detail information

Positive:

• Good writing quality on most media
• Supports DVD±R writing with 16x P-CAV technique
• Supports CD-R/RW writing at 48x/32x
• Supports DVD+RW/DVD-RW writing at 8x/6x
• Can write DVD+R/+R DL certified media at higher speed
• Supports Bitsetting for DVD+R/+R DL (sets auto. BookType to DVD-ROM)
• 'Two sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Supports DVD-RAM at 5x
• Extracts CD-DA at high speed
• Can rip copy protected Audio-CDs
• Can overburn CD-Rs up to 96 min
• Can read 99 min CD-Rs
• Excellent documentation/Owner's Manual on CD
• Very good Software package

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• Reads CD-DA/RW only at 40x
• Reads DVD-Video SL/DVD±R/±RW/±R DL only at 10x/10x/8x/8x
• Does not support DVD-ROM Bitsetting on DVD+RW media
• Green LED for both reading and writing

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The main positive points: There is no doubt about it, the LG GSA-4167B with it's 16x P-CAV DVD writing strategy is a fast burner, what's more, it can burn fast with good quality as can be seen in our test results. It can also read and write to all common media formats, including DVD-RAM.

Bitsetting on DVD+R/+R DL is also a welcome inclusion and ensures good compatibility with set top DVD players. The LG GSA-4167B also displayed good CD-DA performance and also good CD-R over-burning capabilities.

The documentation was also of a very high standard and should provide enough information for the beginner as well as more experienced user. Also worth mentioning was the included software package which should cover every scenario you are likely to come across while using this drive.

The main negative points: There is hardly anything negative about this drive, but we would like to mention that other drives offer faster read speed on CD-DA/CD-RW/DVD-Video SL/DVD±R/±RW/±R DL media. Finally, as a last point - the drive did not offer DVD-ROM Bitsetting on DVD+RW media.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'One of the worlds fastest DVD±R Writer that supports writing on all available DVD format, and there for the name 'Super Multi Drive". One drawback though, is the slow read-back speed of some media types, which the competition supports at a higher speed".

Based on our tests and experiences during this review - we give the LG GSA-4167B our 'Safe Buy award".

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber we found the drive listed at 44 $, and at getprice the drive is listed at 41.53 €. (November 2005).

You may comment on this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

Bell Technology spol s.r.o. - Czech Republic for providing the media used in this review.

SVP Communication - The United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe - The Netherlands for providing the media used in this review.

Medea International - United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.


Ricoh Europe - For providing the media used in this review.

E-Net Distribution - United Kingdom for providing the media used in this review.