The Super Multi Write Plus drive from Korean electronics giant LG is the first IT Week Labs has seen that offers support for all recordable DVD media formats. The drive, which has been shipping since late September, enables users to create and distribute content such as presentations on any of the various DVD for- mats now available, and is also suitable for archiving non-critical data.

Otherwise known as the GSA-4040B, LG's drive closely resembles other EIDE/Atapi DVD drives for internal mounting in a PC drive bay. But it supports recording on DVD+ RW, DVD-RW, and DVD-RAM, the three competing formats for rewritable DVD media. The drive also supports the DVD+ R and DVD-R write-once standards, as well as CD formats such as CD-R and CD-RW.

Each of these formats brings its own benefits and drawbacks, and so the Super Multi Write Plus lets users choose the format that best suits their particular requirement. DVD-RAM offers random access reads and writes like a hard disk, for example, and is the only DVD format to support the FAT32 filing system.

The two rewritable formats offer higher performance for streamed data, such as video, but DVD+RW has a higher level of compatibility with DVD players. The write-once DVD-R and DVD+R formats offer the cheapest option for simple archiving of data or writing disks for distribution.

The Super Multi Write Plus drive can write up to 4.7GB of data on each side of DVD media, which means 9.4GB can be stored on the double-sided DVD-RAM format. It has a 2MB memory buffer with under-run protection and UltraDMA support, which should ensure fast, reliable writing.

We tested the drive on a standard Pentium 4 desktop system running Windows XP Professional, and also on an older Pentium II system running Windows 2000. The drive can be mounted horizontally or vertically, but when vertical, the eject button must be positioned at the top. Installing the drive was simple, and replacing the optical drive on the test systems was no more complex than reconnecting cables and making sure the drive select jumper setting was correct.

LG claims write speeds of 2.4x (3.3MB/s) for DVD+RW media; 2x speed (2.7MB/s) for DVD-RW; and 3x (4.1MB/s) for DVD-RAM media. In tests, the actual performance figures we obtained were 2.3MB/s for DVD+RW; 1.2MB/s for DVD-RW; and 0.7MB/s for DVD-RAM.

Results were similar with write-once media, where our tests recorded a write speed of 2.4MB/s for DVD-R media and 2.9MB/s for DVD+R. The drive is rated at 4x (5.4MB/s) for both of these formats. The 4040B drive can also burn CDs at 24 speed.

Software for authoring media comprises B's Recorder Gold5 Basic and B's Clip 5.32 from BHA; and NeoDVD 5.0.

B's Clip is a packet-writing application that allows users to drag-and-drop files to DVD and CD media, like copying to a floppy disk, instead of having to write a complete session. Mediostream's NeoDVD is used to create DVD videos using a simple point-and-click interface and comes with support for capturing video from a digital video camera. The drive also comes with Cyberlink's PowerDVD XP 4.0 software for DVD playback.

Bundled with the Super Multi Write Plus drive is an audio cable, mounting screws, a blank DVD-RAM disc and an E-IDE cable. The drive is also packaged with a clear and helpful manual containing an installation guide.

Price: £125 + VAT

Contact: LG 01753 491 500