Just one thing i'd like to say (half a year later he he he)
Plextor burners always have been slow with their access times. There's a good reason for that aswell. Anyone who has ever owned any plextor knows this. Plextor makes high quality drives. You can 'feel' that when you pick them up. Quality components are heavier. The head and those moving parts, aswell as other parts I'm sure, are heavier then the other manufacturers drives. That's where the quality comes from. That's the price you pay.
And I don't blame them at all. Sure you can use your burner as reader aswell ... but why? I don't wanna wear out my laser for reads. I get a reader to do just that, read. That way, my laser will last me even longer.
I must say though, I got the PX116 DVD-Reader and it's not that great. I read that it's a pioneer drive internally, and allthough denied by plextor, it just doesn't seem to be of the same quality. For example, I burned a mp3 cd with my 24x plexwriter, and then the dvd-reader couln't read the cd fully. And no firmware upgrade or any firmware on their page what so ever. Oh well ...can't have them all I guess. I'll just e-mail them again.
the guys at www.cdrinfo.com reviewed a newer revision of the Plextor 708A, hardware and software wise. You might enjoy reading their thoughts about this burner.
Regards,
Ron
- who has nothing to do with the mentioned website.
nice on paper i must say but if you check on forums for feedbacks it's not the same story, pionner stays the champs. and what is the utility of a x8 burner when there are no medias x8 and when your hard disk is too slow, and i'm not talking about compatibility problems when you play the video...
In answer to your questions, I would recommend the 708A. Relatively it ejects quickly (much better than my previous plextor cd writer which was really slow (24/10/40a - see my last post). I find the drive really quiet, infact just watching a dvd and its virtually silent, my cpu fan is much louder (although I do have my case temporarily open). Finally, it is smooth operating and it seems pretty robust. I don't think you will be disappointed, I'm not. Thank god I held on for a bit longer and didn't buy the pioneer a06 (even though its not a bad drive) Hope that helps
1) Who really cares. The difference when you eject a disc between the drives is literally less than a second.
2) The AVR06, 708A and 510 are all very quiet drives. I've been very impressed with the lack of noise levels. I've got a case lined with Pax Mate and low speed papsts, the drives are very quiet, though I'd have to say the 708A and the 510 are the quietest of the bunch.
3) Trays are meant to be opened and closed and are tested as such for thousands of cycles. They break if you screw around with them. Don't screw around with them.
For those of you who have used the 708A (or the Sony 510 or Pioneer A06 as well), would you recommend any of these drives as a primary, all-purpose optical drive? Specifically:
1) How fast to eject a disk (relatively speaking)? 2) How noisy is the drive (I have an older Plextor CD burner, and when it spins up is sounds like a freaking electric string trimmer its so loud!). If this 708A is this loud, you could never use it to play a DVD movie or CD music! 3) Smooth operating, substantial tray construction (not likely to break if used daily).
TDK is just a rebadged NEC. Only difference is that TDK updates their firmware a tad bit more often and does a better job supporting their drives in general than NEC.
In any case, both are not in the same league as Sony, Pioneer, Plex or TEAC.
Ah yeah. You guys wanted to get the "first exclusive look." :)
I have to agree with tazdevl about Sony's DVD writers. While they have used drives from other companies in the past, the DRU-5xx series is their own design. A design just as ground breaking as the Plextor.
#23: They did sent it to us. Unfortunately, they sent it to us UPS ground ;) Rather than wait around for our sample I thought it best to go grab one before every review site on the net had a unit.
If you had to buy it, why did you say they sent it to you? Just curious. Anandtech is a well-respected site -- you certainly don't have to pretend like manufacturers are doing you favours. In fact, the idea that you guys go out and buy stuff to review just makes you look more impartial and might shame a few people into giving you review samples in the future.
#7 I think you're getting into semantics. Your point makes no sense.
