 "LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray Writer")
Ever since Blu-ray emerged as the winner in the HD wars, there’s been a steady rise in the number of manufacturers offering drives based on this format for laptops – and now, desktops. LG, with its GGW-HXXX series, is one. The GGW-H20L drive is LG’s second generation drive with 6x BD-R writing support, HD-DVD playback, and a range of burning capabilities for normal CDs/DVDs, including Lightscribe.
Before we proceed, I’d like to point out that due to unavoidable circumstances we were badly hampered (to know about the problems we faced, read on). Being PC-based, the H20L is a straightforward drive with just a polished black front panel. Connectivity is via SATA, which has become common. There is nothing much to report about its profile, as it’s identical to just about every ODD out there.
For our performance tests, we used a rig with these specifications:
AMD X2 4800 with 2GB RAM
Nvidia 9800 GTX GPU
Viewsonic 22-inch Vx2255WM
BenQ 24-inch G2400W
Testing this drive was a challenge in itself. Due to a severe lack of Blu-ray media in India, we had to resort to getting these imported at quite a prohibitive cost. The discs we used were Sony’s 25 GB BD-RE 2X and Panasonic’s BD 25 GB 2x BD-R. Despite our best efforts, we were simply unable to secure faster media and due to this we had to change our plans. The initial idea was to do a comprehensive Blu-ray media shootout, but this obviously had to be scuttled.
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The burning software we used was Nero 8.3. The media test results were as follows:
- Panasonic 25 GB 2x BD-R – 24 minutes 30 seconds. (2x setting)
- Sony 25 GB 2x BD-RW – Average time of 35 minutes over 4 runs.
The multimedia tests were conducted by our AV expert Siddharth. For this we used a BenQ G2400W 24-inch monitor which has native support for HDCP, and a Viewsonic VX2255WM monitor. And here’s what Siddharth had to say:
For multimedia testing we used Independence Day BD, grasping it firmly while PowerDVD ultra loaded. Our BD was region B, which includes Europe and a few other nations, so that had to be set in the software options. Next we slid in the disc and measured the load time. Result: slightly long load time, maybe a few seconds into the noticeable zone. This perhaps was the only negative factor in the performance; once the images started moving, we were quite impressed.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS ADThere was no stutter whatsoever, except the obvious catching up when you scroll ahead suddenly. The image was very clear, presumably as we were viewing pure full HD content. The minute film grain was visible too, in all its perceivable beauty and naturality; this is a function of the monitor, LG drive, and of course the source format that we were using (Blu-ray).
Another noteworthy factor is that the drive’s silent; it doesn’t disturb viewers at all. But with an HD uncompressed audio track thrown at you, there is little scope of picking up any other sound besides the score of the film!
The LG GGW-H20L represents what can be currently termed as ‘bleeding edge’ technology and hence costs an atrocious Rs 29,000. This puts its out of the reach of just about everyone, considering that’s the cost of PS3! We recommend this only if you have money to burn, are a “MUST HAVE NOW!” fanatic, and are willing to put up with the lack of media availability for backup.
Do bear in mind that for this kind of money one can easily assemble a 3 TB backup server, utilizing simple hardware, or pick up a Blu-ray compatible gaming console that will anyway offer significantly greater value for money in immediate returns.