LG GSA-4167B DVD Writer

This writer performs better than most in the DVD+/-R format

and what's more, it doesn't disappoint you in other formats either.  We

tested it for burning times in  commonly used formats and found it achieve

satisfactory scores in almost all of them. Comparing it to the winner of our

shootout last month, Sony's DRU-810A, the drive comprehensively beat the

latter in burning data from hard-drive to DVD+/-R disks. It took Hour="8">

8:15

(mins:secs) and

8:17

respectively for DVD+/-R, which is appreciably lower than the time Sony had

recorded. The drive followed the same trend in copying disks, clocking Minute="44" Hour="8">

8:44

and

10:35

respectively. It matched Sony appreciably in CD writing tests, lagging only in

writing to an audio disk from the hard drive. It clocked Hour="15">

3:01

to copy an audio disk, by far the least time amongst all DVD writers we

reviewed in the past two months.

Price: Rs. 3,000 (1yr warranty)

Key Specs: DVD-RAM format support, 16x max DVD read speed

Contact: LG Electronics India, Delhi . Tel: 9899302074. E-mail: response@lgezbuy.com

RQS# E67 or SMS 130467 to 9811800601

However, it lagged behind Sony in writing tests

for dual layer DVD, where it took 20:18 to burn from hard drive - more than

Sony by about two minutes. The writer is a decent performer when it comes to

reading from a data or audio CD but fails to do more than average in reading DVD

formats. However, it was pretty average in read tests where it recorded 7:71 and

7:69 for reading DVD+R and DVD-R disks respectively. Plus, we faced a few

niggles while performing read tests in the DVD+RW format, where it recorded an

average read speed of 6.14x after throwing 'Un-recovered Read Error'

initially. The firmware update program is pretty easy to use and displays

additional information such as firmware version of the writer. An update is

available for the drive's firmware and we advise you to update the drive

before you put it to use for your burning or backup needs. The software package

bundled with the writer also includes a couple of multimedia tools from

Cyberlink for DVD movie playback and other common multimedia requirements. It

comes bundledwith Nero Suite, CyberLink Power DVD, and a firmware live update

program.

Bottom Line: With a moderate price and writing

performance that would keep it in the elite group, the product only lags behind

slightly in reading speeds. Overall, this one is worth a buy.

Anadi Misra