Posted July 17, 2007, and found here: LG GSA-H50N Super Multi DVD Burner Review

LG GSA-H50N is worthy successor to LG GSA-H22N, with only minor flaws.

As always, you are welcome to comment on the review and the drive in this thread.

Good review!

Nice review. Thumbs up!

Thanks for the review!

I just bought a LG DVD Writer, now I am facing a problem... model number is close to the thread discussed model,

Its HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H54N...

Problem is with Burning speed of DVDs.... the media I am using Supports 4x / 8x / 16x, I tried the same media (I bought 50 Pack of it) with My other computers DVD writers, (Sony / Lite-on) in those I can burn at all three Mentioned speeds (4x,8x,16x) where as the New LG HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H54N is stuck at 4x only, not even any option given for Maximum speed...

Burning software used was Nero 7.8 Ultra !!!

Can any one tell me whether a Firmwire update will solve the issue and if yes, where can I find the latest firmwire ??

I searched and end up here, in the LG Service web site...

http://in.lgservice.com/index_b2c.jsp

there under DVD ROM (Writer), once again I dont see my model listed !!! the closet one is the 20x DVD RW GSA-H55N where as mine is 18x DVD RW GSA-H54N....

:|

Should I flash the firmwirew with that 55N Model ???

Edit :

I forced nero to Burn at MAX possible speed, this is what I get,



It detected the the media speed is 9.2x, so isnt it possible to burn at 8x ?? but still it started writting at 4x

Welcome Choto Cheeta!

Wow, you have two problems at once! Using unsupported (Ritek) media and a DMA problem. Solution: buy Verbatim media and check this thread. Also, Nero 7.8 is obsolete, get your free update to 7.10 from nero.com.

Another nice review, thanks.

Thank you for the reply... DMA is turned on.... how ever yes, I guess need to download Nero newer version... and for Media, will change as per your suggestion, but do let me know, why the same media can be burnt at 8x in Lite-on and in Sony DVD writers and I see even if LG detects 9.2x as the highest but still cant burn it ??

LG firmwares do not support all media types (notably some Ritek MID's I believe), which is why you can only burn those discs at a default 4X speed (this often results in poor quality or even failed burns). As there appears to be no firmware update available for your drive, I recommend using other discs with this drive.

If DMA is enabled correctly, the "Speed measurement completed" test should give about twice the value shown in your screenshot above. This (9.2x) is not the actual burn speed, but a test to verify whether the selected burn speed (4x in this case) can indeed be reached.

^^^

Thanks for the reply... As I already have other models I brought one of my Lite-on from my office to my home...



its not that I didnt like LG but these LaserTras DVD Media are really cheap I kind a like them because so far I have not faced any issue with them and their reliability... !!!

As I see Lite-on drive can write at 8x on those, therefore I brought thos one to my home...



any idea how good it is when comparing with the LG one ??

and really thank you for repling and helping me out...

@Choto Cheeta: With the Lite-On you can make a "Disc Quality" scan to compare the burn results of the LG and Lite-On. It would be interesting to see the Manufacturer ID of those LaserTras discs as well if you can post a scan. The CDSpeed scanning tool can be downloaded from www.cdspeed2000.com .

OK...

This is what I see when running the test on a Media burn using the LG DVD RW with speed of 4x (this is the same for which i posted the Nero Screen shot in above post)....





And this is a media (same media from my 50 Pack LaserTras I bought) burnt at 8x speed using Nero under my same system and with one of my Sony DVD burner...





Now if you have time, then i would request you to please be kind enough to help me understand the result... whats good and whats bad about it ??

Dvsn-80, a rare media code indeed (I don't even know who makes them). The results are quite okay, even with the LG (though you can see that the Sony gives less errors, especially above the 2.5GB mark, where the quality of the blank discs is not as good as it should be). Note that we usually scan at 8X (or even 4X) speed with the Lite-On (not Maximum), which will improve the results even further. A Transfer Rate Test (under the Benchmark tab) will complement these scans and ideally should show no slowdowns in reading back the discs.