Hey, I have the same burner, just purchased through Dell at 299.00. So that's even cheaper. I don't see it as a "liability" because if you do have HD DVD's lying around it will play them only, ROM. On the Blu-Ray side, it will burn just fine, and dual layer %) GB discs, now if you read my threads, playing Blu-Ray back on a PS3 (BDMV) is not an option according to Sony, its not supported...but will their regular players play them back, is the question!?

I'v burned on that players BD-RE that it came with, at least 50 times, no kidding. Not one problem burning from Vegas timeline, or DVDit Pro HD. Might be an asset for some who have HD DVD ROMS and want to play them on a computer that's compliant.

John

Great drive. Probably clearing for newer models. Can't possibly imagine why having an HD DVD ROM included would be a liability, and seriously doubt LG sees it like that.

For anyone who wants to read HD-DVD you're totally right, it's not a liability. In fact, LG would be the only party to see it as a liability; HD-DVD read support is a feature that they have no financial reasons to continue supporting. The sooner they can get rid of hardware that they are not producing (and have no plans to give continued support for), the better. Hence your low price.

BTW, thanks for the heads up. I've been waiting for a price drop like this for my first Blu-ray burner.

>>>BTW, thanks for the heads up. I've been waiting for a price drop like this for my first Blu-ray burner.

+1

"Can't possibly imagine why having an HD DVD ROM included would be a liability," They still have to pay Toshiba licensing fees and MS menu control OS fees per player for HD DVD features. Few manufacturers want either party cutting into profit margins with fees for dead-end technology, no matter how small the fee is.

One of the reviews on Newegg talks about no warranty I'd look into that before buying. A Sony BR burner is $319 at Buy.com and they often have discount coupons floating around the web.

>>>One of the reviews on Newegg talks about no warranty I'd look into that before buying.

Right, but he's an idiot. The next reviewer had this to say:

Pros: Excellent product.

Cons: People commenting on things they haven't researched, citing anecdotal evidence to support their claims...like this last guy who can't even spell warranty.

Other Thoughts: The LG warranty is 1-year limited parts and labor. Please don't bad rap a product when you are not equipped to back up your claim. Please see the LG spec. sheet on the LG USA website. I guess what I am ssaying is that the last reviewer was FOS, aside from talking about "another LG product" he had problems with. I guess, when all else fails, read the manual, or, in this case, the specification sheet

Looks like NewEgg's price is currently $319.99

I believe the same drive is available at SuperMediaStore for $269.00

http://www.supermediastore.com/lg-ggw-h20l-blu-ray-rewriter-hd-dvd-drive.html

Bumped because the price has dropped back down to $269.99 at Newegg (see OP for link.) For those who missed it the first time, get it while you can (just ordered mine.)

Thanks for the heads-up. I just ordered one as well.

What would be a good external case so I can use it with my laptop?

That's funny. I spoke to a guy by the name of Shibu at LG when I called their 800 number... oh wait, I meant that his name was Jason. Their call center is based in India... oh wait, I mean, Atlanta, GA. When I called I waited on hold for over 6 hours... oh wait, I mean, less than 10 seconds.

In all seriousness Jason was very helpful and later I found out I was speaking to the head of their tech support (when I called back to give an update). He even sent my information to one of their engineers to have them look at developing a custom driver for me.

So yeah, down with those "cheap chinese/korean knockoffs" with their horrible in state tech support with no wait times and top tier service all for free. Down I say :)

j razz

I had an incredibly bad experience with a Sony branded DVD+-R writer. Actually it wasn't really a Sony, but you'd never know it looking at the box. It had "Sony" written in big letters on it.

Anyway, it turned out to be a rebranded drive (maybe even an LG). The problem wasn't the quality. The problem was that Sony DVD Architect wouldn't recognize it. After going round and round with Sony tech support and complaining that any drive with "Sony" written in big letters on it should be supported by Sony software, I finally gave up and gave it to a friend who was happy with a nice new drive that did everything well except write DVDs from DVDA. I bought a Sony drive that I knew from reading the forum would work.

There is nothing wrong with LG, they are quite well respected company. They have been around for fifty years and make high quality consumer electronics, home appliances and mobile communications. I've been extremely satisfied with all my LG devices, particularly their cell phones. I wouldn't lump them in with the cheap knockoff brands.

BTW, most Sony DVD and CD drives are manufactured by Lite-On, which is a Taiwan corporation. Their Blu-Ray burners are made by Matsushita (Panasonic.)

That's what it was: a "Lite-On". The one I bought had "Sony" in big letters, and "Lite-On" in smaller type on the box. It was a nice enough drive but completely incompatible with DVDA.

Thanks for pointing that out. All optical drives and their actual manufacturer can be found at:

http://www.videohelp.com/dvdwriters

They show the actual OEM and the chipset maker. Just about every consumer product these days is badged, so it pays to check further to see who really makes it. This topic is fresh in my mind, since my wife just spent a hour trying to buy a quality toaster and ended up with a Dualit. It makes the most expensive toast ever, but at least we know who makes it.

BTW, I thought that LG Optical Drives were really Hitachi, but are not assembled in Japan.

Does anyone know if this 5.25" external enclosure works with the LG GGW-H20L Blu-Ray burner?
www.cwol.com/serial-ata/external-sata-dvd-drive-enclosure-5-25.htm

There are only a few external 5.25" SATA enclosures that I've seen for sale, and apparently not all of them actually fit an external DVD burner due to the tray door size.

Update: I successfully burned a BD-25 on the first attempt yesterday and everything played back perfectly in my Panasonic DMP-BD10 (1st gen standalone.) HD DVD and BD playback on the drive is pretty weak right now, but I'm nearly positive that it's because my video card is not up to the task. My new card will arrive tomorrow (possibly today) and I'll test the same discs to verify that the card was the weak link. So far, so good...

As I suspected, my old video card was the weak link. Once the new card (PNY GeForce 8600 GT) was installed, playback was perfect for both BD and HD DVD. This is a great little drive, especially when you factor in the price and the HD DVD playback (a feature not likely to make it into future models.)

Here's very thorough review of this drive:

http://www.cdfreaks.com/reviews/LG-GGW-H20L-Blu-ray-Writer-Review/Introduction.html

Hi,

Encouraged by all the positive comments I just purchased this same drive (GGW-H20L). The price was today (in Finland) 215€. Not bad for such a nice piece of hardware.

The installation went smoothly, and I'm able to burn Blu-ray BD-R an BD-RE disks from within the application(s) that followed with the burner (Cyberlink PowerProducer etc).

HOWEVER -

both Vegas Pro 8.0b and DVDA 5.0 gives a blue screen of death - immediately when I command them to burn the blu-ray disk. The bad thing is that the blue screen flashes so fast (before the PC restarts) that I'm not able to see what's on the blue screen!

I'm supposed to burn my first blue-ray discs using VP/DVDA before next monday :(

SO - please anyone - what is wrong? Why does the SCS products give me a blue screen, but the drive works ok in windows and with the Cyberlink software??? I'm on XP x64, that is compatible with this drive, and Vegas Pro works othervice wonderfully on this OS!!

ANY help is more than welcome! Must SCS products be reinstalled - or what? This is totally insane... I'm tearing my hair...

Christian

If you have another computer running something other than xp 64 install the drive in that pc. Then copy your project (or encoded files) over to that computer via a portable hard drive and attempt a burn there. It may not be the solution you want, but with xp 64 not supported by Vegas/DVDA it just may not work on that machine.

j razz