CDFreaks presents: The LG GSA-H62LI Super Multi DVD-Writer Mini-Review

As of Sept. 05 there is still no f/w update.

How is everyone's experiece been with this drive over the past month?

Any feeling the way Nk03 felt at the end of July?

My 8 month old LiteON 20A1H stopped writing CD's and needs to go in for a manufacturer repair (6 week turnaround I'm told) so I'll be picking up another writer.

Suggestions?

I'm thinking SATA interface and I like Lightscribe. The H62L was looking real good, but could use some input.

Thx in advance.

Harb

I'm with you on the above issues. However, the quality of burns I'm seeing from this drive (62N) is superb on a variety of media so far. The SATA hang ups during POST are annoying on my DFI mobo to say the least.

I can't believe there's still no firmware update for this drive.

Yes, I can't believe it, too. Instead of making a firmware which could possibly resolve some "bugs", they made a new drive - H66N. And, as it seems from the first few quality scans, they haven't resolved "high-speed CD-R burning bug" with the new drive.

The "high-speed CD-R burning bug" still in H42N/H44N even after the 1st firmware upgrade.

Yeah, I know it wasn't fixed by a firmware. And maybe they won't be able to do it. But, they made two new drives with the same problem (H62 & H66; I'm not counting H44 since it uses the same chip revision so it is basically a same drive with different firmware). So, not only that they didn't fix the "bug", but their newer drives which use different chipset revisions still have that bug.
Why did they even change what was working (by this I mean a Z-CLV strategy the older models used for CD-R burning at speeds higher than 16x, and which has been changed to (P)CAV with the introduction of H42)!? Maybe there is a possibility to revert to that strategy with a new firmware? OK, maybe they can't do that, maybe the new strategy is not the problem (although it coincided with the appearance of the "bug"), maybe... But they (LG) should definitely do something, at least say that they are aware of the problem. I personally have other drives to burn CDs on, and I don't even mind the 16x speed since I rarely burn CDs, but many people use it as a single drive, and are not aware of the issue.
OK, I was a bit harsh here... otherwise, I'm a happy LG owner (used to own or still own 4 drives in total).

Hello friends.
Although I see that there are some cons, I would like to buy the LG GSA-H62L. But I do not know where I can find it (store, net etc). I mean in Europe and not USA or Canada. If anybody knows please let me know.
Thanks GMMM47

In a month or two, if there's still no firmware update, I'll just sell you mine for $30 USD if you really want such an unsupported drive that badly.

sorry off topic:

I use CD-RW drives for CD-R's. Plextor Premiums 1 & 2.

Is the H66 also Renesas-based?

Just bought two drives the Samsung 203B and the LG 62N, both SATA. Guess which one has already had a firmware update and burns/reads far better than the other?

Plus also getting a problem with DVD-RW with TDK SAKU1 dye on the LG.

Well, I gave up on the drive.

Bought the 203B and I'm very pleased so far.

Unfortunately I was able to sell my H62N, so I won't be able to offer it on here like I initially stated.

Worst optical drive I've ever had, for sure. I can't say I've ever had one that messes up my bios menu because it hangs for so long, or prevents windows from booting because the SATA initialization screen hangs if any disc is in the drive. It's also very disappointing to know that LG simply releases new products instead of supporting existing ones that were brand new only a few months ago. I hope people from LG are reading this thread and understand how disappointed we all are in their ignorant approach to "support" -- that is, abandoning new products with even newer ones!

Too much frustration for me as well so I too have a 203B coming in on Monday. I'll sell this drive to a friend in the next few weeks I guess. Really loved the burn quality from the drive but the BIOS boot problem is far too frustrating.

I was always a fan of LG... Got a H10N works great. Seems like every update model is getting worse or the bugs aint fixed....... especially not fixing the pressed DVD read speeds. Until they do I'll stick with what I've got.. I bought my young bloke the H42 and THEN after reading the reviews realised why the pressed dvd read speeds on it were so slow.. (I back up a lot of movies..) Might have to look elsewhere for a quicker dvd reader.

62N is the best drive I have ever had. It never gave me a bad disc while 203B did. But 203B is very good also. For serious projects I always burn to 62N though.