Conclusion  

Positive:

• Reads BD-ROM SL and DL media at 4.8x
• Reads BD-R at 6x and BD-RE media at 2x
• Reads HD DVD-ROM SL and DL media at 3x
• Writes both DVD+R and DVD-R media at 16x
• Allows 12x writing on 16x DVD media
• Writes CD-R media at 40x
• Has LightScribe support
• Very fast audio extraction
• Quiet drive operation
• Writes DVD+RW media at 8x and DVD-RW media at 6x
• Supports 5x writing on DVD-RAM
• Very Good to Excellent DVD and CD-R writing quality
• Solid construction with SATA interface
• Full featured Software Bundle from CyberLink

Negative:

• Does not allow Bitsetting of DVD+RW media.

Conclusion:

Let us summarize the most important positive and negative points below:

The LG GGW-H20L’s ability to read High-Definition movies both in HD-DVD and Blu-Ray formats make this drive a must have for any desktop PC or Home Theater PC (HTPC).

The GGW-H20L is the first drive to support writing BD-R media at 6X.  The GGW-H20L performs very well when writing to all our BD media in half the time of earlier Blu-ray burners and LG has managed to drop the price of the GGW-H20L to less than half of what it predecessors cost.

Writing of DVD-R and DVD+R media with the LG GGW-H20L at 16x with very good writing quality gives this unit has the ability to be a single drive solution for Blu-ray and HD DVD playback as well as a CD and DVD burner. 

Writing of CD-R/RW media, 40x and 24x respectively is more than an added bonus, the LG GGW-H20L is also a very fast CD-R/RW reader; in addition the drive sports excellent audio extraction results.

The drive supports SATA interface for quick and easy installation (SATA cable included in the box) and with software bundle from CyberLink for Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD playback, DVD and CD burning and authoring, really making the LG GGW-H20L a multi format drive solution.

To sum it all up, this is what we would say: “The LG GGW-H20L is a Blu-ray Disc & HD DVD reader giving you ability to watch high-definition content on your PC, additionally its capability to write DVD and CD-R media with excellent quality establishing this drive as an All-In-One solution.” We therefore hand out the LG GGW-H20L with the CDFreaks’ Editors Choice Award.

We found the retail version of LG GGW-H20L is listed at cheapest price of $299 (May 2008).

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