Review: LG
GSA-5163D
Reviewer: OC-Freak
Provided by: LG
South Korea.
Firmware:
A102
Manufactured: December
2004
LG 'โ 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.
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 | |
Store | |
Bum | |
DVD | |
2 | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
(High | |
Read | |
Read | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Write | |
Data | |
Access | |
Buffer | |
Loading | |
Interface | |
Compatible | |
Compatible | |
Compatible | |
Compatible | |
Compatible | |
W | |
Weight | |
OS |
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…