AfterDawn: News

LG announces 4X Blu-Ray recorder

The hardware company LG has been making strides to incoporate it's brand into just about everything in our daily lives. From cellular phones to refrigerators, LG seems to have a grasp on making things people want to use.

Shown off briefly at this years Consumer Electronics Show (CES), LG has unveiled that they will launch their GBW-H10N4X Blu-Ray recorder in June. Expect prices to be in the neighborhood of €799 ($1,020/£546).



Although their plans to bring higher speed recording to the masses first, may turn out to be a bit premature. LG has also announced one slight shortcoming of the new drive. It will not be able to record on the 50Gb Dual Layer Blu-Ray disks. 25Gb single layered disks are the only high definition recording option.

The drive will, however be able to record previous popular media such as CD-R/RW, DVD-RAM and DVD±R/RW. Additionally it will run at up to 4x for BD-R media only. It will read single-layer BD-ROM and BD-R discs at 4.8x, dropping to 4x for dual-layer BD-ROMs and 2x for single-layer BD-REs.

Specs:
Read speeds:

BD-ROM (SL) 4.8x max.
BD-ROM (DL) 4x max.
BD-R (SL) 4.8x max.
BD-RE (SL) 2x CLV
DVD-ROM (Single/Dual) 16x/8x max.
DVD-R/RW/Dual 10x/10x/8x max
DVD-RAM 2x, 3x, 5x PCAV
DVD-Video (CSS) 8x max. (Single/Dual Layer)
DVD+R/+RW/Double 10x/10x/8x max.
CD-R/RW/ROM 40x/40x/40x max.
CD-DA (DAE) 40x max.

Burn speeds:

BD-R (SL) 2x, 4x CLV
BD-RE (SL) 2x CLV
DVD-R 2x, 4x CLV, 8x, 12x PCAV
DVD-R Dual Layer 2x, 4x CLV
DVD-RW 1x, 2x, 4x, 6x CLV
DVD-RAM 2x, 3x ZCLV, 5x PCAV
DVD+R 2.4x, 4x CLV, 8x ZCLV, 12x PCAV
DVD+R Double Layer 2.4x, 4x CLV
DVD+RW 2.4x, 4x, 6x, 8x ZCLV
CD-R 4x, 8x CLV
CD-RW 4x, 8x, 10x CLV

Source:
The Register

Written by: Dave Horvath @ 26 May 2006 6:21

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• 38 comments

• gogochar

  I bet it takes all night to record 25 GB. I'll never buy this product. 4x Speed is not fast enough with today's media. I will, however, buy it if speeds reach 20 or higher. Guess I'll be waiting forever, but that's the risk I'm willing to take.

  26.5.2006 07:42 #1

• ofolion

  Very interesting...
  
  Speeds very slow at the moment but will proberly increase...
  
  Would be a big problem if you were burning like 10gB+ as it would take several hours never mind 25/50gB...
  
  I suspect they will not come into the mainstream for burning for a long time unless burning speeds increase.

  26.5.2006 07:52 #2

• plutonash

  Lg makes crappy phones why invest in a Blu-ray player if it cant burn DL 50gigs. What a waste of 1000 bucks.

  26.5.2006 08:27 #3

• Cman

  What difference does it make HOW fast this machine will burn. With all the anti-copying mechanisms in place on TV's and Receivers such as no recording from HDMI/Component Video sources, all you're gonna get is a HD burn of a analog source.
  
  Is that worth over a grand? I think not..

  26.5.2006 08:34 #4

• wolf123

  Is this a stand alone or a drive in the computer either way its awsome that it will Write the old format and the new format I new if they wanted too they could put them together in one unit.

  26.5.2006 09:05 #5

• GrayArea

  Personally I would not invest in Blu-ray OR HD-DVD technology at this point. IMHO the multi layer (more than dual layer) disc formats that are soon to be introduced will eat both these formats for lunch before Blu-ray and HD-DVD even get established. The fact that these greedy A-holes could not agree on one standard is another reason I will not support either of these formats.
  
  Sorry to go all negative but they can keep their shiny new overpriced, DRMed to death, format war discs.

