For years, Plextor took an approach to optical storage that was only duplicated by a few manufacturers. 8MB buffers, extra features and rock solid performance put Plextor on the high end of CDR and CDRW drives. Today, Plextor sent us a drive that truly claims to revolutionize DVDR burning for at least the remainder of the year, and probably some time into the next.

Back in July, Philips (DVD+R forum) officially announced the DVD+R format specification, part of which was to increase the recording speed standard to 8X. DVD+R 8X is a little different from other recording speed standards, as the drive starts burning at 6X CLV, then jumps to 8X CLV for the outer surface. So even though, technically, the drive does not obtain a sustained 8X burn, we see burn times around 8 or 9 minutes for full 4.38GB of data. What really sweetens the pie is that 4X capable DVD+R media should burn fine at 8X.

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  • Moonbeam - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    In the sentence:

    " As far as performance is concerned, the drive out-performs the ASUS DRW-0402P/D and the Pioneer A06 in virtually every way. Media recognition, compatibility and just raw burn times were all better on the A06."

    I got the impression the author meant, instead of that last AO6 to put 7o8A.

  • KristopherKubicki - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    #6 - Correct I didnt mention Sony, but thats because Sony doesnt make their own drives =). I have an upcoming review to deal with that.

    Kristopher
  • tazdevl - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    Couple things... I have a Sony 510A, 510UL and the Plex 708A. Buffer size is pointless. Those comments regarding the buffer size that folks are making and are mentioned in the review don't mean squat. Buffer underrun prevents coasters from happening and based on the review it's obvious it's doing its job. A 8MB buffer is just a way to differentiate a drive from its competitors for ignorant consumers that have "bigger is better" Best Buy logic.

    -R has greater compatbility at this point with all DVD players. +R has compatibility issues with some older players. That's the nice thing about having a dual format drive. One format doesn't work, try the other.

    Lastly the reviewer forgot to comment on Sony as being one of the DVD burning elite. They set the standatd for the industry when they released the Sony 500A/X which was the first dual format burner on the market for months. Also, with firmware 2.0F that enabled 4X burning for both formats (nice free bump for consumers), they started the speed wars in the DVD burning market.
  • Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    Anyone who buys a dual format drive is foolish. DVD+R only drives allow booktype settings to be set to dvd-rom, increasing compatibility SIGNIFICANTLY. Once the drive becomes dual format however, the feature gets scrapped.
  • Mday - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    2.4x DVD burning is over 3MB ps. obviously 6x or 8x is 2-3 times that, or roughly 6MB to 9MB per second. with a 2 MB buffer, that's less than 1/3 of a second time. in computing terms, 1/3 of a second is a lot of time. however, since when do programs that access disc space only last 1/3 of a second...

    sony has an 8MB buffer. while burning at 4x, and with certain programs running, it hardly dips below 90%. of course i do implement a hefty disk cache and memory cache for nero as i burn. i would like to see nero have more than just 80 MB max dedicated for buffering in system memory.
  • Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    I'm waiting for 8X DVD-R burners to come out. DVD+R discs do not work on any of the IBM T20-22 Laptops we use at my office. All of them play DVD-R fine so I consider that a negative towards +R. My friends DVD player from Sony works great with -R but not +R as well.
  • Budman - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    My 2X burner's getting slower. :(
  • AgaBooga - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link

    Its good to see 8x burners. I want to see how this affects the current 4x burner prices...
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