Blu-ray Features:

A Blu-ray Disc (BD) is a next generation optical disc format jointly developed by the Blu-ray Disc Association (BDA), a group of many leading consumer electronics, personal computer and media manufacturers. The format was developed to enable recording, rewriting and playback of High Definition (HD) video, as well as high capacity of data storage.

More information on Blu-ray can be found from our own article: Blu-ray vs. HD-DVD.

Blu-ray Format Type:

Similar to DVD-RAM, a Blu-ray disc can be formatted in the following types: UDF 1.50, UDF 2.00, UDF 2.50, UDF2.60, and FAT32.

Before using BD-R and BD-RE media for writing files on the disc, we must logically format the media. Once we have logically formatted BD-R or BD-RE disc, it can be use to write files just as you would do with a floppy disk, hard disk or DVD-RAM. In the illustration below we will use Panasonic UDF Formatter (DVDForm) version 5.1.1.0 to format a BD-RE disc.

DVDForm offers several format types for BD-RE disc

It took 37 seconds to quick format a BD-RE disc in FAT32

BD-RE Single Layer discs formatted with FAT32

Now we will attempt to do a quick format on a BD-RE media with format type UDF2.5.

Formatting a BD-RE disc in UDF2.5

BD-RE Single Layer discs formatted with UDF2.5

Let’s move along to check out the LG GGW-H20L’ reading and writing performance

Reading and Playability of commercial BD-ROM SL/DL: 

Here we will look at how the LG GGW-H20L performs when reading and playing back commercial BD-ROM discs.

BD-ROM SL

The LG GGW-H20L read our SL BD-ROM at a speed of 4.78X.

BD-ROM DL

Reading of BD-ROM DL is done at 4X.

Both discs also play back perfectly on our test system using PowerDVD Ultra which is included in the software package from CyberLink.

Now we well move along and take a look at the writing abilities for this drive…….

BD-R and BD-R DL Writing Speed and Quality:

To demonstrate burning data on a Blu-ray disc, we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed with Create Disc feature. We will use ImgBurn when we burn Hi-Def video. The ScanDisc test is performed in the LG GGW-H20L drive to check if there is any issue with the burned disc.

Now let us take a look how the drive performs on various BD-R media:

Verbatim BD-R 4x media with MID: VERBATIMa
Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media.

Writing Verbatim BD-R at 6x

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As we can see, the LG GGW-H20L writes these 2X BD-R media from Verbatim at 6X with no problems.

RiDATA BD-R 2x media with MID: RITEK-BR1-000 is supported up to 2x speed.
Thanks to Advanced Media/Ritek for providing this media.

Writing RiDATA BD-R at 2x speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The LG GGW-H20L had no issues with this media from Ritek Corp.

Memorex BD-R 2x media with MID: MEI T01.

Writing Memorex BD-R at 2X speed with ImgBurn

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As you can see from the TRT and the ScanDisc the GGW-H20L had no problems with this media.

Panasonic BD-R 2x media with MID: MEI T02.

Writing Panasonic BD-R 2X at 6X speed

ImgBurn Log

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The LG GGW-H20L reads and writes our Panasonic Blu-ray (BD-R) test media without any problems.

Now let’s take a look at how the LG GGW-H20L performs with our BD-R DL test media.

Disc Info

DVD Identifier

Burning with ImgBurn at 2X

ImgBurn Log

Transfer Rate Test

ScanDisc Test

The LG GGW-H20L burned our HD Video to our test disc in 84 minutes.

Let’s move on to testing the drive at writing to our BD-RE test media.

BD-RE Writing Speed and Quality

Now let us take a look how the drive performs on various BD-RE media:

Verbatim BD-RE 2X media with MID: VERBATIM0.
Thanks to Verbatim USA for providing this media.

Writing Verbatim BD-RE 2X

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

As we can see, the LG GGW-H20L wrote to the 2x BD-RE Verbatim media in about 40 minutes. Transfer rate test as well as ScanDisc show no problem.

TDK BD-RE 2x media with MID: TDKBLDWBA.
Thanks to TDK for providing this media.

Writing TDK BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

The drive performs well with this TDK Blu-ray media. Smooth transfer rate test and very good ScanDisc test.

Sony BD-RE 2X media with MID: SONY ES1.
Thanks to Sony for providing this media.

Writing Sony BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem with this Sony Blu-ray media.

LG BD-RE 2X media with MID: LGEBRES01.

Writing LG BD-RE 2X speed

Transfer Rate test

ScanDisc test

No problem in writing and read-back with this LG Blu-ray media. Transfer rate test and ScanDisc test are both good.

Summary:

As we can see, the LG GGW-H20L drive supports writing our Verbatim and Panasonic BD-R 2x media at 6x giving a write time of about 22 minutes. It also reads and writes BD-R/RE single layer discs without any problem. ScanDisc tests show no problem at all.

Blu-ray playback test

Since we burned 4 of our test discs with HD Video, we tested them with our stand-alone BD player; here is a table to show those results:

The drive and software played back our High Definition Blu-ray movies without any issues.

This concludes our LG GGW-H20L review, lets head on to the last page to read our Conclusion…