Plextor PX-740A

by Purav Sanghani on August 2, 2005 12:05 AM EST

DVD-R Media

And now, some DVD-R media…

AN31

We received the same results for the + version of this media, looking like a successful write, but never being able to read back the disc completely. Does DVD media ever expire…after a year?

When we read back the disc in our 712A, only 12,523 PI errors were found, but a higher concentration just before the 4GB mark where the 740A gave up in reading the disc.

MCC 03RG20

Here, we go back to some high quality Verbatim media that took a successful write and helped the drive produce a successful read of the disc, finishing off at 16x write speeds. The PX-740A completed the write in 6:11.

16x -R - MCC 03RG20 Write

16x -R - MCC 03RG20 Read

16x -R - MCC 03RG20

And of course, reading back the disc was completely successful. The DW1640 performed exactly the same with very little read failures and none on the write side, probably because this is the same drive.

The screenshots of Nero’s CD-DVD Speed and Plextor’s Plextools can be downloaded here.

DVD+R Media DVD+/-RW Media
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  • n7 - Thursday, August 4, 2005 - link

    Moral of the story: The BenQ DW1640 still pwns :)

    Heck, it's good enough that Plextor (who is really quite a joke nowdays) is using the BenQ drive :)
  • quanta - Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - link

    The Mt.Rainier spec has been around for a while now, and it still doesn't support Mt.Rainier? So much for a manufacturer with 'high end' optical drives. But then again, what do you expect from someone ?http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?p=1000879#...">suing PxLinux developer with DMCA?
  • Den - Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - link

    Why is it that the drive being reviewed is not in most of the error rate graphs? And I think the headings are with the wrong graphs for some of the article too. This is pretty sloppy work even by web standards...
  • Den - Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - link

    Just to be more specific, no plextor on the error rate graph for MCC 03RG20 on page 5, or Ritek 008 (DVD+RW) on page 6, or c1 or c2 errors on page 8.
  • semo - Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - link

    that sentence does not sound right to me...
    quote:

    Our test unit ran us about $76.00 excluding shipping costs, which is not bad, but compared to some retailers offering BenQ's DW1640 for about $10 less, the PX-740A does give more bang for the buck.

    surely the dw1640 gives more bang for the buck if it is cheaper and since the plextools does not even work with the 740a (because of the dumb rebadging).
  • shabby - Wednesday, August 3, 2005 - link

    I bought the 1640 for $53 cdn, its impossible that it costs even more in the states.
  • LX - Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - link

    Since hardware-wise this drive is the same as the BenQ DW1640, it may make more sense to buy the BenQ (cheaper) and flash it with either the latest BenQ or latest Plextor firmware (yes, it works)
  • dmxlite - Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - link

    Flashing the 1640 with the 740 firmware works? Cool. I'll keep that in mind, since it looks like the 740 firmware is a bit better in some cases than the 1640's.
  • WooDaddy - Tuesday, August 2, 2005 - link

    Ok... I think we've been scammed yall. Dual layer media has been out for prolly 2yrs now and it is still $4-5 a pop. For the same amount of time, single layer has dropped almost 70%. I'm really tired of all these new burners that are expensive to actually use (for dual layer).

    It's like having a Ferrari for $20k but gas costs $5k a gallon.
  • andrep74 - Monday, August 8, 2005 - link

    Blame all the people that decided to steal DVDs using Netflix or Blockbuster, renting them as fast as they could for $15/mo and ripping the ones they _would_ have bought, burning them to DVD-(+)R instead.

    In reality the only (obvious?) use for DL-DVD is making exact copies of commercial DVDs, including the menus and extra features that were usually ignored during the above process; now DL carries an extra "tax" to help movie companies recover their "losses".

    So, yeah, some assholes won in the short term, but now we _all_ pay for their theft in the long term. Don't think others' actions don't affect you.

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