Plextor PX-708A dual DVD±RW recorder - Page 14

Conclusion

The new Plextor PX-708A definitely stands out and above most other DVD writers on the market, offering the highest writing speeds for DVD recording, dual DVD format support, and excellent performance as a CD-RW drive as well.

The supported 8x DVD+R writing offers impressive recording times, the lowest we have ever experienced from a DVD writer. Our 4.38GB DVD movie file was burned in only 7:58 minutes. The drive also burned the same files to a 4x DVD+RW disc in less than 15 minutes. However, we would like to see a more stable behavior when writing at 8x, since the drive slowed down its speed and in most cases finished writing at a lower speed. This occurred with both Ricoh and Taiyo Yuden 4x DVD+R media. These are among those suggested by Plextor for 8x writing. The explanation for this is mostly the PoweRec feature, that lowers the writing speed to maintain higher quality. Wider availability of 8x DVD+R media is expected in the next couple of months and the Plextor development team is currently concentrating its efforts to support the a widest possible range of media.

The PI/PO measurements on the Taiyo Yuden 4x DVD+R (recorded at 8x) showed that the error rate was higher in the outer areas of the disc, while in case of the Verbatim 4x DVD+R (8x) disc, the error rate is lower. This is probably due to the fact that the Verbatim disc was not recorded at 8x but partially at 6X ~ 4X. Recording at 4x gave very good results.

In the DVD reading part, Plextor PX-708A is very fast with both single layer and dual layer DVD-ROM's, as well as with DVD-R/-RW and DVD+R/+RW. For DVD Video discs the drive keeps the reading (and ripping) speed at 2x, in order to avoid high vibrations, according to Plextor. Pressing the eject button as described in the DVD reading page, will make the drive read/rip at faster speeds.

The DVD error correction tests showed that PX-708A is capable of reading accurately the single layer ABEX DVD-ROM discs (defected / scratched) but has problems with the corresponding dual layer discs. The CDSpeed reading test with the ABEX TDR-841 (dual layer, scratched DVD-ROM) was terminated in the first layer of the disc. The situation was the same with the dual layer DVD Video test disc. On the other hand, normal DVD Video discs were accurately read and played back in our test PC.

Moreover, the PX-708A is a fast CD-RW writer. With 40/24/40 capabilities, the drive is a very fast reader with CD-R/RW discs, supports 40X maximum DAE, and writes fast and accurately on CD-R media. The 3T jitter measurements were very positive and the discs had low C1 / C2 error rate, for all the writing speeds.

In addition, the drive showed excellent error correction with defected CD-R media and finished the EAC suite tests giving some of the best scores we have ever had from a CD reader.

Plextor PX-708A is available in the market at a price of $250~280, with a 2-year warranty for Africa, Europe and Middle East. The upcoming 8x writers from Philips / Benq, Pioneer, NEC and Sanyo are expected to rise the competition and drop prices to even lower levels. We are sure that Plextor will resolve some minor issues that currently keep the drive away from absolute perfection, with future firmware upgrades. For know the PX-708A deserves our Editor's Choice Award.