Digital Home Thoughts: LG GSA-4120B: 12x Super Multi DVD EVERYTHING!

... And The Ugly
One thing that really bugged me about this burner is that it doesn’t come with any sample discs. Since dual layer discs are hard to come by, it would have been nice if LG had included one with the unit.

CyberLink PowerProducer 2 is the software that LG has bundled to do your dvd burning.
I’m afraid I can’t give a good review to PowerProducer 2. Though the UI was nice to look at and simple to use but several things didn’t sit well with me right from the beginning.

• When I tried to import more than one video clip at a time the software crashed on me.;
  
• There wasn’t very much space for titles on the menu screen. This wouldn’t be a problem if the titles would word-wrap, but instead, they just go off the right edge of the screen.;
  
• There is an auto-chapter generator feature as well, but it had to play the entire video at 1x to find scene changes. This means that a typical DVD would take one and a half to two hours just to determine chapters. I wasn’t willing to wait that long so I aborted the process. It’s a great feature to have, but only if the process is quick or happened while transcoding the video.

My reaction to these problems at first was “so what if the DVD authoring software is crummy - big deal.” But… it is a big deal. If you buy a DVD writer to burn your home movies and need to buy better DVD authoring software, then the price may be much higher than you expected.

I downloaded a trial of Nero that contained the DVD plug-in. It was much nicer for DVD authoring than PowerProducer 2. I would have preferred it if LG had bundled the full Nero/DVD plug-in with the GSA-4120B and scrapped PowerProducer 2 all together.


Figure 3: Back view

Conclusions
I hate to end the review on a bad note because the LG GSA-4120B 12X Super Multi DVD Rewriter does it all and it does it fast. I think LG is trying to tell you something when they say “Super Multi.” It can read and write to pretty much any media you can find in the store (including some that you can’t). There is something comforting about that. You don’t have to worry about what standard (DVD-R or DVD+R) to choose. And you don’t have to worry about the future. When dual layer and 12X DVD discs are common place, you’ll be able use them too.

Specifications (Extended):
Write Speed [DVD+R] : 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x, 12x ZCLV
Write Speed [DVD+RW] : 2.4x, 4x CLV
Write Speed [DVD-R] : 2x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV
Write Speed [DVD-RW] : 1x, 2x, 4x CLV
Write Speed [DVD-RAM] : 2x, 3x ZCLV(Ver.2.1), 3x-5x PCAV(Ver 2.1)
Write Speed [CD-R] : 4x, 8x, 16x CLV, 24x, 32x, 40x ZCLV
Write Speed [CD-RW] : 4x, 8x, 10x, 16x CLV, 24x ZCLV
Read Speed [DVD-R/RW/ROM] : 10x / 8x / 16x Max
Read Speed [DVD-RAM] (Ver.1.0/2.1) : 2x / 2x, 3x ZCLV, 3x-5x PCAV
Read Speed [DVD-VEDIO] : (CSS Compliant Disc) 8x Max. (Single/Dual layer) [DVD+R/+RW] 10x / 8x Max
Read Speed [DVD+R/+RW] : 10x / 8x Max
Read Speed [DVD+R DL] : 8x Max
Read Speed [CD-R/RW/ROM] : 40x Max
Read Speed [CD-DA] (DAE) : 40x Max
Data Transfer Rate [CD] : Max 6,000Kb/s
Data Transfer Rate [DVD] : Max 22,160Kb/s
Access Time [CD-ROM] : 125msec
Access Time [DVD-ROM] : 145msec
Access Time [DVD-RAM] : 165msec
Buffer Size : 2 MB with buffer under run prevention technology
Loading Mechanism : Motorized Tray
Write Method [CD-R/RW] : Disk-at-once, Session-at-once, Track-at-once, Packet write
Write Method [DVD-R/RW] : Disk-at-once, Incremental Recording, Restricted Overwrite (DVD-RW only)
Write Method [DVD+RW/RAM] : Random Write
Write Method [DVD+R] : Sequential Recording
Compatible Formats [Write] : DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD+R, DVD+R Double Layer DVD+RW, CD-R/RW
Compatible Formats [Read] : CD-ROM 1,2, CD-DA, CD-I FMV CD-ROM XA, Mixed CD , CD Extra, CD-Text, CD-Plus, Photo-CD, Video CD, CD-R/RW, DVD-ROM DVD-R, DVD-RAM,DVD-RW DVD+R, DVD+R Double Layer, DVD+RW
Power : +12V/+5V DC
Dimensions (W x D x H) : 146mm x 184.7mm x 41.3mm
Weight : 920g
O/S : Window 98SE, ME, 2K Professional, XP Home Edition, Professional