CD Freaks presents Plextor PX-708A review!

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

Yes, I’ve finished it :slight_smile:

[i]Plextor has always been a well known brand in the optical storage industry but it took quite a while before they released their first DVD recorder. At the beginning of this year, in January, Plextor announced their first DVD recorder, the Plextor PX-504A. That drive only supported the DVD+R(W) recording format and could write DVD+R media at 4x and DVD+RW media at 2.4x.

Now, about seven months later, Plextor has released their second DVD recorder and this time Plextor made sure that their drive would be something special. With their new PX-708A drive Plextor has released the world’s first 8x DVD+R recorder which means that it’s possible to record a complete DVD in less than 10 minutes! Another thing that’s interesting is that Plextor has made this drive a dual format recorder, meaning that it supports both the DVD-R(W) and DVD+R(W) formats.[/i]
Check it out here!

#2

Cool review! Good job as usual :slight_smile:

#3

Looks great, but how is the ripping speed if you disable the limit as explained in thread http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75527 ??

#4

I honestly completely overlooked that… I will update the review a.s.a.p!

#5

“This P-CAV recording method is very common since we see this type of recording on all new CD-RW recorders.”

Well, actually the drive uses Z-CLV for DVD+R 8X recording and not PCAV (and thus pauses, increases the speed, produces PI/PO error and continues the write)

As for the DVD-RIP, it looks like CDRInfo also made that mistake until I emailed him. He mostly updated the review, except he still didn’t update the graph for DVD-RIP that still shows 2X speed only.

I also wonder if you tried writing any CMC or Ritek CDR discs on the drive. So far the drives (I tried 3 on 2 computers) failed to write the TDK (Ritek) CDR at around 60min mark. Plextor engineering is looking into it now.

#6

Originally posted by Nhawk
[B]“This P-CAV recording method is very common since we see this type of recording on all new CD-RW recorders.”

Well, actually the drive uses Z-CLV for DVD+R 8X recording and not PCAV (and thus pauses, increases the speed, produces PI/PO error and continues the write)[/B]
Hmm you sure about this? I couldn’t get the Nero ‘show actual write speed’ trick to work for some reason so I couldn’t check the actual speeds the drive was recording at. I’ve changed the text for now so it doesn’t lead to any confusion. New DVD-Video graphs are on their way for the review, running the last test now.

I feel pretty stupid for overlooking this ‘unlocking’ thing :o

Oh and no, I only recorded Philips and Plextor 4x media for the review. I do know that Plextor is working hard on improving the firmware for this drive.

#7

Check this page for the 6-8X Z-CLV graph.

Also, here is the graph showing the PI/PO error when the drive switched speeds (picture provided by aviationwiz on CDRLabs)

#8

Ok, thanks for the information Nhawk.

The review has now been updated with the Nero CD-DVD results for SL and DL DVD-Video reading when the drive is in ‘unlocked’ mode. Check out the updated read speed results here.

#9

nice review mate:)
good work on that one…

#10

:eek: Great review! a “little” better speed on DVD video reading…
I just ordered one!

#11

DVD-Rip speed is definitely great, however, I was surprised when my old Toshiba SD-M1502 drive was able to rip a DL DVD-Video disc faster than Plextor. I used a hacked firmware on the Toshiba that disables the 2X ripping limit.

Also, G@M3FR3@K, you may want to mention in your review that even though you didn’t check the PI/PO rate of the DVDs using KProbe, that other people reported good results with RicohJPNR01, MCC002 and YudenT01 DVD+R media.

And if you get a chance, can you try burning some lower quality CD-R media (like CMC/Ritek) and see if it’s successful.

Update: Just got off the phone with Plextor Engineering and they confirmed “Write Fail” problem with TDK (Ritek) CDR media and high C1/C2 error rate with CMC Magnetics (to be expected in case of CMC).
Verbatim(MCC) and TY seem to work well though.

#12

this is 8X burn (nero dvd speed test) on a Sony DVD+R media (4X certified)
i think its too bad…maybe a media problem.

#13

NoLimit: Try to ID the media. I don’t think Sony manufactures their own media.

#14

Originally posted by Nhawk
NoLimit: Try to ID the media. I don’t think Sony manufactures their own media.

i couldnt…there is no media code…tried plextools and nero cd/dvd speed.nothing worked…the drive couldnt identify the media code/manufactuare

#15

NoLimit - Your my saviour!!!

Finally someone else which gets bad scans with this drive and discs written at 8X - more to follow on sunday or monday as I’ve still some tests to finish.

To get the manufacturer, download dvdinfopro from www.dvdinfopro.com

Waiting for your results :slight_smile:

#16

I wanted to ask if we can write DVD-Audio with these , and the plextor , dvd writers…? Knows anebodY??

#17

@MoUCLAs
AFAIK every DVD writer could write DVD Audio but i think copy protection and mastering software are the problem.

#18

i meant if a dvd writer could write a dvd with audio songs for example that i have in mp3 format… like when i write a audio cd from it…??

#19

A DVD recorder cannot write normal audio files to a DVD disc in CD format if that’s what you mean.

#20

Originally posted by OC-Freak
[B]NoLimit - Your my saviour!!!

Finally someone else which gets bad scans with this drive and discs written at 8X - more to follow on sunday or monday as I’ve still some tests to finish.

To get the manufacturer, download dvdinfopro from www.dvdinfopro.com

Waiting for your results :slight_smile: [/B]

sorry for being late.
here are the results :

btw,this DVD+R is made in taiwan…