LG BH12LS35 12x Blu-Ray Rewriter Review.

An Introduction to Blu-Ray

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Until recently, optical disc technologies such as DVD, DVD±R, DVD±RW and DVD-RAM relied on a red laser to read and write data, the Blu-Ray format uses a blue-violet laser, which explains the name Blu-ray.

A blue-violet laser (405nm) has a shorter wavelength than a red laser (650nm); this makes it possible to focus the laser with even greater accuracy. This will allow data to be packed more tightly, so it’s possible to squeeze more data on the disc even though it’s the same size as a CD/DVD. This together with the change of numerical aperture to 0.85 enables Blu-ray discs to hold 25GB/50GB.

Blu-ray drives can also be made backwards compatible with CDs and DVDs through the use of a BD/DVD/CD compatible optical pickup unit.

Now let’s take a look at the track pitch and compare it with that of DVD

As we can see in the above screenshots, the storage density of Blu-ray is much higher than DVD. The Blu-ray laser beam spot is also much narrower than that of DVD.

Blu-Ray Error specification:

In the above table we present some of the specifications for reported errors on Blu-ray media. At present we have no equipment or software available for measuring these errors.

BD-R writing tests

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The specifications of the LG BH12LS35 state that the drive is able to write BD-R at 12x. Let us find out how the drive really performs with media.

For these tests we will be using the LG BH12LS35 for the Transfer rate tests, and the Liteon iHBS112 for the disc quality scan. Since there is no standard speed to measure the quality of the burn, we will be selecting the 8x speed of the drive.

 

Verbatim BD-R 25GB

For this test we used Nero Disc Speed to create our test disc.

The drive completed the burn in 13 minutes and 12 seconds, and it was able to overspeed this media to 8x. However buffer was stuck at 50% on all Blu-Ray burns.

As we can see the LG BH12LS35 has no problems reading back the disc at 8x.

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Verbatim BD-R 6x 25GB

This was the only media we had, and could reach 12x speed, but as we can see from the burn test, the drive slowed down to 8x. Burn time was 11 minutes and 34 seconds. So far this is the fastest time we had.

While the transfer rate test looks perfect, we can’t say the same about the disc quality scan. Unfortunately at this point we only had one disc to test.

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Maxell BD-R 4x Printable 25GB

As we can see, the drive can overspeed this media to 8x. Burn time was 13 minutes and 10 seconds.

The transfer rate test is perfect, but the quality scan doesn’t look very nice.

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BD-R LTH Type 2x

 

It took 45 minutes and 10 seconds to burn this Verbatim LTH media at 2x.

A perfect transfer rate up to 8x.

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BD-RE:

The specifications of the LG BH12LS35 state that the drive is able to write BD-RE discs at 2x. Let us find out how the drive really performs.

BD-RE 25GB

The LG BH12LS35 burned our test BD-RE media from VERBATIM in 39 minutes and 42 seconds. Also the burn speed was 2.3x and so far it’s the fastest burn we had from –RE media.

Now let’s see how the LG BH12LS35 read’s and scans our test disc.

 

A perfect Transfer Rate Test at 6x. LDC errors look a little high.

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BD-RE 25GB

The LG BH12LS35 burned our test BD-RE 25GB media from TDK in 39:44 minutes. Again the burn speed was 2.3x.

Now let’s see how the LG BH12LS35 reads and scans our test disc.

Again the LDC and BIS levels are a little high, but the TRT is perfect.

Summary:

The LG BH12LS35 had no problems in creating and reading our test discs. The disc quality results are generally very good, with the exception of the Maxell media that didn’t have a very smooth read back curve.

It can overspeed our test media from 4x to 8x.

Let’s round off this review on the Authors page, with some real world and advanced tests….

• DVD+R/-R Double Layer writing performance and quality
• Real world tests