Plextor PX-760 Review (by HWP)

Moser Baer India +R 16x (MBIPG101 R05 01 ) as sold by Imation (labelled made in India)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did create strategy)
Burn speed 16x CLV, no slowdown

TA-Test says good, good, good. No readback speed-drops in the 716.

FE/TE, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter and Read (716) scans:

Infomedia +R 16x (INFOME R30 00) as sold by Philips (labelled made in Taiwan)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did create strategy)
Burn speed 16x CLV, slowdown to 12x as in write-graph below.

Constant high tracking error that leads to a slowdown. TA-Test says not good, good, good (mainly because of peak shift). No readback speed-drops in the 716.

FE/TE, Write, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter scans:

CMC Magnetics -R 16x (CMC MAG AM3) as sold by Philips (labelled made in Taiwan)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did create 12x strategy)
Burn speed selected 16x CLV, 12x strategy chosen by Powerec, slowed to 8x for the las 150MB.

FE/TE, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans:

Verbatim +RDL 8x (MKM 003 00) as sold by Verbatim
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did not create strategy, AS does not support DL)
Burn speed 10x P-CAV, slowdowns as in writing scan below

Beta/Jitter scan resulted in an error at the layer break so i had to scan in a 716 (looks like the new FW did not entirely get rid of that bug). Since the 716 is only an average reader this makes the B/J scan look worse than when scanning with the 760 (at least on the first layer where scanning worked). Keep this in mind when comparing the results.

10x DL writing-strategy still needs some work. However the result does show some improvement (remember it's an 716 B/J-scan) compared to a 8x burn in a 755a with FW 1.02 (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=38).

The was a problem at the end of the first layer. However even the 716 could read this fine with no slowdown. No POF. TA-Test says: good, not good, not good, very good, good, good.

Writing, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter (716), Read (716) scans:

Verbatim +R 16x (MCC 004 00) as sold by Verbatim
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (16x AS strategy present, did not create new strategy)
Burn speed 12x P-CAV, no slowdown

TA-Test says: good (peak shift = 3, Jitter = 5), bad (peak shift = 1, Jitter = 3), good. Good burn. Interestingly the Beta/Jitter scan does not indicate an immediate problem around the middle TA-Test position.

Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans:

Sony 700MB 48x (Sony Type 6)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
Burn speed 48x CAV, no slowdown

Comparison to PX-755 FW 1.04: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=139

Some C2 errors.

C1/C2, Beta/Jitter, Read scans:

Verbatim -RDL 4x (MKM 01RD30)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did not create strategy, AS does not support DL)
Burn speed 6x CLV, slowed to 4x @7.4GB position

Compared to a burn in the 755 with FW 1.02: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...2&postcount=60

Good burn. Jitter is more regular than with the 755 burn (but with older FW). TA-Test says very good, good, good; very good, very good, good. No readback problem.

Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (755, 716) scans:

TDK -R 16x (TDK TTH02)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did create 12x strategy)
Burn speed selected 16x CAV, PoweRec slowed down to 12x @3.2GB mark.

Good burn but PoweRec made for a big jump in Beta at the point of the slowndown. Both the 760 and 716 read this without problems. TA-Test says: good, very good, very good.

Writing, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (755 and 716) scans:

Verbatim +RDL 8x (MKM 003 00)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did not create strategy, AS does not support DL)
Burn speed 6x CLV, no slowdown

Compared to PX-755 with FW 1.02: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...3&postcount=50

TA-Test says good across the disc on the first layer, very good across the disc on the second layer. Beta generally a bit low, also jumping around on the first layer. Interestingly while the second layer has more regular/better Beta/Jitter results, it shows more PI/PO errors. Jitter is regular. Scans done in a 755. No readback problems.

It looks like 6x speed is the safe limit for DL for the time beeign (at least if you want a Beta-result that doesn't make you worry).

Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (755, 716) scans:

Verbatim +R 16x (MCC 004 00) as sold by Verbatim
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (16x AS strategy present, 8x strategy created and saved)
Burn speed 8x P-CAV, no slowdown

TA-Test says: good (5/3), not good (4/2), not good (5/2). Similarly to the 8x Yuden +R8x burn (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...9&postcount=19) there is a slight peak shift problem but excellent Jitter results. Otherwise an excellent burn.

Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans:

TDK +R 8x (TDK 002 00)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: Auto (did create 8x strategy)
Burn speed 8x P-CAV, slowdown to 6x (see writing graph)

Comparison to PX-755 AS burn: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=102

Very good burn as far as PIE/PIFgoes. TA-Test says good, not good (peak shift), good. Beta/Jitter test failed at the position where the slowdown occured. The same spot also causes a readback problem. It looks like the slowdown caused a B/J jump as in this example: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...9&postcount=33.

Writing, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans:

Taiyo Yuden -R 16x (TYG03) sold as Panasonic
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: AUTO (did create strategy)
Burn speed 16x CAV, no slowdown

Compared to 18x in same 760a: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...20&postcount=2
Compared to 16x in 755a FW 1.04: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=112
Notice: This medium ist from a different batch.

