LG' s latest proposal for DVD burning packs many intrersting features while it offers an overall decent performance in terms of reading and recording capabilities.

The drive supports reading of all CD and DVD formats. Reading speeds are adequate, with a small exception in the DVD Video ripping, where it could be slightly faster to catch up with competitive drives. The error correction capabilities of the drive when reading problematic CDs is a mixed bag. The drive lowers its reading speed in order to read accurately, but this could make your life more difficult since in severe cases, the drive could take hours to rip your favourite music files to the hard disk. In our error correction tests for example, the scratched audioCD test took more than 3 hours to complete. The results indicated that the drive did not manage to correct the read errors, although it succesfully muted the error samples. The error hiding capabilities of the drive are very high; a feature that could be useful when you use it for audio playback. Here we should note that our test pushes error correction to its limits, so in real life everyday reading tasks the drive is faster. In addition, the drive supports "cache" of files, witch further complicated the audio ripping procedure, in the specific error correction test.

On the other hand, DVD error correction was stronger. The drive read the DVD-ROM test discs flawlesly. Again ,an exception was the scratched DVD Video disc where the drive had hard times to read the second layer.

The writing performance of the drive should be also considered as good. The LG GSA-H55L is capable of burning specific DVD recordables in high quality, even at 20x with specific media. Of course, there were also cases where the results were not the expected, as it happens in the majority of today's drives. In these cases, high digital errors were reported in the areas were the burning speed reached the 16x or higher. The fact however, that the drive selects a lower burning speed for some media should be considereded as positive, in order to maintain quality. Firmware could adjust the writing strategy of the drive in some cases, especialy when Z-CLV is used, in order to avoid digital errors as the drive jumps at higher burning speeds. All the recorded discs were readable. CD burning gave a good overall quality.

Of the most intreresting features of the drive, SecurDisc technology is supported and it is an extra that could attract candidate owners of the LG drive. Although it could take some time for someone to get familiar with the basic features around SecurDisc, using it is helpful. LightScribe support is also welcomed for creating labels on your favorite discs.

Last but certainly not least, the LG GSA-H55L supports the 12x DVD-RAM media for writing/reading. This upgrade in the DVD-RAM speed was eagerly expected among users of DVD-RAM media, since the recoding time was significatly decreased. We would like a wider availability of 12x DVD-RAM media worldwide.

The LG GSA-H55L is a good all-around good performer and will fulfil the majority of your needs in your everyday reading/writing tasks, while it offers some extras for all those who are seeking for advanced control over DVD burning. The drive is available in online stores for around $69 U.S.