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	52173
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 DL/ R DL Writing performance

DVD+R Double Layer writing speed and quality:

The LG GSA-H42N supports the DVD+R DL standard for writing Double Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing speed of 10x.

Testing procedure:

We created an ISO Image from a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of nearly 8.5GB. We then wrote this image file using Nero Burning ROM 7. Below are the results:

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing the media.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (Singapore)
Code:	MKM 003 000 (00)
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	10x
Write Time:	13m:45s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	7.54
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 providing the media.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEK S04 001 (01)
Disc Type:	DVD+R DL
Capacity:	8152MB
Certified Speed:	8x
Write Speed:	4x Highest supported speed
Write Time:	27m:10s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	96.69
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.17

This media produced a high PI-8 error maximum of 449 and PI-1 failures at a maximum of 6, the Transfer Rate Test had a little trouble at the layer break but completed with a smooth curve.

DVD-R Dual Layer writing speed and quality:

The LG GSA-H42N supports the DVD-R DL standard for writing Dual Layer discs with a size around 8.5 GB at a writing maximum speed of 10x.

Testing procedure: We created an ISO Image from a pre-authored DVD-Video compliant file set, with a total on-disc size of nearly 8.55GB. We then wrote this image file using Nero CD-DVD Speed. Below are the results:

Brand:	Verbatim – Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Mitsubishi Kagaku Media (Singapore)
Code:	MKM 01RD30
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8148MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:38s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	14.64
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	0.03

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

Brand:	Ritek – Thanks to Ritek USA for providing it.
Manufacturer:	Ritek
Code:	RITEKP01
Disc Type:	DVD-R DL
Capacity:	8148MB
Certified Speed:	4x
Write Speed:	4x
Write Time:	27m:34s
PI-8 errors Average/Sec:	36.66
PI-1 failures (PIF) Avg/Sec:	2.06

This media produced high PI-1 failures at a maximum of 14, the Transfer Rate Test had trouble after the layer break, this would be considered a bad burn, lets see below if it will play it on our standalone DVD players.

Standalone DVD player compatibility:

We used the LG GSA-H42N to create DVD video discs on DVD+R DL media (Book Type: DVD-ROM) and DVD-R DL media (Book Type: DVD-R) and tested their playback on standalone DVD players: Philips DVP-642 and a Mintek DVD-1600.

Compatibility results:

Brand	Philips DVP-642	Mintek DVD-1600
Verbatim 8x DVD+R DL MKM 003	OK	OK
Ridata 8x DVD+R DL RITEK S04	OK	OK
Verbatim 4x DVD-R DL MKM 01RD30	OK	OK
Ridata 4x DVD-R DL RITEK P01	FAIL	FAIL

The Ridata 4x DVD-R DL (RITEK P01) played fine until after the layer break then stopped, this coincides with out Transfer Rate Test and our Kprobe results.

Moving on to next page you can read about DVD-RAM Performance...

DVD-R/RW Writing Performance

DVD-RAM 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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