LG GSA-5163D Triple format DVD Burner


 





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Review: LG
GSA-5163D
Reviewer:
OC-Freak
Provided by: LG
South Korea.
Firmware:
A102
Manufactured: December
2004


ADVERTISEMENT

LG '“ South Korea was
kind enough to send us their latest external DVD-writer; the LG GSA-5163D
Super
multi DVD Writer. This drive supports 16x DVD+R/-R
writing, 8x DVD+RW, 6 DVD-RW, 5x DVD-RAM and 4x DVD+R9 DL writing technology -
allowing dual layer discs of 8.5Gb to be written.


Company
information:


Let us take a look
at some of the company information found at the LG website.

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The Foundation of LG


LG was established
in 1947 as Korea's first chemical company, also becoming the nation's first
electronics company with its expansion into home appliances in 1958. The new
Corporate Identity was launched including the change of the group name from
Lucky-Goldstar to LG in 1995.


Business Fields


The wide array of
activities that LG conducts is coordinated within three highly focused business
sectors: Chemicals & Energy, Electronics and Telecommunications &
Services. Each sector has undergone systematic changes, with improved financial
compositions, restructured business portfolios and realigned equity investment
structures.


The split of two holding companies LG Corp. and GS Holdings
Corp.


On March 2003, LG
introduced the holding company structure and recently, the demerger of two
holding companies - LG Corp. and GS Holdings Corp. took place on July 1 to
separate the manufacturing and technology related businesses from the service
and retail operations. The separation is meant to maximize profits of LG
shareholders by boosting business specialization of key LG companies.


Increasing R&D investment in 2004


With the
anticipations and expectations for the new structure, LG has set an ambitious
management goal for this year. In 2003, LG's ordinary profit stood at KRW 3.1
trillion on sales of KRW 85 trillion. In 2004, LG plans to raise ordinary profit
and sales by 42% and 12% year-on-year respectively. This year's ordinary profit
target is KRW 4.4 trillion and the sales target is KRW 95 trillion. LG plans to
increase the R&D investments by 31% from last year to KRW 9.4 trillion in
2004.


If you are
interested in reading more company information, please visit www.lg.co.kr/english



Drive specifications:




These are the
specifications of this drive, found at the LGE
webpage:




































































































































































































Compatible
with all DVD formats.


Store
up to 4.7 GB on 1 DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW and DVD±R/RW disc


Bum
and Read all major formats of DVD and CD media


DVD
video bumed can be read on most DVD players and DVD-ROM
drives


2
MB buffer memory with buffer underrun prevention technology


Write
Speed (DVD+R) : 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 12x, 16x PCAV

 
   

Write
Speed (DVD+R DL) : 2.4x , 4x CLV

 
   

Write
Speed (DVD-R) : 2x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 16x PCAV

 
   

Write
Speed (DVD+RW) : 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV

 
   

Write
Speed (DVD-RW) : 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x CLV

 
   

Write
Speed (DVD-RAM) : 2x, 3x ZCLV (Ver.2.2), 3x-5x
PCAV(Ver.2.2)

 
   

Write
Speed (CD-R) : 4x, 8x, 16x CLV, 24x, 32x, 40x ZCLV

 
   

Write
Speed (CD-RW) : 4x, 10x,16x CLV,24x ZCLV

 
   

(High
Speed: 10x, Ultra Speed: 16x, 24x)

 
   

Read
Speed (CD-ROM) : Max 40x

 
   

Read
Speed (DVD-ROM) : Max 16x

 
   

Write
Method(DVD-RAM) : Random write

 
   

Write
Method(DVD-R/RW) : Disk-at-Once, Incremental Recording

 
   

Write
Method(DVD-R/RW) : Restricted Overwrite (DVD-RW only)

 
   

Write
Method(DVD+R) : Sequential Recording

 
   

Write
Method(DVD+RW) : Random Write

 
   

Write
Method(CD-R/RW) : Disk-at-Once, Track-at-Once

 
   

Write
Method(CD-R/RW) : Session-at-Once, Packet Write

 
   

Data
Transfer Rate(CD) : Max 6,000KB/s, DVD: Max 22.16
Mbytes/s

 
   

Access
Time(CD) : 125 ms, DVD-ROM 145 ms, DVD-RAM 165 ms

 
   

Buffer
Size : 2MB with buffer under run prevention technology

 
   

Loading
Type : Motorized Tray

 
   

Interface
Type : USB 2.0 / IEEE 1394

 
   

Compatible
Formats Write : DVD-RAM, DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, CD-R/RW

 
   

Compatible
Formats Read : DVD-RAM, DVDR/RW, DVD+R/RW, DVD-ROM

 
   

Compatible
Formats Read : CD-R/RW, CD-ROM Mode 1, 2 CD-DA, CD-IFMV

 
   

Compatible
Formats Read : CD-ROM XA, Mixed CD, CD-Extra, CD-Text

 
   

Compatible
Formats Read : CD-Plus, Photo-CD, Video CD

 
   

W
x D x H : 163.2 x 244.7 x 54.0 mm

 
   

Weight
: 1460g

 
   

OS
: Windows 2000 Professional, XP Home Edition

 

The specifications
are very good, the only drawbacks we could see is that it only supports 40x CD
reading and writing. It should also write with P-CAV technology, which is
promising for low recording times and high average recording speeds.


What's inside the box?




Let us start
out pretty easy by taking a look at what we got and what the box
contained.


 


The drive we
received was a retail drive that came in a nice looking box, but to us the
content of the box is more important:



Looks to be a
pretty good bundle, but let us take a detailed look at what we got.


This is what
the Retail bundle consists of:



  • The drive
    itself

  • Program
    installation CD (Nero 6 Express and Cyberlink Power DVD and Power Producer)

  • Manual
  • Software
    quick guide

  • Power
    supply

  • Power cable
  • USB 2.0 cable
  • Firewire cable

A very good
bundle, but we would still like to see some empty discs included. At least a 5X
DVD-RAM disc, as these are hard to find in many stores.


Now it's time
to take a look at the drive itself:


 


The drive has
a very nice look, in this image you can see the rubber stands of the external
enclosure.


 


Our sample was
produced in Korea and has a production date of December 2004.


 


On the back we
have the IEE 1394 Firewire connectors as well as an USB 2.0 connector. In
addition of course, is a power connector, and finally an on/off
switch.


Now, let us
connect the drive and check out the features and program bundle of this drive on
the next page…


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