detail information

Positive:

• Supports DVD+R/+R9 DL writing at 16x/2.4x
• Extracts CD-DA at full speed with EAC
• Excellent writing quality on CD-R's
• Very good writing quality on DVD±R/RW
• Write some certified media at higher speed
• Supports DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 DL media
• Can Rip Protected audio discs
• 'Two sheep" writer
• Supports DAO-RAW writing
• Can write CD-R's up to 97 minutes
• Can read CD-R's up to 100 minutes
• Supports DVD-RAM up to 5x
• Excellent documentation/Owner's Manual on CD
• Very good Software package
• Nice design
• Easy to install (Plug & Play)

Negative:

• Does not support Mt. Rainier
• No DVD-RAM 5x media included
• Other drives offer 48x/32x writing on CD-R/W media
• 16x Z-CLV leads to slower burns when compared with 16x CAV and 16x P-CAV
• 10x/8x reading speed DVD±R/DVD±RW media
• Does not support DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+RW media
• Media compatibility could be improved
• Can't overburn to 99/100 minutes

Conclusion:

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

The main positive points: The first point we would like to mention is the DVD+R9 DL support at 2.4x. The LG GSA-5160D also extracts CD-DA disc at full speed - included copy protected audio CD's, which is an advantage when ripping/extracting music. Very good writing quality on CD-R's, and DVD media too. Further, the drive also supports DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+R/R9 media, which leads to high compatibility on i.e. DVD standalone devices. Due to 'two sheep" burner and the DAO-RAW writing mode - the drive can be used to backup copy protected CD's. It also supports writing CD-R's up to 97 minutes, and can read back overburned CD-R's up to 100 minutes. Since the LG GSA-5160 is a super-multi drive it also read and write DVD-RAM discs up to 5x. And as a last point we would like to point out the excellent documentation/owner's manual and the very good software package that comes with the retail drive.

The main negative points: We would like to start with: other drives offer 48x/32x writing on CD-R/W media. Also, other drives offer faster read speed on DVD±R/DVD±RW media, and other drives offer 16x writing on DVD-R. And 16x Z-CLV leads to slower burns when compared with 16x CAV and 16x P-CAV. Finally, as a last point - the drive does not offer DVD-ROM bitsetting on DVD+RW media.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: 'A very good external DVD±R/RW/+R9 DL and CD-R recorder, which also supports the DVD-RAM format".

By using our price grabber feature cdfreaks.pricegrabber.com we found the drive listed at $ 125.95 (18. January 2005). And at www.getprice.de we found the drive listed at 132 EUR (18. January 2004).

You may discuss/comment this review below or in this forum thread.

Thanks to:

Conrexx Technology B.V./RITEK Europe - The Netherlands for providing the Traxdata DVD-R, DVD+R9 DL, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 24x used in this review.

EMTEC (MPOTEC GmbH) - Germany for providing the CD-R 52x media used in this review.

MMORE International B.V. - The Netherlands for providing the CD-R 52x media used in this review.

Sky Media Manufacturing sa - Switzerland for providing the DVD+R 8x, DVD-R 8x and CD-R 52x media used in this review.

Verbatim GmbH - Germany for providing the DVD+RW 4x, DVD-R 8x, DVD-RW 4x, CD-R 52x and CD-RW 24x media used in this review.