  26.5.2006 09:19 #6

• hot_ice

  Why even consider selling a product that is half useless, I guess its also safe to say, that the other half is half useless...lloloolloll
  
  Can burn 25 gb, but not 50 gb? What's the point. Immediate flop on sales to be expected.

  26.5.2006 10:14 #7

• vgaddict8

  Sweet.... lets hope I just pop in my ps3 disc into that drive and then just rip the stuff and reburn..kidda like ps2.... no strong modd protection. And someone come up with ps3 swap magic.

  26.5.2006 14:20 #8

• sammorris

  Let's see 4x, 4x what though? If it's the same relative speed as DVD (i.e. 25/4.7 x what is now) then a disc would take a mere 57 minutes to record. Slow enough.

  26.5.2006 15:04 #9

• ripfuel

  Of course they will bring higher speeds to this type of writer, but hey they got to make millions on the lower speeds first. Just think of how much $$$ they would loose by introducing the 40X HDDVD Writer, & don't think for one second that it is not coming. I say in the next 7-10 yrs it will be here. We will be burning these HD DVD's at 40X or higher with outstanding results. Technology just keeps getting better & better, don't knock the science...knock the MPAA if anything.

  26.5.2006 18:14 #10

• DarkJello

  When it comes down to it, this burner at 4x is faster then a DVD player at a greater speed just because it is writing a good deal more data. And when it comes down to it, I probably wouldn't burn at anything faster even if I had the choice with how much money it would be if the burn fails, might as well do it right.

  26.5.2006 20:13 #11

• Cinnjerm

  "With all the anti-copying mechanisms in place on TV's and Receivers such as no recording from HDMI/Component Video sources, all you're gonna get is a HD burn of a analog source."-
  
  Let's not act like someone isn't going to break any kind of copy protection within the first few years this technology is out. I seem to remember the MPAA saying that no one would break the encryption on DVDs and, well, they did. It's all a matter of time and they'll probably do it long before i own either one.

  26.5.2006 22:02 #12

• JaguarGod

  here is approx how BD will record at different speeds on a single layer (double the times for dual layer recording):
  
  1x = 93 minutes
  2x = 46.3 minutes
  4x = 23 minutes
  6x = 15.5 minutes
  8x = 11.5 minutes
  10x = 9.25 minutes
  12x = 8 minutes
  
  The limit on speed is based on the hardwares speed, so approx 12x will be max. Since only 4x is supported now, the other speeds are theoretical...
  
  The times were calculated using a simple formula taking into account that 1x for Blue Ray is 36Mbps.

  26.5.2006 22:13 #13

• kishkash

  who will need a Blueray burner if most people will be staying with standard DVD,
  
  untill the price drops to a comparison of todays DVD players and burners, its just a gadget for the must have it crowd.
  
  When Sonys PS3 comes out let's see how Blueray will be utalised in the games and film market.

  27.5.2006 02:36 #14

• sammorris

  36Mbps? How did we come to that conclusion?

  27.5.2006 02:40 #15

• bluedogs

  As a small retail outlet and seeing the amount of returned LG DVD burners there are (7 in one week, and im not the only one in my area) I will not be buying or selling these until much later.
  
  But I now know why they are coming back to me, LG is neglecting them
  
  Life's Not So Good

  27.5.2006 05:19 #16

• madman91

  It doesn't matter what drives they make. Don't buy anything new until the competition brings on the price drops!

  27.5.2006 07:09 #17

• sammorris

  My LG drive's fine, dunno what's happened to you...

  27.5.2006 14:30 #18

• flyingv

  JaguarGod:
  Thanks for the numbers, I was crunching them in my head when scrolling thru the thread. These numbers sound right for the 25GB format but the price is still way out there and most people aren't going to go for it right away. I remember my first 4X cd burner... top of the line - $250 bucks!!! Now, people are giving them away because 4X is way too slow!!! It wasn't long ago when 16X DVD burners were that price. I was at a supercenter last night (god help me!!!) and they have 16X DL/DVD burners out now for less than $50!!! So, comparativealy speaking, the prices should be dropping shortly enough so that someone I know will have one I can go check out and see if it's worth getting one - at a much later date. I can buy DL DVD's now for less than $3 a piece and that is all the storage space I need for 99% of what I use them for.

