LG GSA-4166B Super Multi DVD-Writer with LightScribe Review

Reading performance:

For these tests we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to read various types of CD and DVD media. As already mentioned in the introduction, this drive supports:

• DVD-ROM : 16x
• CD-ROM : 48x 

Pressed discs:

For this test we used a pressed CD-ROM disc containing a Nero Ultra Edition OEM install CD that is close to 77 minutes long. Below you will see the produced result:

The LG GSA-4166B reached 47.04x on this pressed CD. Let’s compare the result in the table below:

The LG GSA-4166B performed above average while reading a pressed CD-ROM.

CD-Recordable Discs:

For this test we made a copy of the original Nero Ultra Edition OEM install CD. The disc we used was an esa 52X certified CD-R disc manufactured by CMC Magnetics. 

Again the LG GSA-4166B performed above average on the CD-R read test.

* Some drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually moving the pickup.

 CD-Rewritable discs:

Again, we made a copy of the original Nero Ultra Edition OEM install CD. The disc we used was a Maxell 4x-12x certified CD-RW disc manufactured by Mitsubishi Chemicals Corporation. 

As we can see the LG GSA-4166B is locked at 32x when reading a CD-RW. Now let’s compare it to some other drives below.

The LG GSA-4166B performance is to spec but falls short of what other drives are capable of when reading a CD-RW disc.

* Some drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually moving the pickup.

Audio ‘“ Digital Audio Extraction:

We used Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the transfer rate. The audio disc we used is a bit smaller than the disc used for the other tests, to be more precise, it’s about 74 minutes long (74:00:42).

The LG GSA-4166B is locked at 40x when reading CD-DA. Let’s compare the result with some other drives:

The LG GSA-4166B performance is about average on the Audio-CD.

* Some drives including the NU HDW-164 will simply execute the seek command without actually moving the pickup.

As a last test we used Exact Audio Copy (EAC) to extract the audio to our hard drive. According to EAC the LG drive does not support Caching, which is considered a plus while ripping digital audio.

Below is the result produced by EAC:

 Burst mode

 Secure mode

The drive performed OK when in burst mode but was very slow when in secure mode.

Advanced audio ‘“ DAE quality test:

Before we move on to testing DVD read speeds, we will make a last digital audio test. This time we used the ‘Advanced DAE Quality Test’ feature in CD-DVD Speed. For this test we used a CD-R DA media from Memorex.

The digital audio extracting quality is excellent and it is reported to support everything except reading from the Leadout.

DVD reading performance:

Again, we will use Nero CD-DVD Speed to measure the reading performance, this time for various types of DVD discs. The drive should read pressed single layer DVD-discs at 16X.

DVD ‘“ DVD-Video:

For our DVD reading performance tests we are going to start with a single layer and Double Layered DVD video discs. While only 1X speed is required to watch DVD movies it is useful to be able to read the discs at higher speeds if you’re going to extract (rip) the content of the disc to your hard drive.

DVD-Video Single Layer

DVD-Video Double Layer

The LG GSA-4166B is locked at 8x when reading DVD-Video Single Layer and Double/Dual Layer pressed discs.

Now let’s test a pressed DVD-ROM disc. For this test we used SONY’s ATV Off Road Fury 2 Playstation 2 game disc.

The LG GSA-4166B will reach 16x when reading a pressed DVD-ROM.

The LG GSA-4166B performance was to spec on the DVD-Video Single Layer Double/Dual Layer tests.

DVD ‘“ DVD+R(W):

For this test we used a Memorex 16X DVD+R and a RiDATA 4X DVD+RW with 4.38Gb of data. Below are the results:

DVD+R

 
DVD+RW

The LG GSA-4166B is not read locked on DVD+R but is read locked to 8x on DVD+RW.

Now let’s see how it will perform on DVD-R/RW.

DVD ‘“ DVD-R/RW:

For this test we used a Memorex 16X DVD-R disc and a RiDATA 4X DVD-RW disc filled with 4.38Gb of data. Our test results are found below:

DVD-R

 
DVD-RW

There are only minor differences on DVD-R/RW when compared to reading the DVD+R/RW discs.

Once again the LG GSA-4166B is not read locked on DVD-R but is read locked to 8x on DVD-RW.

DVD-RAM

For this test we used a Maxell 5x DVD-RAM disc and below we see the result:

The LG GSA-4166B reads DVD-RAM media at 5x and it reads the test disc without problems.

Overall thoughts:

The LG GSA-4166B is a very good reader. It is read locked to slower speeds on some of the media types, but during our read tests it proved itself as a very reliable reader.

But now it’s time to head on to a more interesting part: Writing CD-R and CD-RW discs…