A new chance..to 708a or not?

CD, DVD and (Ultra HD) Blu-ray Writers Plextor Writer
#1

Hi Ya

well my plex got lost in the post and Dabs have sent me an email to either refund or replace the 708UF.

Now when i ordered the 708 i had’t stumbled across this forum (now i live here ;-0 ) , so i did’t know all the problems with this burner. I ordered it purely on all the reviews on the net praising this burner. Reading all the posts here , i am no longer so sure. Yes i accept some people can screw up anythng much less a bit of kit like this , but SO many people getting it wrong ? Nooooooo

So my question to the gurus…if you had the chance to start over what would you do ? Order another 708 or go with the 2500 or the A07 and a liteon 166 Rom for ripping purposes ?

Is the 708 going to give me ANY advantage over the 2500 or A07 ? from what i read the 2500 is the bee’s nee’s for burn quality. I understand the best way to rip is from a ROM and the 166 is regarded as best for this . So why wold i want a 708a ? Am i missing anything i should be aware of? is the plex worth the money ? is the 708 a lemon in general or can it give me some huge advantage ?

Lastly…Most imporrtant to me is being able to play back burnt DVD’s in as many players as possible. Next ( actually just as important) is backing up my CD collection . Games are interesting but i am not really bothering with PSX stuff anymore. Ripping speed is medium level importance but not critical and burning speed is of little consequence as i prefer a burn that will play then trying to get it done in 10 mins and having a coaster.

So taking all that into account what would YOU do ?

Any replies will be highly appreciated.

Best Regards

mark

#2

I would not get another 708a. I haven’t had any problems with the drive. But it was only cool when it was the only 8x +R burner available. Now that Pioneer has an 8x out, I would get the A07.

#3

I just bought the 708 and i can tell you that it is good.I know that pioneer has A07 but don’t think it in a bad way.Now you bought it test it and then you’ll see.As far as the probs let me tell you, just wait for time to pass and test to start…

#4

hi
@ Damaniac18

huh ? not sure i understand your reply.

Regards

Mark

#5

I would purchase another PLEXTOR 708A and purchase a TOSHIBA 1802 DVD-ROM. Every brand has their problems. The 2500 had rave reviews but it doesn’t burn as fast as the Plextor 708A from what I read and seen on other forum sites.

The TOSHIBA 1802 DVD-ROM now has a firmware hack made by Hijacker and the Dangerous Brothers. The ripping speed has been increased using the firmware hack. Here is the link for it.
http://hijacker.rpc1.org/toshiba_nolimit/
TOSHIBA DVD-ROMS are known to be quiet dvd-roms. Not much noise from the drive.

Lots of variables in authoring and burning dvds as well as how your drive is hooked up to your pc. Find what works for you and stick with that. Plextor does have great tech support. Good Luck!:slight_smile:

PLEXTOR 708A
PLEXTOR 40X12X40 CD BURNER
PLEXTOR 48X24X48 CD BURNER
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM 1612 (2)
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM 1712 (1)

#6

hi ya

@DVD_addict

i hear you. Dont get me wrong i am all for plex. I"wanted" a plex 708a out of desire - then the reviews backed up that irrational desire with facts that made me feel i had made the right choice and the cost was justified.

That was then…
This is now…

Many many posts of problems , incompatibility with media , problems with playback on some standalone players etc. Then comes along the 2500 , the A07 etc. These drives are much MUCH cheaper , give more successful burns that play on a wider variety of set top players and can use (with great success) cheap media. I am just sorta thinking as was said in a earlier reply that the plex 708a was good 2.5- 3 months ago but now its been superceded by the new kids on the block. Yet the price has not come down (much anyway).

Still , irrationally i want a 708a. BUt the sensible part of my brain says …you fool buy what works not what turns you on…

So although i want a plex dvd burner i have a burning feeling i should be buying elsewhere for now at least. It seems the weak point for the 2500 is reading , hence the liteon 166, toshiba rom for ripping

Darn , i may just buy a 2500 , a A07 , a 166s (also found a 163 on sale for £18.00 ) AND a toshiba as well and just play around to see what works . I mean really its not a lot of money for what you are getting. The plex that has been lost was 259 quid so its not really so stupid after all to buy all the above.

