 20 20 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00        ...........
0260 : 00 00 00 00 00 01 01 79  04 70 36 36 36 79 80 80   .......y.p666y..
0270 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0280 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0290 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
02a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
02b0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 7b 0a 00 87   ............{...
02c0 : 39 39 39 82 37 37 37 22  22 00 00 16 2c 00 83 86   999.777""...,...
02d0 : 86 00 83 86 86 02 82 85  85 02 82 85 85 0d 10 12   ................
02e0 : 12 0d 10 12 12 0c 0f 11  11 0c 0f 11 11 7c 01 7d   .............|.}
02f0 : 39 39 39 7c 8a 8a 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   999|............
0300 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0310 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0320 : cd 0a 00 a2 46 46 46 a0  44 44 44 29 29 00 00 1b   ....FFF.DDD))...
0330 : 37 08 06 03 03 08 06 03  03 09 07 04 04 09 07 04   7...............
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Verbatim branded DVD-RAM certified at 3x

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Unique Disc Identifier : [DVD-RAM:Matsushita*-M01J3002]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Disc & Book Type :       [Not Available] - [Not Available] - [DVD-RAM]
Manufacturer Name :      [Matsushita Electric Industrial CO.,LTD.]
Supplementary Info :     [M01J3002]
Formatted Capacity :     [2,236,704 Sectors = 4,368.6MB = 4.27GB (4.58GB)]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : An Empty Writable Disc Is Recommended For Accurate Results
** INFO : Drive = HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4163B [FW A101]
** INFO : Write Capabilities = DVD+R DVD+R-DL DVD+RW DVD-R DVD-RW DVD-RAM
** INFO : Disc = [DVD-RAM:Matsushita*-M01J3002]
** INFO : Write Speeds (Supported By This Drive On This Disc) Listed Below
** INFO : GET PERFORMANCE Write Speed Descriptor(s)
Descriptor #1 =  4155 KBPS ( 3.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]
** INFO : MODE SENSE Write Speed Descriptor(s) [Legacy Command]
Descriptor #1 =  4155 KBPS ( 3.00x) - [CLV/Non-Pure CAV]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
** INFO : Hex Dump Of 'Media Code'-Block Listed Below
** INFO : 4-Byte Header Preceding 'Media Code'-Block Discarded
** INFO : Format 00h - Physical Format Information
0000 : 16 0f 04 42 00 03 10 00  00 26 5f 5f 00 00 00 00   ...B.....&__....
0010 : 80 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0020 : 10 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
01f0 : 00 00 00 00 52 0a 00 71  2c 2c 2c 6e 2a 2a 2a 1a   ....R..q,,,n***.
0200 : 1a 00 00 11 22 05 02 81  81 05 02 81 81 06 03 00   ...."...........
0210 : 81 06 03 00 00 0a 0b 0c  0c 0a 0b 0c 0c 09 0a 0b   ................
0220 : 0b 09 0a 0b 0b 4d 61 74  73 75 73 68 69 74 61 20   .....Matsushita
0230 : 45 6c 65 63 74 72 69 63  20 49 6e 64 75 73 74 72   Electric Industr
0240 : 69 61 6c 20 43 4f 2e 2c  4c 54 44 2e 0d 20 20 20   ial CO.,LTD..  
0250 : 20 20 20 20 20 4d 30 31  4a 33 30 30 32 0d 20 20        M01J3002. 
0260 : 20 20 20 20 20 01 01 82  00 6a 2c 2c 2c 82 94 96        ....j,,,...
0270 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0280 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
0290 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
02a0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
02b0 : 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  00 00 00 00 7b 0a 00 71   ............{..q
02c0 : 2d 2d 2d 6e 2b 2b 2b 24  24 03 00 17 00 02 82 84   ---n+++$$.......
02d0 : 85 01 83 85 86 03 81 83  85 03 81 83 84 13 14 17   ................
02e0 : 17 13 14 17 17 12 13 15  16 12 13 14 15 82 00 66   ...............f
02f0 : 2e 2e 2e 82 8e 8d 00 00  00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00   ................
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
[ DVD Identifier - http://DVD.Identifier.CDfreaks.com ]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

As you can read above the Maxell DVD-RAM 5x media is made by Maxell and the Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x media is made by Matsushita Electric Industrial CO. LTD. (Panasonic).

But now the interesting part - writing and reading DVD-RAM media.

Maxell DVD-RAM 5x

Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x

For those who are not familiar with DVD-RAM would probably think that something went wrong during the write process since the 5x media was written at 2.33x and the 3x media written at 1.57. But not to worry - that is pretty normal for DVD-RAM discs, the reason for the 'low" speed is - the drive constantly reads back the data after writing it to verify that it's written correctly. We can also call it a 'bullet proof" writing/verify technique - with no data loss/errors.

Another advantage with DVD-RAM is that the discs can be formatted/erased/written at over 100.000 times before it will/can cause/report any errors. Let's try to read back the 2 discs that we wrote:

Maxell DVD-RAM 5x

Verbatim DVD-RAM 3x

As we can see from the pictures above, the 5x media was read back at 5x using the P-CAV technique and the 3x media at 3x using the CLV technique.

Since we have no equipment at the present time to perform any quality measuring tests with the DVD-RAM format it will be skipped, but on the other side it should not be necessary since the RAM writer - verifies the written data by default itself.

We would also like to mention that we use the DVD-RAM format - formatted as FAT32 on a daily bases at our review-lab in Germany.

Overburning:

To test the overburning capabilities of the LG GSA-4163B, we used the overburning test in Nero CD/DVD-Speed. According to Nero CD/DVD speed the drive can overburn approximately 96 minutes.

The picture above shows us that the LG GSA-4163B did not have any problems reading 99 minutes long CD's. The reading curve is very nice indeed.

Now, that concludes our LG GSA-4163B review, head on to the last page to read our conclusion…