The LG has confusing performance issues. It will read most of the media without any problems, but when it comes to writing, it’s very picky and it will frustrate many people. The reason behind this being the two failed burns that we had.

Most modern drives have no issues burning Verbatim media. However the GH22NS90 failed to properly burn the –R media, and also the +R Dual Layer Verbatim disks. The Drive also supports the new M-DISK format, however we didn’t have any media to test this function.

Booktyping is one feature that many users will appreciate, and it’s available for DVD+R/DL.

To sum up, this is what we would say:

“The GH22NS90 has a good price to start with and it also will allow you to burn M-DISKs. Overall the performance is good, but there are some serious issues with +R DL and -R burns. For the two failed burns I can only give the average award”

Because of the generally confusing results we give the GH22NS90 the “Average” award.

You may comment on this review below.

Thanks to:

Verbatim – Europe for providing the media used in this review.

Erik Deppe – For providing a full license for Opti Drive Control

Nero AG – For providing a full license for Nero 10.

Authors page

21 Comments on LG GH22NS90 Review

mciahel: Posts: 17048; Posted on: 14 Feb 12 22:40

Very nice to see Benq scans

But - something is wrong here:

Quote:

At this point you need to know that because the drive is using a Mediatek chipset, you can’t use utilities such as Flash Utility and EEPROM Utility to get the most from the drive.

Additionally, I'd like to know if that drive can be abused as scanner using Kprobe or Opti Drive Control (and perhaps CD/DVD Speed after unlocking)

Michael

vroom: Posts: 7490; Posted on: 14 Feb 12 23:23

Michael, first you cant use the drive with ODC, also you cant use all the advanced settings such as FHT,OHT,Over speed and smart burn. Also you can copy your eeprom or make a copy of the firmware.

I think that i will probably work as a scanner if you remove the registry setting, i'll try that tomorrow.

mciahel: Posts: 17048; Posted on: 14 Feb 12 23:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by vroom

Michael, first you cant use the drive with ODC, also you cant use all the advanced settings such as FHT,OHT,Over speed and smart burn. Also you can copy your eeprom or make a copy of the firmware.

And the reason why this drive can not do all these nice things is the fact the drive has a MTK chipset? There is something wrong with the wording in the article.

Quote:

I think that i will probably work as a scanner if you remove the registry setting, i'll try that tomorrow.

Would be interesting

Michael

_chef_: Posts: 30613; Posted on: 15 Feb 12 09:59

Seems that LG has "fallen" completely for the M-Disc technology, also their latest BD 12LS39 burner does support that discs.

vroom: Posts: 7490; Posted on: 15 Feb 12 10:47

The drive can preform CD and DVD scans. The drive is very forgiving when it comes to dvd scanning, no comment about the CD scanning abilities of the drive.

I have re-scanned two discs that i used for the review, the first is a TY +8x and the second is a Memorex CD-R 48x, both scans can be found on the review.
Compare the results and draw your conclusions on the scanning function of the drive.

kg_evilboy: Posts: 5751; Posted on: 15 Feb 12 11:01

Regarding CD scans I assume it's the well-known problem with Mediatek chipsets only reporting E31 errors (C1 failures), not all C1 errors.

DVD scan looks fairly reasonable, have you tried to read back damaged discs with it?

vroom: Posts: 7490; Posted on: 15 Feb 12 11:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by kg_evilboy

1.Regarding CD scans I assume it's the well-known problem with Mediatek chipsets only reporting E31 errors (C1 failures), not all C1 errors.

2.DVD scan looks fairly reasonable, have you tried to read back damaged discs with it?

1. Yes.
2. No, i will have to find some DVD's that are unreadable on other drives, will do that as soon as possible.

kg_evilboy: Posts: 5751; Posted on: 15 Feb 12 19:09

I assume the DVD scan is so nice because the drive is just being really error tolerant when reading, at least my past LGs were quite tolerant with bad quality burns.

Wombler: Posts: 9578; Posted on: 20 Feb 12 22:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by _chef_

Seems that LG has "fallen" completely for the M-Disc technology, also their latest BD 12LS39 burner does support that discs.

It's very interesting technology though and I hadn't heard of it until I first read this review.

Backing up your data permanently is no mean feat these days and these discs will last for the lifetime of the polycarbonate which allegedly equates to 1,000 years.

So little money for a backup solution like this seems like pretty good value to me and they're working on a Blu-ray version too.

