LG's Super Multi Blue GGW-H10N: a Blu-ray writer and HD DVD reader for the PC

LG is all over the dual-format optical game this next week. In addition to the HD DVD + Blu-ray combo player they just announced, they also touting a new Super Multi Blue dual-format drive for PCs. Not only will the GGW-H10N playback your Blu-ray Disc, DVD, CD, and HD DVD media, it'll also record -- yes record -- up to 50GB of data to dual-layer BD-R/BD-RE media. You also get 4x recording to 25GB single-layer BD-R discs -- doubling the industry's standard rate. The drive is also the first to support "SecurDisc" technology co-developed with Nero. That gives you the ability to secure your burns with password encryption, digital signature, checksum integrity checker for sharing data securely and with peace of mind. Expect the new drive to ship before March in the US for about $1,200 -- a worthwhile, convenience premium when compared to purchasing a $760 dual-layer Blu-ray burner and $199 Xbox 360 HD DVD drive (and all appropriately applied magic) separately. No pictures yet (that's their older, Blu-ray burner pictured) but will slap one up as soon LG sees fit to release them.

[Ebzy @ Jan 5th 2007 6:51AM]

I know that I'm not asking for much but when will they release one that also burns hd-dvd?

[Dave @ Jan 5th 2007 7:36AM]

Why would you want hd DVD burner? They are low capacity and not cost efficient.
Also no one except Toshiba makes hardware for hd DVD...

[rocky @ Jan 6th 2007 12:02PM]

What are you talking about. HD-DVDs are waaay more efficient to product. It's blu-ray that's crazy expensive. That's why BLu-Ray movies are 30 bucks a pop compared to 20 for HD_DVDs, DVD manufacturers only have to slightly modify their production facilities compared to the massive overhaul that Blu-Ray production requires. GEt the facts straight man.

[John @ Jan 5th 2007 8:25AM]

What's up with the tan chassis? Are things coming full circle? Or is that silver?

[tk. @ Jan 5th 2007 8:36AM]

"Why would you want hd DVD burner? They are low capacity and not cost efficient."

30Gb is only considered low capacity against the blu-ray capacity that they've said they can get.

HD DVD are WAAAAAY cheaper to make than blu-ray, as the HD DVD lines are just technologically advanced DVD lines. Blu-ray needs all new lines to produce them.

upgrades/new lines. I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain upgrades are cheaper than creating all new lines.

This player/burner is a big step in the format war, given LG is backing blu-ray.

[Ted Brown @ Jan 5th 2007 12:09PM]

"30Gb is only considered low capacity against the blu-ray capacity that they've said they can get.

HD DVD are WAAAAAY cheaper to make than blu-ray, as the HD DVD lines are just technologically advanced DVD lines. Blu-ray needs all new lines to produce them.

upgrades/new lines. I'm not sure, but I'm fairly certain upgrades are cheaper than creating all new lines.

This player/burner is a big step in the format war, given LG is backing blu-ray."

That is grade A bullshit mister. Blank HD-DVD disks costs the same if not more than a blank bluray disk. No matter what happens in the commercial market, bluray disks will always be the preferred choice in home burning. Especially with the advent of these combo drives, why would anyone choose a burnable HD-DVD disk that has less disk space and potentially costs more? Maybe 15GB is enough for you, but that is easily eaten up with some HD video.

[Andy @ Jan 5th 2007 9:05AM]

a step in the right direction!

[icepop4who @ Jan 5th 2007 9:10AM]

lol. it better not be beige or else i'm gonna throw up.

i'm seeing a good future for HD DVD even though i'm a natural blu-ray supporter. VHS won because it was cheaper, not because it was more technologically advance.(well there was also the reason that VHS had better LP and EP settings.)

i would only store HD movies on a blu-ray disk, not data, (which means the amount of storage matters little to me) given that there are more blu-ray players out there than PC drives. I would use AIT-5 tape storage with native capacity of 400GB (more or less 1TB when compressed), although the price is steep at $2500 per drive. (i don't know how much a tape cost). btw, AIT-6 with 800GB of storage is coming Q1/Q2 2007, if all goes well.

[Nick @ Jan 5th 2007 11:28AM]

VHS won the consumers.. Beta won the professionals. People act as if Beta doesnt exist anymore. All of the masters that we store are DigiBeta.

[Plastricks @ Jan 5th 2007 9:35AM]

Poop is good with chianti and fish sauce. If you dip it in liquid nitrogen you can polish it with a dremel. I hate beige. When are they gonna make a Quantum Drive that can burn human clones? I wont be happy until that day.

[Alex @ Jan 5th 2007 10:32AM]

Apparently at MacWorld it will be launched in the Mac Pro as a Super Duper Drive.

[icepop4who @ Jan 5th 2007 10:51PM]

believe it or not, Betamax itself was defeated by VHS. Betacam tape and digibeta is an evolved format of betamax, so specifically it's not betamax. When you say betamax, you are talking about the consumer format, and not referring to "betamax 2.0"

thanks for enlightening me about the digibeta thing though.

P.S. there was a rumor that VHS won because more porn was released on VHS than betamax. i don't know if this is true, but i still doubt it.

[Tony Rayo @ Jan 5th 2007 11:31AM]

Like most things, I'm going to wait about 12 - 18 months to see how things go (I'm either buying a blu-ray drive or a dual drive though, I know that), and by then there will most likely be a nice version released at a reasonable price by Plextor (which is still the only optical drive company I like to buy from). I still have a 12x CD-R/4x CD-RW(? I think?) drive from them I got some x-mas'es back after doing some research on what the best drives were. I've stuck by them with my purchase of a DVD-+R drive and a faster DVD-+DL drive as well as recommending the drive to at least three friends (one whom bought a marked down Lite-On drive only to have it fail 2 weeks later... not saying it's a bad company but I have trust in those crazy germans at Plextor).

Speaking of which, from a technical (rather, techie/geek) stand-point, I think it's great that Blu-ray is coming out of the gates with a burnable pc-drive (although to be fair, Sony had already been using similar blue wavelength burning technology with professionals since 2003 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Professional_Disc_for_DATA - called PDD or ProDATA). I just hope the higher price doesn't kill it off, because from what I can tell, if they stop using the MPEG2 codec (although I think that was the fault of early Sony encoding software where this was the only option, I believe newer Blu-ray movies use VC-1, don't quote me on that though).

I will always be a little sad that these two giants couldn't come together... I think there were too many businesses involved as well as some very inflexible ones at that. HD-DVD is defiantly staged to be the user-friendlier format, but from a geek standpoint I like Blu-ray more, as well as from a storage and long-lastablity standpoint. Damn well better find a way to play BD movies in Linux tho (oh well, PS3 does both =p).

- Tony R.

[Tony Rayo @ Jan 5th 2007 11:38AM]

Oops sorry for the double post, but if anyone managed to get through/bother reading my post, what I meant to say about MPEG2 is that if they stop using at as a compression codec and use a more modern one instead such as VC-1, I believe the quality will live up to and surpass HD-DVD. The 2nd generation of drives are coming out now as well as a new generation of Blu-ray disc (I don't follow the HD-DVD scene but I'm sure they are trying as hard as they can too to impress) so we should finally be able to see if it was a matter of poor decoders/other hardware not doing it's job/poor media mastering or if Blu-ray is just not going to look that great compared to HD-DVD (which I refuse to admit atm).

- Tony R.

[artifex @ Jan 5th 2007 3:07PM]

whichever format gets an updated DVDD-like program for it first, so we can make personal backups of our discs, will probably win the format war :)

[Ebzy @ Jan 6th 2007 12:12PM]

ermmmm...
rocky...
i'm saying this in a nice way but...
it would be nice if you can reply to the one who actually made that statement rather than me

[SD @ Jan 17th 2007 8:53PM]

"Maybe 15GB is enough for you, but that is easily eaten up with some HD video."

Sigh, we all know where this is going. HD-DVD has already announced triple layer 51 gig disks. Blue Ray will soon come out with 60 gig. Then it will be the super fast, re writable in 2 seconds, five tetrabyte nose implants that shine in the dark and power your automobile. HD-DVD and Blue Ray hardware will fill the landfill sites in Southern AR.

Meanwhile the consumers get screwed while Sony and friends pose topless in hopes attracting large sums of money to polish their nipples. I want to watch HD movies and store lots of data. Please supply one format to do this as I will only live for another 50 years or so and can only make so much money during that time. Blue Ray vs HD-DVD? Who cares? Just make it work for a reasonable price.

[JAC @ Jan 23rd 2007 8:19PM]

Its not the Blu-ray disks that cost money... Its converting the plants to manufacture them. After the initial cost the price would level pretty quick.