Both devices use the Z-CLV algorithm at 8x. It’s rather strange considering that other manufacturers are all transitioning to P-CAV. But of course I won’t regard this as a drawback if the quality of the resulting disc proves to be high. Both drives finished their burn sessions successfully. Curiously enough, the new model reaches the max speed a little earlier than the older model, but has a higher total burn time. The burned disc was read without fluctuations or slumps of speed.

The quality of the disc produced by the two drives is very similar. The new model has fewer PI errors, but more PI failures. The latter thing comes from the GSA-4163’s having two small-length peaks of PI failures which are due to a defect of the medium. Overall, the new model produces discs of a somewhat higher quality than the GSA-4160B does.

Beta/Jitter and TA Test (Inner, Middle, Outer)
for the disc burned by the LG GSA-4163B
 
 

The asymmetry graph clearly shows the moment the drive switched to 8x burn speed. Afterwards the beta graph is almost a flat line. A peak of the jitter also coincides with the moment of switching between the speeds, and then the jitter rate is steadily going down towards the outer tracks. So, the jitter and asymmetry are both good, and TA Test agrees with that: the jitter is minimal, adjacent zones do not overlap, the average pit/land lengths fully comply with their etalon values. So, the new model performs 8x burning excellently, across all the parameters involved. Unfortunately, it refused to burn 8x discs at 12x speed, so we can switch to the competing DVD+R format now.