Sony doesn't manufacture their own drives, they outsource manufacturing to other companies, which is not unusual. However, the design is their own and they don't private label anyone else's drives.
well in response to your response, I also have a plextor 24/10/40a cd writer. Also the cd tray is really slow to eject, don't know if that is a common thing with plextor although the new dvd writer is quite fast (well in comparison). I could never get it to work with easy cd creator and it always used to create problems using cds with computers at work. The fact that plextor bundles nero and not easy cd creator says something to me. Also it seems that for re-writing, you have to have INCD which I'm positive isn't compatible with roxio because I got a message saying I had to uninstall it. Please direct me to an appropriate webpage and put me out of my ignorance.
"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."
those 8MB buffers were in yamaha's drives when plextor still used 4MB.
Also burnproof technology doesn't mean a small buffer is as good as a bigger one. Why ?, because when the drive actualy uses its burnproof to recover the disc this process costs extra time so the average burning speed goes down. Therefore to achieve a high burn speed there should be very little (none at best) recovering by the burnproof circuit and the bigger the buffer the smaller the chance the burnproof technology needs to recover.
blackjack.. plextor hardware doesn't like ezcd ??? since when ?? ezcd is all i have ever used for my plextor 12/10/32 scsi cd writer, and i have had no problems with it..
and WHY wasn't the tdk dual format mentioned at all in this review??? and will it be included in the round up ????????????????????
Well, its good to see DVD drive coverage also being added to reviews along with occasional LCD screen reviews. I think this will help AT reach out to more people than just those interested in computer components like the CPU, motherboard, video card, etc.
I already own this drive and am very happy with it. I was tempted by the pioneer a06 but the cd-r was only 16x which they could have easily made 32x surely? Apart from a few coasters using imation 2.4x write once dvd+r media, it is quite happy with dvd-r and of course dvd+rw. Yet to get hold of some decent tdk dvd+r but they should be fine at 6-8x. All in all, given its good price (£158 + VAT), I have no complaints although plextor hardware does not like roxio easy cd creator (although I'm getting quite used to nero now)
As far as the question about booktypes: Nero, ImgTools, and pretty much everything else we tried did not allow us to change the booktype. We have a pretty strong suspicion that a future firmware upgrade will fix this though.
" 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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41 Comments
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n0d3 - Wednesday, May 5, 2004 - link
Just one thing i'd like to say (half a year later he he he)Plextor burners always have been slow with their access times. There's a good reason for that aswell. Anyone who has ever owned any plextor knows this. Plextor makes high quality drives. You can 'feel' that when you pick them up. Quality components are heavier. The head and those moving parts, aswell as other parts I'm sure, are heavier then the other manufacturers drives. That's where the quality comes from. That's the price you pay.
And I don't blame them at all. Sure you can use your burner as reader aswell ... but why? I don't wanna wear out my laser for reads. I get a reader to do just that, read. That way, my laser will last me even longer.
I must say though, I got the PX116 DVD-Reader and it's not that great. I read that it's a pioneer drive internally, and allthough denied by plextor, it just doesn't seem to be of the same quality. For example, I burned a mp3 cd with my 24x plexwriter, and then the dvd-reader couln't read the cd fully. And no firmware upgrade or any firmware on their page what so ever. Oh well ...can't have them all I guess. I'll just e-mail them again.
hjstaruk - Thursday, October 23, 2003 - link
I entered coupon code "ANANDTECH10" at CompuHQ. No $10 off, only message "Sorry, we were unable to validate the Coupon Code you entered"KristopherKubicki - Saturday, September 20, 2003 - link
#32: Im not sure if you even read the review.The good thing about the burner is that it burns 8X on most 4X media. It also does a lot of things the A06 cannot, like 40X CDR, 4X DVD+RW, etc, etc.
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 20, 2003 - link
Hi,the guys at www.cdrinfo.com reviewed a newer revision of the Plextor 708A, hardware and software wise. You might enjoy reading their thoughts about this burner.
