LG GSA-4163B

Review Pages

LG GSA-4163B DL Burner - Page 2

Transfer Rate Reading Tests

- CD Format

According to each manufacturer's specifications, the LG has the slowest supported reading speed for CD media and this is confirmed in our tests. With US-RW media however, the LG and Plextor drives had similar performance with the NEC trailing behind.

- DVD Format

Although speed differences are not significant, the LG GSA-4163B performed very well being the fastest pressed Single Layer DVD-ROM reader.

The two layers of a PTP DVD-ROM disc are read sequentially with the drive starting reading from the inner part of the disc, which is the beginning of each layer, progressing towards the outer range for each layer. The LG was slightly faster than the NEC drive but the Plextor PX-716A is way out in front...

The graph shown above indicates the reading performance of the LG GSA-4163B with OTP dual layer media. The first layer of an OTP dual layer DVD-ROM is read exactly the same way as the first layer of the PTP disc we tested previously. The difference here is the reading strategy of the second layer on the disc. The beginning of the second layer is located in the outer part of the disc, so the drive starts reading from the outer tracks towards the inner part of the disc. The LG once again was faster than the NEC but a good deal slower than the Plextor.

The Plextor drive had the most stable reading speeds, hovering around 9X, across the four formats, while the NEC drive was the fastest with DVD±R media and slowest with DVD±RW media. The GSA-4163B also had fairly steady speeds although on the slow side.

The LG drive performed well with a ripping speed of 9115kb/s, 6.6X. However, the Plextor PX-716A is simply unbeatable in this task.

- DVD-RAM

The LG GSA-4163B can read DVD-RAM depending on the version of the inserted media. For example, it reads 3X DVD-RAM (v2.1) media at 3X CLV, while 5X DVD-RAM (v2.2) at 3~5 P-CAV, as the following Nero CD Speed graph shows: