CD Freaks presents Plextor PX-712A review

MZCK_Keepcool

Very nice review!
And very nice device!

I have a question burning me since two of my friends have bought a DVD writter (NEC 1300A I think).
As they have laptop, they bought enclosures too, and the drive can only burn at 2X instead of 4X when in the enclosure.
They have been tested in desktop and can write properly at 4X.
I wanted to know if it could be due to this model of writer or the enclosures, or if it does that for all writer in all enclosure.

So I wondered if a review can be done on that or better a new test to be included in each DVD-burner review

Anyway if someone can give me infos on the Plex 712A behaviour in an enclosure, it would be great.

Cheers.

eltranquil

Hi MZCK_Keepcool, welcome the forum!

I think that you can achieve the maximum speed with an external enclosure only if it supports USB 2.0 (480 Mb/sec) or Firewire (480 Mb/sec) interface... if the external enclosure is only USB 1.x (12 Mb/s), then the data transfer is not enough to burn at 4x. Probably, also CD burning speed will be limited.

As a final note, some users reported problems also with USB2 and firewire external enclosures...

Hope this helps,

ET

DVD_ADDICT

Using a FIREWIRE ENCLOSURE is better to use. USB more compatibility issues than FIREWIRE. In doing video editing and dvd burning the FIREWIRE does better. Although they say the USB has faster transfer rates it tends to have compatibility issues with hardware. Take a look at this thread at cdrlabs.com:
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtop...16388&start=25

You'll see the FIREWIRE ENCLOSURE worked better with the 712A. If you want buy a COMBO FIREWIRE/USB ENCLOSURE that way you can test out each one.

MZCK_Keepcool

Thank you
I knew the speed limits about the USB 1.x, 2.0 and Firewire, but I'm pretty sure they both use USB 2.0, so theoretically, it won't disturb or limit the speed for 8X.

But I wasn't aware of problems related to USB more than in firewire.
Why USB is always source of problems?....

Thank you for the link, the reading was instructive.

I'll try to test it in Firewire to see.

++
Keepcool

kloms

Does the Gigarec feature apply only to CD's, or to DVD's also?? (Thinking about Securom on DVD...)

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G@M3FR3@K

No, GigaRec works with CD-R media only. The only technology that works on both CD-R and DVDR media is the VariRec technology.

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nooby god

Nice review but I don't think i'll buy the drive because it's too expensive and I don't know id safedisc 2.9+ can be backed up with this drive.

bugabundo

maybe the laptop harddrive can not supply data fast enought to get a DVD burn over usb2!
try sloing it down to 4x or 6x and see how long it takes!

rpali

The only thing I immediately noticed was the Mount Rainier section isn't entirely clear. Plextor's site indicates MR support for CDRW but no support for DVD+RW.

Similarly, the 708a supported the full MR feature set for CDRW, but only background formatting with DVD+RW. It seems they dropped even that one item from the 712.

Jumbotron

Hi,

i am thinking on buying this drive, but i don't like that it doesn't support double-layer media. Does anybody know whether it will can be flashed in the future to support DL media?

Thanks in advance.

eltranquil

Hi Jumbotron, welcome to the forum!

I think that Plextor will release a DL drive in the future, but they generally do not make "major technology steps" through firmware upgrade. So I think that the 712A will remain a non-DL drive.

Regards,

ET

Jumbotron

Thanks for the welcome and for the help, ET. I think i am going to buy another drive that support DL media.

Greetings.

Ux-3

I just bought one as well. For less than 120 Euros for the retail kit, I could not resist...

I am a bit disapointed that it does not support the blindwrite feature but that gives me an excuse to keep my Premium. Now I am able to backup audio on the fly with Plextools error control fully functional.

nUUK25

As I understand it from this thread the ability of this drive to back up cd's with SecuROM is limited;

What is the highest secuROM protection no. it can copy ?

- and now we are at it anyway ! - What are the highest SafeDisc protection no. it can copy ?

Remember to mention your firmware version along with your quotings !

cheers

bigyellowbird

I recieved the 712A as a replacement for a 708A which decided after 4 months it didn't want to read cdrs any longer, even its own. This drive is even worse! It refuses to even recognise the existance of most brands od cdr media and fails to burn even the recommended brands.
DVD media is no problem (as was trure in the 708), even cheap off brand media reads and writes as advertised, but the damn thing won't tolerate a CDR and after two failed drives I'm rapidly losng respect for Plextor as a brand.
I have a 3 year old Plexwriter 24/10/40A which still burns nearly any media I throw at it and is the standard I expected from the newer drives. SO FAR THE 712A AIN"T CUTTING IT.

DrageMester

bigyellowbird, your drive is probably defective.

You should contact the shop or Plextor to have an RMA replacement for your drive.

Many people have reported problems with the 712 and the 716 drives and have had them replaced. My first PX-712A couldn't write Ultra-Speed CD-RWs properly (but did everything else fine) so I had it replaced by Plextor Europe - they paid the shipping both ways and I had the new drive in about a week.

If you're not in the EU I think that Plextor will only pay shipping back to you, but you'd better investigate this yourself.

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