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LG GSA-4167B Super Multi DVD-Writer Review

detail information

Posted by Jan S.
Posted on 27/11/05 17:31
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Introduction
 

 

Review: LG GSA-4167B
Reviewer: Jan70
Provided by: LG - Germany
Firmware:
DL11 & DL12
Manufactured: August 2005

LG - Germany was kind enough to send us their latest DVD-writer the LG GSA-4167B Super multi DVD Writer. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R, 8x/6x DVD+RW/-RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 6x/4x DVD+R DL/-R DL writing, allowing Double/Dual Layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.

Company information:

Let us take a look at some of the company information found at the LG website.

The Foundation of LG

LG was established in 1947 as Korea's first chemical company, also becoming the nation's first electronics company with its expansion into home appliances in 1958. The new Corporate Identity was launched including the change of the group name from Lucky-Goldstar to LG in 1995.

Business Fields

The wide array of activities that LG conducts are coordinated within three highly focused business sectors: Chemicals & Energy, Electronics and Telecommunications & Services. Each sector has undergone systematic changes, with improved financial compositions, restructured business portfolios and realigned equity investment structures.

The split of two holding companies LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp.

On March 2003, LG introduced the holding company structure and recently, the demerger of two holding companies - LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp. took place on July 1 to separate the manufacturing and technology related businesses from the service and retail operations. The separation is meant to maximize profits of LG shareholders by boosting business specialization of key LG companies.

Increasing R&D investment in 2004

With the anticipations and expectations for the new structure, LG has set an ambitious management goal for this year. In 2003, LG's ordinary profit stood at KRW 3.1 trillion on sales of KRW 85 trillion. In 2004, LG plans to raise ordinary profit and sales by 42% and 12% year-on-year respectively. This year's ordinary profit target is KRW 4.4 trillion and the sales target is KRW 95 trillion. LG plans to increase the R&D investments by 31% from last year to KRW 9.4 trillion in 2004.

If you are interested in reading more company information, please visit www.lg.co.kr/english

Drive specifications:


Now let us take a look at the specifications of the LG GSA-4167B, found at LG's UK website:

Access time

 
 

DVD-RAM

175 ms

 

DVD-ROM

145 ms

 

CD

125 ms

 

Buffer Memory

2MB with buffer under run prevention technology

 

Data transfer rate

 
 

CD

Max 7,200KB/s

 

DVD

Max 22.16 Mbytes/s

 

Dimensions W x D x H (mm)

146 x 170 x 41.3

 

Interface type

E-IDE / ATAPI

 

OS-Compatability

Windows ME, 2000 Professional, XP Home Edition, Professional

 

Supported disc Formats

 
 

Write

DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD+-R DL, CD-R/RW

 

Read

DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD+-R DL, DVD-ROM, CD-R/RW, CD-ROM Mode 1, 2 CD-DA, CD-ROM XA, Mixed CD, CD-Extra, CD-Text, Super Audio CD, Photo-CD, Video CD

 

Weight (kg)

0.75

 

Writing Method

 
 

DVD-RAM

Random Write

 

DVD+R

Sequential Recording

 

DVD+RW

Random Write

 

DVD+R DL

Sequential Recording

 

DVD-R DL

Disk-at-Once, Incremental Recording, Layer Jump Recording

 

CD-R / RW

Disk-at-Once, Track-at-Once, Session-at-Once, Packet Write

 

DVD-R /RW

Disk-at-Once, Incremental Recording, Restricted Overwrite (DVD-RW only)

 

Write Speed

 
 

DVD+R

2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 12x, 16x PCAV

 

DVD-R

2x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 16x PCAV

 

DVD+RW

2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV

 

DVD-RW

1x, 2x, 4x 6x CLV

 

DVD-RAM

2x, 3x ZCLV (Ver.2.2), 3x-5x PCAV (Ver.2.2)

 

CD-R

4x, 8x, 16x CLV, 24x, 32x, 40x, 48x ZCLV

 

CD-RW

4x, 10x,16x CLV, 24x, 32x ZCLV

 

DVD+R DL

2.4x, 4x, 6x CLV

 

DVD-R DL

2x, 4x CLV

 

Read Speed

 
 

CD-ROM

Max 48x

 

DVD-ROM

Max 16x

 

Colour

Ivory, Silver or Black

 

Loading Type

Motorized Tray

 


What's inside the box?