But after all that my heart still yearns for the 708a …just not my head…

So thats why i want YOUR input. To find out all the dirty little secrets about these drives…at the end of the day i just want to burn discs that will play in as many set top boxes as possible so i can share my stuff with my friends on cost efficent media and be able to rip anything i throw at the drive/s and be confident in the knowledge my chosen drive/s can give me the best quality that can be acheived at this level…is that too much to ask…(5 years ago you would have all called me a loony for making a comment like that regards DVD burning) so i guess its all relative

Thanks

Mark

#7

I have both a 708A and a 708UF and am a great fan of Plextor. But I have to say, from what I’ve been hearing lately (plextor will not update their drive with 8X -R support and no bit set utility) I would probably not make the same mistake of buying two burners from the same manufacture. Over all I’ve never had any problems with the drives, they work great, what can I say. But having the choices that are out there right now I’d probably go for what you mentioned “2500 , a A07 , a 166s” and you could probably buy them all for almost the same price as the plex. Anyhow good luck with your decision.

#8

hi ya

@ eltino

hey thanks , its great when someone says your right…you can be my friend for life :smiley: …but seriously (hey that’d be a great name for an album) i think it may just be the way to go for now.

I think the 708 has run its course and been over taken for now. Perhaps a 716 would suffice…whenever it comes out sigh

Unless anyone can point out any reason to still get a 708 over a 2500/A07 ?

but unless i’ve totaly missed the point i dont think so but i am real interested in your points of view.

Did i say this place is great already ? cant remember, too dizzy from reading and rereading and reading again all the posts within freaks…

REGARDS

Mark

#9

hi again

i just answered my own question…

The plex supports Mt rainer. As far as i know the others dont. I knew there was something. Yes i have the need. Primarily the device is for backing up the company network which i am in charge of (guess they did’t know what they were doing :cool: ). I have 9 machines and a server. So i looked into DVD RAM but found that Mt Rainer is as good if not better as its future proofed (when M$ support it natively). So the plex 708 does it with some add on software. Hmm knew there was a reason…got carried away with backing up DVD movies

Anyway just for interests sake this is how i got to this point. I have 9 machines on the net that are all 1 year old. They all have 60 gig drives in them that are’t used because these guys are not computer literate ( they only email and do accounts …nothing else). So all that space being unused. So i am adding 160 gig drives to each machine ( for keeping backups of emails on …yeah right …ssshhhh) and a liteon dvd rom as well to each machine on the network. Yep , you guessed it, i am going to rip backups onto 210 gigs of disk space x 9 machines , because as you would know we need a dvd rom on each machine to read in the Ghosts if we ever should need to . Gotta be ready ya know …Then i am going to get a burner (or two?) and rove around burning ghosts all day, hence the 708uf idea. Seeing how i live on the premises and sit in the office all night on our big fat DSL pipe playing around downloading all sorts of stuff (:bigsmile: ) the need arises for DVD set top compatible burns…I knew there was a reason i wanted a 708a just sorta got side tracked…but you gotta get your priorities right you know…i think a 2500 for compatible movie burns is more important…Anyway the MD has swallowed all my requests and has said do what i want as long as his computer works when he needs it …so carry on …:stuck_out_tongue: so i reckon installing as many dvd burners and roms as we need is in the companies interest…

now which drives to "try out "

but basically i think thats the only advantage to a 708 these days…Mt Rainer…

Or is there another drive that does it these days ?

Mark

#10

Just so you know Plextor 708 does not work with ghost hate to bust your bubble. The reason it does not work is mt rainer Ghost is a dos app that does not support mt rainer. If you call tech support from plextor they are aware of the problem. Ghost will report it back up fine. But when u try to restore the disk u just created it will error out about 1/2 into restore. This can also be verified with in ghost if you do the option to test the images off the dvds you just burned. Also drive image does not support mt. rainer either. In the future they might with a software update just not right now.

