LG's GBW-H10N Blu-ray burner reviewed

If you need to store 25GB of data on a single disc, and you need it done (relatively) fast, LG's GBW-H10N offers up single-layer Blu-ray burning at a currently unprecedented 4x speed. Sure, there's a few other options out there, but this 3-in-1 offering sports a write speed that's twice as quick as the BenQ BW1000. As tough as these things have been to actually locate, the fine folks over at HardwareZone were able to get their hands on a unit and give it a good once over. The burner performed essentially as advertised, but the speediness came with a tradeoff -- while you can burn a myriad of formats ranging from CD-R / RW, DVD±R / RW, DVD±R DL, DVD-RAM, and BD-R, you won't be able to make use of those super spacious 50GB dual-layer BD-R discs. While the 4x label may be the primary selling point, the biggest boon was said to be its compatibility with a smorgasbord of media; many first-run Blu-ray burners have been annoyingly picky, but playing nice with basically every brand of media is quite a nice perk for the LG. By garnering a "very good" rating, the GBW-H10N proved to be a satisfactory solution for those who can live without BD-R DL capability, but your time should probably be worth a good bit of money (upwards of $700) before you pull the trigger on this one.

[almost drunk @ Sep 6th 2006 4:05AM]

I still would rather spend the $700 on pr0n.

[Will B @ Sep 6th 2006 8:01AM]

I didn't think Microsoft was going to support Blu-Ray?

[Dave @ Sep 6th 2006 8:00AM]

GO0o LG make BDs faster! We trust in you! :)

[ralphg @ Sep 6th 2006 10:52AM]

How long does it take to burn 25GB at 4x speed?

1x = 150KB/sec.
4x = 600KB/sec.

25GB = 26,214,000KB

Time to burn = 26,214,000 / 600
= 43,690 secs
= 12.1 hours

Double time that for error testing and pre-burn checking. Correct my calculations, if they are wrong, please.

[zombieflanders @ Sep 6th 2006 11:00AM]

BD speeds aren't the same as CD/DVD speeds. If you had read the article, you would have found this:

"Since this drive is rated at 4x for BD-R media, the transfer rate should be 17,980KB/s according to Nero and it also predicted that our 25GB of data would be completed in around 21 minutes. That didn't turn out to be the case as the entire process actually took 1hr and 10 minutes, which was much longer than the expected time. To be fair, Nero did report the writing speed as 4x at the end."

[maemotaku @ Sep 6th 2006 4:07PM]

Why would LG release a Blu-ray burner that can't burn DL 50GB discs? 50GB is one of the main selling points of the whole Blu-ray campagin. No sale here.

[EdgeCuttersTV @ Sep 7th 2006 7:12PM]

Check out EdgeCuttersTV, a tech show featuring Sony's Blu-Ray

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmaeLpdh8zo