It may be less than a month before the first 24x reach the market of DVD burners, but today we are having a look at LG's latest solution for 22x DVD recording, the GH22NS30. This drive is a Super-Multi DVD writer, supporting all DVD media currently available. The drive we got is a bulk version meaning that it comes with no software or any other goodies found in the retail packages of other drives. But still, it would be interesting to see how fast and reliably this baby performs, compared to other 22x DVD burners from LiteOn and Samsung.

In detail, the LG drive is able to burn DVD±R media at 22X, DVD+R DL at 16X, DVD-R/+R DL at 16X, DVD+RW media at 8X, DVD-RW at 6X and DVD-RAM at 12X. It is connected to the computer via a S-ATA interface, thus allowing Burst Transfer Rates of up to 1.5Gbps.

The drive's key features are:

• Compatible with all Current Standard Disc Formats
• DVD±R 22x Burning Speed
• SATA Interface
• SecurDisc Feature

- Drive Specifications

LG hasn't changed much on the front faceplate of the drive, which is also met at the company's previous models. The "SuperMulti" and "SecurDisc" logos are there, although the CD and DVD+R/+RW logos are missing.

At the rear side we find the typical SATA and power connectors.

The GH22NS30 by HL Data Storage was manufactured in November 2008.

The internal board of the drive is rather small, as you can see below.

The GH22NS30 uses Panasonic's MN103SD9GRAB chip. The company also uses chipsets from Renesas in other 22x DVD models.

- Installation

The drive was identified under Windows XP as "HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GH22NS30", firmware version 1.01.

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