LG GGC-H20L 6x Blu-ray Super-Multi Drive With LightScribe

HD content can display over any connector to HDTV

Strengths: Get Slysoft's AnyDVD-HD to allow HD content to display over any connector to your HDTV

Weakness: NONE

Great device for reading those HD movies of any flavor, be it HD-DVD or Blu-ray. Install Slysoft's AnyDVD-HD and you can watch your Hi-def movies no matter what connector you use to output to your TV.

By Putergoon; - Feb 13, 2008

LG HD-DVD / Blu-Ray DVD Player

Strengths: Plays HD-DVD/Blu-Ray; SATA; includes PowerDVD Ultra software

Weakness: Bundled software is crippled!

I built a HTPC, with one of the requirements to play back both HD-DVD & Blu-Ray discs. I wanted to play the sideline during the HD battles, yet be able to enjoy HD content. If I were to buy two standalone players, I'd spend about $600, and have to deal with having two players. For less than half of that, I could have the convenience of a single drive that would play both formats. And on top of...
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I built a HTPC, with one of the requirements to play back both HD-DVD & Blu-Ray discs. I wanted to play the sideline during the HD battles, yet be able to enjoy HD content. If I were to buy two standalone players, I'd spend about $600, and have to deal with having two players. For less than half of that, I could have the convenience of a single drive that would play both formats. And on top of this, it would also act as a Burner for normal DVDs.

Installation was a snap. The package came with a SATA cable and a IDE power adapter. My home-built computer recognized the drive right away. I then installed the bundled CyberLink PowerDVD Ultra software. This is where the fun started! I was asked to download the latest updates right away, which was kind of a pain. They did include a utility to test whether my system was ready to play HD-DVD & Blu-Ray discs, and everything passed. I like this utility. I am using Windows Vista Ultimate. I was able to play a HD-DVD disc (Planet Earth) with no video issues, but had problems with the audio. The only option for audio was 2-channel! The OEM version of PowerDVD Ultra only does stereo playback! Argh! However, after reading some user forums, I found that if you select SPDIF output, you can downmix to dolbydigital / dts 5.1. Whew!

However, the downside to a HTPC at current moment is there is no way to get true HD audio out of your computer. The Dolby TrueHD and DTS-HD formats cannot be passed over SPDIF as the bitrates are too high. Instead, they need to go out over HDMI or analog. The computers cannot output HD audio over HDMI right now, as while the video cards can mix in the audio into the HDMI output, this is only SPDIF audio. I tried using analog, but just had too many issues with Vista. As a result, I am only using the standard digital audio formats, and not the new high-definition ones.

By SDTechDeals - Feb 2, 2008

Awesome Blu-ray / HD-DVD Deal

Strengths: Blu-ray and HD-DVD supported, cheap way to enter these formats without worrying about the format war, quiet drive

Weakness: You may need to spend even more for the best/easiest HD movie experience, Blu-ray / HD-DVD playback in XP MCE 2005 a hassle.

This drive does what it's supposed to. You just have to be aware of the challenges involved in trying to get HD movies to play at their best. I use it as part of a living room HTPC connected by a DVI-to-HDMI cable to a Panasonic 1080p plasma. For the easiest installation and best movie experience you will need an HDCP-enabled graphics card, a sound card with analog speaker output (PowerDVD Ultra...
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This drive does what it's supposed to. You just have to be aware of the challenges involved in trying to get HD movies to play at their best.

I use it as part of a living room HTPC connected by a DVI-to-HDMI cable to a Panasonic 1080p plasma. For the easiest installation and best movie experience you will need an HDCP-enabled graphics card, a sound card with analog speaker output (PowerDVD Ultra downsamples any audio going out digitally), and a full retail version of PowerDVD Ultra for analog multichannel support (the included OEM version only supports 2-channel). I was also somewhat disappointed to learn that Windows XP MCE 2005 does not support playback of Blu-ray or HD-DVD within it's MCE interface. PowerDVD has to load the disc and play it directly, so you have to leave the MCE interface. Fortunately, I was able to program my remote for PowerDVD, but not every HTPC may be able to do that. So the HD movie experience is not seamless if you still have XP MCE in your HTPC.

So, is all this hassle still worth it for HD-DVD / Blu-ray movie watching? You bet it is!! If set up right, you will have a flawless picture, and crisp HD audio! You will never want to go to the cinema again!!

By Rainking430 - Feb 2, 2008

LG 16x Internal Blu-ray/HD DVD

Strengths: The dual option to read both formats is great. Picture quality is great depending on your graphic card.

Weakness: Not being able to burn Blu-ray or HD DVD.

The LG driver works great on my HTPC connected to a HDTV. I am able to use my media remote (with the right firmware).
I was not a big fan of LG, but this item changed my mind about LG. Now I looking into LG products in a different way.

By laherrera - Jan 30, 2008

GGC-H20L Black Blu-ay/HD-DVD Reader - - Fantastic Drive.

Strengths: Combo Drive! Supports Blu-Ray and HD-DVD (and DVD/CD, etc. . .) Price. Loads fast. Stable playback. Firmware upgradeable. Included PowerDVD software. LightScribe support. Looks cool.

Weakness: doesn't burn Blu-ray/HD-DVD (not supposed to, but I can't find another weakness)

Why settle for a single format when you can have both at the same price without compromising quality? Future-proof your system with this drive. As for playback - I can say it is problem free for blu ray (don't have HD-DVD media yet). Picture is amazing on 120" screen from 720p projector. Worth the money to upgrade from std DVD.

By porterak - Jan 1, 2008