  28.5.2006 06:28 #19

• Cinnjerm

  "I can buy DL DVD's now for less than $3 a piece and that is all the storage space I need for 99% of what I use them for."-
  
  Word right.

  28.5.2006 09:41 #20

• sammorris

  My first CDRW drives, short-lived though they were (neither lasted more than 2 months and I havent bought anything from acer or benq since) were £95 for 40x20x10 with no DVD functionality, works about $180 in today's money.

  28.5.2006 13:44 #21

• JaguarGod

  @sammorris,
  
  That number was taken from Blue-Ray.com. 1x is defined as 36Mbps:
  
  Blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_speed" class="korostus" target="_blank">http://www.Blu-ray.com/faq/#bluray_speed
  
  It also discusses the limitation on speed and estimates that as fast as 12x may be possible with a 10,000 RPM drive.

  28.5.2006 14:01 #22

• sammorris

  Only 10,000rpm? Hmm, not great is it? I seem to remember CD-ROMs achieving 22-24,000 I think.
  

  Athlon XP 3000+, Arctic Cooling Copper Silent2l, MSI MS-6775, 1GB (2x512MB) Nanya-Elixir PC3200 CAS3, 2x WD Caviar SE 250GB S-ATA, Maxtor Diamondmax +8 40GB IDE, Sapphire 256MB Radeon X800 Pro, LG GSA-4163B, SuperFlower SF-464T2-S, Hiper Type-R 480W.
  <logos removed by request of herbsman>

  28.5.2006 14:05 #23

• megaBLS

  I proud of all of these people that try to see how far they can push technology. One question. WHY DO PEOPLE NEED A DISK TO HOLD 25 GIG. It's pointless. It's like the terabyte. No one is ever going to need it.

  28.5.2006 20:54 #24

• sammorris

  If it wasn't needed, they wouldn't make it. I could fill a terabyte, easy. 25GB discs aren't necessarily for now, but for the future, and when the time comes that games need them (after all Vista when fully extracted is looking at 15GB, above that of a 9GB DL, though admittedly it may compress onto one disc).
  
  Console games don't need installing, so they can't be compressed, and as such will use that "extracted" amount. And don't forget we don't need 25GB straight away, that's just the new limit, we only need ABOVE 9. We'll be at 25 in not too long, mark my words.
  
  Oh, and if we don't need 25GB, how do you propose to make 1080p films then eh? Put a new disc in every 30 minutes? I think not.

  29.5.2006 02:43 #25

• flyingv

  Well put!!! I could also fill a Terabite disc full easilly. Within the next 5+ years, OS's will need large amount of space and the DL DVD's just won't be enough - for now they work great, but future tech. will require much more space for back-ups and other apps. Remember 5 years ago when a 20GB HD was large and 100GB was either unherd of or to expensive for the average consumer? Now the average HD is at least 120 GB and I know some people who run at least a 250GB HD and have another 250GB as a secondary HD!!!

  30.5.2006 09:23 #26

• sammorris

  In 2002 I was going to have a second hard disk to aid my 13GB Seagate Medalist. Think that may have been 5400rpm ATA-66. I chose a 60GB and he said "60GB that's a lot of memory". In the end it wouldn't fit into my crap OEM case!!! lol
  I ended up with a mere 16GB IBM Deskstar (before they became Hitachis).

  30.5.2006 11:48 #27

• Mr-Movies

  If we listen to some of the people on this thread we would have never broke the 640K program barrier or moved from floppies to CD’s and beyond. Comparing companies as being greedy because they are competing for a standard in their favor is short sighted, should companies try to fail instead? Comparing max RPM speeds to a device that does multiple layers and larger quantities is not comparing apples to apples. LG drives are good drives people will bring back anything these days and normally there is nothing wrong with what they bring back.
  
  I’m glad to see BD on the shelves as the price will drop sooner. Hopefully more manufactures will come out with burners for us, the more competition the better it is for the consumer. I hope they don’t drag their feet like they did on DL were media is very limited still and is just now getting reasonable in price. The price is too high for me at the moment but it would be nice to put 3 uncompressed movies on one disc not to mention the personal files I could load onto it. The drive may be high priced but what about the media right now is it $60 a disc, like DL’s were or is it even higher.
  