Regards,
Ron
- who has nothing to do with the mentioned website.
Anonymous User - Friday, September 19, 2003 - link
Any news on the TDK drive? Will you test just the internal version, or their combo USB2/1394a version as well?Anonymous User - Friday, September 19, 2003 - link
nice on paper i must say but if you check on forums for feedbacks it's not the same story, pionner stays the champs.and what is the utility of a x8 burner when there are no medias x8 and when your hard disk is too slow, and i'm not talking about compatibility problems when you play the video...
blackjack - Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - link
attn TIA (post no 29)In answer to your questions, I would recommend the 708A. Relatively it ejects quickly (much better than my previous plextor cd writer which was really slow (24/10/40a - see my last post).
I find the drive really quiet, infact just watching a dvd and its virtually silent, my cpu fan is much louder (although I do have my case temporarily open).
Finally, it is smooth operating and it seems pretty robust.
I don't think you will be disappointed, I'm not.
Thank god I held on for a bit longer and didn't buy the pioneer a06 (even though its not a bad drive) Hope that helps
tazdevl - Tuesday, September 16, 2003 - link
1) Who really cares. The difference when you eject a disc between the drives is literally less than a second.2) The AVR06, 708A and 510 are all very quiet drives. I've been very impressed with the lack of noise levels. I've got a case lined with Pax Mate and low speed papsts, the drives are very quiet, though I'd have to say the 708A and the 510 are the quietest of the bunch.
3) Trays are meant to be opened and closed and are tested as such for thousands of cycles. They break if you screw around with them. Don't screw around with them.
Anonymous User - Monday, September 15, 2003 - link
For those of you who have used the 708A (or the Sony 510 or Pioneer A06 as well), would you recommend any of these drives as a primary, all-purpose optical drive? Specifically:1) How fast to eject a disk (relatively speaking)?
2) How noisy is the drive (I have an older Plextor CD burner, and when it spins up is sounds like a freaking electric string trimmer its so loud!). If this 708A is this loud, you could never use it to play a DVD movie or CD music!
3) Smooth operating, substantial tray construction (not likely to break if used daily).
TIA
stanislav_kosev - Wednesday, October 17, 2012 - link
for the cd manufactured purpose we are using just plextor, check our web site for mote info: http://www.insightvision.biz/cd-manufacturingtazdevl - Monday, September 15, 2003 - link
TDK is just a rebadged NEC. Only difference is that TDK updates their firmware a tad bit more often and does a better job supporting their drives in general than NEC.In any case, both are not in the same league as Sony, Pioneer, Plex or TEAC.
Anonymous User - Monday, September 15, 2003 - link
Can someone please do a review on the Plextor 708A, Sony DRU510, the new Pioneer and the new Lite-On DVD+-R/RW. Somebody tell Anand.tazdevl - Monday, September 15, 2003 - link
Litle light reading... according to NPD Sony has a 39% share of the DVD burning market.#1.http://www.cdfreaks.com/news/7974
Ian@CDRlabs - Monday, September 15, 2003 - link
Ah yeah. You guys wanted to get the "first exclusive look." :)I have to agree with tazdevl about Sony's DVD writers. While they have used drives from other companies in the past, the DRU-5xx series is their own design. A design just as ground breaking as the Plextor.
Ian
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
#23: They did sent it to us. Unfortunately, they sent it to us UPS ground ;) Rather than wait around for our sample I thought it best to go grab one before every review site on the net had a unit.I believe the unit is still in transit =)
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
If you had to buy it, why did you say they sent it to you? Just curious. Anandtech is a well-respected site -- you certainly don't have to pretend like manufacturers are doing you favours. In fact, the idea that you guys go out and buy stuff to review just makes you look more impartial and might shame a few people into giving you review samples in the future.
