Plextor PX-708A dual DVD±RW recorder - Page 12

DVD Recording Tests

- Writing Performance

Plextor PX-708A supports DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW writing. The maximum supported speed for the DVD+R is 8x (6x~8x Z-CLV), 4x CLV for DVD-R, 4x CLV for DVD+RW and 2x CLV for DVD-RW media.

Currently no 8x certified DVD+R media are available in the market. Plextor suggest the usage of some existing 4x DVD+R media for burning at 8x speed. In the table below are illustrated all the suggested DVD media for recording:

We used a 4x DVD+R disc by Ricoh, in order to check the 8x writing strategy of the drive. The software we used is Nero CDSpeed, and its "create disc" function.

Plextor PX-708A started writing at 6.03x, and kept this speed until the 0.7 GB address of the disc, to accelerate to 8x. Unfortunately the drive dropped the writing speed again before finishing writing, and finished the task at 4.03x.

We repeated the test with Verbatim 4x DVD+R media, but again, the writing process started at 6x and soon it was reduced to 4x, without reaching the maximum 8x in any part of the test.

Below is a CDSpeed screenshot with 4x DVD+R media by Ricoh:

Below is a screenshot of CDspeed writing test with 4x DVD+RW discs by Ricoh:

- Burning Tests

We burned 4315MB of data on various DVD±R, DVD±RW media. We used the maximum allowed writing speed for each disc, with the PoweREC feature enabled. The best recording times are illustrated in the following table. For comparison, we also include the writing times of Optorite DD0203 and Pioneer DVR-A06:

Verbatim 4x DVD+R media was burned at 8x and gave the best writing time (7:53 min). The Plextor 4x DVD+R disc was also recorded at 8x but the total burning time was higher (10:58 min), revealing that the drive dropped the writing speed at 4x by the end of the process.

Plextor PX-708A finished the same writing task with Ricoh 4x DVD+RW discs in 14:06 min, a very fast performance for 4x DVD+RW recording.

The following pictures come from Nero, after successful burnings with Verbatim 4x DVD+R, Taiyo Yuden 4x DVD+R, and Ricoh 4x DVD+RW media. The amount of data is the same for all the tests.

• Verbatim 4x DVD+R (8x recording)

• Taiyo Yuden 4x DVD+R (8x recording)

• 4x DVD+RW

Plextor PX-708A selects the maximum allowed recording speed according to the inserted blank DVD discs. In the following table you can see the maximum permitted writing speeds with various media.

- DVD+RW Packet Writing

Plextor PX-708A supports packet writing with DVD+RW and DVD-RW media. To test the performance in the DVD+RW format, we formatted some Ricoh 4x DVD+RW discs and started the drag'n drop process, using an 1GB file. With the background formatting in full progress, we wrote down the reading / writing performance.

For the DVD-RW format we used a 2x DVD-RW by Pioneer. The performance of the drive is illustrated in the table below:

Although the media we used support the higher available writing speeds for each format, under packet writing the performance is lower than in the case of normal writing. In case of DVD+RW, this can be explained by the fact that the background formatting process was running in parallel with our tests.

- DVD+MRW Tests

We used MRW Validation Suite 2.1 by Philips to test the compliance of the Plextor PX-708A with the Mount Rainier DVD+MRW. For the test we used 4x DVD+RW media by Ricoh. The test was terminated immediately after starting prompting us to insert a blank DVD+RW disc.

In addition, we did not manage to format the DVD+RW disc through the latest version of InCD by Ahead. We initially thought that the problem is located to the software by Ahead. According to latest information, the PX-708A is not DVD+MRW compliant, at least with the specific firmware installed.