The news were posted several days ago from our website, and today Plextor Europe send us the official press release...

More data on the same disc, that's the simple way of describing the latest revelation from Plextor. The PX-716A is a double layer, dual format DVD burner that burns 4 hours of high quality MPEG 2/DVD in no time at all. This internal DVD burner stands out by its disc speeds of no less than 16x for DVD plus, 16x for DVD minus and 4x for DVD + R DL (Double Layer).

But no worries if you still have a stock of 8-speed media, as these will also have a writing speed of 16x with the PX-716A.. The PX-716A will be in the shops for 130 EUR plus VAT, and besides PlexTools Professional and an extra black front bezel you will also be getting some five software packages.

The PX-716A is fast, currently the fastest device for writing and reading ordinary DVD?s around. The format is irrelevant, as all reading and writing takes place at a speed of 16x. But speed may not go at the expense of quality. That's why much attention was also devoted to the intelligence of the PX-716A.

The term 'Intelligent Recording' covers a number of critical aspects that ensure the quality of reading and writing functionality. "AutoStrategy" is a self-learning writing technology for developing a writing strategy. The advantage is that here we achieve good writing quality on unprecedented media. "IntelligentTilt" controls the laser in three dimensions, with the purpose of achieving equivalent writing and reading quality in the case of surface imperfections. Finally, "PoweRec", is a complex piece of writing intelligence ensuring superior recording quality at high speeds on certified media.



So the PX-716A not only gives you speed. It is the first appliance from Plextor that can burn double layer at a speed of 4x. Double layer means that you can burn 4 hours of high quality MPEG-2/DVD video on one 8.5 GB DVD, almost double the capacity of standard DVD's. So now you need fewer discs to back up your favourite DVD's, CD collections, MP3 collections, photo albums and other data in no time at all. And just for the record, the PX-716A also obviously supports CD's. These are written and read at 48x and rewritten at 24x.

Unique extras

To prevent underruns the PX-716A uses 'Buffer Underrun Proof technology'. Direct recording on a DVD is possible with DVD±VR (Video Recording). And thanks to the 'Background Formatting' function and an 8 MB buffer memory, the PX-716A can also format while writing.

And that's not all Plextor has to offer. VariRec technology allows you to change the laser intensity. This enables the user to improve and personalise sound recordings. 'GigaRec' also allows the reducing or increasing of the storage capacity of CD?s by between 60% and 130% of the stated media capacity.

Data protection is also possible thanks to 'Securec' hardware password protection. This key directly burns an inscription on the CD. This is ideal for creating and saving master copies of important data, for example.

To lengthen the life of your drive and also have the whole process take place in practical silence you can use 'Silent Mode' to determine the access time, reading and writing speed and ejection time. A 'Q-Check' or quality control before or after the burning process additionally gives you the necessary info about the quality of your DVD/CD. The following tests are available: C1/C2 error test, FE/TE test, Beta/Jitter test, PI/PO error test and Time Analyser (TA).

The equipment

The internal PX-716A has an E-IDE (ATAPI) interface. A white and black front bezel and comprehensive manual in 16 languages are included Besides its own 'PlexTools Professional' software, you are also provided with a range of attractive full and trial software versions from Ahead, Pinnacle, Cyberlink, Sonic and Ulead.

For people who want to build their own computer as small as possible, an indisputable advantage is that the length of this DVD recorder (170mm) is shorter than the European standard. Obviously an external model and a Serial ATA of this high-performance data monster is also to be provided, but there is still a short wait before their arrival.

The PX-716A will be available from the end of October at the many Plextor dealers for a recommended retail price of 130 EUR* (excl. VAT).

* incl. Fast Warranty Service (2 year warranty in the EU, Norway and Switzerland (Collect&Return); 1 year in other countries (Check Plextor Website for up to date information on www.plextor.be)



Full specs:

-- Write
* DVD+R
16x: 22.160KB/s (CAV)
12x: 16.620KB/s (PCAV)
6-8x: 8.310-11.080KB/s (PCAV)
6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV)
4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV)
2.4x: 3.324KB/s (CLV)

* DVD-R
16x: 22.160KB/s (CAV)
12x: 16.620KB/s (PCAV)
6-8x: 8.310-11.080KB/s (PCAV)
6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV)
4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV)
2x: 2.770KB/s (CLV)

* DVD+R DL
4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV)
2.4x: 3.324KB/s (CLV)

* CD-R
48x: 7.200KB/s (CAV)
32x: 4.800KB/s (PCAV)
16x: 2.400KB/s (CLV)
8x: 1.200KB/s (CLV)
4x: 600KB/s (CLV)

-- ReWrite
* DVD+RW
6-8x: 8.310-11.080KB/s (PCAV)
6x: 8.310KB/s (CLV)
4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV)
2.4x: 3.324KB/s (CLV)

* DVD-RW
4x: 5.540KB/s (CLV)
2x: 2.770KB/s (CLV)
1x: 1.385KB/s (CLV)

-- Read
* DVD-ROM
6-16x CAV
5-12x CAV
3-8x CAV
2-5x CAV
2x CLV

-- CD-ROM
20-48x CAV
17-40x CAV
14-32x CAV
10-24x CAV
8x CLV
4x CLV