Falco. - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
KristopherKubickiif u have to buy the tdk.. u can have mine relatively cheap :-)
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
#20: I have the OEM drive here. Its in an upcoming review.Kristopher
tazdevl - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
#7 I think you're getting into semantics. Your point makes no sense.Sony doesn't manufacture their own drives, they outsource manufacturing to other companies, which is not unusual. However, the design is their own and they don't private label anyone else's drives.
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
I will see if TDK can send us a drive. We actually went out and bought our 708A, so we may end up doing the same for the TDK.Kristopher
blackjack - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
well in response to your response, I also have a plextor 24/10/40a cd writer. Also the cd tray is really slow to eject, don't know if that is a common thing with plextor although the new dvd writer is quite fast (well in comparison). I could never get it to work with easy cd creator and it always used to create problems using cds with computers at work. The fact that plextor bundles nero and not easy cd creator says something to me. Also it seems that for re-writing, you have to have INCD which I'm positive isn't compatible with roxio because I got a message saying I had to uninstall it. Please direct me to an appropriate webpage and put me out of my ignorance.Anonymous User - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
"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."those 8MB buffers were in yamaha's drives when plextor still used 4MB.
Also burnproof technology doesn't mean a small buffer is as good as a bigger one. Why ?, because when the drive actualy uses its burnproof to recover the disc this process costs extra time so the average burning speed goes down. Therefore to achieve a high burn speed there should be very little (none at best) recovering by the burnproof circuit and the bigger the buffer the smaller the chance the burnproof technology needs to recover.
Falco. - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
KristopherKubickibah.. i'd rather u test the tdk branded one then the oem, even if they are the same.....
KristopherKubicki - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
#13: The TDK drive is nice, but TDK doesnt make it ;) We have the OEM drive in a future review coming up.Cheers,
Kristopher
Anonymous User - Sunday, September 14, 2003 - link
futureshop canada has a sale on LG 4x dvd-r drive (does all the formats) for 200$ cdn after rebate...8x can wait for that price..Falco. - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
blackjack..plextor hardware doesn't like ezcd ??? since when ?? ezcd is all i have ever used for my plextor 12/10/32 scsi cd writer, and i have had no problems with it..
and WHY wasn't the tdk dual format mentioned at all in this review??? and will it be included in the round up ????????????????????
AgaBooga - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Well, its good to see DVD drive coverage also being added to reviews along with occasional LCD screen reviews. I think this will help AT reach out to more people than just those interested in computer components like the CPU, motherboard, video card, etc.blackjack - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
I already own this drive and am very happy with it. I was tempted by the pioneer a06 but the cd-r was only 16x which they could have easily made 32x surely? Apart from a few coasters using imation 2.4x write once dvd+r media, it is quite happy with dvd-r and of course dvd+rw. Yet to get hold of some decent tdk dvd+r but they should be fine at 6-8x.All in all, given its good price (£158 + VAT), I have no complaints although plextor hardware does not like roxio easy cd creator (although I'm getting quite used to nero now)
Anonymous User - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Will the buying code of "Anandtech280" works :)KristopherKubicki - Saturday, September 13, 2003 - link
Oops. Thanks #8: Fixed.As far as the question about booktypes: Nero, ImgTools, and pretty much everything else we tried did not allow us to change the booktype. We have a pretty strong suspicion that a future firmware upgrade will fix this though.
Cheers,
Kristopher
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...ekrandegisimi - Thursday, August 1, 2019 - link
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yonetimhane - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
uzun yıllara dayanan deneyimimiz ile beraber bina yönetimi site yönetimi ve işlemlerinde kalitemiz ortadadır. Detaylı bilgi için : https://www.yonetimhane.comyonetimhane - Monday, September 16, 2019 - link
Yıllara dayanan deneyimimiz ile beraber bina yönetimi, apartman yönetimi, site yönetimi işlerinizde profesyonel bir yol izleyip en kaliteli çalışmayı vermekteyiz.Detaylı bilgi almak için : https://www.yonetimhane.com