I really want to see what CDRInfo says about it before I buy it.

Yes we are also waiting to see how the new Plextor PX-716A drive would perform...

(in reply to markanini)

Do you believe it would be better than the LG?

(in reply to emperor)

No idea...

(in reply to Iggy)

Some tests have already been run by lucky (crazy?) US customers who purchased the drive for $180 USD at Bestbuy (I think it was) when it went on sale yesterday. The initial scan showed Taiyo Yuden 8x DVD+Rs topping out at ~8x only, and having HUGE error rates... however, this was later said to be the result of the drive being attached to a less then adaquate PCI adapter. It was later said (but no additional scans posted last I checked) that the drive performed about the same as the PX-712a, and only gained about 10 seconds of speed when burning at 16x, because it had to slow down at the end of the burn.

This was posted by Jamos (sp?) on CDFreaks.

(in reply to emperor)

10sec @ 16X??? This will have fun.

(in reply to Dolphinius_Rex)

Doesn't sound too promising.........

(in reply to Iggy)

Sounds like a LOT of FIRMWARE tweaking!!!

(in reply to Zeral1ty)

One thing I don't like with 712 was that when it was released had a good writing quality and not a lot of problems. After some firmware releases this changed from bad to worst.

(in reply to Cal 01)

There is already quite a sizeable thread (including some quality scans) about PX716A, at cdfreaks:

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=111839

To quickly summarise it ... it doesn't look good at all ... very poor quality on TY media at 16X (and not only) ... problems with PIPO scans on 716A which show significantly more errors compared with the same disc scanned on PX712A ...

Well, it seems to be a really bad start for this drive. Some people were dissapointed enough to return their drives!!! (I believe Jamos is one of them). It seems that Plextor rushed this unit on the market way before its time, as FW1.0 is rather bad and needs a lot of work ... hopefully fw1.01 will fix these issues ... but this might be quite a bumpy ride

So I'm afraid that "better than the LG" is right now in a galaxy far far away

(in reply to Iggy)

cvs thanks for the quick report, we can only wait until Plextor ship to us a test unit to perform our usual tests

(in reply to cvs)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iggy

Do you believe it would be better than the LG?

AnandTech picked the NEC as the winner...

(in reply to Iggy)

quote:

ORIGINAL: alexo

quote:

ORIGINAL: Iggy

Do you believe it would be better than the LG?

AnandTech picked the NEC as the winner...

Unfortunatly, Anandtech also seems to think that a running OPC style burn is the result of a poorly burned disc (see their page 3 of that "review").

For real reviews by people who know what they're doing, check out CDRinfo's reviews of the various drives.

(in reply to alexo)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dolphinius_Rex
Unfortunatly, Anandtech also seems to think that a running OPC style burn is the result of a poorly burned disc (see their page 3 of that "review").

I'll confess ignorance.
Can you explain the issue in simple terms?

quote:

ORIGINAL: Dolphinius_Rex
For real reviews by people who know what they're doing, check out CDRinfo's reviews of the various drives.

OK, checked what "people who know what they're doing" have to say about the NEC:
In general the drive is one of the best on the market, and its price makes it a very attractive buy. End users that choose to purchase this drive can be certain that they will get one of the best drives available!

It also seems to me that the LG got high marks for its DVD-RAM support.

(in reply to Dolphinius_Rex)

http://www.clubic.com/actualite-17146-plextor-px-716a-retarde-pour-l-europe.html

"Plextor aurait reconnu à des confrères allemands que le PX-716 n'atteindrait pas les critères qualité fixés par la marque, notamment pour utiliser les vitesses élevées de gravure. Plextor a précisé que ces problèmes demandent une nouvelle révision du matériel et ne peuvent pas être corrigés par une mise à jour du firmware. La sortie du graveur est donc retardée à la fin novembre / début décembre. Seul problème, des graveurs PX-716 ont déjà été vendus aux Etats-Unis et effectivement, d'après les dires de certains utilisateurs, la qualité ne serait pas vraiment au rendez-vous, Plextor a cependant fait savoir qu'il se chargera de résoudre les problèmes de ces utilisateurs."

So it seems Plextor recognized to a german site that PX-716 doesn't reach the quality of a Plextor product, particularly using high speed writing.
it seems these problems needs a hardware revision, a firmware update wouldn't be enough.The 716 should be out end november, early december....

(in reply to markanini)

As I was told the Plextor won't come to Europe yet due to some minor issues the drive had.

(in reply to claudemc)