LG GSA-4163B Super Multi DVD Burner


 





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Review:
LG
GSA-4163B
Reviewer:
Jan70
Provided by: LG '“
South Korea
Firmware:
A100 &
A101
Manufactured: November
2004


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LG '“ South Korea was
kind enough to send us their latest DVD-writer the LG GSA-4163B
Super multi DVD
Writer. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R writing, 8x
DVD+RW, 6 DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 4x DVD+R9 DL writing technology - allowing dual
layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.


Company
information:


Let us take a look
at some of the company information found at the LG website.

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The Foundation of
LG


LG was established
in 1947 as Korea's first chemical company, also becoming the nation's first
electronics company with its expansion into home appliances in 1958. The new
Corporate Identity was launched including the change of the group name from
Lucky-Goldstar to LG in 1995.


Business
Fields


The wide array of
activities that LG conducts are coordinated within three highly focused business
sectors: Chemicals & Energy, Electronics and Telecommunications &
Services. Each sector has undergone systematic changes, with improved financial
compositions, restructured business portfolios and realigned equity investment
structures.


The split of two
holding companies LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp.


On March 2003, LG
introduced the holding company structure and recently, the demerger of two
holding companies - LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp. took place on July 1 to
separate the manufacturing and technology related businesses from the service
and retail operations. The separation is meant to maximize profits of LG
shareholders by boosting business specialization of key LG companies.


Increasing R&D
investment in 2004


With the
anticipations and expectations for the new structure, LG has set an ambitious
management goal for this year. In 2003, LG's ordinary profit stood at KRW 3.1
trillion on sales of KRW 85 trillion. In 2004, LG plans to raise ordinary profit
and sales by 42% and 12% year-on-year respectively. This year's ordinary profit
target is KRW 4.4 trillion and the sales target is KRW 95 trillion. LG plans to
increase the R&D investments by 31% from last year to KRW 9.4 trillion in
2004.


If you are
interested in reading more company information, please visit www.lg.co.kr/english



Drive specifications:






The only
official listed specification of this drive (during our review) was found on the
German LG site:


Reading
Speed



  • DVD-R/-RW-/ROM : 10x/8x/16x
    max. 

  • DVD-RAM :
    2x, 3x, 5x 

  • DVD-Video
    (CSS) : 8x max.
    (Single/Dual Layer)
  • DVD+R/+RW :
    10x/8x max. 

  • CD-R/-RW/-ROM : 40x max. 

  • CD-DA (DAE) :
    40x max. 

Writing
Speed



  • DVD-R : 2x,
    4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 16x PCAV 

  • DVD-RW :
    1x, 2x, 4x, 6x CLV 

  • DVD-RAM :
    2x, 3x ZCLV, 3x '“ 5x PCAV (Ver. 2.1) 

  • DVD+R :
    2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x, 12x, 16x ZCLV 

  • DVD+R
    Double Layer : 2.4x, 4x CLV 

  • DVD+RW :
    2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV 

  • CD-R : 4x, 8x
    CLV, 16x, 24x, 32x, 40x ZCLV 

  • CD-RW : 4x,
    8x, 10x CLV, 16x CLV, 24x ZCLV 

Supported
Writing Modes/Formats 



  • DVD-R :
    Disc at Once and Incremental / Recording 

  • DVD-RW :
    Disc at Once, Incremental Recording and Restricted Overwrite 

  • DVD-RAM :
    Random Write 

  • DVD+R :
    Sequential Recording 

  • DVD+R
    Double Layer : Sequential Recording 

  • DVD+RW :
    Random Write 

  • CD-R/-RW :
    Disc at Once, Session at Once, Track at Once and Packet Write 

Access Time
(average) 



  • DVD-ROM :
    145ms 

  • DVD-RAM :
    165ms 

  • CD-ROM :
    125ms 

Max.
Transferrate (Writing)



  • DVD-R :
    9,14 '“ 22,16 Mbytes/s 

  • DVD-RW :
    8,31 Mbytes/s 

  • DVD-RAM
    (Ver.2.1) : 4,155 '“ 6,925 Mbytes/s 

  • DVD+R :
    9,14 '“ 22,16 Mbytes/s 

  • DVD+R
    Double Layer : 5,54 Mbytes/s 

  • DVD+RW :
    8,31 '“ 11,08 Mbytes/s 

  • CD-R : 2400
    '“ 6000 KB/s (Mode 1) 

  • CD-RW :
    2400 '“ 3600 KB/s (Mode 1) 

Buffer



  • 2 MB,
    Buffer Under-Run Prevention Function 

Standard
Jumper Setting



  • Master 

Supported
OS



  • Windows ME/
    Windows 2000 Professional/ Windows XP Home Edition, Professional 

Dimensions
(W x H x D)



  • 146mm x
    41,3mm x 184,6mm 

Weight



  • 870g 

Mounting
Orientation



  • Horizontal
    / vertical  

Temperature
/ Humidity 



  • Operating,
    -humidity : 5°C '“ 45°C, 15% '“ 85% 

  • Non-operating, -humidity : -30°C
    '“ 60°C, 10% '“ 90% 

Recommended
Media



  • CD-R : LG, Mitsubishi
    Kagaku Media, Verbatim, Taiyo Yuden, TDK, SKC 

  • CD-RW : LG,
    Ricoh, Mitsubishi Kagaku Medial, Verbatim 

  • DVD-R : LG,
    Maxell, Taiyo Yuden, JVC 

  • DVD-RW :
    LG, JVC, Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, TDK 

  • DVD+R : LG,
    Mitsubishi Kagaku Media, Verbatim 

  • DVD+RW :
    LG, TDK, FujiFilm, Ricoh 

  • DVD-RAM :
    LG, Maxell, Panasonic 

  • DVD+R
    Double Layer : Mitsubishi Kagaku Media 


What's inside the
box?






On this page
we will take a look at what the drive came shipped with and take a look at the
drive and its technology.



Front



Back



Top



Left side



Right Side


Below you will
see the contents of the retail box:




  • The
    internal drive itself


  • Nero 6 OEM
    Suite

  • LG DVD
    Writer Solution CD:



    1. PowerDVD
    2. PowerProducer Gold
    3. Nero
      Express

    4. InCD
    5. Acrobat
      Reader

  • Super Multi
    DVD Drive CD:


    1. Owner's
      Manual

  • IDE
    cable

  • Audio
    cable

  • 4 mounting screws
      
  • Quick
    Guide

  • Guarantee
    information


Now it's time
to take a look at the drive itself:


 


The LG bezel
has not changed much lately '“ we find the following logos: Super Multi, DVD+RW,
LG, DVD-multi recorder and CD-RW US. Headphone connector and volume knob is
missing. The drive uses one coloured led (green) for read and write (we prefer a
different led colour though for writing).




On top of the
drive we found one stickers and we can read it was made in Korea, dated November
2004.



On the back of
the drive from left to right: digital audio connector, analogue audio connector,
pins and jumper to set the drive to: cable select, slave or master, IDE
interface connector and the power connector.


We installed
the drive without any problems and here is a screenshot from Nero info
tool:


 


From the
screenshot of Nero Info Tool above, we miss Mt.Rainier support and a larger
buffer size. Our drive came shipped with firmware A100 and was later updated to
firmware A101 (see below):




And another
shot from Nero Burning ROM:


 


We do not
really find anything alarming here, but Mount Rainier and a larger buffer would
have been nice.


But let us continue
this review and see how it really performs.


 


On the next page we
will take a look at the test machine, the software, the drive features and the
included software…………


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