LG GSA-E40L DVD-RAM Burner

This is my first Lightscribe equipped burner, and to be honest I wasn't sure if it was the technology for me. I had read reviews of poor contrast, many folks saying stick with inkjet printers, but I wanted to reduce the cost of consumables so I thought I would give it a go.

The unit's exterior is a beautiful glossy black with silver trim and is quite a bit larger than I assumed from the images I saw online, but a very solid attractive unit.

The unit only comes with very meager quick set up instructions and although this was my first purchase of this type of device, the installation process was very simple under XP.

In anticipation of receiving the drive I had put together a basic CD label in Photoshop and saved it at 600 DPI and in png format. I also downloaded from Lightscribe's site Surething 4, a Lightscribe ready CD labeler program (a free download).

Eager to burn my first Lightscribe CD, I popped a Philips branded CDR label side down into the LG GSA-E40L and immediately heard some noises like the unit was doing something. I believe what I was hearing is the indexing feature of Lightscribe drives and media. Around the hub of the CDs and DVDs are indexing marks that are read by Lightscribe enabled burners, this combination precisely aligns the media in exactly the same position each time. This way you can add to artwork already on the blank areas of a CD or you can do a repeat burn to darken the image.

OK, all set to burn my first image. I launched Surething 4 and chose Lighscribe as my choice of label. An image of a blank CD appeared and so I looked around and saw add your own background, so I clicked on it an d browsed to my previously saved png file and voila it appeared perfectly on the blank image. I added a bit of circular text and clicked print and the LG GSA-E40L apparently went about its work. I say apparently because when it is burning the label side it is so silent that only an occasional click and the flickering of the green LED give any indication it is working.

After having a cup of tea I came back and saw the CD ejected from the tray of the LG GSA-E40L so with eager anticipation I turned it over. Hey not bad I thought, the contrast was very good (I did you the Best quality setting). Well I shall do a second burn and really make it sharp. So I repeat the steps previously outlined. Another cup of tea and back to the LG GSA-E40L, flip the CD over and the repeat burn was certainly darker but the large expanses of black had now developed an unsightly series of concentric lighter rings. Not sure if this is down to the media choice or to the LG GSA-E40L but having read other reports it seems it is more an effect that occurs on all drives and media. So a single burn for me and with satisfactory results.

OK, but how does it burn CDs and DVDs you ask. Well the CDRs I burned were done in a blink of an eye, I ran a check on the CDs afterwards and for best results on cheaper CDRs I would stick to about half the rated speed of the drive for consistent error free burns. For less critical applications such as my CD E-books the full speed burn worked perfectly. Burning music CDs I am critical and blessed with a quality hi fi and good ear, so I burn those in another drive at 1X speed.

I have not used the drive for any DVD media yet, nor have attempted to play any DVD movies on the drive. I purchased mainly as a CD labeler.

I didn't care for the included Nero 7 Essentials software, it loads too many unwanted things onto my computer, so I have uninstalled it. However it does do what it was designed for and works well with this drive.