LG GSA-H42N Super Multi DVD-Writer Review

LG GSA-H42N detail information

Posted by	Doug Schwantes
Posted on	09/05/07 00:12
Number of views	52268
Manufacturer	LG
Product	LG GSA-H42N
Description	18x DVD burner

Conclusion

Introduction

Features & Technology

Disc Writing Technology

Reading Performance

Writing Quality with CD-R and CD-RW discs

DVD+R/RW writing performance

DVD-R/RW Writing Performance

DVD+R DL/-R DL Writing performance

DVD-RAM Performance

Advanced Tests

Text Size Text Size

DVD R/RW Writing Performance

DVD-R/RW Writing Performance:

In these tests we will be using a Lite-On LH-18A1P drive along with K-Probe to measure the disc quality. We will also be using the BenQ DW1655 along with Nero CD-DVD Speed for our read-back tests.

Brand:	RIDATA – Thanks to Advanced Media/RiTEK USA for sending the media.
Manufacturer:	RiTEK Corp
Code:	RITEKF1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:56s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	5.20
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	1.87

The media burns with poor results and the Transfer Rate test has failed.

Note: At about the 3.5GB mark the drive slowed the burn speed to 12x

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded (Thanks to Rima.com for providing the media)
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG03
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	4m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.96
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The media burns with excellent results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Brand:	Memorex – Thanks to Memorex USA for providing the media
Manufacturer:	CMC Magnetics
Code:	CMC MAG. AM3
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	12x
Write Time:	5m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.44
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.16

The media burns with good results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Note: The drive decided to burn the media at 12x even though 16x was selected.

Brand:	Memorex – Thanks to Memorex USA for providing the media
Manufacturer:	RITEK
Code:	RITEKF1
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	16x
Write Time:	5m:30s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	34.47
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	1.00

The media burns with poor results but the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing the media
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation
Code:	MCC 03RG20
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	4m:58s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.99
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.04

The media burns with good results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Brand:	Taiyo Yuden unbranded (Thanks to Rima.com for providing the media)
Manufacturer:	Taiyo Yuden
Code:	TYG02
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	8x
Write Time:	7m:55s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	0.32
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.00

The media burns with excellent results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Brand:	Maxell - Thanks to Maxell USA for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Maxell
Code:	MXL RG04
Disc Type:	DVD-R
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	16x
Write Speed:	18x
Write Time:	4m:54s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.05
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.08

The media burns with very good results and the Transfer Rate has a smooth curve.

DVD-ReWritable media:

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim USA for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Verbatim
Code:	MKM 01RW6X01
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:06s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	10.11
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.02

The media burns with excellent results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Brand:	Ritek – Thanks to Ritek USA for sending us this media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKW06
Disc Type:	DVD-RW
Capacity:	4489MB
Certified Speed:	6x
Write Speed:	6x
Write Time:	10m:07s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	4.63
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.12

The media burns with good results and the Transfer Rate test has a smooth curve.

Moving on to next page you can read about DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL compatibility and Writing Performance...

DVD+R/RW writing performance

DVD+R DL/-R DL Writing performance

Want to submit your own review? Click here

Posted by KIMSON VU (guest) on Saturday 19 May 2007 12:36

Thanks for reviewing!

I'm live in Vietnam and i'm looking for DVD RW with good prices.I think this optical driver will my choice.

It cost 46$ (1 years full waratnty ) in Vietnam

KIMSON
www.handicraft-vn.com

Posted by plopop on Friday 01 June 2007 03:24

My new LG GSA-H42L (the Lightscribe version) did not have the ability to write at 12x when I first got it. I flashed it with firmware found through this site and now it burns at 12x fine. It will also read faster than 10x now. It's turning out to be a nice burner. I've done a few test burns at 18x with Sony media and they turned out fine.

Posted by MANVIR (guest) on Saturday 02 June 2007 06:52

Posted by Dwight Walker (guest) on Sunday 24 June 2007 15:39

I have been trying to burn Tevion DVD-R discs with the LG H42N with Nero Express and CDBurnerXP Pro on XP Pro SP2. Nero kept bombing out if I had more than 500MB per session burnt. CDBurnerXP Pro had to have small sessions too or the PC would reboot or crash. Either the LG is too fast for my PC or the Tevion DVD-Rs are too low quality and only let me burn 1G before freaking out. I have wasted about 5 or more DVD-Rs so far out of 25. I never wasted any CD-Rs with a Sony CD-R drive. Sony is superior.

Posted by Dwight Walker (guest) on Monday 25 June 2007 07:01

I found DeepBurner.com was a better DVD burner software. I still had to limit the burn size to 500MB each session and do multi-session or Windows XP would crash. This is very time consuming for backing up several gigabytes. I am looking at using tape backup instead of DVD burner as it will not crash Windows XP as it is not so demanding on the operating systems, memory, hard disk space and motherboard. Minimum 1GHz processor was recommended. I only had a 900MHz AMD processor.

Posted by Sisif Tasyl (guest) on Wednesday 18 July 2007 18:25

The only good thing I can mention about this drive is the price. Other than that, it was the worst burner I've ever seen!
After the installation (in a hp pavilion xt926, running XP pro), it was introducing a delay of ~35 sec. at bootup, when the pc was doing nothing - maybe trying to figure out what the darn thing is?! I've discovered that the bios was under the impression that it was a hard drive (!). I reconfigured the bios and that delay vanished...
Now, I'm using Nero to burn my discs. Weird things happend whit this drive:
1. While writing, the hard drive works like crazy, way to much for the amount of data it has to transfer.
2. The REAL recording speed is maybe 5-10 times lower than the selected one !!! It takes forever to burn anything! The reading speed is OK though.
3. The PC clock is slowed down (!), so at the end of the burning process is ~5 min. back !
No errors are reported. Don't know where to go with this!

Posted by rasim birlik (guest) on Friday 07 September 2007 18:29

LG GSA H42N Super-Multi sucked with vista. vista cannot detect this dvd rom. u need to update firmware. but how? you cannot upload new firmware to dvd ram while vista cannot detect it. peh. install xp again, upload and install new firmware after that (if you are not dead cancer) format hd, install vista and use LG GSA H42N Super-Multi. thats the stupid drive. in the mean time you can update firmware if you find it. beacuse lge.com dont support that kind of things. you should use local distrubitor page if you have driver. (Turkish distrubitor page ( www.ufotek.com.tr ) sucked). good lock

Posted by Ruy Silva (guest) on Wednesday 24 October 2007 01:16

Gostaria, de adquirir o software Lg Writ,
compativel com o Windows Vista Ultimate.

Posted by Ruy Silva (guest) on Wednesday 24 October 2007 01:25

Gostaria de adquirir, o LG Writer Solution,
compativel com o Windows Vista Ultmate.

Posted by Heng (guest) on Thursday 01 November 2007 03:36

When I tried to use the feature lightscrible, On the screen it has shown "the printing completed" after just a couples of seconds. But surprised to see no label printed on the lightscrible CD. I have tried another CD but still same problem. Please could you advice me? Thank in advance.

Heng

Posted by PEDRO (guest) on Tuesday 20 November 2007 11:47

Like made download

Posted by john (guest) on Saturday 29 March 2008 14:01

Does it support cd with capacity more than 702 MB e.g discs with capacity 850 MB?
i have tried updating firmware but nothing chanched

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