FE/TE-Test shows very good media quality. TA-Test says: good, good, good. (The 716 says even very good across the disc.) Very good burn. Very low PIE for this batch of media but a bit higher PIF. Very regular Beta/Jitter.

FE/TE, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans:

Seems to be perfect burn.

Taiyo Yuden -R 16x (TYG03) sold as Panasonic
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: AUTO (16x strategy present, did not create 6x strategy)
Burn speed 6x CLV, no slowdown

Since 16x seems to work very well (see last message) i thought i'd try slower.

Very good burn IMHO. TA-Test says: good, good, good. Slightly higher total PIF than i would like but still very much ok. Very regular Beta/Jitter except that jump in Beta @.5GB position. (Looks similar to TYG01 burn: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...2&postcount=23 ). Since they reduced that jump when going form FW 1.02 to 1.04 with the 755 ( http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=109 ) hopefully they can further improve this.

Writing, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (760) scans:

Taiyo Yuden -R 16x (TYG03) sold as Panasonic
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: AUTO (did not create strategy)
Burn speed 18x CAV, no slowdown
PoweRec: OFF

Compared to a different batch of the same media @18x in same 760a with PoweRec ON: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...20&postcount=2

TA-Test says: good, very good, good. Overall very good burn. Very low PIE for this new batch of media but a bit higher PIF. No readback problems.

Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter scans:

Taiyo Yuden Type 1 700MB 48x as sold by Plextor
PX-760a, FW 1.03
Burn speed 16x CLV, no slowdown

Compared to 48x burn: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...33&postcount=5

A bit lower C1 and much more regular Beta/Jitter.

C1/C2, Beta/Jitter:

TDK 700MB 48x (Ritek Type 7)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
Burn speed 48x CAV, no slowdown

Compared to a burn in the 755 FW 1.02: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...1&postcount=11 the 760 (with newer firmware) shows more regular Beta and less change in Jitter.

The block of C1 errors around the 70 min mark is characteristic for this batch of media. It shows up in all drives i have.

C1/C2, Beta/Jitter scans:

TDK 700MB 48x (Ritek Type 7)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
Burn speed 16x CLV, no slowdown

Compared to an 48x burn above, this one shows more regular Beta (no jaggies) and much less change in Jitter. There are only very slightly less C1-errors.

C1/C2, Beta/Jitter scans:

EMTEC 700MB 40x (MPO Type 7)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
Burn speed 16x CLV, no slowdown

These discs feature a gold reflection layer and are advertised for archiving puposes.

Compared to 48x burn: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...6&postcount=17 this one shows slightly more C1, but even more regular Beta and much more regular Jitter.

C1/C2/CU, Beta/Jitter scans:

TDK 800MB 40x (TDK Type 5)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
Burn speed 48x CAV, no slowdown

Compared to a burn in a PX-755 with FW 1.02 (http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...4&postcount=92) Beta is more regular but Jitter is more or less the same.

Very good burn. Jitter could be better (big jump @45min mark) but it's an overspeed burn so one cannot really complain.

C1/C2, Beta/Jitter scans:

Taiyo Yuden +R 16x (Yuden000 T03 00) sold by Plextor
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: AUTO (16x strategy present, did create 8x strategy)
Burn speed 8x P-CAV, no slowdown

Good burn. TA-Test says: good, not good, not good (mostly peak-shift). Jitter-scale had to shift down to accomodate graph.

Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans:

PlexEraser / PX-760 FW 1.03

Originally the PlexEraser fuction could only handle single layer discs but Plextor had announced it would be able to handle DL discs by fimware update later on. I Just tried and a "quick" erase of a DL disc is achieved in 28 seconds.

Burning CDRW UlstraSpeed+ (32x) media seems broken with FW 1.03. The operation aborts with an error:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...5&postcount=96

Sony +R 16x (Sony D21 00)
PX-760a, FW 1.03
AS: AUTO (did create 16x strategy)
Burn speed 16x CAV, slowdown to 12x as per writing graph below

Compared to 755a with FW 1.04: http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...&postcount=142

Good burn. TA-Test says good 5/3, good 5/3, good 4/3. Beta looks shaky at the beginning, big 'jump' at the slowdown point to 12x but looks very nice @12x speed.

Writing, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (760 and 716) scans:

Taiyo Yuden +R 16x (Yuden000 T03 00) as sold by Plextor
PX-760a, FW 1.04
AS: AUTO (did not create strategy, 18x not supported by AS)
Burn speed 18x CAV, slowdown to 16x as per writing graph

Compared to FW 1.03 http://club.cdfreaks.com/showpost.ph...24&postcount=3 there are no more readback problems in the 716.

Good burn. TA-Test says: not good 3/2, good 4/3, good 3/3. The slowdown did not create a jump in Beta.

Writing, Burst, Sum1, Beta/Jitter, Read (716) scans: