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So you think we have reached full capacity with the 4.7GB that DVD brings, then maybe you should think again.  As the quality of picture images and audio reproduction has improved, so the demands for increased storage capacity has grown exponentially, and just maybe the manufacturers felt that it was time for new innovations to drive sales figures upwards, so dual-layer technology made its appearance. 

Of course this is a simplistic view of all the hard work undertaken by those in R&D to develop the technology but the end result was what counted.  With dual layer drives and the appropriate media, disk capacity now attained the heady heights of 8.5GB.  Somehow I do not think we have reached the limitations of disk storage capacity but that is for the future.

The LG GSA-4120B is the first dual layer drive that I have seen.  The drive’s outward appearance hardly looks remarkable although it is presentable and would not look out of place in a home entertainment environment.  There is an eject button and LED status light on the front but, for some reason, no headphone socket.  The back of the unit houses audio, power and IDE connections plus the standard jumper pins in case you want to change the drive from the default master to slave condition.  An audio and IDE ribbon cable are included in the box along with four retaining screws.

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Installation of the drive is straightforward.  Even if you are nervous about adding a new device to the computer, there should be no problem.  The drive slots easily into a spare 5.25 inch drive bay and connecting the various leads takes but a few minutes and the task will be completed.

LG has certainly attempted to pull out all the stops with regards to the range of media that the drive will support.  Let’s deal with the basic CD specifications first.  The drive can read and write CD-R media at 40X while write speed drops to 24X when CD-RW (Read/Write) media is involved.  Although these speeds are not exception, there are more than adequate for most eventualities.

DVD is the arena where this drive comes into its element.  The drive will write to DVD+R media at 12X and DVD-R at 8X.  Both these formats drop to 4X when the media is RW.  Write speed for the less popular DVD-RAM standard is 5X.  The recently introduced DVD+R DL media can be written to at 2.4X.  Unfortunately I was unable to test all of these claims due to a lack of appropriate media – DVD-RAM disks are hard to find while DVD+R DL are still being priced at a premium rate - £6 per disk was the cheapest I could find which was a tad too expensive for testing purposes. 

However with the test I was able to complete, the results were satisfactory.  Copying a 4.3GB of data to DVD-R took just under eight minutes.  DVD+R sped along and copy the same data in less than 7 minutes 30 seconds.  Timings with CD-R/RW were up to standard.

As well as the drive and various bits & bobs, LG has bundled a number of software products (these are described on the box as a bonus) along with a CD-based User Manual.  You get copies of PowerDVD (for playing DVDs); Power Producer Gold (multimedia DVD authoring); Nero Express (a cut-down version of the popular burning software); and InCD (allowing you to format a disk so that it can be used as an external hard disk or floppy).  Regrettably you do not get any useable media.  While I was not expecting any DVD+R DL media (due to its price point), a couple of standard DVD disks would have been appreciated.

The LG GSA2140B product can be purchased for around £80 and would suit anybody running Windows 98SE or later.  It covers all the current available DVD standards with reasonable speed ratings.

http://www.lge.com/catalog/prodmodeldetail?actType=search&page=1&modelCategoryId=CTG1000658&categoryId=CTG1000500&parentId=CTG1000439&modelPrefix=400000&globalCode=GSA-4120B&globalSuffix=000000&model=NOTHING