In House Review - Plextor PX-716A 16x DVD±RW

[Ankerson]

The spec sheet on the Drive still shows 4X DVD+R DL, so does The newest vers of Plextools, the website says 6X.

And I am running the Latest Firmware and Plextools software.

[Ankerson]

Looks like another Firmware vers coming out next month to update DVD-R DL to 6X so it may also update the DVD+R DL speed too.

[alexnoe]

That doesn't make it less false. Besides that, you're still speaking about write speed.

Looks like another Firmware vers coming out next month to update DVD-R DL to 6X so it may also update the DVD+R DL speed too.

Sorry, you are not talking any sense. Not only do you continue to say weird things about write speed (i asked why they reduced READ speed), but also you seem to think that the PlexTools would display information about the current capabilities of the drive...

[Ankerson]

As far as the reduced read speed of DL that would be a question for Plextor. I am sure they have a reason for it. Maybe Ian Would know.

And yeah I was thinking that The Plextools (Latest vers should show the Current drive specs).

I haven't burned any DL media yet...(It's on order).

[alexnoe]

Technical background: A drive can only send a list of available write speeds on the currently inserted disc, but e.g. PlexTools cannot ask the drive for the available speeds on a certain disc type like DVD+R DL. Thus, PlexTools only have an internal list of the capabilities of all Plextor drives at the time when that PlexTools version was released. Usually this is not a problem as Plextor usually doesn't increase the maximum write speed on a certain disc type...

[Ian]

As far as the reduced read speed of DL that would be a question for Plextor. I am sure they have a reason for it. Maybe Ian Would know.

I don't know why they reduced the DL read speed from 12x on the 712A to 8x on the 716A. As it is I've never really found out why the 712A identified DL media as a DVD-ROM.. even when the book type wasn't set. That could be part of it.

[alexnoe]

Ian: The reponse of the drive to the READ DVD STRUCTURE command is simply b0rked. It is actually incredible *how* b0rked that firmware is concerning MMC compliance

[Ankerson]

As an Added note on media.

With the Verbatim Digital Movie DVD-R it only burns at 4X as per Media specs.

[Ian]

alex, you talking about the 712?

[alexnoe]

yes

[Gen-An]

As an Added note on media.

With the Verbatim Digital Movie DVD-R it only burns at 4X as per Media specs.

Only PX-712A firmware 1.00 could burn MCC01RG20 at 6x or 8x. From 1.01 onward the speed was limited to the rated speed of 4x. The Verbatim 4x DVD+Rs (MCC002) can be burned at 2.4x/4x/6x/8x on all firmwares though.

[RJW]

Well I ran some quick tests Sony 52X CD-R and Verbatim 16X DVD+R media.

I knew there was a reason why I use Plextor and this drive hasn't let me down. Quality is excellent.

Well the people with profesional stuff (C't/audiodev) think different when it comes to MCC16x performance. Seeing that a friends 16x burn didn't play correct on his cheap ass DVD player I think C't had a point.
Notice it did play fine on most other players. But some players did seem to be slower responding. No really bad perfomance was spotted in plextools according to the man.
A 8x burn did play correct on all stuff. Hmm again the speed C't recommended.

For C't results check out your book store or
http://www.cdrlabs.com/phpBB/viewtopic. ... &start=100

[Ankerson]

Well I haven't seen any issues as of yet with my burned DVD's.

[ETP]

Got my 716 today and it was a 0203 Dec 2004. I flashed it to 1.04 and I am burning now to see how it works! The face plate was so hard to get off I just gave up!
White is cool! Right!
Trying Fuji -R 8X first and then +R TY.

[Ankerson]

Got my 716 today and it was a 0203 Dec 2004. I flashed it to 1.04 and I am burning now to see how it works! The face plate was so hard to get off I just gave up!
White is cool! Right!
Trying Fugi -R 8X first and then +R TY.

Cool

I love mine.

Let us know what the media does.

[ETP]

Fuji was 8 min for 8X-R!
OK! Maybe 7 Mins for +R TY but it slowed down at the end of the burn. What up?
I have not installed plex tools yet.

[VideoRoy]

I finally got tired of the Sony run around on the DRU-710A, so I have joined the club and picked up my PX-716A today. I have moved my DRU-710A off to my other computer.

Got my 716 today and it was a 0203 Dec 2004. I flashed it to 1.04 and I am burning now to see how it works! The face plate was so hard to get off I just gave up!

It looks like mine came out of the same batch. I just flashed to 1.04 as well. Actually I thought the face plate was a little easier to get off than my Sony. The book actually had some decent instructions as well.

I am using Nero Ultra 6 already. Can anyone think of a reason to bother with any of the software that came with the drive?

Thanks as usual for the great advice.

[Gen-An]

You'll definitely want to install PlexTools. It can be used to control many aspects of the drive and has a ton of disc quality checking features.

[dodecahedron]

I am using Nero Ultra 6 already. Can anyone think of a reason to bother with any of the software that came with the drive?

PlexTools is convenient for various settings on the Drive.
plus it's good ripper.

if you want packet-writing, DragToDisc (Roxio - part of Easy Media Creator) is better than InCD (Ahead - part of Nero Ultra)

[VideoRoy]

Thanks for the tips. I will install PlexTools and try it out. Is it a pretty good media scanner?

I have used most of the packet writing tools out (DLA, DirectCD, InCD) there but this particular computer is dedicated to video editing so I will not mess with it.

Does anyone know if the Roxio stuff that came with the drive is keyed to look for the Plextor drive or could I use it else where since I will not be using it here? If anyone knows it will save me an install.

BTW burned a couple discs and I like the speed so far and they play on my set top no problem. I am scanning them on Kprobe on the DRU-710A now to get a comparison to the same video I burned in that drive.

Thanks.

[alexnoe]

Thanks for the tips. I will install PlexTools and try it out. Is it a pretty good media scanner?

Bad enough for me to rewrite the scanning part for DVDs, especially the UI sucks

[ETP]

What up with that slow down at the end on a 16X burn with TY/Fuji MIJ. My 3500 does 16x without that slow down at the end.

Ok! This weekend I will do the faceplate. Can Plex tools stop that slow down at the end of a 16X burn?

[VideoRoy]

Bad enough for me to rewrite the scanning part for DVDs, especially the UI sucks

Alexnoe,
Interesting. Are the Plextools command line driven? Did you put a different front end on it or did you start with some source code?

[alexnoe]

The PlexTools require the user to initiate 9 (!!) scans one by one and join 9 pictures to one big one to generate a picture showing the entire scan result of a doublelayer dvd+r. 3 of those tests take 50 minutes each. Even worse, the PlexTools window cannot be resized, and the only logarithmic scale it has is found in the TA test, but especially PIE is linear, which is baaaaad

I've started from scratch, only using some code copied from Ian's ASPI guide

Can Plex tools stop that slow down at the end of a 16X burn

Disable PowerREC

[Ian]

I've started from scratch, only using some code copied from Ian's ASPI guide

That was actually Boone's guide.. not mine.