Club CDFreaks - Knowledge is Power - View Single Post

**karangguni** · 23-02-2006

6.I've heard of Hitachi DVD writers. Aren't they the same as LG writers?

This issue is a little confusing. Although HLDS does stand for Hitachi LG Data Storage, Hitachi appears to separately market its own version of LG's drives. These drives seem to be available only in Japan. They typically appear on sale only as drives rebadged by other brands, usually Buffalo or IO-Data. Hitachi does not seem to sell them directly. They do not seem to be identical to their LG counterparts.

There are several notable differences externally :

the faceplate is different
the metal casing of the drives are painted black, whereas LG's versions are typically unfinished silver
the sticker on the drive shows "Hitachi" as the brand, instead of "LG"

The Hitachi drives tend to have different features as well :

a UDMA4 IDE interface compared to LG's UDMA2 interface
hardware based automatic bitsetting/book typing
different firmware versions (Hitachi's have a J in the firmware number, LG's have a L instead)
consequently different read speeds for various media types

Both LG and Hitachi's writers are apparently designed by HLDS but they are made in different factories - Hitachi's drives seem to be made in Malaysia, whereas LG's are made in their factory in China or in certain rare cases, Korea.

With earlier models (4163B and below), the differences in features were apparently implemented in EEPROM, according to TDB. Later models however, seem to have implemented these features in firmware alone. See this post for more information :
http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...7&postcount=22

See these webpages for pictures of Hitachi's versions of LG writers :
http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/4167b_p2/4167b_p2_01.htm
http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/4167b_p3/4167b_p3.htm
http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/gsah10n/gsah10n_djou.htm

Thanks to YSS for the links above and TDB for their insight into the workings of LG writers.

23-02-2006	#7 (permalink)
karangguni Moderator Join Date: Feb 2005 Posts: 2,509	LG DVD Writer FAQ 6.I've heard of Hitachi DVD writers. Aren't they the same as LG writers? This issue is a little confusing. Although HLDS does stand for Hitachi LG Data Storage, Hitachi appears to separately market its own version of LG's drives. These drives seem to be available only in Japan. They typically appear on sale only as drives rebadged by other brands, usually Buffalo or IO-Data. Hitachi does not seem to sell them directly. They do not seem to be identical to their LG counterparts. There are several notable differences externally : the faceplate is different the metal casing of the drives are painted black, whereas LG's versions are typically unfinished silver the sticker on the drive shows "Hitachi" as the brand, instead of "LG" The Hitachi drives tend to have different features as well : a UDMA4 IDE interface compared to LG's UDMA2 interface hardware based automatic bitsetting/book typing different firmware versions (Hitachi's have a J in the firmware number, LG's have a L instead) consequently different read speeds for various media types Both LG and Hitachi's writers are apparently designed by HLDS but they are made in different factories - Hitachi's drives seem to be made in Malaysia, whereas LG's are made in their factory in China or in certain rare cases, Korea. With earlier models (4163B and below), the differences in features were apparently implemented in EEPROM, according to TDB. Later models however, seem to have implemented these features in firmware alone. See this post for more information : http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...7&postcount=22 See these webpages for pictures of Hitachi's versions of LG writers : http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/4167b_p2/4167b_p2_01.htm http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/4167b_p3/4167b_p3.htm http://homepage2.nifty.com/yss/gsah10n/gsah10n_djou.htm Thanks to YSS for the links above and TDB for their insight into the workings of LG writers. Last edited by karangguni; 01-01-2007 at 11:52.