Just thought i would let u know before u need to restore your drive that your back up do not work.

#11

The plex supports Mt rainer

This is not right for DVD and is only a vague promise for future firmware releases. Besides that i have to say my Plex always worked perfectly for me. If a had to buy a burner today i definitely would go for the Nu Tech DDW-081 at around 100€. A friend of mine tested it with k-probe and it even surpassed the Plex in terms of speed AND writing quality at least with +R only firmware.

#12

hi

@ Dolmar

Thanks for the input. Actually i am going to use Acronis True image as i belive from another forum devoted to that type of thing that thats the ONE and lots of guys bagging Norton. I use the term Ghost as slang for doing a capture of the drive image. But thanks anyway. And i know i should’t bragg about my situation but how often do you fall into a situation like the one i am in ? A whole network of new gear with cat 5e running everywhere that is woefully underused and an employer who has’t a clue ( me either but i know what i can do with it all ). SO make hay while the sun shines…right

Now just wait till i actually get the drives in and start posting , crying because i cant get it all to work…

Best Regards

Mark

#13

I just want to say that i am very pleased with plextor and i don’t think that the A07 would take it’s place in any way.I have burned Dvd’s and Cds and i know it’s perfect.You can say i am a fan of plextor.

#14

Hmm, not to sound navie, but are there so many problems with the 708A? Mine runs like a top and burns everything thing I put into it. The only hiccup is when I try to put multible TV mpegs on a dvd, the audio goes outa sync. I also have a HP dvd200i (yeah, I know but I bought it in a moment of weakness), but hands down Plextor is the best.

#15

Hi, probably I have not clearly understood something… do you mean that the 708 does not work with Symantec Ghost?

I’m asking it because I use Ghost 2003 very much with direct backup of my Win2k partition to DVD+RW with the 708 (internal version)… It works fine. I have also recovered backups not once but many times. Or are you talking about something different? What is the connection with Mt. Rainer?

Thanks for any info,

ET

Originally posted by dolmar
Just so you know Plextor 708 does not work with ghost hate to bust your bubble.

#16

My opinion is that Plextor 708 is the most known 8x DVD burner and the only one for a long time… before

That means that most people who bought a DVD burner the last months they bought a Plextor 708
And i am sure that most people who have a problem with burning…firmware…installation…etc they come here and ask for help… very logical :slight_smile:

And
-dvd-burners-
-dvd-stand alone players-
-dvd formats (+ -) -
-dvd disk cheap or quality-…

all those compatibility issues are a pain in the head :slight_smile:

#17

I’ve had problems (including RMA) but I surely would buy a Plex again!

#18

I’d go for the NEC 2500 , ive had too many incompatability issues with the 708, tired of hearing " i dont work in my dvd player"

#19

That odd If you goto norton web page and look at there hot topics for ghost 2004 standard it states that it does not support mt rainer. when i had my plextor i called plextor support and complained about it and they were they ones that told me that problems lies with norton ghost not supporting mt. rainer. . I spoke to ned about it a 2nd level tech support guy at plextor. After which i called symantec and they told me only know work around for it would be to either get ghost pro and do network backup and restore cause then ghost is running in windows and using the mt rainer drivers. The reason ghost does not support mt rainer is cause plextor is only mt rainer drive out and symantec did write a dos drive for mt rainer. When doing a network backup and restore ghost in running in windows and using the built in windows drivers which do support mt rainer.

So if u got it working please let us know how. Did you do an intergerity check on the files?

#20

hi Ya

lots of good points of views coming in. Keep them coming.

A bit off topic but for anyone here in U.K be wary of Dabs. I cant belive what a cowboy operation they are. They really dont want to give back the money !! Today they hung up on me because i insisited on talking with a PERSON rather then emailing to customer service (Dabs = customer service …now theres a joke)to which they never respond.

sigh i just wanna burn baby burn…and now its the weekend and i still have no burner and have to wait till monday to order elsewhere then wait for delivery…*goes and sits in corner sulking and refuses to eat or drink *

What sort of experiences have others had with ordering over the net ?

Mark