This small, white, light-weight DVD writer hits the mark

9 Nov 2007 | 19:54 GMT

By Rob Kerr

---

Product: LG External Super Multi DVD Rewriter GSA E50N
Website: www.lg.com/gsae50n
System Requirements: Pentium III 1.0Ghz or higher. USB 2.0. 20GB free HDD space. Windows Vista Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Ultimate Edition; XP Home Edition, Professional, Media Center Edition; Windows 2000 Professional
Price: £50 - research price

---

WHENEVER A WHITE computer peripheral passes by our desk at The INQ for review, it screams “Apple” to us. Our immediate reaction is to back away very, very slowly and pretend we never saw it. All in a vague hope that it never existed so we can have a sigh a relief that another company hasn’t jumped on the Steve Jobs bandwagon.

The LG Slim Portable External Super Multi DVD Rewriter 8x or its catchier name, the GSA E50N first came to our attention in a pre-IFA announcement. Its press release goes on to call it the “sexiest, smallest and lightest DVD rewriter yet”, where external optical drives do not initially conjure up a sexy image. The drive does weigh in at 380g, so we get the light part. The physical dimensions are 156mm in width, 165mm in length and only 21mm in height – so the small part is self-explanatory. It’s just the other adjective we’re struggling over.

When we first unboxed the GSA E50N we noticed two connectors at the rear, one for power and the other a USB port for data. Our hearts sank, believing a drive of this size really needs two separate connectors just to run. The cable we initially came across in the box was a DC-Jack type affair terminating in a USB plug, for delivering power to the device. This was followed by a normal micro-USB cable, ending in a standard USB connector. Our spirits were raised when we discovered the device is powered by not only the latter cable, but also providing the data connection at the exact same time. Hurrah for LG! It’s a nice welcome alternative to the bulky power supplies that often weigh as much as the device itself, bizarrely enough.

The secondary power lead is just there to run the drive when the system can’t initially deliver the goods. Although we’re troubled by the concept of; if the laptop can’t deliver the power and data from the same cable, what makes LG think it can deliver power on its own by another? Perhaps a secondary unadvised product could be used to save battery-drain, such as this USB Mains Charger Adapter or a similar device.

In essence, the heart of the GSA E50N is a laptop optical drive. This is clearly seen in the lack of motorised functions from the ejection of a disc, which are found in all previous external models. Then again, the prior devices all have been larger bulkier products which if thrown at a wall, the wall would come off worse. This is the first “lite” external from them which isn’t based on their internal PC drives, so some changes are expected and welcomed.

The drive tray itself we found to be a tad flimsy and very movable from side to side, when exposed. Not as sturdy as we would have liked to have seen in an external robust drive. Also the drive caddy doesn’t fully extend from its housing when opened. This means that each and every disc used needs to be placed in the tray at an awkward angle, as the drive’s spindle is partly blocked by its encasing. Perhaps we’re nit-picking as it reminds us too much of a Mac, but after a few disc changes this does become a tad annoying.

There’s no ON/OFF switch on the device, which we found a tad irksome. This really means for laptop battery longevity you really need to disconnect the drive fully when not in use. As the drain on the laptops resources could be considerable even when the drive is just plugged in.

The GSA E50N supposedly ships with a CD of software; unfortunately our review unit arrived sans this disc. It has been confirmed that it’s normally accompanied by NERO Express, with CyberLink authoring/playback software – PowerProducer and PowerDVD. The Express version is good enough for the target users of this drive, as its features are all light and fluffy. From our investigations it does appear that LG have packed the previous version of NERO, version 7 when 8 has been around to OEMs since August. If LG sticks to its guns as usual, there’s no upgrade path to the latest and greatest which is a shame.

The drive does support a good array of formats, as shown below. Most of the common discs used in other drives, internal or otherwise are all present and correct. Previous drives of this ilk from LG can write to a DVD up to 18x, where as the GSA E50N only burns at a maximum of 8x. This is not a huge concern of ours as the speed as adequate for most needs. They’ve also bundled in the SecurDisc technology developed jointly by them and NERO which we first looked at quite extensively here.

WRITE
DVD-R 2x CLV, 4x ZCLV, 8x CAV
DVD-R DL 2x CLV, 4x ZCLV, 6x ZCLV
DVD-RW 1x, 2x CLV, 4x, 6x ZCLV
DVD-RAM 2x, 3x ZCLV, 5x PCAV(Ver.2.2) (16x Media: Not supported)

DVD+R 2.4x CLV, 4x ZCLV, 8x CAV
DVD+R DL 2.4x CLV, 4x ZCLV, 6x ZCLV
DVD+RW 2.4x, 3.3x CLV, 4x ZCLV, 8x ZCLV
(8x Speed disc: 3.3x CLV, 8x ZCLV)

CD-R 10x CLV, 16x, 24x ZCLV
CD-RW 4x, 10x CLV, 16x ZCLV
(High Speed: 10x CLV, Ultra Speed: 16x ZCLV
Ultra Speed plus: 16x ZCLV)

READ
DVD-R/RW/ROM 8x/8x/8x max.
DVD-R DL 6x max.
DVD-RAM (Ver.1.0) 2x
(Ver.2.2) 2x, 3x, 5x
DVD-Video(CSS Compliant Disc) 4x max. (Single/Dual layer)
DVD+R/+RW 8x/8x max.
DVD+R DL 6x max.
CD-R/RW/ROM 24x/24x/24x max.
CD-DA (DAE) 24x max

We benchmarked the DVD writing aspect of the GSA E50N using NERO DiscSpeed 4 Create Disc function. As you can see below its CAV based, with escalation to 8x – which it achieved nicely. Burning a single layer DVD+R took exactly 9minutes and 53seconds, as expected and a good overall time we believe.

LG has produced another strain of this device, in the GSA E50L. The only major difference is that it has LightScribe built in. They’ve also dropped the Apple look-a-like casing and gone with a sleek black finish.

On a side note, it appears LG might have flamingo-ed up (much like a cock-up, only bigger) in providing the specs for the GSA E50L on either side of the Atlantics websites. If you take a look at the USA version of their GSA-E50L compared to the UK version, the blighty version boasts Blu-ray and HD DVD playback. Surely this can’t be right or have LG snuck out the very first external Dual format High Definition media player.

Allso, there’s a distinct irony here surrounding the cases design that made us chuckle no end. It’s that the GSA E50N doesn’t even support Apple Macs in anyway shape or form.

In Short
As a small, lightweight DVD writer it hits the mark, although we’re really unsure an optical drive can ever be described as sexy. With the supported formats and burning speed it’s a worthy advisory even to an existing drive, despite minor flaws.

The Good
USB powered, small, 8x DVD burning

The Bad
Old NERO version, disc tray doesn’t fully extended

The Ugly
It looks like an Apple product

Bartender's Report

© 2007 Incisive Media Investments Ltd. 2007