  Sammorris, Get rid of that crap OEM case. LOL
  

  31.5.2006 04:41 #28

• sammorris

  Lol agree with most of that Mr. Movies, though I won't be buying a Bluray drive until they're well under £100, and preferably 8x4 at least. DL functionality 'd be good too.
  Lol @ the OEM case.
  This was 2002, a Pentium 3 450mhz on an MSI mATX motherboard with a brown PCB (when that was the norm), and it until then had integrated 8MB Rage Pro Video, no AGP slots, only PCI and CNR. Top of the line 32x6 DVD-ROM drive it had lol.
  I since bought a new prebuilt in 2004, the current system in terms of CPU, Mobo and one optical drive. The rest changed for a Super Flower SF-464-T2-S Case, dirt cheap and great looks, an X800Pro AGP Video card (I still havent moved to PCI express), an LG GSA-4163 DVD writer, hercules sound card and new fans/heatsinks. changed to 1GB RAM from 512, original stick got fried by PSU #3. PSU #4 is a Hiper so things should hum till I buy my next system, hopefully in about a month's time. (PSU 1 was a solid 250W OEM inWin PSU, #2 was an ebuyer extra value 600W that wasn't good for 300. Quickly replaced with a Qtec 450 that caused me major hassle last year in fried components. Still, life goes on!)

  31.5.2006 16:10 #29

• ScrewU

  It is my professional opinion that L G stands for Load of Garbage.

  31.5.2006 17:58 #30

• sammorris

  And it is my professional opinion that that statement is garbage. If all you've come here to do is slag off a brand without any evidence, you can return to that can, Oscar.

  1.6.2006 01:49 #31

• JaguarGod

  I bet those Drives will be made in Japan, so they will probably be very good. I am pleased with the quality from Made in Japan Electronics and media. LG is a brand I have heard of and they would not make these drives crap...
  
  I bet Sony will be watching them like hawks in terms of quality control as well, because if the drives are going to be bad, then the format might be blamed. What happens if someone buys a blank disc for $50 and a drive for (I can't see the price so I am assuming $1000), and they burn say one coaster out of ten... That would make the format seem as an unreliable one and people will lose trust and stray away from it and it will die very soon as a means of backing up data.
  
  Oh, and I was reading about that crap OEM case. I have one of those as well and it is one of those Micro towers. Well that thing doesn't even fit 1 HDD. After a bit of work on it, I added 2 Hard Drives and some fans. I totally tore out all the plastic from the case and took out the sides. I then took my drill and started making holes and added a custom made HDD/Floppy/HDD mount for it. Everything fits. Sure, I have cables haning out everywhere and the DVD Drives stick out 2 inches in the front, but it now performs very well and people always comment on the way it looks!!

  1.6.2006 15:49 #32

• flyingv

  It dosen't matter how it looks as long as it does what you want it to do. People comment on some of "Frankenstiens" I've put together but once they see how well they work, they want me to work on theirs as well.
  

  
  "...Just another brick in the wall" -Pink Floyd.
  Please, don't become another "Brick!!!"
  

  2.6.2006 06:41 #33

• sammorris

  I can't be bothered by all that. I'm getting myself a proper case from the start:
  
  

  Athlon XP 3000+, Arctic Cooling Copper Silent2l, MSI MS-6775, 1GB (2x512MB) Nanya-Elixir PC3200 CAS3, 2x WD Caviar SE 250GB S-ATA, Maxtor Diamondmax +8 40GB IDE, Sapphire 256MB Radeon X800 Pro, LG GSA-4163B, SuperFlower SF-464T2-S, Hiper Type-R 480W.
  <logos removed by request of herbsman>

  2.6.2006 07:50 #34

• Mr-Movies

  Very NICE, Sweet!

  6.6.2006 08:39 #35

• sammorris

  Yeah, as gay as this sounds, it was one of them "love at first sight" things, but in an I like the look of it fashion, not an I want to do something special to it sort of way. Oh, OK it was that sense too but only by putting a UV cold cathode in it!

  6.6.2006 08:42 #36

• flyingv

  sammorris:
  It looks like an industral kitchen appliance of some sort-indestructable but modern!!!

  6.6.2006 08:46 #37

• sammorris

  Industrial kitchen appliances don't have cool LED screens, and blue lights.
  

  6.6.2006 11:09 #38