CDFreaks presents: LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Writer Review





You can read the review here
Please feel free to leave comments in this thread; thank you

This is the one I would buy, the prices are coming down to almost reasonable for me, and after reading your review I would not hesitate to get one. Thanks Kipper.

This is the one I just said I am eyeballing on for 269.99 not to bad to be honest thanks Kip for the review as you know we were all dieing to see this one.

Welcome guys, this was a very enjoyable review to do. I like the drive so much I picked one up for myself too.

Thank you for the nice review.

I've found some quirk that you might be interested in checking further:

As to it's manual, this drive does CD-R writing at speeds of 4, 8, 16, 24, 32 and 40x. Now Discspeed confirms this (see first screenshot below and let's me choose all speeds. So doing a simulated create disc selecting 16x speed leads to a 16x CLV writing curve.

However ImgBurn only allows speeds 24, 32 and 40x (see second screenshot). So does Nero (7).

Any ideas?

PS: This is true for any sort if dye (Cyanine, AZO or Phthalocyanine), so it's not some kind of ATIP-style limit.

How comes the Panasonic MEI-T02 BD-R media has been quoted as being written at 6x when really only 4x is supported and being used?

The IBG data from the burn + DVDInfoPro could have made another screenshot to show the actual write speed graph and I'm sure the Verbatim and Panasonic ones would look different - even though the total times are almost identical.

Excellent review as always Kip, thanks!

Thanks for the review, Kip. How does the drive do with Exact Audio Copy?

Very nice review.

Thanks for the nice review! I am new to the site, and was thinking of asking for opinions about SATA DVD-writers; since I am on an old BenQ 1640 and wanted to move to an all-SATA system for better cable management (all my HDDs are SATA). But this new toy looks really sweet , although the price is still a bit above my budget at the moment (where I live it's pricier than the US list price). I think I'll wait a couple of months more and then grab this drive when finances permit, rather than get just another DVDRW now.

hi,
thanks for review - great help for making a buy - no buy decission
i have already 2 of that drives - they are really great !
i wonder if there is a region free and/or rip-(un)lock firmware version around ?

cheers - ahab666

I recently purchased this drive and have been happy with it overall. I have played several blu-ray DVDs (Planet Earth, 3:10 to Yuma, National Treasure 2, etc.) without any problems. I'm using Windows Vista 64-bit with Cyberlink PowerDVD.

Recently I rented the blu-ray version of Jumper, but it wouldn't play properly. The audio was fine, but the video was highly pixelated and had a large amount of noise/distortion in it. You could get the general picture but it was essentially unwatchable.

At first I thought we had gotten a bad DVD, so I took it back to Blockbuster and exchanged it for a new one. The second DVD is doing exactly the same thing.

I'm curious if anyone else has had a similar problem with this drive, or any suggestions on how to troubleshoot/fix the problem. I checked for new firmware on the LG web site but only found the manuals/documentation.

Please check this thread that has similar problem:
LiteON DH-401S & Movie 'Jumper', BDROM DL read problem

The problem is that this Jumper has the latest revision BD+ copy protection where PowerDVD alone couldn't play it properly.

i was thinking of gettiing this lg but i see i is sata connections to the computer...my computer has the old connections and not sata..is there a card or converter that will work for this lg dvd writter?

There are several things to consider besides the SATA connection; you might want to download these free tools from Corel and Cyberlink to see if your systems is ready for Hi-Def:

WinDVD High-Definition Advisor:

CyberLink BD Advisor

Thanks for the links Kipper, I am a BD newbie and looking to buy my first burner this weekend. I love LG stuff, and this looks like the one to get, esp since I need to have HD-DVD for ripping.

Does anyone know of a model (doesn't have to be LG) that is a 20x DVD burner and only reads BD and HD-DVD? I don't really care for the BD-writer feature right now, since media is so expensive. I prefer to just rip to my Media PC and stream from it than fool with discs (not to mention such a drive would likely be $100+ cheaper).

Hi mulox,

16x DVD burning is the fastest of any known drive so far and this may be the last drive to support HD-DVD reading.

It has been showing up for $229 at Frys pretty regularly including this week. And a 15 pack of memorex bd-r for 59 bucks. Its REALLY tempting. But black Friday is just around the corner.... Decisions, decisions.
wildfrog

224.99 and free shipping at the egg.

I recently bought this drive, 3 different Memorex BD-RE disks do not work in it, but a LG branded BD-RE does work. Has anyone else had problems with Memorex BD-RE disks in the GGW-H20L drive?