On this page we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the drive and its technology.

Front

Back

Top

Bottom

Left Side

Right Side

Below you will see the contents of the retail box:


  • The internal drive itself
  • Nero 6 OEM Suite
  • LG DVD Writer Solution CD:
    1. PowerDVD
    2. PowerProducer Gold
    3. Nero Express
    4. InCD
    5. Acrobat Reader
  • Super Multi DVD Drive CD:
    1. Owner's Manual
  • IDE cable
  • Audio cable
  • 4 mounting screws   
  • Quick Guide
  • Guarantee information

Now it's time to take a look at the drive itself:

On the neutral looking bezel we found; an eject button, an emergency eject hole and a LED (green - for read and write - we prefer a different LED colour though for writing). The logos located on the loading tray include the Super Multi logo, a DVD Alliance DVD+R DL logo, the LG logo, a DVD Forum DVD-Multi Recorder logo, and a CD-RW Ultra Speed logo.


Top

On top of the drive we found one sticker, and we can read it was manufactured in China (bottom left), dated August 2005.

Underside

Side

On the back of the drive starting from the left, we can see a reserved connector; analogue audio connector; pins and jumper to set the drive to cable select, slave or master; IDE connector and finally the power connector.

We installed the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero InfoTool:

 

From the screenshot of Nero InfoTool above, we miss Mt.Rainier and CD+G support and a larger buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware DL10, which was later updated to DL11 and DL12.

And another shot from Nero Burning ROM:

 

But let us continue this review and see how it really performs.

 

On the next page we will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features…………

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Reactions on this item
Yeah, great drive :)

LG rcoks
Awesome quality.
Sad LG still didn't do PI/PIF check.
cool
If only it could pass the 2.90 safedisc protection test..., it would then be the perfect writer!
Very good Article!
With Firmware DL12 it is also possible to set DVD+RW discs to DVD-ROM booktype.
Sorry, bitsetting for DVD+RW is NOT possible with firmare DL12. It was an error.
Pafan use Alcohol 120% to bypass Safedisc 2.90 Protection and yes indeed it is prefect burner that money can buy:d
With firmware DL12 DVD-Video reading speed is even slower.
SL + DL both only 5x max. :c
+1
Great test indead :)

Was basically lookin for that one, as i was offered a bundle with LG GSA-4167BBB @ 38€ (with 5 dvd boxes & cd pen), but wanted to see how well & fast it writes on CDRW & DVD±RW.
Good test-have got one on the strength of it.
Nice short casing-fits into small cases without interference.
Excellent bang-for bucks ratio.
99min CD compatible.
Silver fronted version to go in my Lian li -cheap and nasty finish.Ive done a better job with aerosol car paint...
Recommended -especially at the bargain price.
great drive, but how do you make it region free?
The best DVD Writer I have bought so far.I have tried LiteOn's,BenQ and NEC and the LG GSA-4167B is the best of them all.Why?Because it can write better quality than the others providing you buy good media and it dont make clicking/clunking noises,its works smoothly and you dont even notice the drive is there.
I recently bought a Pioneer DVR-111BK and its excellent and dont make strange noises but the LG still beats the Pio when writing to DVD+R and "DVD_R"
Best DVD Writer ever!!! :)
I have had an LGS 4167b for 1 year, been wonderful...
but I also have it in an external USB enclosure. which makes it even sweeter, I can love it to any computer and together using Nero, it rocks.. very nice. :)
Help! I have a this drive with DL13 firmware but it doesn't work. It shows device full when you look at its properties and will not write any disks at all. :c I have an Asus AN8-SLI mobo and XP. Any ideas?
ldxrqjim http://zydfmxdz.com pfseredm gdfgglua
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