Wombler

mciahel: Posts: 17048; Posted on: 21 Feb 12 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wombler

Backing up your data permanently is no mean feat these days and these discs will last for the lifetime of the polycarbonate which allegedly equates to 1,000 years.

Nice marketing claim. But how long will be the hardware available that enables us to read the data? And what about the software?

Michael

Wombler: Posts: 9578; Posted on: 21 Feb 12 21:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by mciahel

Nice marketing claim. But how long will be the hardware available that enables us to read the data? And what about the software?

Michael

I think the point is that it'll last way longer than most users ever need.

The layer containing data is mineral based and has an estimated maximum lifespan of 10,000 years.

Even 20 years would be enough for me longevity wise.

It's possible we may have to face format shifting before then but something with this degree of data integrity has been a long time coming and may be difficult to better, so it might have a longer marketing life than previous solutions.

Wombler

toolspaz: Posts: 1; Posted on: 02 Mar 12 16:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wombler

I think the point is that it'll last way longer than most users ever need.

The layer containing data is mineral based and has an estimated maximum lifespan of 10,000 years.

I agree,I bought the LG blu ray with M-Disk if it'll get me 6 or 7 years till the next tech comes along I will be happy.I've read on a lot of sites people saying this tech is not needed and who needs 1000 years and it'll be obsolete before then.I really don't think anybody buying it expects it to still be around in a 1000 years cause a person is lucky to get 80 years out of their own body.but,if you have ever backed up your family photos that cannot be replaced to regular CD's only to find 2 years later they are completely gone even though they have just been sitting in a case on a shelf,the idea of something a little more permanent is great.

_chef_: Posts: 30613; Posted on: 02 Mar 12 21:57

I use my "oldish" authoring DVD-R and old-but-gold CD-R instead ....

isoToM: Posts: 12; Posted on: 05 Mar 12 16:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wombler

The layer containing data is mineral based and has an estimated maximum lifespan of 10,000 years.

Even 20 years would be enough for me longevity wise.

The problem with optical discs arent only in highly corruptible dye layers that are usual marketing claims nowadays. For me no matter how it's stored some of discs get dirty but not dusted or scratched but degraded pC layer which happens more occasionally than dye degradation.

I thing these so called mineral aka. "rock layer" is just marketing blob to revive 15 years old tech with some new features that aren't so much needed as they claim for most of us ordinnary users. And most "organic" DVD will last those 10-15 years if they're bunt and stored as optical media and CCs are intended in dark and low humidity and dust places. So the most of problem might lie in equipment -- drives that used to write them than in most discs from respectable brands itself. Just as this review shows YAD that wants to be jack of all trades.

For some more permanent backups these rock-layers might prove great but most of us dont need to keep these data for 50-200years and ind much shorter circle this tech will be obsolete just like DVDs itself.

Wombler: Posts: 9578; Posted on: 07 Mar 12 20:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by isoToM

For some more permanent backups these rock-layers might prove great but most of us dont need to keep these data for 50-200years and ind much shorter circle this tech will be obsolete just like DVDs itself.

It's the robustness and reliability of the backup that I think is the key difference here as up until now guaranteeing to prevent the possibility of dye degradation was something that simply wasn't available in a recordable optical format.

Wombler

parhelion: Posts: 3; Posted on: 13 Mar 12 17:00

Thanks for the great review, vroom.

Just one more thing:
What is this registry setting that needs to be removed for enabling scanning capabilities?
And why is it set when no additional drivers etc. are installed?

vroom: Posts: 7490; Posted on: 13 Mar 12 19:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by parhelion

The answer to your first question is here, simply remove the HL-DT-ST and cd speed should work without any issues.

If you are asking why LG drives are blocked. Well most LG drives weren't able to properly scan the discs, and there for they have been blocked.

Alianhead: Posts: 2; Posted on: 23 May 12 17:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by vroom

What do you mean by 'remove the HL-DT-ST'?

vroom: Posts: 7490; Posted on: 23 May 12 21:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alianhead

What do you mean by 'remove the HL-DT-ST'?

You need to modify your registry so that cdspeed can be used for scanning with the LG drive.
have a look here.

Alianhead: Posts: 2; Posted on: 23 May 12 21:07

Many thanks

vroom: Posts: 7490; Posted on: 23 May 12 21:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alianhead

Many thanks

No problem, and welcome to myce.

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